Some Final Thoughts on the Cruise, and a Few Hours in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

As I have mentioned in recent posts, theTravelsketcher and I took a Panama Canal cruise earlier this year with dear friends, Tim and Lisa. Other than being with friends, and a few other highlights, it wasn’t a great experience. Here are some previous posts about the cruise if you’d like to learn more:

From Key Largo to Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The Panama Canal

Releasing Endangered Baby Sea Turtles, and More in Acapulco

The time allowed in each port was very limited, so we didn’t get the opportunity to wander and linger like we prefer. However, in Puerto Vallarta, the four of us had some time on our own, and enjoyed wandering and exploring at our own pace.

We wandered through neighborhoods:

a market, where we lost Tim:

and saw some beautiful beaches.

After leaving Tim at the market, Terry, Lisa and I opted to wander to the old section of town for lunch. We stumbled upon a beach front restaurant on a quiet side street called Mango’s Beach Club, where we had a delicious lunch.

After lunch we continued wandering as we made our way back to the ship.

I visited this lovely beach town over forty years ago, when I was attending university. At that time, it was still a quiet fishing village without high rise hotels or condos. It has certainly changed over the years, but it still has some character and charm.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, cruising is not for us. We prefer independent travel; we always book our own flights, accommodations and tickets to various attractions. We both try to do our best to protect the environment, and since cruising is quite damaging to our planet, we decided early on in the cruise that this would be the last one.

That said, the ship has many amenities that kept us occupied on those long days at sea. I swam daily and usually walked several miles a day just going from place to place on the ship. Which was a good thing because the food was quite good, and I ate more desserts in the sixteen days we were on the ship than I usually eat in a whole year!

This ship, the Norwegian Joy, has an observation lounge on one of the upper decks where we spent hours enjoying the views, playing games and meeting people.

We had a wonderful room steward, Moon, who is very creative with towel folding.

The staff were all very pleasant, helpful and entertaining. We even enjoyed some wine tastings and pairings hosted by the ship’s sommelier. But all in all, it’s not enough to offset the environmental impact of cruising, and the fact that we prefer independent travel. So that’s it for us.

If you’re curious about our current activities, check out theTravelsketcher’s recent posts.

As always, I would love to hear from you, so leave a comment if you’re so inclined.

Wishing you grand adventures,

Tricia