Sendero Group Travel Blog

The ship anchored off shore at Puerta Vallarta at 0700. Therefore, we were tendered to the dock at Puerta Vallarta. Since there are no maps for Mexico and I could not find any poi's in the commercial database, I needed to generate my own points of interest. The first point I marked on Mexico soil was where the tender docked in Puerta Vallarta.

I chose to take a shore excursion titled "Hacienda, Tile and Tequila". I was not aware that the first two hours of the tour would involve two stops at what I will call tourist shopping malls. We were quick to learn that tourist monies are primary to the Mexican economy. These shopping malls were in town and near the beach hotels. It was interesting to walk the streets without any intersections being announced. I asked some of the other passengers what the street names were, in hopes that I could mark some of the intersections. It seems that they were at the same disadvantage, as they could not find any street signs.

After shopping, we were taken by bus to the tile factory. There we took a tour and had the opportunity to shop their showroom. After seeing some of their sinks and tile displays, I was wishing that we had been there before remodeling my bathrooms, rather than after. Next we boarded the buses for a one-hour trip to the hacienda, which according to the Braille Note GPS was only 9 miles away. There we were served a lunch of open face tacos cooked over an open fire. After lunch we walked next door and took a tour of a Tequila factory, followed by a session of tasting eight different Tequilas. The bus ride back to the dock was much more relaxing. I need to add that McCall had no problems anywhere we went in Puerta Vallarta, including the Tequila factory. The Tequila vats were open topped and only about 3 feet off the floor.

We tendered back to the ship and it weighed anchor at 1700.