Panama Canal Cruise - Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta - February 15, 2022
I woke up to another moon setting. Again it turned red just before it touched the horizon and this morning a small cloud hovered around the horizon and so the moon disappeared a bit quicker than I was expecting.
Then as the sun was arriving we entered the bay where Puerto Vallarta is located. So many Magnificent Frigatebirds followed us in as our wake must have been churning up fish. They flew so close to our balcony that I was able to see them quite up close. The females have a white chest. The males are all dark except for a red pouch on their chest that often isn't visible when they are flying unless they come close enough. I noticed quite a few also had a fully white head which I learned is how they look as juveniles.
There were also quite a few pelicans, sea gulls, and other shore birds hanging out in the harbor.
Brown Pelican
Pilot Boat following the ship in (with a Brown Pelican)
Snowy Egret
Juvenile Brown Pelican (largest), Royal Tern (orange beak in the middle front), Laughing Gulls
Juvenile Magnificent Frigatebird
Royal Tern
The Pilot Boat also played a role in handling the lines, something I had never seen the Pilot boat get involved with.
Female Magnificent Frigatebird
Brown Pelican
The Carnival Panorama then pulled into port after our ship was secure.
Two male Magnificent Frigatebirds fishing
Brown Pelicans
Female Frigatebird
Male Frigatebird
The Pilot Boat coming in ahead of the Carnival Panorama
A juvenile (left), female (middle) and male (right) Magnificent Frigatebird
We were scheduled for an 11:00 a.m. excursion and wanted to have some time to wander a bit beforehand and pick up a couple things we needed at the Walmart across from the pier.
Emerald Princes
A Kingbird we saw as we were waiting for our excursion to start
Our excursion took us for a short walk through the city, then to lunch at an open air restaurant where we had authentic Mexican tacos, then we went to Teatro Vallarta to see the Mayahuel Show and taste Tequila.
First lighthouse of Puerto Vallarta
La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora Guadalupe
Mayahuel Show - Aerials, acrobatics, fire, dance - it was quite the show!
Tequila tasting (to cleanse the pallet between drinks, they had us smell lemon peel, cinnamon stick, and coffee beans plus take a bite of cracker and a drink of water)
The four Tequila's we tasted. The right two are by far the best.
18 year old Tequila - I've never tasted one this good.
Sail away from Puerto Vallarta was really cool to watch from our aft balcony as the ship had to back up before it could pull out and the harbor is very tight so we got very close to the Carnival Panorama.
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