Thursday 19 February 2015 Puerto Vallarta

We boys were up early this morning for our Extreme Adventure. We met in the lobby at 6:30 for a taxi ride to our departure point. It was still dark as they registered us and did the preliminary paperwork. It was barely light as we left at 7:30 for an almost one hour drive inland. There we met our five guides who coached the seven of us and a couple from Nebraska on the intricacies of zip-lining. One of the rules was “no cameras” for safety. My suspicion that it had more to do with selling their pictures was proven correct at the end.

We finally got underway at about 9:00. We did six or eight zip-lines, rappelled to the ground from a tall tree, crawled over a sort of cargo net, then, a few of us climbed an almost vertical cargo net up a tall tree. The guide warned us that it was pretty strenuous and, after putting in a hard day of climbing at the water slides yesterday, most of us passed on this. It was not much of a reprieve however, as we then had to climb a hill to the same level. Next was a ride through the forest and a creek bed on some ATVs. Nearing the end, we had a brief archery session before the grand finale.

The finale was the Superman zip-line. This line is the longest in Mexico at 1200 metres and you reach a speed of about 70 miles per hour. Rather than hanging upright as is normal, you lie prone in a sling. If you don’t weigh enough, they pile weights on your back so you will have enough momentum to make it to the far side. From the Superman terminus we descended from the hill via a very fast water slide.

The whole affair was a lot of fun. The guides and the whole operation were very professional. At the end they tried to sell us pictures they had taken, but they were pretty pricey, so we passed and started back toward the van. I was at the end of our parade and one of the guys said to me, “Amigo. I will give you the whole package for $100 USD” compared to the $199 USD they were trying to sell us at, so I took it. He made me swear not to tell or he could lose his job. However, the speed with which several people processed our sale indicated that this was not an unusual event. Another one hour drive back to the departure point and a taxi to the resort had us back about 12:30.

Meanwhile the girls spent the day in child care. When we got back, Sue and her boys were at the beach playing in the sand under the umbrellas and the twins were already up from an early nap. After lunch we spent some time with the boys on the beach and the twins had another nap. Later in the afternoon the boys moved to the pool and the twins also took a dip in the pool. The ladies (except Carla) plus Ron and Matthew left at 5:30 for an evening cruise and the Rhythms of the Night show, leaving me, Darren, Brett, and Tyler on child care duty with supervision by Nathan. We survived without crisis.

For the show that the others went on, they first had to taxi to the port, where they boarded a catamaran. They had drinks, snacks, and entertainment enroute to a private island where they were fed a buffet and treated to a Cirque du Soleil type of show. As it all occurred after dark, candles, lanterns, and bonfires all conspired to create a romantic mood. It was nearly 1 AM by the time they returned to the hotel.

Weather today was mostly sunny and fairly breezy. It clouded over and cooled off in the late afternoon, but the wind died down to nothing after sunset and the temperature remained very mild. This was a carbon copy of Monday except that this was the most wind we have seen so far. Tuesday and Wednesday were very similar except that they did not have as much afternoon cloud and cool-down.