Puerto Vallarta Zoo

One day we walked from our hotel to the Puerto Vallarta zoo-which was really close to our hotel. I had read some really good things about it, so we decided to check it out, and I'm glad we did!
It was the funniest little zoo I've ever been to, but you could pay $5 extra for a bag of food and hand feed the animals. It was worth every penny :)
Capuchin monkeys
Rick, a little hesitant to feed the monkeys

Cocodrilos

It was a little unnerving that these green bars were the only think between you and this ferocious jaguar. It wouldn't stop pacing so I couldn't get a good pic, but regardless, we didn't opt to feed this guy.

This exhibit of goats, donkeys, llamas etc cracked us up! They were all very excited for some food.

The goats were really aggressive, butting anyone else out who tried to get food, so I was trying to get the sad donkey some treats.

The donkey thanked us by braying VERY loudly

Camels are giant.

Watch out, they spit!

A weird ostrich/emu like bird. It was creepy.

A cute yawning spider monkey

Rick, feeding a beautiful antelope

Flying flamingo

Spider monkey/flamingo show down

A zebra with very gross teeth

Rick feeding said zebra

I still can't believe i got to feed a giraffe! How cool is that?

Rick and the giraffe

Mr. Giraffe. His mouth was so weird!

Kinkajou

Feeding the toucan

The creepiest monkey ever-the Sacred Papion

Beautiful lionness

Their petting zoo cracked me up! It was this huge space with little goats and pigs, but also with turtles and guinea pigs running around!

A cute little goat

A one month old jaguar cub

The keeper showing me how tame his cats are-this is a 4 month old. Check out those teeth!

One of the highlights of my trip: holding a one month old baby jaguar. Isn't he precious? He was licking my arm here...

Me & the baby

He then found my shoe and sunk claws and teeth in and wouldn't let go!

Apparently it was time for him to eat! You can see other babies behind-tigers and spotted jags.

The 4 month old awake-you can see its' spots in the sunlight. Even black jaguars have spots!

Giant spiders-everywhere

A cute green parrot

Rick and our friend, Mr. Oso Negro (blackbear). Its hard to see, but he had his arms around the bars and just reminded us of a circus bear. We loved that cute bear!

Isn't he pretty?

He gently took the carrot, then decided he didn't want it, so he handed it back through the bars. What a nice bear!

My tourist pic with Oso Negro

A funny tiger

And finally, the strangest exhibit we saw at the zoo: 4 orange housecats behind glass.

I hope you liked our zoo pics! More to come :)

Puerto Vallarta continued

Here's the next set of pictures from our vacation!
Rick on our ginormous balcony
Us

A better shot of the villas above our hotel

Looking into the hills behind our resort

One night they had a traditional Mexican show for all the guests-they hung up Mexican flags and had singing and dancing. This is while they were still setting up for it.

Local kids playing in the ocean in front of our hotel

Sunset

A nice stray dog hanging out on our beach

Cute boogie boarding little boy

Interesting river next to our hotel

Garza blanca (white heron)

Beautiful scenery

Looking back over to our hotel, the Barcelo. Gives you a good sense of the green hills behind where we stayed.

Crabs!

More to come!

Puerto Vallarta!

Rick and I were lucky enough to be able to go to Mexico from November 10-18th. This was our treat to each other for getting through the stress of our remodel, and also to celebrate my 30th birthday. We had an amazing time, and it was a perfect balance of being busy and relaxing. We stayed at the south end of the Bay of Banderas, in Mismaloya, at the Barcelo. It was an all-inclusive and we LOVED not having to worry about food while we were there. The resort and our room were beautiful and we had perfect weather every day. Needless to say, coming home was very difficult!
This is our resort, looking from our side over to the other side. you can see the green hillside above with the fancy houses and villas.

Looking towards the pools and ocean

On our way to dinner our second night

Our hotel had 4 restaurants. You only got to eat at the fancy restaurants once each, then the other nights you ate at the buffet. This was our first fancy restaurant-Don Quixjote, a Spanish tapas restaurant.We booked a few excursions for our time there, and with one we got a free city tour that we did on our 2nd full day there. We were actually pretty disappointed in it. It was too long and somewhat boring. Oh well, at least it was free.
Taken from our tour bus-the marina has cruise ships in port at least 2 days a week.

Downtown PV, there is the famous Malecon, or the walkway that runs parallel to the ocean.

We pulled up right when some indigenous people had come from the hills to do a show. They're called Papantla Fliers...

Climbing the pole

One stays behind and collects donations. I thought their costumes were beautiful.

The guy on top sits up there and plans a little flute while everyone else hangs upside down

Flying over the beach

Every town in Mexico has a town square, or zocalo, where their main church is.

The top of the church-a beautiful crown.

The Zocalo looking towards the malecon

A cacique in the fig tree

Inside of the church

The side of the church, and the cool dragon lights that I liked.

Shopping in the artisan market, on Isla Cuale.

Later the tour took us up in the mountains to this place to have lunch, which was not that great and was VERY expensive for Mexico. I was excited to get some huachinango for lunch-my favorite Mexican fish-but I was not expecting the head to come attached!

Rick next to the pretty river up in the mountains where we were

The scary suspension bridge over the river that we thought was a little too scary to risk crossing

Rogue chickens on the river

Rick trying to catch his own lunch

An agave farm-the plant where tequila comes from

A tequila making demonstration

The cutest little boy and his chihuahua, Minnie :)

That's it for now. I have LOTS and LOTS more pictures to come!

Meanwhile I've had my 30th birthday and today is Thanksgiving. My birthday was wonderful, thanks again to all that helped to celebrate with me.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year I am so thankful for so many things: Rick and our happy marriage, both of our families, our little house and kitties, our jobs, our great friends and all the many blessings that we have each day. I hope you each enjoy your day!

Stephine's Birthday

We're back from Mexico and I have lots of pictures to share, but have to process them all first! The weekend before we left was Stephine's birthday. Here's a few pictures to celebrate the birthday girl!
Stephine and Lewis
Stacey & I

Cheers to you Steph!

The girls at Rock Bottom

My cute husband and I

Rick and Tim

Tim with Stacey and I

and one with the girls AND Tim!

Happy birthday again Steph! It was so fun to celebrate with you!