Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Snorkeling at Las Marietas Islands

On Wednesday, we went on a snorkeling excursion (with Vallarta Adventures) to the islands at the north end of Banderas Bay – called Las Marietas.

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We rode on a boat with about 60 people there on the tour to go snorkeling or scuba diving.

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The boat ride out to the snorkeling area was pretty long, so we were entertained by the staff along the way.

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It was pretty cheesy, but still funny. The staff sang and danced while they explained safety rules and how to snorkel.

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Las Marietas islands were beautiful.

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There were lots of pelicans and blue footed boobies (that really is the name of the bird).

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The water was much clearer here than in the bay by the beach – you could clearly see the bottom about 15 feet down.

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The tour provided wet suits, which made snorkeling MUCH more comfortable than if we had just worn out swim suits and nothing else. The water was pretty chilly.

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These birds look like the dinosaurs in one of Eli’s favorite shows, Dinosaur Train.

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This is the area where we snorkeled – there were lots of beautiful fish, including angel fish, a large puffer fish, small bright blue and yellow fish in the coral. Ben even saw a morey eel in the rocky caves below the surface. He was skim diving (swimming down to get a better view), but I stayed at the surface. Toward the end we saw some jellyfish, and that was enough for me. I climbed back onto the boat and was happy to be out of the ocean!

After snorkeling, we went to an isolated beach to relax and swim. We ate lunch on the way back (on the boat) and overall it was a really fun day.

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We ended the evening back at one of the restaurants in the hotel. This was the Italian (there were French, Mexican, and Italian restaurants with nice casual dress requirements—no shorts or sandals allowed--as well as a restaurant by the ocean that was more casual.

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