By far our favorite off the boat excursion was the Jeep Tour of Puerto Vallerta. Part of why we loved it so much was the jeeps held four people and we were able to have our own little group go. Yes it could have been unpleasant if we had the wrong folks with us but we got really lucky and paired up with a young newly married couple Dillon and Amelia who were fantastic. But first we had to get off the boat and thankfully this was once again a port where we could could walk right down to the dock.
There were two weird things about getting off the boat. The first was the gangplank was really slippery and the man behind me fell hard, hitting his head and losing his sunglasses in the water. The security personnel handled it really poorly to be honest first calling the medical people then changing their mind. Thankfully the gentleman (who was on our tour) was ok but he could have really hurt himself. The second odd thing was the dog that the Mexican port authority had who sniffed all of us looking for food. This dog was extremely well trained and caught several people who had inadvertently put a snack in their bag for the day. Fruit of any kind the port authority confiscated which was fine but again kind of weird.
After getting our group together we went to a tour bus which dropped us off across the street in a Sam’s Club parking lot. This port had a Sam’s Club, Walmart, and a nice mall all within walking distance of the port which was nice for the cruise ship employees. A couple of them mention that on their breaks on port days they would go into town and purchase personal items and snacks that they couldn’t get on the ship so this port must have been very convenient for them.
So we got to the line of jeeps and learned they were all manuals. Our group of four had three people (me, Lee, and Dillon) and Dillon actually wanted to drive. Lee was happy to ride in the back and take pictures for most of the trip and it was fun just being passengers for once. The first part of the trip was pretty interesting because we drove through town. The traffic was a little on the crazy side and staying with a long line of jeeps was challenging at times for sure. It was easier when we got on some side roads and passed multiple farms and eventually stopped at a small Mexican town. It was really interesting seeing how regular people lived and mostly they seemed glad to see us.
One of the coolest things we learned was that the front of the houses have flowers but the backyards all have vegetable gardens and fruit trees. The town had numerous dogs as well, actually we saw dogs at every stop we made and a surprising amount of huskies. I wouldn’t think they would do well in the hot climate but every stop had at least one.
Our next stop was a tequila farm and this one was great. They took us on a short tour showing how tequila is made and then we got to do an extended tasting. They also had wonderful honey and Mexican chocolate for sale and I really enjoyed the folks who worked there. The grounds were really beautiful and they had lots of crafts for sale along with a nice lunch.
The tour itself was probably my favorite part we learned that it takes 7-10 years for an Agave plant to produce a pineapple which are about 22 kilos and huge. Each one of these only makes one liter or tequila and goes through a variety of preparations, including cooking in an oven for 24 hours. It was super interesting.
Although the lunch was just ok it was fun because Lee made a puppy friend and we all sneaked him tidbits under the table. I also really appreciated the crafts people were providing because it was different than the standard things we had seen. There was a young woman with a parrot who took and then air dropped pictures for $10 (love ingenuity) and a beautiful booth full of hand beaded items. I loved those and ended up getting a wonderful butterfly magnet. Unlike the port vendors they weren’t super aggressive and instead answered questions and had conversations which was a nice change of pace.
The next stop was went to a resort down into a deep canyon. To be honest although the stop had a beautiful pool (which it was too cold for me) getting there was more fun than the stop itself. We went down a dirt canyon road that was so steep on the way back up they had the jeeps go one at a time. We also got a beautiful picture made for us while we were down there which a young man made as we watched that was super impressive.
As if all of that wasn’t enough we still had to go back through town. That drive was crazy as they took us by the prison and a totally different way and I honestly felt like I was in some crazy driving video game. We ended up at the end and almost got lost a couple of times but the chase jeep kept us on track and I laughed and laughed the entire way. Truly it was an awesome day and $155 a person for the adventure was a steal. I highly recommend this tour because it really was awesome.
We even walked over to the mall at the end and bought some sheets made of Mexican cotton which were very nice. As a side note, I downloaded the google translate app for Spanish and used it several times in the mall and on the excursions. Getting directions to the bedding section of the department store was an adventure all in itself !!!
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