We arrived in port by about 8:00. This was an all day stay—we didn’t have to be back on board till 7:00. So we didn’t dash off the ship. We had a nice breakfast in the dining room (did I mention that I love breakfast in the dining room?)
We stepped off the ship about 9:00. We had decided to try something a daring, for us. Last year, on our first cruise, we booked all of our excursions in advance through Shore Trips. We had a wonderful experience with them and I would highly recommend them. And they were offering a package deal for the three ports on this cruise. But it would have cost us about $170 per person. We had been told by at least three different friends, and cruisers, that we could arrange activities on our own, for much less, as we got off the ship. So, that was our plan. We started down the sidewalk, just a few yards from the pier, and immediately the offers began—cab drivers, and tour guides and such, all offering us the best deal. We stopped to visit with a couple drivers, getting a feel for what to expect. Eventually we visited with a van driver, explained that we mostly wanted to zip line and maybe snorkel. He offered to drive us to the zip line up at Eden, and then knew of a beach where we could try our hand a snorkeling. $5 per person, each way (plus the inevitable tip, always). The real selling point was that we could take all of our gear for the day, leave it in his van while we zip lined. He would be with us for the day. Part of it was he personality. He didn’t jump in our face, just listened to what we wanted to do and quoted us a price. 
We loaded up and headed through the city. He took us along the board walk, along the beach. It was a beautiful morning.
Our first stop for a picture was Panpatla Flyers. The is some sort of a ritual to thank the gods.
Caleb and Dinah on the “boardwalk”
Looking back toward the port.
It was quite a drive up into the Sierra Madre mountains to the zip line.
It turns out that the site of the zip line is on the site of the movie set for "Predator", starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Never seen the movie, but kind of cool to know. We learned later that we arrived ahead of the crowds. There was just one group ahead of us, and maybe one just finishing as we we're getting organized. The system was a bit different than last year-- double safety straps on everyone. And we carried our own handle thingy from line to line. It was the same in that we had lively, personable young men as our guides, they spoke pretty good English and made the experience very enjoyable. Three different times, one of the younger boys jumped out at us from a tree or something similar, dressed as a "predator". They had a lot of fun with it. Another thing that seemed different was that we had to climb quite a lot. The first platform was about a half mile walk/climb. The heat and humidity wasn't awful, but I got tired about half way up. I made it through several platforms and then the old brother of the two main guides didn't give me my handle back. I couldn't figure out what he was up to till he met me at the next platform and I realized that I wasn't nearly at winded. This young man was a helping me to have an easier time. He ran up the steps to each platform with or without my 10 or so pound contraption. We had 12 platforms, two of which were about 1650 ft from platform to platform. What a rush! These platforms were noticeably higher and most of them longer than the ones in Honduras last year. The view wasn't quite as spectacular, there we could see the ocean a couple times. No ocean this year but we were way up in the mountains and the ride down was wonderful. Caleb and Dinah did great. A couple times, on the shorter, less steep lines, Caleb got the go ahead to hang on to just his straps so that he would spin a bit. Dinah decided not to because she couldn't change her mind part way down. But one of the guides rode tandem with her one time so she could ride backwards. It was a great morning. 
The only disappointment was that we weren’t allowed to take our own cameras with us. In Honduras last year, we handed our cameras to our guides and they got great pictures of us coming in to each platform. This place wanted us to buy a DVD and CD for $80 and the end of our adventure. So, all I have is this blurry pictures taken by a lady, who had a fancy drink with a little umbrella in her had. Those are our delightful guides.
Because we had our own snorkel gear this trip, we wanted to try to snorkel at each port. So, we asked our driver to take us somewhere we could do so. He took us to Mismaloya, which was right across the highway as we came to the bottom of the mountain. Just inside the area our driver set us up with a man with a boat that we could have for the afternoon for $50. 
That included lifejackets and snacks to attract the fish. Little did we know. Actually, it was really ok, it was just a learning experience for us. We had a really nice driver and we knew that the best snorkeling would be out near the rocks, a ways out. What we didn't realize was how cold the water was. Holy smokes! And it wasn't beautiful and clear like in Cozumel. There were some really pretty fish that immediately came to the surface when our driver threw in the bread. 
Frank jumped in the water and then proceeded to coax the rest of us into the water. Caleb gamely jumped in and then jumped back on the ladder. That was it for him for most of the time. He was unexpectedly overwhelmed and intimidated by the concept of the ocean. The fact that it was so cold didn't help and the water was very dark. 
Dinah made it in for several minutes, swam through a cave with Frank, and puttered around with her face in the water.
When we were ready, our driver took us back to the beach. That was an adventure. We were met by a man who offered us some beach chairs and drinks. Ok, four bottles of water please. We could have done with two. The normal sales people kept wandering by. Caleb offered to go in on a dress for Dinah's birthday. She found a pretty one and we haggled our way down to $15 from $20. Dinah kept jumping in and I later explained that it was important that she not "bid against me". The beach man came out again and offered chips and guacamole. Not thinking, I added salsa. Well, by the time we left, we were into the beach experience for $26. Hmmmm..... Plus, we had to buy another couple replacement chips and salsa because Caleb and Dinah had a little sand fight and she got sand in here food. I should have known it was going to be an adventure when Frank came out of the banos, where we were allowed to change for free (we didn't have to pay 3 pesos for the toilet paper) with a look of horror. He'd never really experienced an authentic Mexican public bathroom.
Our driver really was nice. He found us an ATM, which we needed after blowing so much of our cash at the beach. I got it to work just fine as the instructions were in English as well as Spanish. However, I thought I was getting plenty of cash when I requested 200. It was only after I completed the transaction that I realized that it was a Mexican bank, so obviously they would give out pesos not dollars. 200 pesos is only $20. We needed $40, or 400 pesos, plus tip. So I went back in, paid a second transaction fee and acquired 200 more pesos. By the time we tipped him, in US dollars, we had used every last bit of cash that we had taken off the ship. Luckily, we had loaded up with more cash than we thought we'd need. It was a great day and a good learning experience. Mostly we learned that we only want to do one main activity per port. Using the Mexican ATM helped me the next day in Mazatlan when I decided that I really needed that bag in the mercado! And "ATM" seems to be a universal term for "I'll buy from you if you can help me find a machine to get the cash!"
We relaxed on the ship till dinner time, watching from deck we left port.
We saw this ship in all three ports. Our neighbor’s son, Jake and his wife were on it. We never actually saw them, except for the back of Jake’s head as they took the tender back to their ship in Cabo. But we took a picture so we could show his mother that we were in the same ports each day. 
As we sat through another luscious dinner, 
I felt myself fading. I must have wrenched my neck a bit coming in on one of the zip lines because my neck and shoulder started to stiffen up and ache down to my elbow. After dinner, I took four ibuprofen and laid down for "a few minutes". I quickly realized that I wasn't the least bit interested in the show that night. It was a comedian. Frank and Dinah went to see him. Dinah came back to the room after not too long. I slept, felt a bit feverish, the way I sometimes do when I've over done. I woke up when Frank came back to the room, felt better, watched a little Fox news and slept through the night. I felt fine the next morning.
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