Our Trip to Nuevo Vallarta November 11-18, 2004 Click Here for pictures This is a quick tour of our trip to Mexico. From the sunset, going clockwise. Vallarta is known for it's beautiful sunsets, this one is from the first evening when we arrived. (there were plenty more). Myrna and Casey are enjoying the that first sunset along with the first batch of many margueritas (no salt) The seahorse is very popular in Mexico. This particular statue can be seen in a few places. The speck of dust in the hand of the rider is actually a sliver of the moon. What can I say about Air Transat? The flight was over 5 hours. We did not have Club Transat so the seats were a little cramped. The ride was pretty smooth (both ways). Here is Ron on the Mayan Palace Golf Club's signature hole (par 3- 141 yard,14th). Go right you are in the lake. Go left you are on the beach. Ron picked going left on two occasions. The second time he was closer to the waves. The Corona bottle was on display at the golf course on Saturday. The final round of a big pro-am golf tournament was being held. They started at noon and we were the only foursome allowed on the course (at 7:20). We played in the usual 4 hours but with nobody around except at the clubhouse. Stan has just picked a wild lime during our Sierra Madre 'Jeep' Expedition. This was a 9 hour trip through the Nayarit's back country topped how with finishing a bottle of Tequila on the trip back. This was a great trip with our guide Brad from British Columbia. Finally the background picture is Myrna parasailing on our beach. She was first to go although we (Stan, Casey and I) went up just after. As you can see there is not a cloud in the sky like most of the time we were there. Above is a composite picture of the beach to the north of the hotel. You could walk for miles along its uninterrupted shore. One of the highlights of the trip was the 'liberacion' of the turtles from a turtle 'hatchery' about 10 minutes from our hotel. Every night around 9:00pm they release about 400 turtles hatchlings from that day so they would have a better chance of making it alive as turtles are a good snack for birds. We assisted the release for two evenings by sending off two turtles each. Only 1 to 2 % of the turtles will make it to maturity. We have heard from Tia and Maria (Myrna's Tuesday release) and they are both doing well. My two from Monday's release (Dumb and Dumber) unfortunately didn't fare out so well as they refused to ask for directions. Below is one turtle that either got washed back ashore from the previous evening or more likely one from a wild nest about 100 feet from the hatchery that 'erupted' early the morning we were coming back. He was still alive and we gave another chance by putting him out in the surf. I am sure he too will beat the odds. NOT!  This is an Olive Ridley Turtle. To learn more about the turtle release program this is a link to a similar program about 10 miles north of our hotel in San Francisco.