World Cruise Day 26/152 - Puerto Vallarta or should I say Puerto Walmarta?

Cruise day: 26/152
Ports days: 10
Sea days: 16
Countries: 4
Continents: 1
Ports: 7

This morning, we woke up docked in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. The port had a decidedly military feel with military boats in the harbor and uniformed and armed personnel visible.

Oddly enough, there are also two statues of mermaids near the waterfront and military installation.  They seemed out of place to me.

We boarded our bus and headed out.

Let me digress for a moment and talk about respect. I think that everyone should respect everyone.  It is a simple concept.  But, when you don't pay attention and impact everyone else around you, then you are not respecting everyone.  This is the second bus tour where we have perceived a lack of respect from other passengers.  

The first came a couple days ago in Cabo.  First, a couple separated before getting on the bus.  Our tour was delayed as the guide had to try to locate the missing person.  That person decided to go back to the ship and didn't tell anyone.  Not the guide.  Not his wife.  So, our tour was shortened because he didn't respect anyone else's time.  Our tour was further shortened by other guests who had booked second excursions right on the heels of the one we were on.  They demanded that the tour be shortened to ensure they got back to the ship on time for their next excursion with no regard for the rest of us.

Today, the Viking Daily (the daily paper with the schedule and such) clearly stated that the Quiet-Vox (QV) hearing system would be in use today so guests should bring them along.  The tour tickets clearly stated that the QV would be in use.  Yet, two guests didn't read anything and didn't bring theirs.  They complained because they couldn't hear the guide who was using the system as -planned.  Finally, Arlona, ever the engineer, said that we would move to the back of the bus so the inconsiderate folks that inconvenienced everyone else by not doing their proper due diligence by reading the provided instructions could move up front where the guide was located.

Am I being petty, expecting people to respect other people's time?  Perhaps.  But I still think we owe it to each other.  Now, I'll respect your time of you are reading this and get off my soapbox.

Our first stop was in a plaza featuring a statue of Licenciado Ignacio Vallarta.

Remind me to never have a statue made of myself.  I don't want pigeons expressing opinions.

All along the waterfront and the plaza area, we saw sculptures, murals, and sand art from local artists.

We both thought this was beautiful.

Here's a close-up of him.

And a close-up of her - note the mermaid's outfit.

You may notice that she is topless.  Our guide said that when this was first installed, the extremely conservative and catholic residents could not accept the nudity, and many mornings, local officials would find her covered with a bikini top.  Ha!

Los Arcos

Just off the square is Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, or Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the more important catholic churches in Puerto Vallarta.

We rode along the shore in the bus to an area with an overlook to the beach.

It looks like pickleball has invaded Mexico as there was a tennis court that was lined with pickleball lines.

Pelicans were diving for lunch.

Newer churches in Puerto Vallarta have a decidedly more modern flair.

Back at the ship, we enjoyed the views of the harbor and watched planes launch from the airport nearby.

At 4 PM, we had our second excursion of the day.

Yes, Viking offered an actual excursion to Walmart.  Let me explain.

For now, everyone on the Star is restricted.  We can only leave the ship on Viking-curated excursions as a means to minimize potential exposure to COVID.  Viking fully vetted all excursion operators and they all have to follow strict COVID procedures defined by Viking.  When this cruise shifted direction from the South Pacific to South America the climate that the ship will encounter shifted drastically.  Many folks on the ship packed only warm weather clothing and will certainly not be comfortable on cooler climes.  Others didn't bring large quantities of personal care items, expecting to be able to pick them up when we were in LA.  Viking arranged for small groups to walk the few-hundred-yard hike across the street to Walmart to pick up whatever essentials each passenger was missing.  In Cabo, they arranged a similar excursion specifically for clothing. It was to a sporting goods store that was closed but opened just for Viking.  While we were mixed in with the general Walmart population, still, kudos to Viking for listening to their passengers and helping out however they could.

To get a sense of how close Walmart was to the ship, here's a photo right outside the store's door.  You can see the ship, right in the middle of the photo.  

As one guest put it - I've parked farther from the door at my local Walmart than the ship is from this one!

At a terrific Tex-Mex dinner in the World Cafe, Hamed, the ship's Cruise Consultant joined us.  He is a pleasant conversationalist and certainly added to the evening.

This evening's main show featured illusionist and mentalist, Andrew Lee.  His show was entertaining, even though we had seen many of the individual illusions or mentalist items before.

When we got back to our room, we looked outside and saw that we had started moving.  We watched from our balcony as we left the harbor.  We saw the local pilot climb down from our ship onto the pilot boat, give us a salute, and head back to shore.  We headed out to the open water for another sea day tomorrow. We change time tonight, moving an hour ahead to central time as we continue east on our way back to Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We will have four sea days before getting there.  We are moving extremely slowly, as Viking had to pad the itinerary so that we hit the later ports on schedule.  We will make up for it in the Mediteranean and will be longing for a sea day to take a break.