It was a pleasure to have Amara on our boat for two weeks. We enjoyed some of the best stops we've had so far. On the first Monday after she arrived, we took a taxi to a cool surfing beach in the town of Sayulita. Amara and I swam in the waves for quite a while and watched several surfers enjoying the perfect size waves. The drive to the Sayulita was cool too because it took us basically through a jungle where we saw lots of exotic plants.

On Tuesday we spent the day in Puerto Vallarta where we went into a lot of shops, had lunch, ate icecream, and visited the Cathedral.

After three nights in La Cruz, we made our way down to Chamela. It was quite the adventure! We sailed out of Banderas Bay and saw porpoise, dolphins, whales, and one dead whale. Dead Whale? Yah, you heard me right! There was a dead and decaying Humpback Whale floating on the surface of the water in the middle of the bay. It was gross, but sad, and extremely smelly!

We stayed in Chamela for two nights. It was a blur of snorkeling, swimming, eating, playing games such as Phase 10, UNO, Yahtzee, and Scrabble. We also watched movies. We made our way over to the islands for the 3rd night and snorkeled the heck out of our day there! We saw coral, tons of fish, and a small octopus.

The next stop was Tenacatita. We stayed there for two nights and played in the surf, swam off the boat, and went on another Mangrove tour.

On Tuesday the 10th, we arrived in Barra de Navidad where we stayed in the marina for two nights. The marina was located at the Grand Bay Hotel, so we were able to use a their big pool which was really nice. The next morning we went to town and shopped around a bit. Amara and I split off from my parents and poked around the little shops by the beach. At the end of the day, we all went to the pool again.

One of the highlights for me of our trip with Amara was when we went to town the next night and walked down the malecon and passed the turtle conservation. This is where they keep the turtle eggs safe from predators within a fenced environment. We walked up to the fence and saw a big kiddy pool full of baby tortugas! They were so cute! We asked them when they were going to be released and they told us it would be that night at 7pm! So after dinner we came back to watch. There was a man who talked for a while in both spanish and english, explaining their organization and about the preservation of sea turtles. We were all excited to watch, but when he told us we got to take one of the little babies in our hand and release it on the beach, we were extremely excited! So we all released one, but not before naming them. I named my turtle Celia, Mom's was Jim, James's was Goliath, Amara's was Ray, and Dad's was Turtle. They slowly crawled down the beach until the surf pulled them out. Only 1.7 percent will survive their long trek out into the world, then back to the same beach to where they were born.

Our last stop was Manzanillo where we spent the remainder of our amazing trip. Amara and I hung out on the beach and savored our time together.

I had an awesome time with you Amara! Thank you so much for comming! We love you!