I don't recall our conversation 32 years ago but I do know we didn't anticipate that we would be lucky enough to be celebrating our anniversary in Mexico! So what did we do to recognize this significant achievement? We watched the Super Bowl at a local bar/restaurant in La Cruz. Our friends Leah and John from Brio joined us and we ordered brownies and ice cream as a splurge...not one of our most romantic anniversaries but one I hope we'll remember as special. Thanks Leah and John for joining us!

Last week we decided to take a hiking tour as our gift to each other after hearing some cruiser buddies rave about it. The tour was the day after our anniversary and turned out to be a fantastic gift. Our guide, April, and her visiting mom picked us up at 8:30 in her van along with the other 5 people on the tour. We headed into Puerto Vallarta to stop at Starbucks and then continued on to Boca de Tomatlan where we parked the van and began the hike. Boca is on the southeast side of Banderas Bay and about 15 miles as the crow (or seagull) flies from where we are presently anchored. The trail itself is made up of man-made material in places where homes and developers have needed access to dirt and rocks. It meandered alongside the ocean and up along various cliffs through some beautiful scenery as well as some high-end hotels and a few deserted ones both of which could only be accessed via the trail or boat. We stopped for lunch at Los Animos which according to our guide is a small town completely built on tourist dollars but only accessed via boat. We enjoyed a yummy meal before heading to the small village of Quimixto. From there our choice was to continue up to some waterfalls on foot or rent a horse for $150 pesos (or about $12 USD). We chose to use our feet although after spending much of the time looking down to ensure we weren't stepping in presents left by the horses and swatting at flies like crazy I wished I liked horses better. The water was quite a bit colder than what we've felt for some time but refreshing and helped cool me down from all the walking. From the waterfalls we walked back to Quimixto to catch a panga (about a 20' open boat used by many Mexican fisherman) back to Baco. The walk took us about 5-6 hours but we got back by boat in about 15 minutes--no wonder we didn't see many people on the trail. This hike was definately worth the time and money! I hope we are able to do a couple of others that are offered by April as well.

I'm hoping that in 32 more years we'll be sitting in some sunny setting reminiscing about how we've spent our anniversaries and remember with fondness the year we were able to spend it in Banderas Bay!