My Week on the Oosterdam

I've been home for a week now, and I'm just getting around to blogging about the cruise. I could pretty much sum it up in one statement: "It was AMAZING!" But I will elaborate just a bit, and include some pictures for those of you who would like to live vicariously through me for just a few minutes.

I took about 100 pictures, so I'm having a very hard time narrowing it down and posting just the BEST things! So, I've limited myself to 15 pics--I know, still too many if you're in a hurry--but I still feel like I'm leaving so many good ones out.

Without giving a total play-by-play, I'll try to narrow my explanations down to 4 categories: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, and On Board.

PV----In Puerto Vallarta, we did a zipline tour, which was the absolute highlight of my trip! We went on 14 different cables, the longest being about 400 meters long, and the highest nearly 200 meters high! If you are ever going there, I definitely recommend this!

At the end of the zipline adventure, we decided to try out the river (which we crossed over four times on the ziplines!) It was FREEZING! But it did feel good sitting on the rocks, drying out in the sunshine and 80 degree weather.

The open market was cool. I got almost all my souvenirs in this not-so-little place. You could seriously get lost in there!

My mom was brave and let this beautiful parrot sit on her shoulder.

MAZATLAN----Our second port was Mazatlan. We really didn't spend any time in the city. We boarded a bus and did a tour up into the mountains, where we were able to see some smaller towns, small family businesses, and real "Mexico" outside of the main tourist areas. It was really interesting.

Here is a group of us at a pottery place. My mom and Aunt Lila loved all the sun faces.

Here's a beautiful shot of the green mountains we saw. This is from inside a cathedral looking out.

Here is our tour group that day (all of us except for two couples that opted for a different activity that day) in front of a 400-year-old cathedral.

CABO----Cabo San Lucas was our "beach day." We took a water taxi down around the tip of the baja peninsula, where the water and rock formations coming up out of it were absolutely stunning! Then we had our driver drop us off on the beach (which you can only get to by water) for a couple of hours.

Once we were done at the beach, we did a little walking around. I nearly got killed by this gold pirate! Actually, there were a few of these really cool guys. At first, they look like a statue, but then as you walk by, they'll move a little or follow you with their eyes. And then, for a tip, you can get your picture taken with them.

We also got to see some local wildlife in Cabo, including these seals, a ton of pelicans, numerous colorful fish, and a couple of bull sharks being filleted! Yuck!

ON BOARD----Wow! We had every evening, morning, and three full days at sea. There are so many things I could say about the boat and what we did while aboard that it's completely overwhelming. So, just a few highlights:

The kitchen tour. It was really interesting to see how they feed 2000 people enough food for an average weight gain of 1 lb. per person per day! Disgusting, really, but oh, so good!

One sample of the amazing food we enjoyed! The presentation was always so great, and the food was delicious, too. We enjoyed all kinds of seafood, including Alaska king crab legs, lobster, tuna, shrimp prepared in various ways, fillet mignon, etc., etc., etc.

One day, we went to a culinary demonstration where we watched them create these amazing bouquets made completely from vegetables and fruits!

We had some fun times dancing. One night we danced in the nightclub, we took salsa and rhumba lessons, and it was so fun watching Grannie and Granpa dance. They still have it