On Christmas Day in Puerto Vallarta, we scattered to the winds. Bonnie and Rob had found that the zipline tour through the cruise was booked months ago and found an independent company offering one that was even better, but Phoebs was too young to go and Seamus and Aunt Julie were too chicken. So they went and swung like monkeys from the treetops and the three of us and my mom took the younguns to a kids dolphin encounter.

Only when we got there, the lady was very specific that those of us with pink tags were to wait and she’d come collect us later. We thought they must have had a smaller pool for the little guys, because the bigger kids and the adults were right in front of us. We watched one of the other groups for almost an hour before we got antsy. The parents of the other little girl waiting went and made sure that they knew we were still there, and ten minutes or so after that, I did too.

Finally the tour guide came and got us and was all apologetic. It seems that she’d meant to include us with another group and had forgotten about us. Poor kids, and they were so good about waiting too.

So one of the trainers took these three little guys all by themselves and they got some really great one on one time with two adult dolphins and one baby. Since we ended up being a special group, their photographer was busy, so they lifted the no-cameras restriction and let us parents in to watch up close. I got some outstanding pictures with my good camera and really regretted when I burned through two rolls of film and had to switch to the digital. I had double prints made for the other family too, so they didn’t miss out (turns out they were from the town I grew up in — small world.)

The kids had a great time, and Phoebs even fed a squid to Nuna the dolphin, when she’d insisted that she wasn’t going to touch the icky stuff (such a girl!)

I’ll have to post pictures from John’s monkey trip when Bonnie sends them to me, but sadly, their photographer had the day off and they weren’t allowed to bring cameras in the canopy, so there aren’t many. And John’s strangely silent about the tequila factory tour they took on the way home!

Next stop: Mazatlan and time at the beach!