In June, 2014 I went on an Puerto Vallarta adventure tour run by Vallarta Adventures. I’m always wary of ‘adventure tours’ because they’re usually too tame for my taste. This tour, called the Sea Safari, wasn’t exactly adrenaline-inducing, but is was probably the most fun I had on the entire trip.
A tour guide always plays a big role in making a good experience, and ours was fantastic. I was also very impressed by how socially and environmentally responsible the trip was.
The Sea Safari started in a an inflatable motor boat with about 20 attendees. Our enthusiastic guide took the time to memorize the name of every person on the boat, and made quite a show of it. By the time we arrived at the first point of interest, he stood at the head of the boat and pointed out every passenger by name.
As we headed away from the marina we got a fantastic view of Puerto Vallarta just after sunrise.
Our first stop was a brief one, at a series of rock formations called Los Arcos with shapely arches jutting out of the sea.
The rock formations were covered in booby birds, which I had never seen before. Surprisingly, they bear little resemblance to the boobies that I was first introduced to by the television show Baywatch.
After around an hour we arrived at a small fishing village. The village is accessible only by boat. No roads lead in or out of it. It was super cute.
The waters near the shore were dotted with small anchored boats, which were covered in hordes of pelicans. It is very likely that I will never see so many pelicans in one place again.
The view of the unspoiled coastline was idyllic. (If you’d rather see some extremely unidyllic coastlines, check this out).
After a wander through the village and a bathroom break, we arrived at a river where our horses were kept. Actually, I don’t think they were horses. They were smaller, probably donkeys or mules. I was happy to see that they were well-cared for because I’ve seen many companies that don’t care for their animals so well.
There were flocks of butterflies in the air and beside the river in most places.
Our donkeys, or mules, or whatever they were, knew the trail perfectly. I rode the lead mule, and eventually just dropped the reigns because there was no need to steer him.
After thirty or forty minutes we arrived at a waterfall. Vallarta Adventures had a photographer on hand to capture the moment for people (and, of course, sell them their ‘moments’ later).
The waterfall was not ugly.
I decided to take my GoPro and swim as close as possible to the waterfall to take a waterfall selfie.
This is what I got.
After about an hour we hopped on our trusty steeds and meandered back to the village. On the way I took a mule selfie.
We all hopped back in the boat and went snorkelling. So, I had a friend take a snorkelling selfie of me.
I am, as a matter of fact, the selfie master.
One of our guides managed to grab a puffer fish for me to take a photo of, which was pretty awesome.
Finally we arrived at Pizota, a private beach where they had set up an open bar, barbecue buffet, hammocks beach mats, and sea kayaks. It was pretty sweet. The coolest part for me, though, was that the beach was filled with holes dug by crabs.
The crabs were colourful, cute, and everywhere, digging away at their holes. What the holes were for, i have no idea.
A little away from the beach I found a cliff that was swarming with crabs. It was like the cliff was alive.
After a nice long beach break, we returned to Puerto Vallarta.
This trip was provided by the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board, but all opinions are my own.
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