Our 7-day cruise left from San Diego on Saturday, November 2nd. The first day of the cruise was a "fun" day at sea as our ship, Holland America's Eurodam, sailed to Cabo San Lucas, our first port of call.
We didn't have any big plans for Cabo, but once we'd tendered off the ship, we decided to take a short sight-seeing cruise to view Los Arcos & the local wildlife up close. (That's me above posing in the bow with one of the arches in the background). Here's another pic of the arches (without me in it!):
We also heard some sea lions barking, and I was able to get a photo of a few of them sunning themselves on some rocks:
The best thing we saw was the sea lions begging for fish from the back of incoming fishing boats. They are quite skilled at it! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any photos. Maybe next time!
The following day, our port of call was Mazatlan, and we had booked a tour with a local guide to visit some of the small hillside towns in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Our first stop on this trip was a pueblo called Malpica. We visited a brick factory where workers make bricks by hand. It was quite fascinating!
Workers mix dirt, manure, and water together to make the adobe, then another worker fills forms with the mud mixture (literally, back-breaking work!);
Next, the bricks are left to dry in the sun for four days:
Once the bricks are dried, the workers build a kiln with the bricks themselves then add wood to the structure like this:
After about six days, when the bricks have turned red, they are finished and ready to be sold.
From the brickyard, we went to Malpica's bakery located on a quaint cobblestone street. There I bought three large (& delicious) shortbread cookies that had been baked that morning by the baker in her very old, but very efficient wood-burning oven.
From Malpica, we continued up into the mountains, arriving at the town of Concordia where we visited the Church of San Sebastián which was built in 1785.
I found these statues located next to the church very interesting. At first, I thought they had deteriorated, but our guide explained that they had been erected in honor of a couple of gentlemen who had been beheaded by agents of the Spanish Inquisition! Yikes! You can see the two statues below, one kneeling on the right & one on the left.
Our guide took us to the side of the church and showed us a (highly eroded) chimera of the devil carved into the wall. He told us local legend said that if you throw a rock at the devil and hit him, it will bring you good luck (or chase away bad). Obviously, I had to try it, and I nailed him on my first try!!
The following day, November 6th, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta for the tour I was really looking forward to: Cooking with Enrique! We met Enrique in the mall across the street from the cruise port, then we loaded up into his van, and it was off to the local market where we visited an artisan tortilla factory:
Next was a stop at the fish market to buy some grouper, octopus, and parrot fish:
After a quick stop at a street vendor's to have a delicious goat taco, we stopped in at a produce store to learn about selecting jalapeños and pineapple.
Then it was off to Enrique's where we met his wife and started cooking. We had parrot fish ceviche:
Octopus salad (here are some of the other tourists chopping it up):
Noah & a few others worked on the tortillas...
...which were used for the main course of grouper filets marinated in an achiote sauce and baked in banana leaves. It was SO delicious, I didn't get any photos, because I was much too busy eating!! The meal was rounded off with a wonderful flan made by Eri (that's her in the blue dress above). I've never been a big fan of flan, but hers was delicious, very similar in taste and texture to a New York style cheesecake. Anyway, after five hours of cooking and eating, we were stuffed to the gills. We waddled back to the ship, and after three days of non-stop activity, we were glad to have two sea days in which to relax as the ship returned to San Diego.
And that, my dears, ended another wonderful cruise. See you all very soon as I continue trying to catch up...wish me luck!!
Bye for now!
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