A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

Although it was more than two weeks ago when we were in Puerto Vallarta, it's still possible to try to check in via this web cam image below. This picture should be less than ten seconds old. I found access to it at www.puertovallarta.net. The cam's image, of course, will not show much if you check this page during hours that don't match up well to Central Time in the Americas. If you tune in too late, I shall include a smaller, static example to the right.



In the late 1990's I had one set up on the balcony with an old Sony camcorder. It used to look down the Fraser River towards the New Westminster Quay and the Alex Fraser Bridge.

Labels: Internet, Mexico, webcam

My most recent vacation ended almost exactly one week ago to the hour. When we got off the plane at YVR last Sunday it was a beautiful afternoon. Actually, that situation has continued throughout the week. Today, again, has been wonderful. Two weekends and a full dry week around here in February is quite a pleasant rarity.

We had fine weather throughout our Mexican cruise too. The sky was deep blue during most every day from Long Beach to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. I must admit it was nice returning to hear the weather in Vancouver had been awful while we were away. Does that make me a bad person? Apparently, there had even been snow here during our trip.



I've had to rely on the fickleness of people's poor memories. It is really easy to locate weather forecasts for upcoming days but nearly impossible to find any account of the history of recent weather.

Labels: Mexican cruise, Mexico, weather

Oh how trendy! What a lot of money has made its way into Cabo San Lucas. The harbour and waterfront strip was nice. I sucked on a $4 Margareta while looking at the million dollar yachts. We also walked around the city. It is so much drier than the tropical south. The sun was brightly shining on the tip of the Baha Peninsula. It also continued to add to my sunburn. I wish I'd bought some lip balm on shore. This is going to hurt in the future!

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico

Another day, another port!

On the stateroom TV, right after waking up, we noticed we were entering the Mazatlan harbour area. We did not sign up for the various tours offered through Carnival cruises.

This was our first time visiting Mexico and this trip was a sort of fact-finding mission. We wanted to get out and see three, oft-mentioned west coast ports. There are tons of winter specials for Canadians wanting to get away during the winter. People even flee from Vancouver not so much because of cold weather but due to seemingly endless rain. We thought a cruise fit the bill as far as being about to take in different places while enjoying the comfort of the ship.



Mazatlan is a bit more industrial and a city in its own right. Most of the tours whisked people off to adventure activities such as whale-watching, scuba diving, or trips in an ATV or Jeep. The remaining ones brought people over to the so-called Golden Zone. There, there was the choice of visiting luxury resorts or trying the international shopping. To which I can comment both counts a resounding "Yuck".

We walked out and around to the church by the town square and the market. I think we probably enjoyed the day more than those who were rounded up like cattle on tour, for those people had a chance to only interact with other tourists.

We left the city right at sunset. It was a rather stunning one from the aboard the Carnival Pride.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico

Okay, this is it. Puerto Vallarta is nearly perfect on account of being both tropical and close. Our ship got into port before seven o'clock and well before we had breakfast. We still got out and to downtown Vallarta by mid-morning. The new port is in a harbor area across the street from a Walmart Store. But if one gets past the traffic down to the Malecon and the old town, one can find the original allure of the resort.

As the Carnival Pride wasn't due to set sail until 10:00 pm, we rode back to the ship for lunch and showers and returned to walk around some more. I have some nice sunset photos to prove it. We used the regular bus service. It costs the equivalent of fifty cents to use public transit. I prefer to travel with the locals. I hate tourists who never really step out into the actual environment of the places they visit.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico, Walmart

Things really pile up during the final week of a course. Generally, these things include a little bit of extra stress. This is the week that the students' oral presentations are given. There are also many things such as course evaluations which must be completed. Simply getting the photocopies of the final examination adds to the burden of tasks which must be wrapped up.



So, a few minutes on the Carnival Cruises website seemed to be just want the doctor ordered. I had to change the FunPass information to include the earlier flight on which we'll be returning. I wonder how many passengers are really Internet savvy to make use of web capabilities. It will be a rush but we can easily be at LAX for the 12:20 pm return flight as the ships gets back into the port at Long Beach at 9:00 am. While at the website I discovered that our stateroom had been assigned. We knew for the cheap price, we'd not have a balcony or even a window. Just about the only hours we plan to spend in the room is when we're sleeping, so it really doesn't matter. Still, it was nice to discover we'll be way up on the eighth deck.

Labels: cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico, travel planning

We tried entering all the FunPass data necessary for next weekend's departure on a Carnival Cruise to Mexico. It's just an easy way for passengers on an upcoming trip to speedup check in by filling in the required information online. I hope they have good security considering they now have all sorts of data about us including our passport information!

It was when were entering all the data last night that we noticed a rather obvious error made by our travel agent. The cruise leaves from Long Beach on Sunday, February 10th and returns the following week. Yet, Aerin at the Lougheed Mall branch of the Flight Centre had mistakenly noted the end as February 18th and, consequently, booked us return tickets from LA on Monday. We'll be working on Monday. Our agent won't be in the office until tomorrow, so I hope she won't have any trouble changing our Alaska Air flights to the correct day. I emailed last night and will leave a voice mail message soon.



Speaking of Alaska and cruises, I didn't put this image from our very first cruise ship experience. We left downtown Vancouver for a week's itinerary to Alaskan ports in May of 2001.

Labels: Alaska, cruise, Mexican cruise, Mexico, travel planning

Today is pretty slow as many people have off Good Friday here. As well, I have off Easter Monday which is a statutory holiday for many in Canada. Jay and I visited the new shopping center I blogged about on March 27th. The grocery store has a nice assortment of speciality goods as in many imported cheeses. Some prices are good on national brands but I don't think their housebrand called Western Family is as good as President's Choice which we are used to at the Canadian Superstore. We also crossed over the Queensborough Bridge but I couldn't find a bottle of liquid that makes tap water okay for the goldfish.

After lunch, I put The Night of the Iguana (1964) into the DVD player. Imagine deciding to make a movie in Puerto Vallarta in black and white! Still in some ways it was probably more seductive that way. Wasn't Ava Gardner much sexier than Sue Lyon? Maybe it's just my age or appreciation for butch broads.

Labels: Mexico, movies, stars

This morning we're off to the San Diego Zoo. We bought the vouchers online through Expedia while still in Vancouver.

Yesterday was surely busy. We crisscrossed the city as well as traveling down to Tijuana, Mexico. I feel like we surely got our money's worth from thw 5-buck day pass. The day started out a bit cloudy but then the sky got very blue. I'm even a bit red faced.

Labels: cruise, Mexico, places