Part 3 - Vacation

The third day of our cruise we docked in Ensanada Mexico and left the boat at 9:00 in the morning to line up to go on the blowhole tour. We were a little early for the tour because it didn't start until 10, but we wanted to get off of the ship early before everyone decided to leave and were all trying to get off the ship at the same time. While we waited, we looked around the shops that were right there trying to find a few souvenirs for the kids, most of the stuff in Mexico is junk!! A little before 10 we loaded a bus and drove about 45 minutes to La Bufadora, aka the blowhole. It was kind of a neat thing to see. The blowhole is a cave that is at sea level and when the tide is high or right after a storm the water rises and fills the cave. The water presses on the air inside the cave and creates pressure. The pressure builds and builds and finally can't take it anymore and explodes into the air shooting sea water straight up as high as 100 feet at this particular blow hole. It is the highest shooting blowhole in the world. We were informed that there are dozens of blowholes all over the world in Australia, Tonga, Mexico, and some in the U.S. I had never really heard of a blowhole, and at first thought it was like a geyser, but it is extremely different. The day we were there the tide was kind of low and so the spray wasn't very high, but still enough for it to be cool to see. After we had looked at the blowhole for a little while and had taken our far share of pictures we headed back toward the bus, going thru a market area. Now in case any of you didn't know, Ensanada's first source of income is through tourism. What does this mean....they hound you to death to come into their shops to by their stuff. It was SOOOOO annoying!!! Every step I took someone was saying hey come into my store, you need this bag, you need these shoes, you need this jewelry. I was like Matt keep walking!! We had seen a few things we wanted, but made sure and went into shops that didn't have people begging us to go in. We got Parker this fun spiderman cape with a mask with it. And we got Paige a cute pink Mexican dress! We also bought some jewelry and some Mexican vanilla. It was interesting to see that almost every other store was a "pharmacy" selling drugs that are prescription here in the U.S. People would grab us and say come into the Pharmacy and get your pain killers, and stuff like that. We looked at a few just to see what was in there, they had ammoxacillan(sp?), Viagra and a ton of other drugs. I can't believe people buy stuff like that and use it, that scares me to use a drug that isn't prescribed. I just thought that was crazy! After bargaining with the sellers to a price we thought was fair we got on the bus and headed back to the ship. We had a really great tour guide that told us a bunch of information about Ensanada. It was pretty interesting. I was amazed at all of the U.S. stores and restaurants that are there. We saw a Home Depot, Costco, McDonalds, Appleby's, and a few others. She said the only thing we wouldn't see in Mexico is a Taco Bell. That was funny! The roads were covered in dirt and people lived in run down shacks and housing developments. It really made me grateful for all I have and for the nice place I have to live. I asked Matt why anyone would want to live there. He said he would. It was pretty along the coastline and by the mountains, but not in the city. The weather was perfect while we were there and we had a great time, but were ready to get back on the ship. We had dinner that night I had mushroom chicken with Alfredo pasta and Matt had the steak again. (he wasn't very adventurous) All the of the meals had starters and then the main dish and then dessert. I tried to have something different each day. One day for a starter I had Prosciutto and melon. I don't think I would have that again. Matt mostly had Tiger Shrimp cocktail for his starter. The best dessert we had was a chocolate molten cake with vanilla ice cream. It was really good. That evening after dinner we went to a hypnotist show and laughed out heads off. It was hilarious. Some people really do funny things when they are hypnotized. It was a fun evening. Tomorrow we will be at sea all day.