A big win and a big turtle

After a leisurely breakfast on the balcony, Karen and I packed up and grabbed a taxi to Old Town Puerto Vallarta.  Since the first beach volleyball game wasn’t until 3:00pm, Karen and I decided to take a tour that we found on TripAdvisor.  It’s called the Day Eats tour with Vallarta Eats.

We met up with Eric Wichner (the founder) and Chacha (our guide).  Joining us on the tour today would be Cheryl and Brian (Vancouver) and Betty Sue and her husband (Calgary).

We spent the next 3-1/2 hours sampling a wide variety of foods that the locals eat.  We had birria (beef taco and consomme), carnitas (pork taco), el colera (ceviche), cisneros (seafood chile relleno and shrimp brochette), chicharrones (fried pork skin), BBQ blue marlin (right on the beach) and fresh corn tortillas right off of the line.

Many of the places that we visited were family run businesses.  Most of them only take three days off a year … Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday.  We learned that the daily minimum wage is 50 pesos which is approximately $5 CAD.

We said goodbye to our new friends and jumped on the bus and headed to the beach volleyball.  Once we got in and headed up to the stands, we quickly realized it was going to be a scorcher.  We met up with Ross, Susie, Ray (Liz’s fiance) and Graham (Ray’s dad).

It was an exciting game and in the end, we beat Argentina (17-21, 22-20, 15-6).  What amazed me was how into the game the crowd was.  There was lots of chanting and clapping and doing the wave, and the stands weren’t even full.  Mexicans are very friendly and cheered loudly for Ca-na-da, and Argentina.  I can’t imagine how loud it will be later in the week.  After being in the blazing sun all day, we headed back to the condo to enjoy a swim before dinner.

We got a restaurant recommendation for El Barracuda which is right on the beach not too far from the beach volleyball venue.  We had a great dinner which also included deep fried ice cream.  The owner was kind enough to send over Kahlua and cream for each of us.

Just before we were ready to leave, I looked down and noticed a very large snapping turtle heading towards the restaurant.  The turtle is a Golfina and it had to be approximately three feet in length.  The owner of the restaurant said that she comes up every night to lay eggs.  It was an amazing sight to see her dig a hole, lay the eggs and then cover them up before heading back to the ocean.

We need to get to bed soon, since the first game is at 9:00am tomorrow against Puerto Rico.