Jungle Cruise (Day 4)

Jungle Cruise

I like Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise.  It’s entertaining.  The guide is usually funny.  There is rarely a long line on that ride.  And you get to see a lot of fake animals.

We went on a jungle cruise ourselves this morning.  It was a little different than the Disney version.  However, I enjoyed this one just as much as Disneyland’s version if not more.  It was entertaining.  Our guide wasn’t as funny, but much more informative.  It was a much longer ride.  And we got to see a lot of real animals.

Let’s get this picture post going.  Here’s Chloe getting dressed in the morning.  She’s happy she got sleep.  And food.  And a clean diaper.  And is being played with.  How could life get any better?

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We’re getting breakfast ready in the morning.  Notice the clock?  It’s 10:44am.  Still on California time.

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Now we’re walking to the entrance of the resort.  Our departure time is 11:30am, but we showed up late.  The boat is getting ready now for a 12:30pm departure.

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We found some bananas hanging off a tree next to our building.  Caris loves saying banana.  It’s her her favorite words.  Now if we could find that apple tree.

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Caris checking out the view from our balcony.  It’s been 4 days, and it’s the first time we’ve been out on it.  And knowing us, probably our last.

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Our upgraded car rental.

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After that little delay, we’re on the boat!  We were promised crocodile sightings on this trip.  Don’t let us down!

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Not only does Caris like taking off her clothes, she doesn’t like her shoes on either.

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Carlos Santana’s house.  Not that I really care.  Our guide only mentioned it, so I figure I’d put it here.

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“Crane!”  Caleb only likes this because it’s a crane.  The story is that rich people were trying to develop homes here, and they destroyed a lot of the vegetation in the area.  The government stopped them and ordered them to replace the vegetation in order to continue to develop the land.  The deemed it wasn’t worthwhile to build it any more left behind this crane as well.

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Some type of bird.

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Another bird.

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An iguana.

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An iguana walking.

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Another bird.  This bird is special.  It’s the only one crocodiles don’t eat.  This bird cleans the crocodiles teeth.  You find this bird, you probably find a croc near by.

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A local with his pet tiger.  This is Mexico. 

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Our first crocodile sighting.

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Caris is getting bored on this trip, as expected.  Only bottled water and mommy and daddy can entertain her at this point.  And we’re only 15 minutes into an 90 minute ride.

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Another bird.

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Another crocodile.

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And another.

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Let’s just say there were lots of crocodiles.

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Here’s a dock to someone’s house that was broken by a crocodile.  In the last census, there were 5 male and 2 female crocodiles in these waters that were between 26 and 31 feet long, all which would be bigger than our boat and weighing over a ton.  The owner of this dock/house found the 31 foot crocodile sunbathing on top of the dock one day as he was trying to dock his boat.  He called his workers in the house to try to scare it away.  It only made the crocodile angry, and he started thrashing away, knocking out the legs of the dock.  The owner has since had trouble finding people to repair it.  My question was brave/stupid enough to build it in the first place.

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Chloe’s nap time

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How many crocs can we see today?  At least they’re getting bigger as the ride goes on.

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We ran into the branches a few times trying to get close looks on the crocs and other things.  The branches and leaves and stuff fell into the boat.  Caris entertained herself playing with these things.

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Bigger croc

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I’m awake, Mommy.

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But not for long.

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We needed to make a trip to Walmart to buy some things.  I volunteered to take all the kids so Yvonne could study/sleep while I was gone.

Driving in Mexico is not so easy when you’ve never done so before.  There were talks about a Walmart being close by, but I could not find it on the internet or on any local maps.  Only talk.  There was stuff on the internet about The Mega, which is a superstore just like Super Walmart.  It’s only 15 minutes away, and I know the directions.  I’ll take the kids.  It shouldn’t be a problem.

For those of you who don’t know, the car isn’t always the greatest place for our kids.  Caleb likes the car. Caris can tolerate it.  Chloe absolutely, without a doubt, hates the car seat.  As soon as she goes in the seat, she starts crying her head off.  The crying alone will stress anyone out.  But now I’m driving in a new car, in Mexico, in the dark.  So many things can easily make this simple drive to the Mega into a difficult one.

So as I’m driving on the main highway, almost immediately as I get on it, I see the Walmart that everyone is talking about.  That is much closer than the Mega.  We’re almost there, Chloe.  No need to cry.  However, I miss the off-ramp to Walmart.  I’ll just make a simple u-turn and we’ll be there shortly.

Did you know that here in Mexico (at least in Puerto Vallarta) they don’t have left turn lanes on the highway even though they have stop lights? Well, I shouldn’t say that they don’t left turn lanes.  They do, but the left turn lanes are on the right side of the street.  I did not know this.  What really through me off is that when I passed Walmart, I notice the left turn lane was on the left on the opposite side.  The rest of the left turn lanes on this highway was on the right.  It took me a couple miles and 10/15 more minutes of stressful crying from Chloe before I could find a place to make an actual legal u-turn.

By that point of turning around, I had passed not only Walmart, but also the Mega.  I decided to go to Walmart anyways.  Here it is.

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