In the week between Lizze’s departure and Nate’s parents arrival we didn’t have any plans. All we needed to do was clean up the boat, get laundry done, and grab a few more groceries before Lynn and Mary arrived in Mexico. We met a few new cruising families and hooked up with old friends that had arrived in La Cruz, and there was a fun beach party for all the kids complete with a bonfire, pizza, s’mores and paper lanterns.

On the way home from dropping Lizze  off at the airport, Sully noticed a Church’s Chicken/Subway with a big indoor playplace. He called it the “chicken playground” and asked if we could go. I said maybe soon and he forgot about it. But Nate didn’t, because on Sunday he suggested going to the “chicken playground” for lunch. We were bored that day and had nothing to do, but I think he just wanted an excuse to get fried chicken 😉

Sully was VERY excited to hear our plans, so we hopped on a bus and headed towards Puerto Vallarta. We ate our lunch and Sully had a blast playing with all the other kids, but there was one boy, Eduardo, that he really got along with.

Nate and I started talking with his parents, Veronica and Gabriel, via Google translate. Veronica asked if we had seen the “cocodrilos” yet. Puerto Vallarta has wild crocodile’s that we hadn’t seen before and they asked if we wanted to come along. Since we had nothing else to do that day we agreed. We all hopped in their big SUV and drove down a long bumpy, dirt road until we came to a chain link fence. There were five crocodiles and one very brave white crane on the other side.

I thought they would just drive us back to the restaurant, but they asked if we wanted to go downtown and walk along the Malecon. We spent the rest of the day down by the beach, letting the boys run and play together.

Eduardo’s aunt, Fabiola, showed up in the afternoon which was convenient because she spoke English, and our phone batteries had died from using translate so much! They introduced us to the delicious sea food of Puerto Vallarta at a great restaurant right on the beach. We found out that we really love ceviche!

After dinner we walked down the malecon to the city center. Music was playing and people were dancing in the square while all the kids were running around playing games.

We had been into Puerto Vallarta three times before this day, and didn’t think we’d go back, but that was before we saw the city with the help of locals. We had never been as far south on the malecon and found it to be much more authentic compared to what we had seen before. Meeting new friends helped us realize we need to talk to people outside the cruising community and practice our Spanish with Rosetta Stone a lot more.