Tuesday was a great day! We pulled into Puerto Villarta around 7:30 AM. After a workout and some breakfast, we headed off the ship for some exploring and to find some little shops for souvenirs before our excursion, which was scheduled for 11:30. It was fun eating breakfast on the back of the ship...the weather was super warm and we had a fun view of another big Carnival Cruise Ship.
On the way off the ship, we saw a lady that had a parrot and so we stopped for some fun pictures. And right after the picture was taken it pooped on my toes. Yuck! The lady was prepared with a water bottle and squirted it off my foot. That must happen often!
The kids wouldn't come near the bird though they would rather just look!
There were several little carts that were selling items like shirts, hats, towels, and bags. Kaylee and I found us some fun sun hats and a bag from one of them. They sell things in pesos, so when it first said $750 I thought that was outrageous, but that is really more like $7. We found Carson a cool cowboy hat at one of the stores that is located in the port area. 
After some shopping, we headed back on the ship long enough to grab our backpacks and grab a quick lunch before taking a taxi to "Old Town" in Puerto Villarta. It was about a 15 minute ride there and cost $20. I think the taxi's outside of the port would have been cheaper, but this car was a bit nicer, had AC and seatbelts for all of us. We got to the ATV office right before our tour started and relaxed in the shade. There was a group of people there also for an ATV tour waiting with us and we all were entertained by the puppies and cats they had wandering around.
Once the previous group got back with the fourwheelers and Rhino (A 4 seat 4wheeler basically) we all got geared up to go. We had the kids wear helmets and goggles....they looked so cute!
It was such a hot day, so we were all just sweating to pieces, but once we got going it wasn't as bad. And the more we got into the forest area with shade it felt nicer. So we left from the ATV office, right onto the cobblestone road and drove through the streets to get up to the canyon. It was crazy! But very common I guess there. The traffic is all pretty slow and the roads are very narrow, so it doesn't accommodate tons of traffic, and so motorcycles and small taxis are very common on the streets. We rode with a group of people on 4wheelers and we were the only Rhino that went on the tour, so we stayed in the back and followed about 8 or 9 4 wheelers in front of us. It was a bit dusty so the goggles came in very handy! It was interesting to ride through the real town part of this vacation town. The homes are all very old and poor looking. We passed lots of houses and buildings that had mostly men, some women, just standing outside talking or drinking something. I just found that interesting. Maybe they were out of work? Or just home that day? Or worked night shift? Who knows, it just isn't a typical sight you see when you are in Utah. Maybe because we all like our air conditioned houses better. The kids loved the ride. It must have been nap time for Kaylee, because she fell asleep for a bit on our way up the canyon. Eventually I had Carson put a towel over her so she could stay out of the dust and sun while she slept.
I think out of all of us, Nick enjoyed this excursion the most, maybe because he drove. But he was like a little kid behind the wheel and grinning from ear to ear the whole time! It was a very smooth ride in the Rhino and the views of everything was so amazing. We had 3 guides with us, and we watched one of them almost ride their 4wheeler off the road (it would have been a long fall since it was straight down on this part) because he was driving a little crazy. I am sure they do this 2 or 3 times a day, so it can get boring unless you drive a little crazy and make it fun, but after he did that he rode pretty safe. We stopped after we saw it happen and Nick helped him pull his 4weeler back onto the road. It was seriously teetering off the ledge.
We got to a stopping point and turned around and on the way back down we stopped at a little area that had some restrooms and some drinks. It also had an amazing view of the forest there. 
We were also able to walk down a cool pathway that led down to a river. We first just put our feet in the river, and then Carson fell into the little pond up to his waste, it was hilarious! But the water felt so good on such a hot day, so we ended up getting into the water all the way and cooling off. It was SO fun and SO beautiful!
We had a blast there and stayed for about 30 Minutes before getting loaded up again in the Rhino and heading back to town. On our way down the canyon we saw this Coca Cola truck coming up the road. Now remember, we are on a DIRT road up in the middle of no where, so it was so funny to me to see it coming up the road at us. I guess they really like their soda in Puerto Villarta and they go anywhere to deliver it!
While we had stopped to play in the river, they gave us 2 bananas, that Kaylee ended up eating by herself. She had saved one of them wrapped up in a towel for the ride back and then enjoyed it when we got there. It was so much fun and we got SO dirty!
We found a taxi to take back to the cruise ship port. It was only $14 for the ride back, but the car was older, had no AC (just rolled down windows), and only one working seat belt in the back seat. So I buckled the two kids in that one and just prayed that we wouldn't wreck on the way back. The taxi driver even saw what I did and kind of laughed and asked if we wear seat belts in the US. We explained to him that we do and we use car seats since we go really fast on the freeway. He explained that since they don't go on freeways and the speed is very slow in town, they hardly ever have wrecks and if they do, they are very minor. Still made me a bit nervous, but we made it back safely to the cruise ship. Oh, one more thing I found interesting. On the roads, every 1/4 mile there are speed bumps that helps keep the traffic moving slow. And not just little speed bumps...HUGE ones. It was crazy! The whole experience as so fun and interesting, especially learning about and seeing the culture in Mexico. I was feeling very humbled and grateful to live in the USA. We made it back to the boat shortly before 4 and had just enough time to bath the kids and Nick showered and they all put on their costumes and did some Trick or Treating Disney style. I stayed and showered and got ready for the rest of the day while they were gone. 
They went around the ship and stopped at different places and did trick or treating. They got a bag of candy and got to say hi to some of the Disney Characters.
I met up with them afterwards for a fun Halloween party on the deck before dinner. 
After the party, we headed to Parrot Cay for dinner that evening. Again the food was awesome! And they even brought us a special 'spider' treat for dessert, since we were celebrating Halloween.
We headed back to the room and changed out of costume before going to the show that night, which was a funny comedy routine. 
We found another fun place to do some dancing and we got to say hi to Minnie who was in her Halloween costume.
Before going to bed, the kids and dad went and hung out in the hot tub to relax after such a fun day!
We were so happy we chose to do that for our excursion. It was the perfect thing to do that day!
