Birds, Beaches, Lighthouses, Old Buildings Good Friends, Good Food all things I love and all of which we found in this pretty port.

We had two fabulously calm sea days after transiting the Panama Canal, filled with dolphins, flying fish, turtles, fishing sea birds and even a small pod of whales, like us, enjoying the glorious sunshine, before our arrival into the pretty little port of Huatulco with a gorgeous Sandy beach right beside the ship.

I’d hoped to do the bird watching tour here, but sadly this was not to be, so instead we took a taxi tour $50 for 2 hours was our negotiated price and I was treated to the sight of three beautiful Oriole (I think, but am happy to be corrected) in a fabulous cactus

The taxi was air conditioned with a careful driver, we were glad of this as our first stop was to be one of the main beaches, seeing 3 coaches disembarking here & lots of tourists we asked to instead be taken to a non tourist beach, off we headed down a very long and bumpy lane to his friends beachfront restaurant where we could visit the almost deserted beach pictured above.

His excellent tour took in several viewpoints and the lighthouse, with our patient driver happily taking photos for us at any opportunity

Our driver had good English so we were able to tell him what we wanted to see, and so he drove us through the old town, took us into the vividly painted Church and walked through the square with us to visit the local market where he was happy to haggle in Spanish – sun hat for Jane for $6

We could have stayed longer, we had already used up our two hours, though I have to say the guide seemed to be enjoying himself as much as we were, we did tip him well and went to his friend’s restaurant for a drink afterwards, ok for a drink but we didn’t want to eat there instead wandering on round to a cleaner looking cafe bar where I had guacamole and salad while Jane had chicken fajitas- all delicious plus so many different nachos and spicy Mexican salsa, so hot I can still taste it!

Full to the brim we wandered along the beach unsuccessfully looking for somewhere to hire a chair, so it was yet another beach cafe, where we took turns to swim in the sea, I’d my snorkel and did see lots of fish, I may have even managed to photograph one!

Back on the ship I was feeling the effects of all that food and sun so it was definitely time for a nap, after a brilliant day in Mexico. We did make it up to sail away though and even managed one or two dances!