February 8, 2013 Huatulco, Mexico

We tied up a little after the scheduled time, 7:00 am. Huatulco, is a beautiful location on the Pacific ocean, and the town (it is too small to be called a city) is a short walk from the pier.

A number of tours started as soon as we docked, including the one I was on. Others headed off to snorkel; some took a river raft trip, or visited ancient village of Santa Maria Huatulco and some went shopping. There is also a small beach beside the pier where a number of cruisers and staff from the ship were enjoying themselves.

Some of us from the SASA group had a tour with with Marcos of HuatulcoTours. I was on Marcos’ early morning tour and besides touring the city, we toured a small museum with traditional textiles, black pottery, and wood carvings. There are a number of lookouts to see the many bays, and we even saw a whale surface in one of the bays.

Huatulco has many Canadian and American tourists throughout the winter, with its many condo's and hotels, and an international airport a short distance away. One of the tour stops was at a Mexican owned 4 diamond hotel which overlooks not only a beautiful bay but a well developed golf course. There are no 'old' buildings to see, as this area has been designated as a vacation/tourist area and redevelopment has taken place over the past 30 years or so. As a result, the streets are very clean and native workers can be seen everywhere doing maintenance. Huatulco has also not suffered the economic down turn to the same extent as some communities and house prices are still rising. And gasoline was $3.50 per gallon.

It was very warm and humid in Huatulco, with a temperature of 81 F or 27 C and humidity of 72%. Those of us on morning tours were very happy to be back on the ship away from the heat in the afternoon. Back on the ship, as we were leaving you could see whales surfacing farther out of the port.

Evening saw our ship heading towards Guatemala.

 Dancers welcoming us

Vine Repose