So, Chuck’s back had been hurting for a couple of days. When we reviewed our upcoming HAL tour for Manzanillo, we decided we needed to cancel it for him. If you are going to cancel a HAL tour and you want your money back, you must do it 72 hours prior to the docking time at that particular port. You can go to either Guest Services desk (open 24 hours) or you can go to the Shore Excursions desk which has limited hours each day (check the app or the printed program for hours).
The money goes back on your onboard account as refundable onboard credit. Refundable onboard credit means that if you don’t use it to cover purchases or miscellaneous charges, you will be able to get it refunded to the card you used to set up your account. If you have non-refundable onboard credit (usually issued to you as an incentive for booking – such as early booking bonus, AARP membership, HAL casino, etc), you either use it or lose it. We always find a way to use it. 😊
If you are going on a tour that you booked with a company independently, please check their rules carefully prior to booking. Some are very generous with their cancellation policy and some are very limited.
Chuck was leery about me going alone on this tour. I promised him that I wouldn’t wander away from the group. I do have a habit of hanging back from a tour group to take photos but promised I wouldn’t do it today. I also promised that if there were a lot of buses at the same location, I would be sure of which bus was mine.
With those promises in mind, I headed to the World Stage to meet up for my 10:30 tour.
The HAL tour: Plantation Mangrove Tunnel & Birds
ABOUT THE EXCURSION: Travel south by coach through lush tropical landscapes for 40 minutes. Your destination is Palo Verde Lagoon.
Your guide discusses the flora and fauna of this ecosystem before you hop into a 12-seater boat for a ride through the mangroves. With a bird identification card, watch for the resident and migratory birds of Palo Verde. You’ll pass nesting areas and a dark mangrove tunnel that is home to countless creatures. Have your camera ready for great photo opportunities.
At El Paraíso Beach, step ashore to cool off and reset at a restaurant right on the black-sand beach. A non-alcoholic beverage and a light snack are included with a magnificent ocean view and a pleasant breeze.
Back on the coach, continue your journey to Armeria — one of Mexico’s lemon-growing capitals. Stroll through the small central plaza, visit the Catholic church, and peek inside City Hall.
If you have a chance to try the local artisan ice cream (at your own expense), it is delicious.
Notes: Minimum age is 10 years. Not advisable for guests with a heart or back condition. Tour requires walking. Terrain includes even and uneven surfaces, inclines, gravel, grass, and steps. Life jackets are provided and must be worn.
We boarded the bus at 10:30 but we didn’t actually leave the parking lot until 11:00. Not sure what the holdup was as everyone who was on the tour had been checked-in by our guide.
Because of all the road construction, it was a longer trip to the lagoon than 40 minutes. The bus was comfortable and the air conditioning adequate. It was hard to hear the guide as the sound system wasn’t very good. He kept trying to adjust it but never had much success. I wouldn’t call the landscape lush but we did pass acres and acres of coconut trees.
After a bathroom break at the visitor center, we trooped down to the dock on the rocky path to don our life vests (which smelled musty). When I saw our boat, I knew Chuck had made the right decision not to participate. His back would have really given him trouble.
The little boat seated twelve and, yes, you are seeing rugs covering the hard bench. I ended up on the last row on the outside. I felt bad for the woman seated in the middle of our row. I told her to let me know if she needed me to shift around so she could take some photos of any birds on shore.
The guide handed out a bird guide and then started up the outboard motor. It sputtered to life and made quite a bit of noise. Therefore, when we did get close to birds, you had to be quick for a photo because they took off to get away from the noise. I got a lot of photos of bird butts. 😒
We were out on the lagoon for an hour. You know what doesn’t run from a noisy outboard motor? Bugs and more bugs. I was happy that I had put on sunscreen and bug spray. Other people were really slapping themselves.
I assumed from the tour description that we would be docking at a restaurant from the little boat for our snack. Nope. We got back on the bus and drove to a restaurant near the beach. It was an open-air venue, and I was surprised and happy that they served a full lunch and one drink – a beer or non-alcohol drinks – included. The lunch was very good, and I sat with some passengers from Missouri.
There were several vendors on the sidewalks who wanted us to purchase trinkets, and some did while others walked toward the beach for the view. I just stayed around the restaurant and took photos of flowers. (No, I wasn’t hanging back from the crowd. The guide and others were there too.)
We then went to a farm which I didn’t see on the tour description at all. They served lots of fresh fruit and juice. We wandered around and looked at the lime bushes and coconut trees. I noticed they didn’t have any nets attached to the coconut trees, so I did not go directly under any of them. I did hear some thumps from the grove that I have to assume were coconuts falling down.
The last stop was a little town that the guide promised very good ice cream at one of the shops. Yay! However, when I got to the shop -what nobody told me, and nothing was mentioned in the tour description – was that the shop only accepted local currency. I didn’t have any. If I had known, I could have gotten some at Guest Services. They also didn’t accept credit cards. No ice cream for me or for most of the other guests. Only 3 or 4 people came with any local currency, and they thoroughly enjoyed their ice cream. 🙁
On our way back to the ship, the traffic was slow and the road construction was tedious. All aboard was 5:30 pm. We pulled into the lot at 5:25. Another bus was right behind us. We set sail promptly at 6:00.
Chuck had a wonderful day at the pool.
Up Next: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico