Continued from yesterday…. We were shocked to see that there was even an area with a cemetery! This is one of dozens of headstones

There were more walkways that explored the outer areas of the gardens. We were warned that these outer trails were long and could be arduous.  

First, we did the Vanilla Trail, which was a loop that had several offshoots from the main trail. We may have missed one or two of the offshoots, but we did most of them. There weren’t signs with plant names, so we weren’t sure if this was natural rainforest or if non-native species had been planted. It was hilly, with many sets of staircases and a suspension bridge.

We did see a cacao tree.

At the end of our hike, we figured out that we’d gone the wrong direction. At what was supposed to be the beginning of the trail, there was a small structure with potted vanilla plants and signs that gave information about vanilla. 

Vanilla is a climbing orchid that can reach up to 100 feet tall. Eric and Christi had visited a vanilla plantation in Tahiti and already knew a bit about vanilla production, but the signs here filled in some of the gaps. For example, we didn’t realize that the reason vanilla needed to be hand-pollinated was because the flowers only last for one day and bees couldn’t be relied upon to pollinate before the flower died.

Next we did the Jaguar Hike, which also had an offshoot that we skipped. The main trail was a loop that started from and eventually wound back to the restaurant. We must have done this one backwards, too, as it started out as an unpaved, narrow trail through what appeared to be uncultivated rain forest. This trail was was more of a hike up a large hill and then back down, as opposed to the up and down of the vanilla trail. It also didn’t have many stairs incorporated into the trail. Eventually, the trail led down to a river.

Several people were swimming in the river. From the river, there was a wide, paved staircase that led back up to the restaurant. 

The person who gave us the advice was correct – the garden was beautiful; almost magical. It was worth the drive. 🙂

After all the hiking, we went back to the boat to clean up and rest. 

In the evening, Eric and Keith drove to the northern tip of Banderas Bay, called Punta Mita. Eric had read that there was a good pizza restaurant there called Rustica and wanted to try it. Punta Mita is a purpose-built, high end tourist town. It was so disconnected from local culture that there did not appear to be a single Mexican restaurant in the town! Since it was dark, they didn’t take photos.

Christi stayed aboard and worked on her land-life project.