Mexico! Day Three, Part 2

Also known as one of my three favorite parts of the whole trip. Or four.  

After a good afternoon nap (and probably another fruity drink or two) it was time to dress up and head back to the boat.   Again, not the original plan, but two boats in one day it was!  I was thrilled... 

 This time we were heading out to Las Caletas, a private beach only accessible by boat, for dinner and Savia, a show produced by the co-founder of Cirque de Soliel.  

 The beach is just barely cut out of the side of the lush, green Sierra Madre mountains, making for steep trails and thick foilage everywhere.  It was beautiful!

It was a tiny bit cool (actually we were just sun-burned from our day on the water), and a bit overcast, but the island looked beautiful.  We had plans to come back here another day to explore the beach, but tonight was all about the food and the show. 

 We were greeted by musicians

 and costumed characters lining the path.  

 We spent a little bit of time hanging out on these hammocks, making a mental note to come back on our second beach day.

We were seated at a perfectly romantic table for two with an incredible view.

 The sunset was spectacular, 

 and we both agreed that this was the best food we ate on our entire trip.  Fresh seafood, savory meats, delicious breads fresh fruits and veggies and tasty desserts (something we didn't find much of during our trip!)- everything was delicious.

There were tens of thousands of candles lit all over the island, lighting our table, our paths, even our bathroom huts.  It was so beautiful. 

After dinner we settled in for the show, which was every bit as mesmerizing as we had hoped it would be.  I only took this picture- 

but the fire-spinners, acrobatics, dancers, gymnasts and special effects were all fantastic.   

It was an incredible night on Las Caletas!

And it was at the end of the night that we heard the best -ism of the trip.  We took taxis everywhere we went- one of my favorite indulgences of vacations is not worrying about driving or getting around or understanding the traffic rules, which seemed pretty tricky to me in Mexico!  Some of those taxi rides were the biggest adrenaline-rush of the trip!

After we got off the boat we walked over to the taxi place and were fairly shepherded into a 15-passenger van that was already at least half full of tourists.  We all piled in and sat there while the driver looked for more passengers to put in the van before heading out.  

When he came over with a group of 5 or so more adults someone inside the van said, "We're pretty full in here, I don't think you'll all fit", to which the lady of the group said, "We're Mexican.  We'll make it fit." 

And we all laughed and squeezed them in and were on our way.  Too funny.