Puerto Vallarta Ecotours

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Back to Outdoors & AdventurePuerto Vallarta Ecotours

Open Air Expeditions (tel./fax 322/222-3310; www.vallartawhales.com) offers nature-oriented trips, including birding and ocean kayaking in Punta Mita. Ecotours de México, Ignacio L. Vallarta 243 (tel./fax 322/222-6606), has eco-oriented tours, including seasonal (Aug-Nov) trips to a turtle preservation camp where you can witness hatching baby Olive Ridley turtles.

Vallarta's newest adventure activity is Canopy Tours. You glide from treetop to treetop, getting an up-close-and-personal look at a tropical rainforest canopy and the trails far below. Expert guides assist you to the special platforms, and you move from one to another using pulleys on horizontal traverse cables, while the guides explain the tropical flora surrounding you. They also offer assistance -- and moral support! -- as you rappel back down to the forest floor. Tours depart from the Vallarta Adventures (tel. 866/256-2739 toll-free in the U.S., or 322/297-1212, ext. 3; www.vallarta-adventures.com) offices in both Marina Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta at 8am, returning at 2pm. The price ($65 for adults, $33 for children 8-12) includes the tour, unlimited nonalcoholic beverages, and light snacks.

A second option is available in the southern jungles of Vallarta, over the Orquidias River, through Canopy Tours de Los Veranos (tel. 322/223-6060; www.canopytours-vallarta.com). This tour will pick you up at the Canopy office, near the south side Pemex station to transport you to their facilities upriver from Mismaloya. Departures are at 9, 10, and 11am, noon, and 1 and 2pm. In addition to the 13 cables -- the longest being a full 350m (115 ft.) -- it also offers climbing walls, waterslides, and horseback riding. The guides here are noted for helping even the faintest of heart propel through the treetops. Price is $80 for adults, or $46 for children. Use of the natural-granite climbing wall (helmets and climbing shoe use included) is $18; the 1 1/2-hour jungle horseback riding tour costs $35.