Joe Neisler and his bride, Pantagraph photographer Lori Ann Cook-Neisler, decided no place was better than Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico to have a whale of a good time.

They went to the suburb of the better-known tourist destination, Puerto Vallarta, for whale-watching — a popular wildlife viewing option as the animals migrate along the west coast of Mexico, the United States and Canada.

“Puerto Vallarta’s Banderas Bay is a favorite calving ground of humpback whales,” said Joe Neisler. The couple traveled there on their honeymoon just after Christmas 2008.

Cook-Neisler had photographed the endangered humpbacks more six times on earlier trips to Mexico. Her husband had never been south of the border.

While enjoying temperatures in the 80s, they saw a side of the region most visitors rarely glimpse. Neisler, a professor of music at Illinois State University, likes to ask concierges and local guides to recommend restaurants and out-of-the-way cantinas rather than the ones routinely suggested to tourists.