Thursday, June 2, 2011

Cruise Take 2

We were lucky enough to go on our cruise before all the chaos of moving sets in! It was definitely a nice break after a very long and stressful April!
So we embarked on a 7 day cruise out of Tampa and went to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan (Honduras) and Grand Cayman! It was pretty much amazing!
After getting lost, twice, in the middle of the night somewhere in South Carolina ( I am not a fan of the roads in this state by the way), we made it to Tampa by mid morning and heading onto the ship.
By the time we got on the boat we just wanted to take a nap. So we did! This was the first of many!
The first day on the boat was fun we played some games and had a great table at dinner and made some new friends! The food was delicious, as expected!
The next day we were in Cozumel. We hadnt planned an excursion and had decided to just rent a scooter like last time and drive around stopping at beaches and ending at the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio. So we started out and went to a beach spent a couple hours and headed towards the Reggae bar on the tip of the island to eat lunch. We had eaten here last time and wanted to make another stop in!




After we left the Reggae Hut we started the ride to San Gervasio. FOr most of the ride you are right on the coast but then the road turns and goes through the middle of the island where its kind of a wasteland. There is a random house and cow but thats about it until you get back into Cozumel. So We finally get to The entrance for San Gervasio and there is another 10 minute drive to the ruins. The road is a long, dirt path, with lots of pot holes, and also a surprise 90 turn. When I say surprise I mean there are several signs that state in english and spanish, dangerous curve, slow down to 20 km.....
this is what happened there...



Ya so we totally crashed!! Not sure exactly what happened but we went to fast around the corner and the scooter hit a rock, I flew off the scooter stopped and fell over and 4 Jeeps full of people were there to witness it! It was pretty embarrassing!! They did give us free drinks and cleaned up my wounds though so that was nice of them! Other than the purple stuff didnt come off all week!!
So we still headed to the ruins and checked them out. They were cool but not as cool as the ones we saw the next day in Belize.





Here is a video of us cruising on the highway in Cozumel! It is so beautiful there! Just turn down the volume for this one!



The next day was spent in Belize! WOw, what wonderful people! Their way of life is so much different than ours and I know that they just look at americans as wasteful! Which we of course are! This is definitely a third world country. We took a bus tour of the city and then to the mayan ruins. We passed many houses (shacks) on stilts, side street restaurant tents, and tons of little kids in their school uniforms! We did not pass one single fast food restuarant (they had a subway but it closed because it was too expensive) and gas here was close to $6 a gallon, probably more now!
The ruins here were AMAZING! When I picture mayan ruins in my head, this is what I pictured!



You can tell how hot and humid it was by the nasty back sweat on Colby! :)






So after we walked around and heard stories of why the world is going to end 12/12 we went to the shops off the side of the road and bargained for a gorgeous hand carved wood bowl! Originally $150 sold for $40!
Then we went to find a magnet (we collect them) and the lady who sold one to us was telling us that she sees jaguars roaming across the road on her way home! Crazy!!

On the way back we toured more of the city and saw some of the parts that were destroyed by a hurricane this past year.
We also learned about cashews. Did you know that the cashews have a fruit attached? The juice is like bleach! ALmonds also come from a fruit which we learned in Roatan the next day!



All in all we really enjoyed Belize. We wish we could have gone out to the islands and seen more but maybe next time!

Day 5 - Roatan Honduras

By far our most favorite stop of the trip! We went to a private resort on a little island that had its own lagoon and beach! We were greeted by monkeys when we got off of the bus! They were adorable and right in your face!
We went snorkeling on the reef and it was so beautiful! The colors of the fish and coral were so bright! We saw a ton of fish and a pretty large nurse shark that Colby and I spotted! We were in the back of the group doing our own thing and I look down and swam back up really quick and started yelling shark!!! Colby started laughing and and the whole group came over to check it out! Since they are non threatening sharks! All of the snorkeling pictures are on an underwater camera that still needs to be developed!










After the snorkeling we kayaked in the lagoon, saw a jelly fish, and met some pretty nice people!

Day 6 - Grand Cayman

We weren't too impressed with GC the last cruise we took. We had a much better experience this time! We waited until we got to shore to choose an excursion and ended up going snorkeling and to sting ray city! Basically you go to this sand bar and a hundred sting rays stay there and swim all around you! It was kind of scary! But really exciting! The craziest thing is you would just be standing there and all the sudden this slimy thing would be going across your leg! You look down and its a HUGE ray! We held giant star fish and snorkeled here too but it wasnt anything in comparison to the day before!




Still can't get over the bright blue clear water!!
We were wiped out afterwards and headed straigt back to the boat to take a nap!

Ever night we had a great time kareoking, eating great food, trying to avoid crazy girl, and checking out the shows! Everyone we met was so much fun!








I am so glad that we were able to take this vacation! It was a life saver!

Now we are almost all packed up and leaving in exactly one week to Phoenix!!

p.s. So if you read all that then you are awesome!

1 comment:

Kerrie said...

Love it! oh, and I must be awesome! :)

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