Day 5 - Cozumel, Mexico

Day 5 dawned and boy, was it hot in Mexico! Again, we leisurely ate breakfast and made our way off the ship to shop as our Carnival excursion wasn't until 11:00 a.m. Cozumel has a very nice outdoor mall right across the street from the port terminal. I'm sure this wasn't by accident. We picked up some souvenirs for the kids, went back to the ship to drop them off (it's so nice to dock and not have to tender back and forth)and then proceeded to the end of the dock to meet our tour leader.


This tour was labeled Clear Kayak and Snorkel Adventure. We met the rest of our group and then waited (for I don't know what!)for about 30 minutes in the blazing heat. I think maybe our guide was rounding up the 6-8 taxis that were going to transport us to the place we would begin.

Aaaaahhhhhhh! Crazy Mexican taxi drivers! At least they drive on the right side of the road (in Jamaica and Grand Cayman, they drive on the left), but still. I feared for my life the way they zoom around bicyclists and slam on their brakes at the last minute for someone driving slower than them. Wait. My husband does that, too. Obviously, though, we managed to arrive in one piece.

We arrived at a beach area that had a snack bar, drink bar and access to watersports equipment. Apparently, lots of tours go through there because we weren't the only one. Our guide sat us down in a classroom-style formation on the beach -- chairs in rows and everything -- and gave us our instructions for kayaking. We put on our lifejackets and set off from shore in our own clear kayak. This is kind of like a glass-bottom boat. The premise is that you can see through the bottom of your kayak to all the wonders of the sea without actually having to be in the water. But the reality? The bottom of the boat was kind of foggy and you couldn't see much of anything. The visual clarity was helped by putting some water in the bottom of the kayak, but for obvious reasons, we didn't want too much water. We kayaked for about 30 minutes, getting bumped into about every 5 minutes by the same two people that did not know what they were doing. Then we headed back to shore.


Part 2 of the tour was snorkeling which Tim & I always love to do. Again, a lot of hurry up and wait as we were issued our snorkeling equipment and then had to wait for instructions, etc. I just wanted to ditch everyone else and go! We were finally given the go-ahead and told to watch for our guide who would have a flag in the water and to stay close to him at all times. Um, it's kind of hard to see the flag when your face is in the water! The snorkeling here was good, but not great. The last cruise we went on docked in Cozumel as well and our snorkeling tour that time was awesome. The difference, I think, was that the previous tour took us far out in the water via boat, whereas this time we just waded out from shore. We didn't have nearly the depth of water which I think affects the number and types of fish you see. We did see one giant parrotfish, which was cool and quite a bit of coral. We were supposed to snorkel for 30 minutes, but I think we were out there for about 45 minutes to an hour, so I felt like I got my money's worth out of the trip, but by the time they called us in to shore, Tim was done. His mouthpiece leaked and he kept getting salt water in his mouth and he'd just had enough.

They also gave us coupons for one free drink at the bar, so we got that, packed up our stuff, got in a taxi and left. We could've stayed longer and enjoyed the beach, but we were ready to head back. We decided to go to Carlos & Charlie's across from the terminal for drinks and fish tacos. It was all good until we went to pay the bill and found out they no longer take American Express, even though their signs said they did. Tim hadn't brought his wallet with us, only the card, so he trooped back to the ship while Carlos & Charlie's held me hostage. Not really. While Tim was gone a conga line of drunken guests weaved through the restaurant while waitstaff poured shots of tequila in their mouths. Our waiter encouraged me to join in, but gee, I passed. Tequila shots are not my thing, especially from a bottle that has touched how many other people's mouths? Ewww. I know my brother-in-law, for whom cleanliness is an OCD issue, will agree with me here.

Finally, my knight-in-a-swimsuit arrived to rescue me. We headed back to the ship where, as we were boarding, we saw the difference in security measures between passengers and crew. Three female Carnival staff were pulled aside into a small room and were frisked from head to toe. They already have airport-like security (though not quite as strict) where you have to put all your belongings through a conveyor belt/x-ray machine and you yourself go through the metal detector. And you'd think they'd have more to worry about from the passengers that rotate every week than from the crew that lives there for months at a time, but apparently not. Tim also thought the things the crew members chose to buy on their days in port was interesting. One of the aforementioned female crew was getting on board with bags and bags of Cheetos and candy bars. Hadn't thought about it, but you can't get Cheetos on board. Lobster, yes. Cheetos, no.

So we left our last port of the trip and waved goodbye to Mexico. Tomorrow would be one last day at sea before home.

Towel animal of the day:

Can someone please tell me what this is? A ninja? A polar bear? A ninja polar bear?

Day 4 - Georgetown, Grand Cayman

We anchored in Grand Cayman at 7:00 a.m. I say anchored, because this is a port in which you have to tender in to the island. The water near shore is much too shallow for a ship, but then about 300 yards out, the sea bottom just drops off "like a mountainside," according to one local. We weren't in a big hurry to catch a tender as our excursion was booked for 11:15 a.m., so we ate breakfast and made our way off the ship about 9:30 a.m.

Grand Cayman is everything we hoped a tropical island would be. Beautiful weather, gorgeous water and great, clean shopping areas. And we felt safe. And not scared. We looked around here for the things we'd buy later and then headed on to our excursion. I had booked a tour before we left home with a private company. We had been looking forward to it with great anticipation. Why, you ask?

Stingrays, baby!

We boarded a shuttle which took us (and the other passengers) to a dock on a canal. We got on a boat and they took us through this canal where, apparently, all the multi-millionaires have their vacation homes.

Then we went 4 1/2 miles out from shore and went snorkeling at the Coral Gardens. These pictures were taken with an underwater camera and they just completely do not do justice to the colors and clarity of the water, so I apologize.

We snorkeled for about 30 minutes and then headed over to Stingray City. This was the highlight of my trip, hands down. It just boggles the mind that you're 4 miles out in the ocean, but can stand up in only 3 feet of water on a sandbar. There are stingrays EVERYWHERE and they're tame because they are so used to tourists coming and feeding them. They began showing up because shrimpers would dump all their debris in that spot and over time, I guess, the stingrays saw that there actually is such a thing as a free lunch and decided to stay.

But I digress. There were probably 40-50 stingrays swimming around and they'd brush right by your legs. We had squid to feed them which they'd suck right out of your hand. Our boat driver gave us lots of personal attention, showing us how to hold a stingray (named Emily by him -- he's there a lot and they have great affection for one another) and kiss a stingray. Their wings and body are soft and slimy, but their tails are like sandpaper. They were very gentle creatures.

Now Tim was a little freaked out by all of this. Ever since the Steve Irwin tragedy, he's been skittish about the whole idea of being anywhere near a stingray. He never would feed one, but we finally got him to play along and kiss one. The videographer on board reasoned that his wife was going to kiss one and he was going to kiss his wife, so really, what was the difference?

Lane loves all things oceanic and the whole time I was there, all I could think about was how much he would love it. We'll try to go back and take the kids some time.

Then we got back on the boat and headed back to shore. Tim and I did some quick shopping and then stood in a very long line to tender back to the ship. There were FOUR cruise ships there that day, all lined up in a row. We'd love to go back to Grand Cayman. It was the best!

Towel animal of the day:

The dinosaur's cute and all, but we were kind of disappointed. We felt sure it would be a stingray!

Day 2 - At Sea

This was our second day at sea - it takes a long time to sail to Jamaica!

See our previous post as this day, too, involved a lot of lying in lounge chairs and strenuous lifting of forks. However, out on the deck today were a couple of interesting things: an ice carving demonstration which is made even more interesting when you see it being done in 90 degree weather. This guy started out with a block of ice and in less than 5 minutes, with water just pouring off as it was melting, he created a dragon! Hard to tell what exactly it was from the pictures, but it was cool.

Also, while I was sitting in my poolside lounge chair, looking out to sea, I noticed something in the water a good distance out from the ship. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it was leaving a noticeable wake behind it and it was swimming faster than the ship was moving, which was pretty fast. I got up to take a closer look.

People were starting to crowd around by now and I stopped a bartender in the area (they're ALWAYS in the area) and asked him what he thought it was. He said it was a whale and didn't seem too surprised by it. Maybe that happens more often than you'd think in the Caribbean. The whale swam alongside the ship and eventually overtook it, cut across to the other side of the ship and continued on it's way. Eventually it was out of sight.

That evening, we ate a very yummy dinner - I don't remember what, exactly, but they were all yummy - and saw the Carnival production "Les Formidable." This was one of their best shows all week and the singers and dancers really did an awesome job. I don't have photographs of any of the shows as they don't permit flash photography or videotaping of them.

We returned to our room that evening to our turned down bed and the towel animal of the day.

We turned in for the night then. We were exhausted, as all that food and sun really zaps your energy and we had to have a good night's sleep and get ready for Jamaica the next day!

Back to Reality

So we're back to reality. We got back yesterday from our seven-day cruise to the Caribbean. Lorna and I had an AWESOME time! Who wouldn't....... no kids, pretty food served with linen napkins, drinks, lots of warm Caribbean sun, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sleeping late, beautiful island scenery, live shows and the list goes on and on..... THEN it's back to reality ----- dirty laundry, dirty floors, kids, work, grocery shopping, no cabin steward, no waiter, no bartender, boo-hoo, I'm making myself sad. Oh well, now we can start thinking about our next cruise. Photos forthcoming from Lorna's surprise early birthday present, a digital camera. Wait til you hear about sting rays, scary Jamaica, plastic cards and our "fun" ship. Stay tuned.

Celebration

Well, we are off! We will be sailing the high seas this week from Galveston, to Jamaica, then Grand Cayman, finally stopping in Cozumel, Mexico before returning to Galveston. This is to celebrate Lorna's impending 40th birthday in August. We are both very excited as this will be our fourth cruise and we enjoy them greatly because they are very relaxing for us. You don't feel pressured to run around and see every sight there is to see. Our last cruise, we snorkeled, lounged on the beach, ate fish tacos and swung in hammocks. It was THE most relaxing vacation we have ever taken. This will be the longest cruise we have been on, so we will see if the relaxation factor maintains throughout and if we still like each other at the end of the week. Our ship even has an artist theme to it - how appropriate for me. It is all French Impressionists --- this will be fun for the art in me. This little outing however has not been without a bump. You see our wonderful government has failed to get Lorna her passport. Soooo I had to scurry to the county courthouse on Friday and get her a second birth certificate, since the passport people have her original! This after she sent it more than 12 weeks ago. They had more than ample time. She was told that now it is taking upwards of 15 weeks to get them processed. Losers. Despite that, we will be off to the high seas for lots of good food, sun, snorkeling, adult beverages, swimming, time without kids and no thoughts of work or school. The in-laws are moving in for the week as I write this to stay with the kids. God bless them --- they are gonna need all the help they can get to keep up with our kids. There is a reason this blog is entitled Outnumbered. See ya next week.

Tim-