A Week Away in the Caribbean

Well everyone, we finally decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. Em and I just got back from our cruise a little over a week ago. We couldn't have asked for a better time to go on vacation, it was such a great time for us to get away. Emily just finished up her second year of medical school (in fact she had her last final the day before we left). I too just finished up a very busy project for a client that almost stretched me beyond my limits (12-15 hours a day for 12 days straight). And to make the trip even sweeter, it was snowing when we left Minneapolis. Luckily, we had a cruise to the Western Caribbean. Our cruise included stops in Grand Cayman, Roatan Island (Honduras), Belize City, and Cozumel.

I decided it was only proper to have Em carry all the bags

Just me messing with my camera while we were heading to the ship.

Here we are in our dorky life vests for the evacuation drill.

Day 1 - Voyage to the ship
We want to share with you all a little bit about our trip. We left early Saturday morning to Miami, spent the evening there and left for our cruise on Sunday aboard the Carnival Valor. It felt so great to leave the emails, cell phones, and work/school behind.

Day 2 - At Sea

Don't be fooled by "a day at sea", for those of you who have not cruised, there is so much to do on the ship. Em and I made sure to make the most of our time. We got up at about the crack of 9am and started our day. We quickly made our way to the Lido deck to get some breakfast. There was never a shortage of food on the ship. The remainder of the morning and part of the afternoon was devoted to absorbing some rays for our sun-deprived Minnesotan bodies.

While laying out on the deck, we got some strange looks and whispers from passerbyers. This was not a result of our pale bodies in the sun, but rather because Emily was studying from some books for her Medical Boards next month and I was studying for a Certification exam for work. Wow, we are such nerds. Unfortunately we didn't get much studying done, but at least we tried.

We determined to seek out some more fun on the cruise ship so Em and I went and played mini golf on the ship. I don't believe mini-golf was ever meant to be played on a ship. The wind was blowing so hard from the top of the ship that our ball would just start rolling. Nevertheless, to Emily's credit she slaughtered me in the 9-hole course by 6 strokes. Ouch!!

We had to get a picture of these two old guys playing shuffleboard in speedos

Can't beat kissing my hot wife on a cruise!

I decided to cool off take a ride on the waterslide, the saltwater was less than tasty!

This is just one of the many sunsets we enjoyed!

Day 2 - Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was beautiful. We decided to make the most of our time and go swimming with the Sting rays. We went with a group in a boat out to Stingray island. For those of you who have not been there, this place is unbelievable. We took about a 20 minute boat ride out to sea. We were out in the middle of nowhere but the water was only about 3 1/2 feet deep and there were stingrays swimming all around us. I must admit that I was a little nervous knowing that a stingray barb was the ultimate fate of the crocodile hunter. Nevertheless, we actually went swimming with the stingrays, they are so soft.

Em thought this stingray was just as good of kisser as me...I beg to differ

Standing out in the middle of the ocean in Grand Cayman

Our tour guide even helped set us up with kissing the stingray. Definitely memorable! We also had a great time snorkeling in Grand Cayman (way better than our last cruise snorkeling experience, but that's another story).

Homemade Conch...it was so so

While we were snorkeling our tour guide concocted a Caribbean treat made from fresh conch. Not our favorite, but we figure we need to try everything at least once. After our excursion, we went and visited some of the shops near the port. There were a couple parrots just hanging out by some of the shops, so Emily picked it up and I got some great pictures of her and the bird. Sadly, I'm not quite the bird handler that my wife is and parrot bit me. All in all, we had a great day!!!

Look at Em...A world-class bird handler

This freaking parrot just finished biting me.

Day 3 - Roatan Island, Honduras
Our visit to Roatan was probably the highlight of the cruise. We had a wonderful time. Roatan Island is charming and is yet to be commercialized. Upon arriving on the island, we were unsure what to do for the day. We had not planned anything. We walked around the port area for a bit and were quickly surrounded by Roatan natives seeking our money for goods and services. We continued walking further from the port and quickly noticed the prices of these goods and services were dropping. A man approached us and offered us a taxi for the day. We negotiated a price to be paid for at the end of the day. This was comforting and ensured that we would not be left stranded. Our taxi driver did not speak any English, so we had another native Jeff who joined us and acted as our tour guide. Jeff was the nicest young man. He was 17 and earns his money by sitting in taxis and acting as a tour guide. Ships only come a few times a month so this is his only opportunity to make money from the ships. He told us he is in school and wants to eventually work on a cruise ship so that he can see the world. As Emily was talking with Jeff, I was busy shooting picture out of the car window.

Our first stop in the taxi was to the Iguana farm. I have never seen so many Iguanas in my entire life. We fed the iguanas and got to see a monkey, some parrots, and a barracuda. Our drive continued over to the west side of the island where we had some great shrimp at a little restaurant (Half Moon Cay). We concluded our trip by shopping at the local market. The handicrafts in Roatan are amazing. You can find plenty of hand-carved mahogany trunks and Lenca pottery. We chose to buy a beautiful Lenca pot as our memento for the trip. As our time in Roatan came to and end, I asked Jeff a little bit about what a decent daily income would be for someone working in Roatan. He told me that if he were able to get a good construction job, he could make $11/day, but if he got a great construction job, he could make $14/day. Since Jeff was not affiliated with the taxi company, he worked strictly off tips, Emily and I decided we could spare him a $20 tip. Hopefully it went to good use. We would love to visit Roatan again sometime in the future.

Some shots of the beauty of Roatan Island, Honduras

Dancing with Honduran Natives in Roatan Island

Day 4 - Belize City, Belize
We planned a wonderful day in Belize. We found a guy on the internet (Dennis Perez), who took us cave tubing through the Belize jungle. Not only was Dennis cheaper than the cruise's tour, but also he was funnier and our group consisted of only 4 people. We really got a lot of attention on the tour and were able to easily ask questions. If you are ever in Belize, look up Dennis Perez, he is one quality guy. Anyway, back to our cave tubing. We took about a 40 minute drive from the port to the Belize jungle.

Em didn't have to carry a tube, our guide carried it

Approaching a big cave in Belize

Our Cavetubing group - the guy in red is Dennis Perez, contact him if you're ever in Belize!

Our cave tubing journey began with a beautiful 30-45 minute hike through the jungle. The rest of the trip was spent tubing through caves. It was incredible! We recommend cave tubing if you're ever in Belize.

Day 5 - Cozumel, Mexico
By our fourth destination, we were exhausted. We had no desire to do anything but be lazy in Cozumel. We didn't want to shop or do anything that required any energy. We got a taxi to a private beach (Paradise Beach). It was nice to spend the day just laying at the beach. We had some delicious guacamole and chicken tacos and Pina' Colada. Unfortunately, our day was not the most exciting, but it was definitely the most relaxing.

Day 6 - At Sea

Not much to say about our last day at sea. We just ate food, got sunburned, and did nothing. It was great!

Day 7 - The Long Journey Home

Emily and I had brilliantly planned a late flight home just in case the ship arrived late. We were worried we might miss our flight home so we booked a flight for 5:45pm. Luckily, our ship arrived back in Miami at 7am. By 9:15am, we were at the airport. We discovered that you cannot check-in for your flight until 4 hours prior to our departure. So Em and I waited at the ticket check-in area for the next 4 1/2 hours. Definitely not as fun as advertised. We made the best of the day by staying positive. We have pics to prove the fun we were having in the airport. We made it home by 11pm, which made for a very long day.

We setup my camera and took some pictures to capture our excitement in the airport

Side-note:

Each night while we were at the dinner, our statesroom staff would "turn-down" our bed and leave a towel creation on our bed. Ever since our last cruise, Emily has been obsessed with towel creations. So each night after dinner we would go back to our room and take pictures (usually about 10-12) with the towel creation. I thought this was a great idea for maybe the first two nights, but by the third night Emily had to almost force me to setup the camera to take our pictures. Here are some of our pics, enjoy!

Wow, she cannot even keep her eyes off me!

My reaction after the "Towel Swan" flirted with my wife