Cruise Vacation

The most exciting thing in my life since my last blog post back in July was the cruise that we took. I will try to post some pictures at a later time. We took a Royal Caribbean cruise through the Western Caribbean the first week of November. We sailed from Miami and then had stops in Labadee, Haiti; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico.

Overall, the cruise was a really neat experience that gave me the opportunity to visit four countries I had never previously seen and see a little bit of a US city that I had never visited. Of the four ports of call where we docked, Cozumel was my favorite. The water there is so blue (almost teal actually) that it's difficult to believe that it's real. We visited the Mayan city Tulum while we were there and it was stunning with the azure blue Caribbean Sea as its backdrop. Apparently, Tulum as a coastal city was an important trading center in the Mayan culture. I am something of a history buff so getting the chance to see a city that is probably close to 2000 years old was pretty much the highlight of the trip for me. Tulum is actually located a few hours down the Yucatan Peninsula from Cozumel so we didn't actually get to spend much time in Cozumel itself. We did a little shopping and I sampled the local selection of potent potables - tequila and Dos Equis. I would definitely love to plan a return trip to Cozumel to do some snorkeling and just hang out on the beach.

Grand Cayman is another place I wouldn't mind visiting again as it rained pretty much the entire time that we were there. We visited a farm where they raise sea turtles and got to hold some of the smaller ones. We also went to Hell - and back nonetheless, which is basically just a little village (read tourist trap) that has black limestone formations that give it the appearance classically associated with Hell. Funny, I thought that I was already there every day I'm at work - ha, ha.

I was not at all impressed with Jamaica. It is dingy and run down. I wouldn't recommend visiting the shops there unless you enjoy being hounded constantly to buy stuff. I understand that the people are just trying to make a living and that the tourist trade is their livelihood, but in all honesty, I am much more likely to buy something when you're giving me a fair deal and I can shop in peace. When I'm on vacation, I don't want to be incessantly harassed. They always say that they'll give you a deal and they keep slashing the price, but that just makes me think that they were trying to rip me off in the first place. I'm not going to be pressured into buying. That's not how I roll. We did go to Margaritaville, which was cool, but that was about the best part of the day and they have a Margaritaville at just about every port city. Apparently, Jimmy Buffett is quite the entrepreneur.

We had a very nice, sunny and relaxing day in Labadee. Royal Caribbean leases land from the Haitian government and has their own private beach. We rented snorkeling gear and I spent a few hours observing fish, sea urchins, and coral in the shallow waters just offshore. I didn't go out too far because the current was pretty strong and it was my first time snorkeling. I was also either alone or with just one other person who had never been snorkeling before either. I thought it wise to just stay close to other beach bathers and patrol waters where I knew I wouldn't get into any trouble.

I enjoyed the cruise, but if I take another one it will probably be one that sails directly to a single port and stays anchored there for the duration of the trip. I'm glad we did the four port cruise so that we could see what different places had to offer, but now that I know what they're like, I would probably just take a cruise to one different place like Bermuda or the Bahamas.