Sunset, Dolphins and Burgers: Farewell to the Cruise

At the end of our cruise, we had one last day at sea while the ship traveled back to Galveston, Texas.  We had already explored the ship pretty thoroughly, so we spent most of the time repeating our favorite things such as cooling off in the pool, slowly warming back up while reading a book, eating lots of ice cream, and repeating those 3 things indefinitely.

That evening we took one last walk out on the promenade to watch the sunset.

Robyn watching the sunset over the water.

While we were watching the sunset, we noticed a few flying fish that were leaping out of the water and flying away from the ship.  (Apparently they didn't want to get run over.)

Since I had failed at photographing flying fish in Cozumel, I decided to give it another try.  I pulled out my phone to take a video, but suddenly there were billions of dolphins.  I never did capture a video of flying fish, but I'm pretty sure this video is better.

After the dolphins finished playing, we finished watching the sunset.

The water was really pretty.

The sun dipping into the ocean behind the haze.

It was a good way to say goodbye to the cruise ship, and an excellent end to our trip.  We returned to our room for our final sleep.  Also, this happened.

We're totally precious.

The next morning, John and Carol's stateroom attendant had told them they could check out a little bit later than us. Apparently, they are more likable than we are. We went into their room to spend the last 30 minutes or so before we had to go.  I looked out their window and said, "There is something with a fin out there."  I went out on their balcony, and was greeted by a precious mommy and baby dolphin.

I took about a million pictures of them.  Here are a few of the best.

Finally, it was time to go. It took us thousands of years to get through customs.  Naturally, I was bored, so I took this forbidden picture.

Don't you feel like such a rebel looking at that sign?  Robyn was very cranky that I took that picture, because they had told us no photography.

Despite my rebel tendencies, they let me back into the good old US of A.  The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, we went to the airport, we flew home.  Except for one last thing.  The airport had a Fuddruckers!!!

It's real!

All the Fuddruckers in Utah closed a year or so ago.  It's been an age of darkness since then.  But my beautiful burger and shake brought back an age of light and happiness.  It was a fitting end to a fantastic trip.

Cozumel, Mexico

The last port on our recent Caribbean cruise was in Cozumel, Mexico.  My first view when I looked out at the port was a beautiful one.

We got off the ship to head for our excursion. It was strange, though. Because it seemed super dark outside. Then I realized, it was because of the massive ships parked next to each other. We were walking down a massive hallway where the sun had no chance to peek in.

I call it cruise ship corridor.  Look at that cute girl I was with.

Our excursion was with a company called Fury.  They have catamarans that ferry people around.  The catamaran itself is pretty fun.  They play music, they serve drinks (It was an open bar, people were doing their best to consume as much free alcohol as possible.  I even got in on the craziness, by drinking like 3 glasses of 7-up.  I still drank more water than soda, obviously.  Let's not get too crazy.) and you can look out at the beautiful ocean as you glide across it.

The first place the catamaran took us was to a reef area that was probably 20-30 feet deep.  Naturally, I was the first person off the boat.  While everyone else was trying to figure out how to put their fins on and then walk down the stairs into the water, I just jumped off the side of the boat and put the fins on while floating.  It's way easier that way.  Plus, I didn't have to stand in a line filled with awkward people trying to walk in fins.

I make snorkeling look good.

It was an amazing snorkeling destination.  I was surprised by how much awesome wildlife I saw.

We saw a ray.

We saw fish.

We saw lots of fish.

There was even a Robyn floating in the water.

I thought I saw a sea snake.  I did some research when I got home, and found it this is a sharptail eel.

If I had one complaint about the excursion it would be this:  there was a lifeguard type individual who was attached to a buoy.  The whole time he sat there yelling, "stay close to the buoy."  They never gave us any guidance about what that meant, but most people tried to stay within ten or fifteen feet of the buoy.   That meant there were loads of people stacked on top of each other.  So, it kind of made the overall experience not as good.  Despite that, I loved it, because it was an amazing location.

You can see how surrounded by people I was.  But I was also surrounded by fish.

Lots and lots of fish

After the snorkeling, there was a second part to the excursion.  We got back on the catamaran for about 40 minutes to ride to a private beach owned by the Fury catamaran company.

Chillin' on the catamaran

The sail, and all the people.

When we got there, it was a really nice beach with lots of toys available to play with.

The beach with all of the various toys.

A few different catamarans parked while their occupants played in the water.

I had to climb this mightly slide. (and slide down the other side)

.

Robyn did her mermaid float.  It's a little infuriating how easily she floats, when I just sink.

John and Carol were precious.

Our preciousness with the catamaran in the background.

We relaxed, we played in the water, we hunted seashells.  We had a great time.  Then it was time to head back.  We boarded the catamaran again, it took us for another 30-40 minute ride back to the dock where our ship was waiting.

On this part of the trip, there was a special little treat.  We were sitting on the front of the boat, and we started noticing flying fish that would periodically jump up and fly 30 or 40 feet.  It was soooo cool to watch.

The moral of the story (every story has a moral) is that Cozumel is awesome.  You should totally go there.

You Better Belize It

The second stop on our Caribbean Cruise was in Belize City, Belize.

The whole time we were there, people were saying things like, "Unbelizeable!" and "You better Belize it!".  I was in the country for less than 8 hours and I was tired of those jokes by the time I left.  I can't imagine how the locals feel.  (Though, the person who said it the most was the guide on our tour bus, so it's completely her fault if she experiences too much of it.)  In order to give you the full Belize experience, I have made sure to title this post with a stupid Belize pun.  You're welcome.

We had a great experience in Belize.  We got to see some Mayan ruins as well as lots of wildlife.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The tour started on a bus, of course.  I wasn't nearly as frightened by this one as I was by the one in Honduras.  We were still on a very thin dirt road (our tour guide said that the massage on our rear ends was complimentary as we bounced down the road) but there were less children and wildlife that looked like they were going to be run over.

The bus took us to an Archaeological site called Alton Ha where they are actively uncovering Mayan ruins.  This was important because climbing a Mayan pyramid was on my bucket list.

That's the first one I got to climb.

Some of the structures weren't fully uncovered.

I made sure to document my first steps of the climb, for your viewing pleasure.

When I get to the top of the first pyramid, I took this panorama of the surrounding area.

After the first pyramid, they quickly ushered us over to the second, and larger pyramid.  This one is the temple of the Sun God.

The temple of the sun god.

I wanted a close up picture of the temple with the sign.  I got our tour guide lady as a bonus.

This is from the top of the Temple of the Sun God, looking down on the first pyramid we climbed.

Looking precious on the top of the temple

After Alton Ha, our trip was not over.  We walked back to the bus, but first we had to wade through all of the locals who wanted to sell us stuff.  I wasn't interested in souvenirs, but when one lady held up a bag of pre-cut mangoes, I clearly wasn't going to say no.  Just for the record, those mangoes were possibly the best thing I ate on that trip, and I ate some amazing food on the ship.

The bus took us to a small resort where they fed us lunch and then we got on a boat that took us down the river, through an ocean inlet and back to the dock where we had started.  Our tour guide made sure to point out all of the wildlife.  It was funny because we had booked this excursion because I wanted to see the ruins, but I ended up enjoying the boat ride just as much as the first part.

The boat would periodically "turn on the AC".  That meant we would go faster.  Here are John and Carol enjoying some AC.

Some bats clinging to the tree.

Can you see the crocodile?  It's not a great picture, but he's there, I promise.

If you thought the crocodile picture was bad, this one is even worse.  The dark blob in the tree is a howler monkey.

A cashew tree.  The natives use the green fruit for eating and making alcohol and each fruit has only one nut.

We saw billions of iguanas, but this was the best pic I got.

When the boat made its way back to the ocean, there was a little area where we stopped for about ten minutes to watch manatees.  They were sooo cool!  I didn't get a picture of them, because they would just stick their noses out of the water for a half a second and then they were gone.  But it was super neat to sit and watch one pop up and then another pop up a few feet away only seconds later.

After watching manatees for a bit the boat started going way faster than we knew it could as it zipped us through the ocean.  It dropped us off at the dock, and we poked around the city a bit.  There wasn't a whole lot to see, but we did gain some true wisdom from a chocolate store:

True wisdom

We also took the time to get the obligatory picture in front of a sign.

All in all, Belize was unbelizeable.

Scuba Diving in Roatan

The first port on our recent cruise was Roatan, Honduras.

I already wrote about the crazy lady that accosted me in Honduras.  But, I didn't write about the main event while we were there.

Since we were recently Scuba certified, we had taken this cruise specifically so that we would have the chance to use our certification.  We had heard that Roatan, Honduras was one of the coolest places to do Scuba, so we made it happen.

When we got off the ship, there were billions of different people holding signs for different excursions.  It was like when you land in the airport and there are all those people holding signs, and you always wish you were important enough to be on a sign.  We weren't important enough to be on a sign this time either, but we were looking for the sign that said "Scuba 2 tank dive".  We found the guy holding the proper sign and he asked to see our certification cards.  We showed him and then we got on a little ghetto fabulous bus.

I had been nervous about Scuba diving without our instructor to take care of us.  He promised us that even if we died underwater, he would bring us up alive.  (He's that good.)  The real world doesn't have that kind of guarantee.  However, what I didn't realize was that I didn't need to worry about the Scuba part.  I needed to worry about the bus part.  The bus was winding through the thin streets of Roatan at a speed that seemed much faster than what I would consider safe in those conditions.  There were children, dogs, goats, other cars and various other obstacle that came way too close to the bus for my comfort.  The bus driver would just honk loudly and hope that everyone would move.  At one point, I heard a little girl scream but I looked out the window and we did not hit her, so I think all was well.  I think the bus was just a little close for her comfort.  (She was experiencing the same discomfort I was.)

The bus dropped us off at a little resort.  (Or at least what passes for a resort in Roatan.)  It wasn't fancy or anything, but they had boats and Scuba gear.  That's all we needed.  We had to fill out paper work saying that we promise we know what we're doing and we won't sue if we die.  Then they asked us how much weight we needed.  I didn't need any weight in fresh water, because I sink like a rock.  But I had no idea what I needed in the ocean.  We explained that we're newbs, and we have no idea.  He gave me 16 pounds.  It turns out, 16 pounds is more than I need, even in the ocean.  But we'll get to that in a second.

The boat took us out to a little place called Green Outhouse Wall.  It's a really awkward name, and I thought I heard it incorrectly, but I googled it when I got home.  Maybe an outhouse is something different in Honduras.  Because I probably wouldn't name a dive location after a bathroom, but that's just me.

I jumped in the water with my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device, that's the vest you wear while diving) fully inflated like I'm supposed to.  In my class, I always just dumped all the air out of it so that I could sink.  It turns out when you have 16 pounds of weight, you probably want to leave some air in it.  I emptied it out and sank like a rock.  Luckily, we were only in 15 feet of water at that point.  I hit the bottom, and realized I wasn't supposed to sink that fast.  So I decided to put more air in.  I probably should have been more careful about how much air I put back in, because I then shot straight to the top.  Robyn was descending slowly and reached out her hand in somewhat of a panic as I shot past her on the way back up.

It took me a while, but I did eventually get the hang of buoyancy.  I've heard even experienced divers say that buoyancy is the hardest part of diving.  Getting to the point where you can control your ascent and descent or just staying at one point in the water is hard.   So I'm not ashamed that I didn't do it perfectly on the first dive.

I had a fantastic experience.  We saw crabs, turtles, lobster, tons of fish, lots of different kinds of coral, and even a shipwreck.  I wore my GoPro and took video the whole time.  The video isn't great for 2 reasons.  One is that I apparently move my head around a lot which makes for somewhat nauseating video.  The other is that it was an overcast day, and though I could see just fine, the video turned out very green and it's hard to make out very many things.

Nonetheless, I pulled out a few stills from the video for your enjoyment.

I took this selfie accidentally when I was trying to make sure the camera was on.

We saw lots of coral and sea fans.

We were constantly surrounded by fish.

Can you see the turtle?

 The first dive was about 45 minutes.  Then they took us back to the resort, let us take bathroom breaks and visit the gift shops while they got more air tanks on the boat.  We took the opportunity to show how cute we were.

Our second dive was to a place called Deep Eel Garden.  We never saw any eels but we did see a shipwreck which was super cool.

Approaching the shipwreck

Getting a little closer to the wreck

 The wreck itself sat at 110 feet in depth.  We're only supposed to go to 60 feet.  But I really wanted to check out the cool nest sitting on the mast.

You can't see super well but there are cool little furry worms on and in the nest.  

 After looking at the nest, I checked my depth gauge and I was at 75 feet deep.  I looked up at Robyn and she made a gesture to show that she was very cranky and that I needed to ascend to 60 feet.

Robyn never made that kind of mistake, because she was looking at her gauge 100% of the time.

But she still loved me, even when I went too deep.

She was easily the cutest thing I saw on the dive.

One of the things that we had to do in our dive class was that you are supposed to ascend to about 20 feet of depth and do a safety stop, where you stay at that depth for at least 5 minutes before continuing to ascend.  In our class, we just played paper rock scissors because there was nothing else to do.  The divemaster on this dive did a good job of leading us to a place where it was only 20 feet deep but there were still things to see.  So that made it a nice way to end the dive.

Finally we had to come up and finish off our diving experience.

These fish were all around the boat.  They hung out right at the surface.

Once we got back on the boat, they had people that took our air tanks off and broke down all our equipment.  We had learned how to do all of that in our class, but it was so nice to have someone do it for us.

This is how cute we were on the boat.

So that was my diving experience!  It was sooooo amazing!  The best part is that Robyn really enjoyed it which means we'll be doing it a lot more.  Woot!  I hope to share many more diving experiences.  And maybe in the future I'll have better pictures to share.