Our time in the Caribbean

As you might have guessed, we have safely returned home from the caribbean.  While we're still pretty horrid at taking pictures, we didn't come home completely empty-handed and here is our post to prove it.

Our cruise made 4 stops: Belize, Isla Routan, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.  We decided early on that this cruise represented our big chance to try new things, so almost our entire spending budget went toward excursions and we enjoyed EACH and EVERY minute of it! 

One of the biggest things that stands about to me about our cruise experience and consequently one of the things I get asked most about is the food.  Imagine yourself being completely surrounded by food ALL THE TIME!  We're talking buffet lines, fancy eateries, room service, you name it.  It is ALWAYS there!  Ugh.  Seriously, I'm feeling ill just talking about it.  We knew instantly that we would be eating way more food than our bodies were used to so the first thing we did was outlaw the elevators.  Literally.  We did not touch the elevators the entire week (unless you count Tyler habitually pushing all the buttons every time he walked by them) and thank goodness that helped us out a little bit.  There were 12 decks on this ship so you can imagine.... just walking up to the 12th deck was a bit of a workout after eating an entire four course dinner.

Another thing that stands out is the tipping.  Oh the tipping!  Sometimes I forget how lucky we are in America to be able to look at a price list and understand how much money will be expected of us for a desired service/product; not so in other countries.  I've noticed this especially in Mexico but we still saw it in Belize and Routan as well.  Basically if you look at someone the wrong way, or the right way as the case may be, talk to them, or succomb to them volunteering to help you in any way, shape, or form, you owe them a tip.  It is exhausting after a while.  I think we spent $80 in tips outside of the cruise ship.  Of course once you're on the cruise ship, certain tips are automatically deducted from your account but overall I would guess that around $200 went only to tips.  Sheesh.

Instead of writing about all our experiences, I'll sum them up for you.  Here is a list of all the new things we tried:

• Cave Tubing
• Zip Lining
• Parasailing
• Snuba
• Exploration of a new-to-us set of Mayan ruins
• Duck (as in we ate it)
• Baked Alaskan
• Red Snapper
• Chilled strawberry soup
• Chocolate melty cake  mmm....
• Vegetarian lasagna
• Line dancing in a fancy restaurant
• Letting my hair stay naturally curly (Wow!  Talk about a red afro!  Please see pics below as proof)
• Living on a Cruise ship for a week
• Meals ordered in through room service
• Several different shows/musical performances onboard (street dancing was the ultimate)
• Sleeping with a down comforter in a room with zero lighting (heavenly)
• Water slides on the top deck in freezing cold weather (which resulted in Shaela screaming and jumping out of the pool)
• Seeing one of the most poisionous fish in existence hanging out in the wild
• Watching a shark and eel be fed by hand

Overall it was a glorious experience and we feel so fortunate to have been able to do this together.  We saw some breathtakingly beautiful sights, met some incredible people, and enjoyed learning about other cultures.

One more thing before I end this post: We spent a lot of time talking to three young men in Belize and it was rather eye-opening.  These boys know natural remedies for every ailment in existence (or so it seemed).  It was so cool to talk to them!  They told us all about how to combat poisonous plants, which bark to boil for which type of illness, which insects would be good in a tea for Tyler's asthma, etc...  Wow!  These people do not have access to great medical care so they create it on their own using Mother Nature.  I find it so fascinating!  Obviously you can't always rely on herbal remedies, but oh how I wish we could find a way to create a better mixture of both modern and alternative medicine.

A real Lamanite village!

The most beautiful beach I have ever seen!  But guess what?  There were naked people all over the place!

Remember what I said about curly hair?  Just watch the progression.  It took a few days to figure out how to tame it.

Zip lines in Belize.  Such a blast!

BEAUTIFUL!!!  We truly do live in a desert.

The only picture we took on our parasailing adventure.  We are terrible.

Tyler on a beach called "Banana Ramma"  So fun!

Here we are with Ty's parentals and a lovely lady from Serbia who we loved getting to know during our meal times!  She helped us find food that Tyler could eat each night.

The room staff left us a lovely creation like this one each night on our bed.  So cute!

Anyone who tells you that the Caribbean is always warm is LYING!

These water slides were on the top deck and it was freezing outside but totally worth  the challenge!

How cool would it be to feed a shark by hand?!