I'm On A Boat!

On the Carnival Glory ship, Dave and I were able to relax for an entire week! Usually we stay sane with our occasional 3 day weekend going camping in the mountains, or to the lake or Savannah. However, it was time for a full week of absolute hedonistic exploration.
    On the cruise ship, we checked into our cabin. After a previous cruise we took together, we decided that we at least needed a window to know when the sun was up so we made the most out of each day. So I knew that we were getting a window, but when I walked into the room, there was a door leading to what else? A BALCONY!!! Dave suprised me by upgrading our room and now we are totally spoiled and will never do it any other way! We spent more time on the balcony than we did at the pool. And what really made it was Dave's Eno hammock which swayed from beams while we would watch the sunset drinking a cocktail...

      The first stop through the Western Caribbean was Cozumel, Mexico. We did not book any excursions. We thought we would just wing it and do whatever we wanted. So we rented a convertible Zip car and drove the whole island....once we filled the gas after narrowly making it to the only gas station.
     We had lunch at a genuine Mexican restaurant where we got salsa, guacamole and jalapeno poppers. Margaritas were just the beginning....we had sex on the beach (cough..)...I mean "Sex on the Beach", and Bahamaritas, and many other tropical drinks before stumbling back to our rental car. I know....we shouldn't drink and drive. But we were the only ones on the road and we enjoyed the ocean for a while before escaping to another beach where we enjoyed playful swimming.

    After Cozumel, our next stop was Belize. Belize is still a very poor country, but they have many beautiful rivers where you can do cave tubing. Cave tubing must have been invented by Belizians, because I have never seen it anywhere else. Basically you float on a river tube down a dark cave with only a coal miners flashlight on your head.  Sounds scary, but was totally fun! The second tour we did in Belize was zip lining. Dave had already experienced zip lining in Costa Rica, however I thought I was going to vomit before my first time. But after that I couldn't get enough of it!

   Our third port of call on our trip was Costa Maya. Let me just say that visiting this beautiful country and meeting the people that we did made Dave and I want to just sell everything we had and move there. Did I mention they make this yummy dish where they put chili powder on pineapple? Just try it and you'll know what I am talking about! After visiting the a few Mayan ruins which were very fascinating, we separated from the rest of the tour group to visit a blue lagoon. It sat on the edge of a small privately run hotel and campground. It was ran by a German couple that just decided one day that they wanted to get away from their everyday life in the big city. So they bought the property, added a restaurant, learned Spanish and look like the most content couple I have ever seen. So yeah...when you meet people that do this kind of thing and not just talk about it, it makes you think.  We ate a delicious meal with yet another margarita and grabbed a kayak. It is an amazing feeling when you are the only two people on the entire lagoon. In a selfish way, you begin to imagine that the fantasy is yours.