Sunday, October 24, 2010

Wednesday: Part 1 Cozumel

Ok, I am wearing coco butter lip balm and coconut lotion while listening to Bob Marley... lets see if I can feel Caribbean long enough to finish this vacation blog.  Christmas will be here before I know it and I still have palm trees on my blog back ground.


Wednesday July 28th we woke early to give Les enough time to get ready while hobbling on one foot.  We again had breakfast at the Unicorn Cafe before heading out to our excursion.  We didn't arrive in Cozumel until 10:00am so we didn't feel rushed to eat breakfast which was nice.  After breakfast we maneuvered our way down elevators with the wheel chair to the bottom level of the ship to exit.             
Cozumel was beautiful.


We walked through the port of Cozumel to find our person holding the sign for our excursion....
They told us it would be a short wait so we stood in line in the shade...
We then proceeded around the dock to find our speedboat....
The Screamer.
This was written on one of the stairs... and of course I needed a picture of it. :)
 

It was a fun ride with very beautiful scenery.  We couldn't wait to get to our beach.  We met our excursion photographer on our way to our beach.  He was a very nice man  and I tried not to covet his job too much while we were with him.  He took pictures of everyone in their life jackets.


 




 The beach was literally paradise, and I never wanted to leave.



Check out all the shades of blue


This is was our little resort for the day.. we had snorkeling, hammocks, lounge chairs, kayaks and an authentic Mexican lunch.  It was amazing!

  
First was snorkeling...

 
I started out snorkeling by pulling Leslie along as I swam.  She only had one foot with a flipper and I didn't want her to get left behind. 
One of the young men leading our excursion quickly came to my side and told me I could not pull her along because I would get too tired.  I thought... seriously?  We are both wearing flotation devices, how hard can it be?  I was soooo thankful for that young man.  I was not aware of the distance we were going to cover during our snorkeling.  I was lucky to make it back to the beach myself much less than if I had been dragging Leslie along with me.  She did pretty good with one foot but she was tired too.  
This  young man stayed by her side the entire time with his red Bay Watch floater and helped her keep up with everyone.  
Plus, he would dive down and get stuff for us to see.  We had our own personal guide and it was awesome.
 







 Sting Ray




Immediately following our snorkel adventure  they were gathering everyone up to go kayaking.  Les and I were exhausted and didn't want to start kayaking right away so she and I chose to lounge on the beach while Greg and Nick went Kayaking.






Les balancing on one foot to get a photo without crutches.







After the boy's kayaking trip there was time to lounge on the beach before lunch was served.  I couldn't stop looking at its beauty, I knew the photos wouldn't do it justice.


  


They announced lunch was served and everyone made their way over to the restaurant area.  Lunch was amazing.  It was apparent that it was authentic because the flavor was nothing I had tasted before.  We were given chicken, rice, beans, cheese, lettuce, chips, salsa, mmmm it was so good.  We sat at a table with the breeze coming off the beach eating our yummy lunch.  We truly never wanted to leave this place.  

Our photographer came over to us while we were eating to show us the pictures he had taken while we were on the beach.  Most of them were really good except for the sports illustrated pictures he took of me near the water.  He kept saying "your husband is going to love these"... well little did he know we only bought the pictures because I didn't want him getting upset and posting those pictures somewhere on the web.  I deleted them and not even Greg is allowed to have them. 


I became a little saddened when I saw the Screamer heading back in to pick us up...






Our 3 guides who were amazingly nice and a lot of fun.

 These guys carried Leslie onto the boat and the one on the far right put her on his back to help her get back off the boat onto the dock.  It made Les feel a little uncomfortable because it isn't often strange men are swooping her off her feet and carrying her around, but they were very sweet and very helpful.  We couldn't have had better service.

Once we were back at the port we had time to do a little shopping for our free charms.  The port was very colorful and had great music playing.  It was a fun place and we would have liked to have had more time to hang out there. 








Nick decided he wanted to head back to the ship and get cleaned up because he had plans with some of his friends on the ship.  Greg, Les and I sat down at Fat Tuesday's for a Coke.  We like the swings they had hanging around the restaurant to sit on.








This excursion was incredible and we had a fantastic day.  Everyone was so accommodating to Leslie and her wheelchair/crutches.  Her injury didn't interfere with anything and she was able to enjoy her self just as much and we even received a few perks because of it.  


Wednesday night was just as much fun... too much to cram into one post.  Dinner and large ship party coming up on Wednesday part 2.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Monarch Butterfly (re-post from last fall)

 

 I realize I have not finished blogging about our vacation, but I am distracted by all the happenings of fall and again by the Monarch Butterfly.  It is hard to feel Caribbean with the smell of apples and the sight of changing leaves.  I will put on some Jimmy Buffet and get in the vacation mode again soon.  This is a re-post from last year about the Monarch Butterfly... they continue to amaze me.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons; I love to watch the dance of the cool, crisp, breeze with the newly fallen leaves. I love sweatshirts, caramel apples, pumpkins and apple pies. The list goes on and on but I think my most favorite is the migration of the Monarch Butterfly.


As I drive down the road or sit along the sideline of a soccer game, I can't help but notice the flutter of this beautiful butterfly in late September. When I see one of these little guys I get swept up in the magnificence of their life span, migration and global positioning.


These beautiful insects have a brain about the size of a grain of salt. These butterflies, after leaving their cocoon in late September, know they are the 4th generation of butterflies this year. They know they are the great grandchild of the Monarch Butterflies who flew to Mexico last fall and they know it is their job to make the same journey. How they know we are not sure.


Not only do they know they are the 4th generation, but they also know exactly where they are to go. They have never been to Mexico, but somehow they know how to get to the Biosphere Reserve without having to stop for directions. We had to purchase a GPS to assure we wouldn't get lost while driving on vacation to an area we have visited several times before.


It gets better. The Monarchs who hatch here in Ohio know they are to head to Mexico, however, the Monarchs who hatch in the western states head to California. The generations who hatched in May and June or July and August die after 2-6 weeks of becoming a butterfly. The 4th generation however live up to 8 months and they travel south to hibernate. They meet up with over tens of thousands of other butterflies where they blanket the trees and bushes to keep warm together.


After hibernation they make the journey back north to mate, lay eggs and start the process all over again.


To me this is yet another example of God's love and His attention to detail in our lives. He created the Monarch Butterfly to know it's path in life and I believe He created us to do the same. We mess our GPS up by getting detoured by society and by what we think is a better route, but He continues to say "recalculating" as He gently redirects us in the right direction.


He created this butterfly with such intricate detail that no one can understand their migration. I feel blessed to have the opportunity (short as it may be) to witness this spectacular event.


As you see these little fellows fluttering south this fall; wish them a safe journey so we may see them again in the spring.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Tuesday: The Grand Cayman Islands

 Tuesday morning we awoke to find our ship already at port in the Grand Cayman Islands.  We saw another Carnival Cruise Ship next to us at port.  It was kinda neat to see another ship from a distance since we had not see our own ship from a distance yet.  THIS is why we loved our balcony so much.



We could see the other ship tendering so we knew what to expect from ours.


We got ready for our day, ate breakfast at the Unicorn Cafe and then headed to the bottom of the ship to ride our tender over to the Island.

Tendering....




Our ship as we were pulling away....



The water was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't wait to get into it and snorkel... not to mention it felt as if it were 200 degrees outside and it was only 8:00 am.  No wonder they have a city called "Hell".  We had the opportunity to visit "Hell" and buy a postcard from "Hell" but we decided to stick with the snorkeling instead.


Once on the Island we had a few hours to walk and shop around before our excursion at 11:30.  We said had we known it was going to be so hot we probably wouldn't have rushed so much to get onto the Island.  In hind sight I am glad we did because its not like we will be visiting the Grand Cayman anytime soon so I am glad we sucked it up and dealt with the heat. 



You know you are somewhere hot when Restaurants are named this....






We all live in a .......




Here are the little shops we shopped at.... when we exited the ship they handed us flyers with a coupon for a free charm bracelet.  Once we had the charm bracelet we realized we could get free charms at each port and some ports had multiple charms. We were excited.  They were not the best quality of bracelets, but it was fun finding the shops with the free charms and now we have a  fun little bracelet with charms from each place we visited.  As long as we don't wear them our arm will not turn green and we will have them forever.


Our ship in the distance....


I thought this was funny because it was called Hog Sty...this was the name my parents used to call my room on any given day as a teen. :)


This was a pencil fish of some sort.. not sure of his name but we took this picture off of a bridge using the zoom on our camera.  Talk about crystal clear waters....


This was another excursion we could have taken.  You ride around on this cool pirate ship and hear about pirate stories of the Islands.  Considering the heat we were glad we didn't choose this excursion either.  But it was a really cool ship.


After shopping and finding all our free jewelery it was time to head back to the port to check in for our excursion.  We rode on a bus through town to get to the Emerald Eyes (our boat for snorkeling).  We noticed a remarkable difference in how the locals treated one another compared to America.  They were very generous and patient and would greet one another with little friendly beeps.  It was nice for a change to not feel road rage.

After our brief bus ride we arrived at the Emerald Eyes.


Our Captain


Our gear.... 


I was struggling to put the snorkel in my mouth after thinking about all the hundreds of people who have used them prior to me using them. They were soaking in a tub of sanitizer, but I still struggled... I waited until I was in the ocean and rinsed it out first. I figured it would take me at least ten minutes to acclimate to breathing underwater anyway so I should take some time to rinse out all the germs too. I could never Scuba.

Our ride out to the reef...







Wild Iguanas....


Our next house after Greg retires....


Checking to make sure the ship wasn't leaving without us...


Nick getting his gear....


 ahhhh beautiful water....


The Reef awaits...


Snorkeling was breathtakingly beautiful.


After our snorkeling it was time to drive out a bit further and swim with the Sting Rays.  Our captain gave us a tutorial on how to handle a sting ray.  He used a stuffed sting ray named "fluffy" to illustrate how to pet and touch the sting rays.  Their "stinger" is only used as a defense mechanism and only used if they feel threatened.  They have grown to know and love each of the rays we were driving out to meet.  They are used to the Emerald Eyes arriving each day with food and they wait for the boat to eat their snack for the day.  We were not allowed to feed them because they were afraid with so many tourists each day the sting rays would get over fed and get sick. 

It was then time to suit up and get back into the water....I was really excited.  After our experience of swimming with manatees years ago,  I wouldn't want to interact with another creature any other way than in their own habitat.  These creatures CHOSE to interact with us.  They were not trapped in a lagoon with whistles and trainers.  It was amazing.  They are such gentle, graceful creatures and it was neat to watch them "fly" through the water.


The tour guides swam down and picked up the sting rays and brought them to the surface for us to touch.


Nick touching one...


Les touching one....

Sting Ray...


In case you couldn't see it I am pointing to it....why am I such an idiot?



Once we were back we gathered up our belongings and began to unload off the boat.  The four of us were separated while unloading and Nick and I were in the back of the crowd.  I heard the crowd gasp and everyone became very quiet.  I walked up to the front of the crowd to see what the gasping was all about and I saw Leslie lying on the gravel ground crying.  I felt sick immediately.  Greg and I jumped off the dock and ran to her side asking her what had happened.  She was crying and couldn't talk to us much.  I asked her if she hurt her back or her neck and she shook her head no.  I thought it was probably  her leg or something by the way she was sitting, but wanted to make sure before moving her.  I told her to lean back onto my legs so she could stretch out so we could see where she was injured.  She lifted up her leg and her ankle was already twice its normal size.

The tour guides immediately ran to get ice and a form for me to sign to protect themselves from us suing them.  They asked Greg and I what we wanted them to do... call an ambulance?  load her up in the van to get her back on ship?  My head was spinning because I didn't know what to do.  I looked at Greg and we were not sure of the severity of her injuries and could the ship care for her properly if it were broken?

God is so good, we were blessed to have a paramedic who was on our excursion.  He approached Leslie and asked if we would like him to look at her injury.  Of course we said yes and were very thankful for him.  He too at first thought her ankle was broken, but after asking her to move it around a bit and wiggle her toes (which was so very painful for her to do) he felt she had a very nasty sprain.  We were so relieved.

Apparently as she was getting ready to step off the dock the bottom of her flip flop (the little nubby thing that sticks out of the bottom) got caught on the dock.  Leslie is pretty tough and when I saw her crying I knew it was bad.  They helped us onto the bus, elevated her leg and Greg held ice on it the entire ride back to the ship.

Carnival was already notified and their staff was there with a wheel chair waiting for our bus when we returned.  They quickly loaded her into the wheel chair and practically ran us up to the tender.  We by passed the huge line waiting to board the tender.  The carnival staff continued to stay with Leslie the entire time and moved us quickly through the check in point with our passports and directly into the infirmary.

The nurse there was very friendly.  She told us pretty much what the paramedic had told us and said if we would like to see a doctor or have xrays we could but she didn't feel it was necessary.  We decided to allow Les to rest a while and see if the swelling would start to go down.  The nurse wrapped Leslie's ankle, gave us prescription strength Motrin, crutches and a wheel chair and sent us on to our room.

Once back at the room we elevated her ankle with life vests and continued to apply ice for the remainder of the evening.  Thank goodness for room service.  After a while she wasn't in any more pain unless she applied pressure to her ankle.  She was very good on her crutches and the ship was large enough that the wheel chair maneuvered very well through the hall ways.  Later that night she and Nick went out with friends (Nick pushed her around) while Greg and I attended a comedy show.

We went to bed that night feeling very blessed.  Blessed to have had such an amazing experience at Grand Cayman, blessed God held us in his hands with Leslie's injury by placing people in our path along the way and blessed her injury was a sprain and not a break.  Thank You Lord. 

 Tomorrow is a new day.... bring on Cozy Mel.