July 7, 2014
Current location: Cozumel, Mexico
Good evening, readers! Today has been one of the greatest days of my life. I definitely marked an item off of my bucket list today. I've waited my entire life to do this and let me tell you, it far surpassed any and all expectations I had!
First, let me tell you a little about this beautiful place known as Cozumel, Mexico. As we were pulling in this morning to dock, we stared out of our stateroom window with mouths wide open. It was so beautiful, in fact, that we had to run upstairs and look over at the port from the top floor of the ship. I even ran up there with my hair halfway done! Now THAT must have been some serious beauty as you can tell!
There are lush trees and gorgeous, beautiful, unbelievable clear water here. The port is fabulous. The pictures don't do it justice! There are many stores, restaurants, and photo ops right here at this port. There is even a store (that I told you about earlier this week!) that sells authentic Mexico-made souvenirs. I bought a handmade magnet and a few instruments for my classroom this afternoon!
As soon as we arrived this morning, the photos by hustler cruise ship photographers began. I am pretty sure we posed for 12 pictures before we made it to customs this morning. They will be displayed later and we probably won't buy them!
Once we arrived, we met up with our lovely tour guide and we headed to a place known as Dolphinaris. By now, you've probably figured out the thing I did which allowed me to mark an item off my bucket list. That's right compadres, I swam with a dolphin!!!!!! I am so excited to tell you about this, I can barely type!
We drove about seven minutes to the park in a crammed, hot van full of crazy-excited folks, myself included! Ricky was so so excited, but not nearly as bounce off the walls with joy as I was. My only regret is that the park was so close we only got to see a small chunk of the island. I will get over it every time I think about how giddy I was over the dolphins!
Once we arrived, we suited up in life jackets and headed into the water. One of our group members didn't know how to swim so our group split into two parts.
First, the instructor asked us to line up about midway across the pool. It is a giant pool that is about 15 feet deep and really long/wide. She asked us to put our arms and palms down. Then, she gave a command and the dolphin came up and ran her back on our hands! Wow! She was soft and silky like a shark. It was so cool! Then she asked the dolphin to do a trick. That dolphin jumped out of the water and flipped around. Wow! We all clapped and she stood straight up out of the water and clapped her fins to the water too. I was grinning from ear to ear. I was like a kid in a candy store. After a few more tricks, we were lined up on a platform. We learned how to "kiss" the dolphin. Then, we got to go one by one to the middle of the pool where the dolphin came over to us and gave us a kiss on the cheek. It was so cute! Then we kissed the dolphins back. I was so excited about my dolphin kiss!
After our kisses, our dolphin performed a few more tricks (including being "tickled" and making passing gas noises). Then, it was time for my favorite part, the belly ride. We each went to the middle individually (by the way, there were 8 members in our group) and learned to give a command. We held our arms steady and waited for the dolphin to come to us. Then, we grabbed on the the dolphins fin and she sped us through the water on her belly!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let that information sink in for a moment. I took a ride on a dolphin's belly!!!! This was literally one of the coolest and most unique experiences of my life. I will never forget it and it fulfilled a lifelong dream/bucket list item for me. We were so blessed to be able to have this wonderful experience!
After about a full hour in the water with those gorgeous creatures, we were all done with our program. This experience far exceeded my high expectations!
Once we got inside, we were able to view our photographs taken by a photographer during the program. Don't bother scrolling ahead because we didn't buy them. I know, I know... Why wouldn't you buy these wonderful memories? Well, let me tell you. The pictures were $75 for the smallest package! The DVD was 10 minutes long and $80! Seriously?!?!? I cannot believe people actually pay this much for pictures. By the way, this $75 package only included 3 pictures. Robbery people, robbery!! I did take a minute to consider this offer, however, the logical side of my brain took over and I decided that it was too much to spend on pictures. PS - They made us rent a locker to put our personal underwater camera in.
After our dolphin experience, we were able to snorkel with the stingrays. This was so neat. The stingrays would swim right under us but not get close enough to touch. It was such an excellent opportunity! There were hundreds of fish. I was excited to see the schools of fish swim right past my feet. We snapped some awesome photographs! Once, we were leaning on the rock wall and Ricky had his left hand on one of the rocks. A crab crawled right past his hand! Ha!
Check out that crab!
After snorkeling, we were able to feast on an unlimited/all you can eat buffet and drink fest. That would be unlimited chicken fajitas and unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Wow! All I can say is... I like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain! Haha just kidding. It was a nice perk though!
After our feast, we spotted something that was so amazing it took my breath away. We spotted... a GIANT IGUANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A real live iguana! It was huge and very photogenic!
Then, we headed over to the rental booth and rented a kayak. We spent about half an hour kayaking and trying to see the fish. This was not very successful though. We were kayaking with a bunch of first time paddle boarders. :) I am smiling because I was in this same boat last year when I paddle boarded for the first time. It is not an easy task in choppy water, let me tell you! When I came out of the water my first time in the Bahamas last year, I was lucky a shark didn't gobble me right up. I was pouring with blood from both knees and one of my feet. It's a brutal learning curve in water that is choppy so I recommend calm water like in a pond or a slow creek while you perfect the skills. Anyway, all these clumsy crazies kept falling in the water and scaring the fish. We didn't see very many because they were all face palming or running for their lives!
After our fun adventures at Dolphinaris, we took a shuttle back to the port where we shopped for a little while. We bought those souvenirs that I told you about and we found the Harley store. We always buy a new Harley shirt in amazing new places. Bummer. They only had extra small and small t-shirts for women. Seriously? You know I couldn't fit that. I mean, seriously, it wouldn't fit over my chest much less those monster hips of mine. My hips don't lie and they can't do anything with a small or extra small t-shirt. Ricky did find him a shirt to buy (it has a hot pepper on it, HAHA!) but never fear! I found a beautiful shirt from Ron Jon that has Cozumel written on it and hey, it was 1/2 the price of Ricky's. Wait a minute, maybe I should have gotten two of them... :-) Just kidding.
We also went street shopping and the craft market which is where locals sell their homemade crafts. This is one of my favorite things to do when we visit anywhere, but especially foreign countries. The people who are creating beautiful crafts are so creative, especially those who are making unique crafts. Today, we bought a painting from Cozumel. The guy painted scenes on tiles and had many masterpieces to choose from. He had a lighthouse, stingrays, turtles, beaches, and the mexico map. We decided to go with a hodge podge that had a beach scene and a visible, busy, underwater scene. There are palm trees, birds, dolphins, and a sea turtle in our picture. It looks awesome. I can't wait to hang it. I will try to remember to take a picture at the end of our week with our cute crafts.
Now, BEWARE of liar pants in the craft market. Last year, I spent two days walking through the Bahamas looking for the perfect handmade jewelry. I finally "found" someone who allegedly made these beautiful bracelets. I bought one and as soon as I returned to America, I was shocked to find one (well actually about 30) right there in the souvenir shop. I was tricked! Now I try to be more careful. Never fear though because we also bought a painting and a wooden carved turtle beach scene from the Bahamas so we did end up with some authentically handmade items.
One experience that we always seem to experience when we walk through craft markets is the straight hustlin' by the locals. Last year in the Bahamas it was, hey pretty girl, buy this! In Mexico, the key phrase that all vendors knew was hey señorita; come take a look señorita! You can't fault them for trying to make a living. We also bought some pure vanilla or as it is spelled on Mexican vanilla, "vainilla."
We barely made it back on time, but thank goodness, our ship knows how I roll. Even though we weren't departing until 5:00, we had to be back by 4:30. This meant that getting back at 4:35 was okay because there was a huge line and we actually had time before they left the port. We found out that the ship did peace out on some folks that didn't make it back to the port on time. Again, I can't blame them because there is an emergency number to call in case something comes up and you can't make it back before the departure time. If you don't call, they shouldn't have to wait.
We were parked right next to the Carnival Sunshine which is WOW! Massive. It's been playing on loop on our TV. Apparently, it's brand new this year, except not really. They took an old ship, remodelled it, added cool features and viola! A brand new ship is born. The rooms looked really nice on our TV and they have a pretty sweet water park on top.
After we got changed and showered, we went to the Hasbro Game Show. This was supposed to be like a real live game show. We were divided into two teams, red and blue. We were part of the blue team. The host, again, our hilarious director Craig, asked a series of questions and told the audience that the loudest and craziest attention getter would be able to go on stage and play for their team. It was cute! We lost the first round which was a real life version of yahtzee. The other team scored a higher score than us, but that's okay.
The next round followed the same procedures for picking contestants. The red team selected their four crazy team members and then it was our turn. The third question was "What "bug" caused widespread pandemonium during the beginning of the millennium?" The crazy brunette in a pink shirt and black capris jumped up and was selected by Craig to answer the question. She told him she was from North Carolina (what, what!) and she gave the answer Y2K. While she waited for confirmation, she looked to her husband to make sure she hadn't just answered it completely wrong. "That's it. I know it is." She told him. Ding, ding! She was asked to join the team. And oh yeah, that brunette in a pink shirt and black capris was ME y'all!! *Edit -- This game show aired several times on the TV in our stateroom and I am NOT embarrassed to say that I watched it every time I caught it on!*
Once I got on stage, our team was destroyed during a good old-fashioned round of skee ball. Yeah. Hey, I still got to be on stage in front of about 300 people so I am okay with our loss! Don't ask me how many points I scored. Okay, fine. ZERO, you happy?! Skee ball is not my area of expertise. Give me a game of darts or a game with archery and I could have killed it. Besides, it's been about 15 years since I threw a stinkin' skee ball!
After our awesome, amazing, fun, and fabulous Hasbro game, it was time for the Newlywed/Not So Newlywed Game. Craig got ALL UP IN some folks business during this game. I learned way too much about the three groups in that hour. They selected a newlywed, married forever, and married for a medium amount of time group from the audience. The older folks were reluctant to go up, however, they were married for 52 years (!) which was way longer than anyone else. They asked each couple a series of questions including, "Where did you first meet?" "What was the best..." um, use your imagination on this one. "What is your husband's most annoying habit?" And even, "What was last night like for you - fireworks, lukewarm, or cold turkey?" The answers were hilarious, especially when the older couple, Maurice and Julia both answered cold turkey and were able to answer question number two in very specific details. I'll give you a few details but you can ask for more if you are interested -- this is a PG blog. :-) The "hint" details are next door to mom's bedroom. See what I mean about getting all in people's business? The older couple was precious. They won, however, Carnival Glory refused to acknowledge a winner which I found ridiculous. Clearly, you get to know someone pretty well after 52 years! By the way, one other question was to tell about your husband's ex-girlfriend and how sweet is this? Julia knew of no one else. When questioned, Maurice told Craig that he and Julia had been together since she was 15 and he never saw the point in bringing up other women. He also said the key to a happy marriage is nodding and letting her be in charge. He had a lot of wisdom to spread! :-) They reminded me of the older couple who won last year at the same game. I don't remember the wife's name but the husband was named Stan and we laugh about Stan "The Man" often because of the answer he and his wife both gave for number two. Apparently the small shower in their room got used that morning. I know how small my shower was so I think Stan the Man is an appropriate nickname!
We had a towel frog tonight. He was so cute!
Tomorrow, we will land in Belize! Our cruise ship is too large to dock so we must tender which basically means we will have a small boat pick us up in groups and take us to the port. Tomorrow in Belize, we will be swimming with sharks and stingrays. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!
Good night!
Ricky & Amy
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