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We flew into Miami on Friday, August 21st, and spent the night in the Hilton Hotel, right by the pier. The next morning we boarded the largest cruise ship in the world, the Liberty of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship. This ship is larger than the Empire State building! It is amazing that it can still float. It has an ice-skating rink, a rock climbing wall, basketball court, surf simulator, five pools, several restaurants, a casino, art galleries, a huge theatre, arcades, dance clubs, bars, several retail shops, plus rooms for over 4,000 guests and 1,200 crew members.
We left Miami and cruised all night and the next day until we reached Labadee, Haiti. While we were at sea, there were endless activities and shows for us to see. The first night we saw an ice show with skaters as good as what you see in the olympics. It was awesome. The second night the cover band, Beatle Mania played and it was really fun. Once in Labadee, Haiti, we found a great beach and went snorkeling. Angie (my sister in law) stepped on a sea urchin and got many spines in her foot. So we had to be very careful because they were everywhere, but we had a lot of fun.....especially David. This was the first time he had ever stepped foot in the ocean. He got such a kick out of the waves (even though they were really small). We swam across this large coral reef and climbed on some rocks that jetted out and once on the rocks I hear David let out a small scream. This was when he discovered that he had left my cell phone and his wallet in the pocket of his swim trunks. His wallet with all his money, etc, was able to be dried out, but my cell phone was ruined. He had left his cell phone in Miami, so we were at last totally free from all distractions! We spent the whole time in Haiti at the beach.
The next day we landed in Ochos Rios, Jamaica. We decided to hire a taxi van to take us to Bob Marley's tomb, an hour away up through the jungles of Jamaica. We were glad we did because the country side and jungle were amazing. We really got to see how the people lived, too. Most of them in extreme poverty, unfortunately. We couldn't believe what some people were calling their home. We bought some fruit that we thought were grapes from a bunch of kids on the side of the road. They had a rind that had to be peeled and a fruit that was the exact consistency of snot. So we started to call them snot berries. They were not good. We made it to Bob Marley's home town, 9 mile, up in the mountains. Once inside the grounds, we were informed that anybody who wanted to, could smoke a joint for free. They were passing them out to all visitors. When our tour guide came around to tell us the tour would start in a few minutes, we could tell he was very high. The tour was very difficult after that because several people took them up on their offer for some free pot.
 It was interesting, to say the least. It was neat to see the tomb, etc, but we were so sick by then that we just wanted to leave. I even was looking forward to getting back into the taxi van, even though we had some near death experiences around every turn the way he drove. We then went to Dunn's River Falls, a large waterfall that you can climb up. You are actually climbing right on the rocks totally covered by water, so you get completely soaked. It was so fun. The guides that helped us would sometimes push us down in the water when they knew of good swimming spots.
After hiking the falls, we had a little time to do some shopping before having to board the ship, but shopping is no easy task in these places where people try to shove things down your throat whilst saying, "No pressure." It felt more like an attack that you really can't take a good look at anything they are selling. You just want to get away. I wondered how my Mom would handle the situation. She might be too nice to tell them no and end up with $5,000 worth of wooden carved figurines and tee shirts saying "JaMa, no problem." Joe actually got really upset and insulted one man, telling him they were just like the people in Africa who would try to force them to buy their crap. The guy seemed stunned at first, his national pride being hurt, then started yelling at Joe, "This is Jamaica! This is Jamaica! THIS IS
JAMAICA!" He kept yelling it at him over and over as Joe walked away. Joe has been to many third world countries with the army, and he says it is the same everywhere. He says in Africa they will grab your arm and try not to let you go until you buy something.
Our next stop was in Grand Cayman. Here we decided to walk around the town a bit before going on a speedboat to feed and play with the sting rays. This was probably the favorite part of the trip for all of us. The speedboat took us out to the middle of the ocean where there was a sandbar about three feet deep. Hundreds of wild stingrays were swimming around, hoping for some food. At first we were all apprehensive about getting out of the boat, but soon we were grabbing onto the stingrays and playing with them like everyone else. They are slimy and will brush past your leg and freak you out. I got to hold a very large female and give her a kiss. David and Joe were having way to much fun with them, and I'm glad we had to go when we did, because they were starting to experiment. These are still wild creatures and are the same thing that killed the crocodile hunter, Steve Erwin. It was so cool.
Next we went to another part of the ocean, about five minutes away, where the coral reefs were alive with sea life. We got to go snorkeling and see some amazing things. Joe pointed out a fish that looks just like the coral (we couldn't see him at first) but then Joe touched him with his fin and he swam into a cave. Joe told us that this fish would kill you if you touched it with your bare hand. He cautioned David, "Everything in the ocean stings. Don't touch anything." I'm glad Joe was there because I'm sure David would have tried to grab something otherwise. The best part for me was watching how excited David was about everything. He was like a kid in a candy store. That made it really fun.
The last place we got to visit was Cozumel, Mexico. We decided to take a tour of the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, which is on mainland Mexico (part of the Yucatan Peninsula). So before our ship even made port, we had to be waiting to get off first so we could have time to go there and back. It was a 45 minute ferry ride to the mainland from Cozumel, then a 45 minute bus ride to the city of Tulum. Our tour guide was Mayan and told us that 80% of the people on the Yucatan peninsula still speak the Mayan language and are genuine Mayans. Spanish is the official language only because of the Spanish inquisition. Mayan
is actually an asian-sounding language, nothing like Spanish. The common last names for Mayans are things like Chen, Chow, Chang, etc. It was very interesting to learn about their culture and developments. However, David and I were both sort of disappointed once we got to the ruins, because they were all roped off and you couldn't get anywhere near them. You used to be able to explore them and go inside and wander about as you wished. Not anymore. The main temple was roped off over
100 feet away and that was as close as you got. It was cool to see, but still felt more like you were just looking at a postcard instead of being there.
 Right down from the ruins is the beautiful beach. Those Mayans sure knew how to pick a good spot to build their temples. This was probably the most beautiful beach I had seen. We didn't have time to go swimming, but we went down and walked through the water a bit. David had the video camera and was filming the ocean and beach when we saw this little naked boy, about 5 or 6, playing in the water. We joked around that he was a Mayan because they are known for being very short and not wearing much clothing. Then David saw another little kid (fully clothed) running around and filmed him, saying we'd found another native Mayan. What he didn't know was that right behind the kid was a lady sun bathing without her top on! I thought David was filming the lady and I yelled at him, but he honestly didn't see her and felt super embarrassed. We hope she didn't see us with our video camera. We haven't checked the film yet to see if she shows up. :)
The next day was spent at sea and we arrived back in Miami (a.k.a. Cuba) at 7 in the morning. Each night of the cruise we had a fantastic gourmet meal and amazing entertainment. Each show was like going to a $300 per ticket show on Broadway. The quality was superb. One night they even had a flying show like Cirque de Solei with performers doing trapeze stunts and things like that. Every night was something different and would have been a treat by itself. We heard that Royal Caribbean is the best cruise line out there by the other people on the ship with us, who had cruised many times with different companies. I think we got the best of the best and are spoiled now. Not that we'll get to go on another cruise any time soon, but we probably wouldn't want to settle for anything less than the one we got to go on.
 I wish my camera was better. I didn't get many pictures and many of them didn't turn out well. Angie took a lot more pictures, and hopefully we can get some of hers. She has pics of us holding and kissing the sting rays. Well, that pretty much sums up our trip! We are so glad we got to go! |
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