First Cruise

We weren't able to celebrate our 25th anniversary, so my husband wanted to make this one very special and memorable.

Our first deciding factor was finances. We knew we'd be paying for the trip for a while, but figured it would probably be a one-time deal, so we were willing to splurge this once.

To prepare myself, I'd read on line and in books and watched documentaries. (Of course, I'd done the same thing when preparing to give birth to our first-born. And all that pre-information exited my thoughts at the sounds of someone screaming -- oh, yeah. That would have been me.)

Both my husband and I like to travel. We started our marriage by spending 7 weeks on our honeymoon, exploring 15 states.

We'd heard from others who were cruise-savvy, that cruises were great for traveling because you got to see new places and cultures, but didn't have to unpack and pack each night staying in different motels. The cruise ship was our floating motel room, moving to different countries while we slept.

The two of us knew we not only wanted to experience the boat part of the cruise, but also have an educational purpose as well as pure fun.

We chose A Western Caribbean trip, leaving Tampa, Florida, and going to four countries.

We'd traveled all day on sea, leaving Tampa, Florida, and arriving at Grand Cayman in the wee hours of the morning. The flat island lit in lights was intriguing as we approached.

Since it was our first stop, and not particuarly historical for us, we were in a quandry about which shore trip to take. We settled on a short island tour going to a beach. We'd packed our suits and towels, only to find the beach stop was a small cove where there wasn't time for swimming.

We spent the rest of our time on the island window-shopping. It turned out to be more relaxing than the rush we'd felt to get to the island. Before we'd arrived, I'd thought going to a beach was a silly idea. Were we to do it again, I'd go to a beach.

Oh, yes, chickens are wild on the island and EVERYWHERE. Roosters and hens in the woods, on the beaches, on the city streets. My thought was that no one could ever go hungry on Grand Cayman.

I was amazed with how organized and smoothly tourists are exited from the ship and directed to the various departing places for shore leaves. We went from the dock on Conzumel to another boat which ferried us to mainland Mexico.

As we sat on our smaller boat, holding about 200 tourists, someone came around with plastic bags. He didn't speak English, and couldn't answer the question why. As soon as we took off, it became obvious. The sea was rather tumbly between Cozumel and the mainland. I didn't trust myself standing to find the man with the plastic bags and just held tight and swallowed a lot.

I'm told that sitting at the back of the boat, on the lower level, always has the least amount of movement. Words of advise.

This was our first stop of interest to my husband and me. We'd never been to Mayan ruins. We'd read up a lot about them in our distant and recent past, but to actually walk there... it was something we looked forward to.

We had a Mayan tour guide who stood about 5' 3". He looked up to us and tried to assure us that the stories of ancient Mayans being short were not true.

Tulum has been known for a long time. The buildings are excitingly revieled and some rebuilt. There is a sense of wonder walking among the ruins, listening, wondering, avoiding the iguana.

Tulum has a small, but beautiful beach. I was surprised that some people from our cruise ship came to Tulum only to swim at the beach below the ruins. It was pretty, our designated time at the site was so limitied that we were unable to see all of the buildings. I could always swim back home. I could not walk among Mayan ruins in Michigan.

This was a fun stop. It was new-ish for cruise lines to stop here. There was a dock and a fenced off area where they were building a large structure to hold many stores on many levels.

We went from the dock to a van, which took us to the other side of the island to a resort. We did a circle in a clear kayak over the longest coral reef in the world, and then we snorkled in a much smaller circle near the shore.

My husband and I own two kayaks. We were in one with no seats and doubled up -- two per boat. It was a different position from which to paddle. The bottom of the boat was also very scratched, which made it difficult to view the reef.

For the snorkling part, we were handed our mask, flippers and snorkel and told to keep up with our guide. Luckily, I'd done snorkeling as a child, so was able to give my husband some instruction on what to do. Neither of us considered his mustash and beard. Water leaked into his mask the entire time.

I took with me an underwater camera -- something I'd highly recommend to others doing the same. Only, I became so excited with what I saw, that I used up all the shots in about the first 1/3 of the snorkel circle.

I then lingered behind the others, since their flippers kicked up the sand and made the water murky. It would be lovely to snorkel for an entire day v.s. 30 mintues.

The country of Belize surprised us. We knew it was small -- about the size of Vermont -- and that it was mostly jungle.

I think it was the people of Belize who made us feel most relaxed. Perhaps it was an honesty, a humor, an honest joy at seeing us, not just our tourist money. I would like to return for a much longer stay, even though there is only one airport in the country and 3 movie theatres.

Because of stormy weather, our first, more popular Mayan ruins choice was unavailable to the cruise that day because of flooded roads. Instead, we were given the option for visiting Altun Ha, a lesser developed ruins.

Even the 40 minute bus ride to reach Altun Ha was exciting. Imagine two buses heading towards each other at 50 mph, down a dirt road wide enough for only one. Please don't stick your hands out the bus windows!

With 40% of Belize protected because of their vast Mayan cities covered by the jungle, I appreciated going to a lesser-tourist site.

Although the main language of Belize is English, it took about an hour sidling up with a school tour group until any of the kids decided to respond to me.

A school bus pulled up to the Altun Ha site at the same time our cruise ship bus did. At first contact, they only looked at me and smiled. I spoke to them first in English, then in Spanish. They only smiled politely, but did not speak. I then nodded my head, saying, "Oh. You are Mayan." At which they giggled.

An hour later, as our cruise ship group and their school group were the only two groups at the site and we continued to weave in and out of each other, it was obvious that I was as interested in taking photos of the children as I was in the ruins.

After running down the stone steps of the temple, a group of kids ran around my husband and me. Three of the older girls stopped and looked at me. "Take a picture of me," she said clearly in English, then struck a pose. I did. Soon the three were joined by others by the minute, all saying, "Take a picture of me!" All I did was laugh with them, and shoot the photographs of them.

When I returned to the States, I attempted to find out which school visited that day, to send them some pictures. I came close, but never discovered where they were from.