Rounds Inspirational Journeys

Look who welcomed us to Cozumel, Mexico!  Scott was SUPER excited, as you can tell. Cozumel was the place I was most excited about visiting.  Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. We arrived in Cozumel to cool temperatures and rain.  Not a good day for going to the beach or snorkeling, the two things I really wanted to do.  Instead, we took a taxi into the downtown and wandered around.  After getting drenched and realizing the rain was not stopping, we purchased rain ponchos.  That made the day much more bearable!  That cruise food really went to our hips (and other places)!  : )  Hannah was pretty excited that in Mexico she was tall enough to drink...  We celebrated with these giant VIRGIN pina colatas.  Scott celebrated with the largest mug of beer I've ever seen!  Okay, Hannah got a little crazy with the drinks!  I think someone forgot to tell her they were non-alcoholic...  I bet you didn't...

Belize was all about cave tubing with Cave-Tubing.Com. Again, I booked this excursion with a private company not affiliated with the cruise ship. They met us right outside the dock and whisked us away for a wonderful Belizian adventure!  On the one hour drive to the National Park where the caves were, our guides gave us a tour of Belize City and answered several of our questions about Belize and its culture. We arrived at the National Park and walked for about 45 minutes through the rain forest to reach the start of the caves.  Again our guide told us all about the wildlife, plants, and Mayan beliefs related to the caves.  The cave systems we tubed through were considered to be the underworld by the Mayans.  They would make sacrifices to their Deities in the caves.  We had to wear headlights on our heads because it was pitch dark in the caves.  We were all linked together to go down the river with a guide at the front and back.  The guides ...

Day 4 was spent in Roatan, Honduras.  We docked in a gorgeous cove, hidden from the poverty of the island. Our first views were of this ship wreck.  I guess if I had to be ship wrecked, this would be a pretty good place to be.  We didn't dock until 11:00, so we were all anxious to get off the ship and head for our shore excursion. I planned all of our shore excursions and chose not to use Carnival since the prices were so high. In Roatan I had found a private beach resort and booked us all to be picked up and brought there for the afternoon.  Because it was not a cruise sponsored excursion, our bus couldn't pick us up at the port, we had to walk quite a distance through the countryside to get to our transportation.  It was extremely hot and there were locals crowding the sides of the street trying to get us to go with them. Almost immediately we were exposed to the poverty.  All over the island people were living in unfinished basements with no window...