Day 4- Isla roatan Honduras

Wednesday we were in Roatan, Honduras. It is a beautiful island. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed myself. When I think of Honduras I think of sally Struthers and save the Children, I dont know why. I have always had a mental image of Honduras that totally did not match what I saw.
Yes there were some areas that were SO poor and run down. There are people right there in the port that want you to pay them to take their picture with you. At least the Musicians earned their keep. The kids ask for money for no reason. If you dont give it to them they call you cheap. They are professional beggars. And they dont ask. They say "hey ma'am. Give me a dollar".

Then there were areas with beautiful homes of the rich and famous. The snorkeling was amazing. The hotels were resorts.

We took a tour around the island with Victor Bodden Tours. We learned a lot about the island and the history. We then went to Voctor Boddens Monkey Business. These cheeky little things were something else. they were so cute, but devlish little things. They reach right into your pockets and steal stuff. They yank on earrings, steal hats, sunglasses...anything they can get their hands on. You can tell from my askew sunglasses that one of them tried to yank them off my head.
One of the monkeys snatched the hat right off of Charles head and went up to the top of his tree and looked like he was trying to put it on his own head. Victor had to trade the monkey something for the hat.


This little monkey got to second base. I USED to make men buy me dinner first...apparently my standards are slipping. After time at the monkeys we went to West Bay and went to a resort to go snorkeling and swimming. It was HEAVEN. Roatan has some of the best snorkeling on the planet. I was REALLY surprised at just how gorgeous it was. Unfortunately some of the underwater pictures dont do it justice.




We drove a little more around the island as we made our way back to the ship.

All in all it was an educational and interesting day. I really enjoyed my time in Honduras and it was a real surprise and just how very enjoyable it was.

Day 3- Grand cayman snorkeling and Stingray City- Part 2

We used Moby Dick Tours for our excellent excursion.

We did the snorkel stop and stingray city.

We took a 25 minute boat ride out to the lagoon. Grand cayman has the worlds largest salt water lagoon. It was amazing. You could see exactly where the lagoon was. It was this beautiful turquoise water and you could see the coral. Then surrounding it you could see the deep cobalt blue of the sea where it dropped off to 6000 feet. The water was so warm, yet refreshing. Our guides were FANTASTIC. They taught us all about stingrays, how to feed them etc.

We went snorkeling first. Unfortunately not many of those pictures turned out very well. Darn underwater cameras.

But the snorkeling was great. Lots of beautiful coral and interesting fish. one of the best snorkeling stops I have ever done.

Then we motored over the the sandbar where the stingrays were. They were HUGE!

A long time ago fishermen used to come out to that area to clean their fish and drop the chum overboard. The stingrays started equating boat motors with free food. Eventually the fishermen realized the stingrays were very sweet and docile. so now you can get in the water with them. They are like big puppy dogs. They are SO SWEET! And so very smart. Most other tours do not allow you to feed them yourself. Only the guide does and then they take your picture and sell it to you. With Moby Dick we all got to feed the stingrays and they took our pictures with our own cameras etc. The guides each had their own "babies". These stingrays would go to the specific guides. Our one guides baby was "sandy". Sandy was all the way on the other side of the sandbar when we got there. She recognized his voice or something and came flying over and JUMPED into him. Another guide had esther. Another guides baby was Notchy.

Here is charles with a live Conch he found. (yes he put it back where he found it)

We got to feed the stingrays. It is certainly an interesting experience.You hold the food in your fist, with your thumb tucked firmly in. They come over your hand and suck the food right out of your hand. They have a 10 horsepower suction and if you are not careful will leave you with a hickey that can last MONTHS. Notchey gave charles a little hickey on his hand when he tried to feed her with too small a piece of chum.

we had a great experience on Grand Cayman. And here we are back on the ship, tired and sunbleached and REALLY sunburnt. Did you know that in The caribbean SPF 30 is like wearing no sunscreen at all?? Yeah. Charles got REALLY sunburnt and I got pretty red around the straps on my bathing suit.

Day 3- GRAND CAYMAN part 1

Tuesday, September 15 we went to Grand Cayman. It was SO beautiful...and hot...and HUMID.

We got off the ship an hour or so ahead of our excursion and walked around the port area for a bit. This was a tendered port, which means we had to take a little tender boat to actually get to the land.

Here is Grand Cayman at Sunrise.

Here is charles and I posing in front of our ship. Look at that Gorgeous blue water. I snapped this little guy on the pier. He was a lone urchin.

This is me and Big Black dick. Yes...thats someones name. I giggle every time I think about it.(yes i am 12 years old sometimes) His statue is everywhere. Here is the Legend of Big Black Dick:It is believed that Big Black Dick was born of 'Royal' African parentage before being kidnapped by French slavers who gave him the name of "Richard Le Noir". Unable to subdue his efforts to regain his freedom, his French captors, tossed Richard overboard near a Caribbean island, which may have been Grand Cayman Island.Miraculously reaching land, he served for several years labouring in a sugar cae field where he learned the secrets of how to turn the sugar cane into the Caribbean's finest rum. His kindly Caymanian master recognizing his hard work and honesty awarded him his freedom in the early 1700's.A free man and a skilled seaman, Dick tossed away his French name and became known as Big Black Dick. He soon earned the rank of captain of a three-masted-square rigger named "Caymanus". She was a ship carrying 20 cannons with a crew of near 200 men that were known as the best in the Caribbean. History tells us that "Big Black Dick" was a dashing and handsome figure of a man, wearing a bright purple velvet coat and four pistols in his red silk sash. Those who knew him most immediately, know how much of a man he, indeed, was... possessing certain physical attributes unequalled by most 'all' other men of his gender. After a successful career, Big Black Dick retired to a more peaceful venture of making the best original pirate rum in the Caribbean.

We found a little park near the Port. Fort George. Not much of a fort. Just a bench, water fountain and 2 cannons.

For some reason I fell in love with this church. It was so pristine and white, surrounded by the beautiful green foliage and vibrant tropical flowers.

Here were a few other pictures from the city:

OCTOBER SPECIAL OF THE MONTH

Make an appointment directly with me. I come to you or you can come to me. A portion of the proceeds will be used to go towards an online donation to the Susan G Komen foundation. A great manicure or pedicure for a great cause.

Day 2- fun day at sea

Monday was our Fun day at Sea. We started out with a walk around the deck and then went around to various activities. Here we are in the early morning, enjoying the fresh sea air and sunshine.

Our First order of the day: Trivia contest. We met in the Lindy Hop Lounge.

The outcome....

...are you really that surprised?? 1st place. 14 karat plastic ship on a stick trophy. My boys think it is the coolest. i got all the answers correct. I would have shared it with charles(as he was the closest competitor score wise) if he had known what the currency of India was. but he didn't. So the Trophy was mine.

Later on we went to Winstons Cigar Lounge for Ultimate trivia and were put on a team with 2 men and another woman.

Yep. 1st place again. We got the medals to prove it, too. Again the boys think they are pretty cool and are now playing Olympics with them. Apparently Transformers and Star Wars fighting on the Trampoline is a new Olympic event.

Later that afternoon was the anniversary party for Jon and Dee. We had it in the Lindy Hop Lounge. (this was a popular place for us)We had the Chips with salsa, guacamole and cheese dip. It was delicious. Then we had THIS cake, which was FABULOUS!! People were having a hard time keeping their fingers out of it.

Over the past month we have been finding all the baby pictures, growing up pictures etc. We have been scanning them and sending them to Charles older brother Robert, who compiled them all into a video. It was basically a 50 year retrospective of their life, their kids, grandkids etc. It was set to different music for each family and it was really well done. Robert spent a lot of time on it and Dee needed a box of kleenex. Jon excused himself to "go to the bathroom". It was very touching. There were gifts etc from everyone and all in all we had a great time.

That was the first Formal night as well. Lobster and Prime rib. YUM! This is charles and I in the lounge all gussied up.

And here is one of the beautiful sunsets from the dining room.

Later that night we were going to Karaoke, but it was too full of THOSE people (karaoke hogs) so we went back to the Lindy Hop bar with a piano sing along and "Larry". He could play just about any song requested, lots of Billy Joel and Elton John, easy listening etc. we sat around the round piano table and sang and had a good time. At first there was no one in there. Then we got in and started singing and having a good time and next thing we know it is packed. We made a loud announcement that the piano table was now free and it was close to the tip jar. so we got up and new people went to sit down and put money in his jar and fill it up. Larry was really talented.

So day 2 was fun. We went to bed a little later than I would have liked, but we got enough sleep for the next day which was Grand Cayman.