Cruising Back to Miami

Saturday was another leisurely day at sea as we sailed back to Miami. Tomorrow begins the long drive home. We have enjoyed our week of exploration, relaxation and dining aboard the Carnival Valor with our friends. We are looking forward to this coming October when, once again, we'll be cruising with these same couples - this time from Rome to Florida. Until then, we're looking forward to heading out to continue exploring the good old USA in our RV. Stay tuned...

Cozumel

It's Friday, and our last stop of the cruise lands us in Cozumel, Mexico - another place we know well from dive trips and other cruises. We took a taxi downtown with a few of our friends and went on a shopping mission. My goal was to buy some Kahluha at a good price and I saved $5/bottle over ship pricing. We walked around a beautiful old plaza that had giant iguana lizards living in the trees. What a nice way to end the land part of our cruise. The first rain storm during our trip took place as we were preparing to leave port. Excellent timing!

Belize

It's Thursday morning and we find ourselves in Belize - another location that we know well from our past diving trips. Susan spent the day relaxing on the ship while I went off to walk around the old town with some of our friends. Once we got past all of the pier shops (with free tastings of local spirits offered everywhere) and worked our way outside the 'tourist wall', we explored some of the old town and looked at the wide variety of local arts and crafts on display everywhere. Fortunately, none of us are collectors, so all we did was look. The weather was warm, the beer was cold and it was an enjoyable day with friends. Life is good!

Roatan

Around noon on Wednesday, we docked on the Island of Roatan at a little 'town' called Mahogany Bay (e.g. a community of shops built by Carnival that mainly sold the same old touristy stuff that they sold on the ship). We took an island tour that took us to beautiful Carambola Gardens where we viewed a lot of the local flora and even watched a group of worker ants walking along carrying bits of leaves. Our next stop was the Roatan Butterfly Garden where we saw some colorful butterflies and exotic birds. We even got to hold some of the birds. Our tour ended with a stop at the little town of West End where the roads were so muddy that we spent our shopping time at a bar on the end of a pier sipping the usual 'beverage of choice' and watching a local band with native dancers perform. Quite nice.

Grand Cayman

On Tuesday morning, we arrived on the island of Grand Cayman. Susan and I have been here many times before when I was active in scuba diving, so we decided to just spend the day casually walking around George Town while our friends took various tours of the island. One of our stops was Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville where I finally found a nice "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" sign and then we enjoyed a cool 'beverages of choice' at the upstairs bar overlooking the bay. Susan found a nice little Wedgwood bowl that she just couldn't live without, so that made it a successful day of shopping.

Let the Cruising Begin!

On Saturday, 1/9, we left cold Raleigh (about 17 degrees) and drove down to Miami with our friends, Tom & Carole, to board the Carnival Valor for a week-long cruise in the Caribbean. When we arrived in Miami on Sunday, the temperature was a balmy 37 degrees! What ever happened to all the warmth? We met up with the three other couples in our group (all RVing friends) at the terminal and proceeded to board the ship. We left the dock at 5:00 pm and waved goodbye to Miami from our balcony. Monday was spent cruising the waters North of Cuba and enjoying temperatures in the low 70's around the pool and hot tubs.