We started out the New Year in Bellingham at the Boundary Bay brewery with Dan and Courtney and Craig. Times Square has the ball drop...Boundary Bay has the keg drop! Good times all around. New Years was followed quickly by our trip to New Orleans (NOLA, apparently, to the uninitiated) and our cruise with the Forbes family. We had a grand night out exploring Bourbon street and the French Quarter - even as cold as it was, it was packed! People drinking on the streets, people throwing beads (and flashing). Bars everywhere...and fresh beignets sometime around midnight.
The next morning we assembled at the hotel, and headed for the cruise ship dock. The weather was unseasonably cold, but at least it was sunny. After being processed, and being yelled at by some old lady for not showing her our tickets (she wasn't paying attention) we were aboard. First stop? The Bier Garten. Ok, so technically our rooms weren't ready yet, but it was a good place to meet anyway!
The cruise itself was amazing! The weather wasn't entirely cooperative, but we still enjoyed it. Our first day was a day at sea, so we organized our own pub crawl (the boat had 9 bars). What better way to acquaint yourself with your surroundings? We never made it far though, as our second stop was a martini tasting that we got talked into...
The next day was our first stop, in Costa Maya, Mexico. The port/city itself weren't much (it's a fairly new cruise ship destination) but we had a shore excursion to the Mayan ruins of Chacchoben. Amazing!
Up next - Guatemala and hiking in a nature preserve. When the day started, we were unsure of the weather - it had been raining a bit, but part of our excursion was to swim in the waterfalls at the nature preserve. Optimistically, I donned my swimsuit, and we set out by bus to the preserve. After a brief intro and a short hike, we arrived at our first waterfall. By this time, the temp was in the low 70s, and it was a little humid. As we approached the water, I asked the guide, "We can swim now, right?" She replied "Sure." While others on the tour watched sheepishly, I removed my shirt, and jumped right into the water! RAD! The water itself was probably in the 60s...I was expecting the cold snow melt that I'm used to at the cabin. I was glad that I could inspire others to hop in the water as well - but lest we forget I was the first one in! Unfortunately due to the weather, I didn't bring the camera along. Oh well.
The following day was Belize City, and the excursion I had been looking forward to since we had booked the cruise - cave tubing! Unfortunately again, the weather wasn't being entirely cooperative - when we tendered to shore, the sky opened up and it began absolutely pouring rain! Some poor souls were out in the weather on our little boat and they got soaked! Jaime and I gathered our wits and boarded the bus for the 1 hour ride to Caves Branch preserve. Worst...Bus Ride...ever! The shocks were gone, and there was no padding in the seats. Oh well - nothing was getting me down - how often in your life do you get to float on a river through freaking caves!? We arrived and the weather lighted up a bit - after picking up our tubes, some seriously STINKY life jackets, and useless headlamps, we were off. We hiked for about 45 minutes - or just long enough for me to get bitten by a Belizian ant of some sort (wasn't poisonous, pain didn't last). After arriving at a large pool, we waded into the (warm) water and hopped on our tubes. All I can say is - even with the frat boys in front of us yelling at each other, and without being able to use my headlamp to see some things, it was an amazing experience. You'd be floating down the river and you'd round a bend and there would be a hole in the limestone with sunlight pouring in...or you'd hit some small rapids as you tubed under giant stalactites! Wish I'd had a waterproof camera, but then again, pictures would not do the experience justice!
We were finally able to find the sun the next day in Cozumel - so of course we hit up the beach and were there just long enough to get good and sunburned. The highlight was the inflatable water toys that are probably illegal in the US - a giant inflatable slide, a giant climbing wall, trampolines on the water, etc.
I'm going to pause here for now - in the meantime, here's the link to my shutterfly album - not a whole lot there do to not being able to use my camera two days...
