Adventures in the Caribbean: Cozumel, Mexico

Boarding the Carnival Glory was a lot smoother process than boarding the Caribbean Princess had been.  This time we had a balcony room, and I loved it.  It was significantly bigger than the interior cabins, and, of course, had a balcony.  

We had a great view of Miami and the harbour as we set sail.

Our first full day was spent at sea, which gave us lots of time to settle in and explore the ship. Some of the highlights: 

• definitely the gym again, which included a steam room and sauna in each change room, both of which had windows looking out onto the sea; 
• the jogging track, on the second highest deck, which provided a great place to exercise in the fresh air; I especially enjoyed using it at sunset, because it was relatively cool at that time, plus the views were incredible;
• the mini-golf course on the very top deck, set out on either side of the smoke stack--it was fun to play, but the wind could get pretty strong way up that high;
• the water slide--sliding down with a view of the sea was relaxing, and lying back and going full speed was exhilarating;  
• the library was a cool place to spend an hour or so in the evenings, with comfortable chairs and books and board games and general peace and quiet;
• taco and burrito bar with wonderful fresh toppings and fillings--this was my favourite place to each, but sadly it was only open for lunch

On Monday morning we were arriving into Cozumel as we woke up.  

Unlike in the Bahamas, we could dock in Cozumel, at a port they call Puerta Maya.

This meant disembarkation was super simple.  We had purchased an excursion, and we met at the end of the pier.

Our group was loaded into taxi vans and we were driven up the street a couple of kilometres or so to a private beach area.  We could still easily see the Carnival ships down the shore.

The beach was nothing special, but we weren't there for sand, we were there snorkeling.  

We were able to use a locker on the porch, and then geared up down below.  Neither of us had snorkeled before, which is why we wanted to do the excursion.  Plus, at $25 each, it seemed like good value, and it was.  

Snorkeling itself was easy enough, and there wasn't much we learned, but we a had a guide who took us out to the man-made reef.  Apparently there used to be a reef at this spot, but it died.  Now they've put in some structures specifically designed to encourage reef growth, and they say the fish just came back all by themselves.  Anyway, it was pretty remarkable to see all the fish, and our guide was good at finding the rarer animals, such as sting rays, seahorses, and so on.

After about 45 minutes or so he led us back to shore, but we could stay there as long as we liked on our own, so I went back out twice more by myself while Andrea lounged in the sun.  

It was close to noon when I decided I was done and came out of the water.  Once we had showered and dried off and more or less dressed, we left the little compound and went for a little walk further up the street along the shore.

It was a nice walk, except it was getting very hot, and we were getting hungry, so we went back to the beach to get our stuff and catch a cab back to the ship.  The cab rides were included for us as part of the excursion, so that was nice.

One of the best parts of having the ship dock instead of having to tender is the ease with which we could go back on and come back off.  We considered eating lunch ashore, but decided to go back on, and that way we could have a real shower as well.

We ate at the taco bar (where else--we're in Mexico!) and after an hour or so of eating and showering we headed back to land.  We walked out of the tourist village at the port and did a little shopping for souvenirs, beers, and some more practical items, like dental floss.  

We went back aboard the ship late afternoon, and I went up on the top deck to use the jogging track.  On each lap I could watch other cruise ships set sail and see Cozumel and even mainland Mexico.  I ran until the sun began to set and we pulled away, bound for Belize.

Adventures in the USA: South Florida

Back in Fort Lauderdale, we made our way to Miami.  We had learned some lessons from our trek from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, and so this time there were fewer steps.  However, we still managed to have the trip take far too long and be far too hot, as we had asked Enterprise (the company that "picks you up") to pick us up at the Tri-Rail station.  Somehow this took something like two hours, because they could not figure out where the Tri-Rail station was.    

Enterprise is one of my favorite companies of any sort, and the only rental car company I deal with, but I'm sorry to say that on this particular occasion they really dropped the ball.  In any case, by early afternoon we were in a rental car and heading back to the get-what-you-pay-for Runway Inn (where we were greeted by a friendly lizard outside).

That evening we made our way up to Miami's suburb called Sunrise to watch the Montreal Canadiens play the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center.  The BB&T Center is a) probably the most beautiful hockey arena I have ever seen and b) typically quite empty.  Tonight, however, vehicles with Quebec license plates filled the parking lots surrounding the arena, and it was entirely packed.  

Our seats were way up and behind the net, but all the better to see all the Habs fans.

And I could still make out the number "1" on the back of Luongo's jersey, only I had to squint.

The game started slow, but got exciting in the third when, just as the Habs fans had begun chanting "ole," Florida scored to tie it.  The game went to a shoot out eventually, and the Habs won.

The next morning we checked out of the Runway Inn and drove to Little Havana, for coffees and Cubano sandwiches.

Then it was off to Homestead, about an hour south of Miami, where we had arranged to pick up camping gear at Walmart.  We bought a tent, two sleeping bags, two pillows, two sleeping mats, and some groceries, all for about $100.  From Homestead we drove about another hour, into the Everglades National Park and to the Flamingo Campground on the Florida Bay.

It was New Year's Eve, and the campground was pretty full, but we were actually given a bit of a nicer spot than we had reserved.

We set up the tent and quickly realized that "no-see-ums" were far worse than massive northern Alberta mosquitoes.  We are horrified at how quickly and persistently we were getting bitten.  

So we jumped back in the car to drive rather than walk to watch the sun set over the bay and a nearby pond.

Needless to say, the sunset was gorgeous, and we got to enjoy it along with jumping fish and flitting water fowl.

We had a hot, hot night, and plenty of bites when we woke up, but the morning was tremendous, and we returned to the pond from the night before on our way out of the campground.

Then we stopped at what would be the highlight of our Everglades visit, the Anhinga Trail.  This trail is relatively short, and mostly consists of boardwalk over what looks like a swamp but is actually called a river.  

We saw many different kinds of fish (which were not photogenic); birds; 

and best of all, over a dozen alligators.  

After a long time enjoying all the animals at the Anhinga Trail, we drove northward to the Big Cypress National Preserve.  We had not been able to reserve additional nights in the Everglades, so we camped our next two nights in Big Cypress.

Big Cypress was somewhat closer to Miami than the Everglades, but still about an hour or so, depending on where in Miami we were trying to get to.

Late in the afternoon of January 1, after setting up camp, we drove into Fort Lauderdale to watch a movie at the Thunderbird Drive-In.  The drive-in is part of an enormous complex including a flea market and who knows what else.  Apparently this place is the second-biggest attraction in all of south Florida, or so their website claims.

On Friday we had our last full day in Florida, and we made the most of it.

We began our day at the YMCA in Miami, where we were able to have a bit of a workout and most importantly a lovely shower (our campground was not equipped with running water).  Then in the afternoon we were in Hialeah, another Miami suburb, at Gulfstream Park, the thoroughbred race track, where we lost a few bucks.  Later that afternoon we headed west to see Cirque du Soleil perform Amaluna in a tent beside Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens.  We finished our evening with dinner at a Peruvian restaurant.

Our cruise was scheduled to leave at 16:00 from Miami on Saturday, so we got up relatively early and hurried into Miami for breakfast and another visit to the YMCA.  

Then we had to figure out how best to get rid of our camping gear.  We had actually figured out a way to pack the tent, which we liked enough to still want, but we had to abandon the sleeping gear.  We did a bit of a dumpster drive-by; hopefully someone in need of a sleeping bag will have found them.

We dropped the car off at Enterprise, and they did us a solid by giving us a ride to the airport, where there's an Enterprise shuttle to the port.  This was quite convenient and saved us taxi fare.  

So that was our time in Florida, as now we were en route to the port, and our ship, the Carnival Glory.

Adventures in the Caribbean: Eleuthera, The Bahamas

From Dallas we flew to Miami, arriving early in the morning Saturday, December 27.  We spent the night at a dive of a hotel called the Runway Inn, which was probably a nice place to stay circa 1960.  It was convenient, though, and relatively cheap by Miami standards.  

The next morning we took a long, hot route from Miami to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, where we were to catch our cruise ship, Caribbean Princess.  We didn't want to spend $60+, so we improvised, traveling via a combination of hotel shuttle, taxi, Tri-Rail, bus, taxi, and finally arrived some hours later at the terminal.  This trip only cost about $30, so it did save us money, but man was it a trade off for stress, confusion, and heat.

Anyway, now at the terminal, we had to wait over an hour longer, as the Princess check-in and security people were just swamped.  One of them told us he had never seen it so busy.  

Eventually, however, we got on the ship, and found our cabin, an interior one on the Aloha deck.  It was close to three o'clock now, and we hadn't eaten lunch, so after dropping off our bags we headed straight for the buffet.

Geez, we were ever impressed with the food!  Such good quality, so much variety, and so many restaurants to eat at.

We spent the rest of the day on board unpacking, exploring the ship, eating twice, and making use of the wonderful gym facilities.  The gym was one of my favorite things about cruise life, since it's something I typically miss the most when traveling.  Besides, running on a treadmill with the sea spread out in front of you is quite the experience!  

Sunsets at sea are also pretty special, and this was the first one of our trip:

The next morning we began our day with breakfast while our ship was preparing for disembarkation.

We were visiting a spot on the island of Eleuthera called Princess Cays, a private Princess resort area on the southern tip of the island.  Rather than docking, our ship tendered passengers in using the lifeboats.  Certain passengers had priority, such as those with certain excursions, or those who were colour coded as more frequent Princess cruisers.

Although we were not priority passengers, we didn't have too long to wait, and around 10:00 we are ashore.

We rented a large locker ($9!) and stashed our stuff immediately.  The resort is fairly long end-to-end, and divided into two sections, with the little dock more or less in the middle.  We wanted to start our day by exploring the area, but we didn't have any intention of necessarily leaving the resort compound.

We began our tour by heading to the south half of the resort, across a little bridge that took us over the docking area.  In no time at all we had left our fellow Princess cruisers behind and were alone on The Bahamian beach, with our cruise ship sitting out there looking just as alone.

On our way back we realized we had gone well beyond the Princess Cays boundary, so perhaps we were illegal migrants, but regardless we had a good time, and there were certainly no Bahamian customs guards to stop us.

We walked for a couple of kilometres or so, and even went inland slightly along a trail that took us to a lagoon.

We saw hermit crabs, and coral, and at some point, finally, we decided we for sure must have gone further than we probably should have.  So we turned back and made our way back to the resort.

As I said, on the way back it became obvious that we had actually gone past a bit of a fence that delineated where Princess Cays' boundary was, but it had not been obvious earlier, and I'm glad, because if it had been, or if there had been a sign saying "Stay within this boundary," we would never have gone on, and I was very happy we had.

Next I wanted to buy a postcard and mail it, so I asked a very friendly lady who was working a bit of a information booth, which apparently is run by The Bahamas government's tourism agency, or something like that.  This lady had one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen, and she was listening to a radio preacher on a little battery powered radio.  I asked her if there was somewhere I could buy a postcard and mail it.  She told me just outside of the Princess Cays compound there were some shops where I could buy postcards, but that there was nowhere to mail it.  "However, if you give it to me, I'll mail it for you on Tuesday, because I'm going into town."  So that was a very generous offer, and I took full advantage of it.

This time we left the compound the official way, through the main gate, where a man made sure we had our passports.  There was a cluster of souvenir shops on the other side, one of which was selling postcards 4 for a $1.

The friendly lady also told us how we could get our passports stamped, because the man at the gate didn't do so.  There was an office somewhat around the corner, where a Bahamian customs official worked.  We knocked on his door, and he let us in, and it was surprisingly dark and cool compared to the outside.  He was also very friendly, although not as friendly as the big-smile lady, as it would be almost impossible to be as friendly as she was.

Anyway, now that our "chores" had been completed, we visited the lunch buffet that Princess offers--staff from the ship tender ashore and run the buffet, so it's all included, just like on the ship.  We expected hamburgers and hot dogs, but it ended up being quite the impressive spread, with ribs and corn on the cob and lots of salads and fruit.  

After lunch we relaxed on the beach for a while, and I did some swimming in the ocean (which is really the Atlantic even though people talk about The Bahamas being in the Caribbean).  The water was pleasant, but much, much colder than it was later on in our trip, in the "real" Caribbean.

Around 14:00 or so we decided we may as well go back to the ship and take advantage of things being a bit quieter on board, so we said good-bye to Eleuthera and caught a tender back. 

Once back on the ship we went to the gym, which is at the front of the ship.  As we ran on the treadmills we could see the island stretched out in front of us, and watch the lifeboats ferrying people back and forth.  It was quite unique and lovely.

The cruise lasted one more day, which was spent at sea.  I certainly love visiting new places, but the days at sea are wonderful in their own right.  

We even had the excitement of the crew spotting a little boat floating aimlessly.  The ship stopped and sent a boat to go check it out.  In the end I guess it was just a boat another ship had abandoned, and so our crew called the coast guard and that was that, but it was pretty neat to watch it all unfold.

So the first of our two cruises ended the next morning, December 30, back in Fort Lauderdale.

Coming up next . . . Adventures in the Caribbean

For the 2014 Christmas holidays my girlfriend Andrea and planned a two week getaway from the Alberta winter in south Florida and on two cruises (we also got to take a little tour of Dallas en route!).

It was an amazing experience.  While cruise life is not typically all that adventurous, we managed to find a mini-adventure or two along the way, and all in all had a spectacular time.  Check back soon to hear more!