Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Cozumel, Mexico

Today's post is the final in my Cruise Recap series. If you missed any of them you can read about the ship we were on and our days in Haiti, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. The final island was Cozumel, Mexico and this one may have been my favorite of all of them.

We arrived in Cozumel but traveled to the Yucatan Peninsula so we could visit the Tulum Mayan Ruins in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was one of the final cities inhabited by the Maya and survived about 70 years after the Spanish started to occupy Mexico. I'm talking 13th to 15th centuries here! It was surreal to be standing somewhere that an entire civilization used in a time I can only imagine. The buildings were incredible and we were told that Tulum has a few of the best preserved ruins. We had an amazing tour guide who gave everyone headphones and packs so we could hear him without having to follow him too closely. It was so cool to get the history and hear stories about the Maya.

The focal point was clearly the Pyramid El Castillo (which translates to "The Castle") and I couldn't take enough photos of it. Seriously, when I was going back through my photos I had like 40 shots of it!

It was SO hot that day! I felt like I was baking at a few points. There were also some iguanas that just lounged around and crawled into the buildings. A few of the ruins you could walk through which was pretty neat.

The picture below is of the God of the Winds Temple . So incredible.

There were also really pretty flowering trees and crazy iguanas that were huge and just chilled out in the sunlight.

So there you go. I have now bored you with my entire trip! I hope you at least enjoyed the photos!

Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Cayman Islands

Today's post is the a follow up to the Cruise Recap series and will talk about our day in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. If you would like to read about the ship and stuff, our day in Jamaica, or our day in Haiti.

Cayman is seriously gorgeous. There was shopping of course all throughout where we were but we decided to do a bit of snorkeling first. I never snorkeled before but it was so much fun!

 The excursion we did was "Reef and Wreck Snorkeling" and was basically just snorkeling in two different locations. The first location was a shipwreck and then we also went to a reef to see all the fish. The boat had a glass bottom and enabled you to see the bottom between the locations. I saw one of the largest sting rays I have ever seen in person or on TV. The thing had to be 2 feet wide! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera ready for that so I didn't get to snap a photo :( Just FYI, the snorkeling gear is super stylish and the mouthpiece gave me the best looking lips ever....

 

Seriously, who needs botox? Just walk around with a snorkeling mouthpiece on. Jk, that'd be a little weird. Anyway, a sneak peak of the reef is behind Andrew in this photo:

All in all, the snorkeling was so much fun and I can't wait to try snorkeling again! And if you can believe it, this was the only nail photo I took the entire trip! I figured having the backdrop of a reef underwater was too good to pass up. Pardon the chipping nails!! 

Cruise Recap: Island Adventure - Falmouth, Jamaica

Today's post is another followup to my Cruise Recap series talking about specific places we visited. You can also read about the ship or our day in Haiti. Today we're up to Falmouth, Jamaica! I'm sure you won't be surprised when I say Jamaica was also gorgeous. We docked near some shopping but first Andrew and I went to Chukka Good Hope Estate, an incredible former sugar cane and rum plantation that now does citruses and accounts for a crazy percentage of America's citrus fruits!

The estate is a preserved plantation from like...the 1700s and encompasses 2,000 acres near the Martha Brae River. It had amazing views because it was on a mountain (hill?) and you could see forever. Can you get better than this view?

There was no air conditioning BUT you really didn't need it because the breeze just floated through the windows of the estate. It was incredibly comfortable and so interesting to hear the history of the place and the stories behind it. Google it if you are interested in learning more about it! It truly was breathtaking and fascinating.

The estate also had bird aviary you could walk through and the woman let Andrew and I feed some parrots and love birds! She also started singing Bob Marley....which was perfect for Jamaica obviously! She said something interesting to me though. She asked where we were from and then she said "You are the lucky ones. You get to travel. You are lucky enough." After thinking about it in my mind I thought she lives on this beautiful island, has such an amazing culture, she actually calls the place we want to travel to "home." So my response to her is "You live on a gorgeous island that I dream of visiting. You are lucky enough too." Am I right?

I couldn't get the parrot to eat from my hand but Andrew was basically the bird whisperer and the parrot had no issue taking the orange from his hand! That parrot was sexist! Jk. At least a lovebird enjoyed the food I had to offer. I named him Paul.

So from me and my new bird friend, 

Cruise Recap: Our Haitian Adventure

Today's post is a follow up to my Cruise Recap post about my post-bar, anniversary, and birthday celebration cruise vacation. We cruised for seven days and visited Labadee, Haiti, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, Falmouth, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico. The islands were AMAZING and I got so many incredible photos that I can't even share them all (but I want to!). This post is just for the time we spent in Labadee, Haiti.

On Labadee we decided to disembark and go to a Haitian beach and then try kayaking. It was the first time I ever kayaked and I seriously thought I was going to tip us over the entire time. I was lucky though and the sea was calm so we did not in fact end up in the water. We kayaked from the beach on Royal Caribeean's private island part of Haiti to the real Haiti. I'm glad we didn't stay on the private beach because the whole point of going to Haiti was to actually see Haiti. I met some Haitians who were so sweet and showed me a kind of life that was so different from mine. It was pretty eye opening.

The tour guide for the kayak was Alber (notice, no "T" on the end...don't call him Albert!). He had a great sense of humor and kept us entertained with a ton of info on Haitian life, food, fun, etc. He was super cool and I really enjoyed the kayaking trip.

After we got back from "the real Haiti", we took a dip in the ocean and walked around. The cruise line had lunch for us that day so there was a beach side barbecue for us to enjoy. It was delicious!

Then we finished up the day with some souvenir shopping so we could pick some things up for our families and of course buy a Haiti magnet for our travel magnet wall!

Next up is Grand Cayman!

Cruise Recap: The Ship and Stuff

As you may remember, after the bar exam in July, my boyfriend and I went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean (Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cayman Islands) for 7 days to celebrate us turning 25 years old, our 5 year anniversary, my law school graduation, and of course the bar exam being over. I wanted to just do a couple of posts talking about how the cruise was and show off some photos we took throughout the week! If you're interested in cruising or just want to see how the trip was, stay tuned!

We chose the Royal Caribbean ship Freedom of the Seas for our voyage and I have to say the ship was incredible! There was so much to do, the ship was incredibly clean, and the staff was so nice! Overall it had 15 levels (the highest being a chapel where a couple got married before we set sail on Sunday!) and then the other levels included staterooms, dining rooms, arcades, pool decks, a rock climbing wall,casino, art gallery, ice skating rink (no joke!), shops, and more food! There were also really pretty murals and artwork everywhere on the ship, including this really colorful parrot and wildlife one on of the pool decks. It was too colorful and fun not to selfie in front of it!


This was the three floor dining room. We were on the third floor and every time I walked in I was reminded of the Titanic (which was kind of scary). The entire ship was just opulent and extravagant and made me feel sort of like royalty. The formal nights were seriously something out of London high society. To dine you had your choice every night of going to the formal dining room or eating in the more casual buffet "Windjammer Cafe." For dinner we chose the formal dining room but for lunch we usually just went to the cafe. Breakfast was room service in our room because most days we ate while getting ready for the day on an island.

No joke, this ship had an ice rink! It was cold in there and kind of crazy to go from "hey let's go swimming and sunning on the pool deck" to "hey let's put on long pants and ice skate." A couple of the days they had a ice skating show for entertainment and the ice skaters included some former Olympians! They also let you skate throughout the week yourself so we made sure to do that.

There was also a pretty intense rock wall on the highest deck. It had been a really long time since I had ever tried to rock climb so we wanted to give it a shot. No, I didn't make it all the way to the top (I blame my short little legs!) but I didn't give up either...I literally fell off the wall while I was trying to jump to the next level since my arms couldn't reach! Andrew did make it all the way to the top though and rang the bell and everything. He's just so good at everything...lol. Mr. Perfect. Anyway, I did look around a little on my way down and it was scary to be fourteen floors up, surrounded by sea, AND hanging off a cliff all at the same time. Really pretty view though and I wish I had a GoPro to capture it!

There was also a silent disco....just like out of show The Royals! It was basically a club but in order to hear the music you had to wear headphones! Everyone was dancing and singing along, which was hysterical when you took off your headphones and couldn't hear the actual music....just a bunch of out of tone party-ers.

If you've been on a cruise, you know that the stateroom attendants leave adorable towel creations on your bed every day. The first day was an adorable little puppy. Then was a monkey, stingray, snail, and an elephant. It was such a cute little touch.

So that's basically the ship and whatnot. Next post will be more about our adventures and photos from the islands! Have you been cruising? If so I want to hear about it! Where did you go and what did you do??