Honeymoon Trip

Ok so, I thought I just better write a blog about everything that happened on our trip! it was so fun, and we had some crazy moments too so, if you are feeling ambitious, read on! :D

Ok, so we went down to LA saw lots of family in a couple days, and then had my family take me down to the Port.

ok so day 1, getting on the boat, super exciting! we had no problems getting to the port or on the boat, and our "apple juice" was still in our suitcase when we got to our room. Our room was a small inside cabin, but it wasnt really that bad. The following day was a day at sea, so we spent it exploring the ship, dancing at night and singing Karaoke.

Our first Port was Cabo San Lucas. We really liked Cabo, and didnt have any problems here. We walked to the main beach from the boat, it was about a 20 minute walk, and rented a double ocean kayak for the day. We paddled to the otherside of the bay to a place called Lover's Beach. It was a cool beach, calm on one side and crazy on the other. We also went in this rock cove kinda thing, with big waves and sea lions, it was pretty cool. so we swam around and then took the kayak back. Then we went to a place on the beach for tacos, ceviche and beers and margaritas. GOOD FOOD! expensive thought, but good.

Our second Port was Acapulco. where do I start....I had decided to parasail here. So we walked down the beach found someone who was doing that, and made a deal with them. They told us we had to wait for some more wind, and finally the wind came up enough. So they brought the boat and took us out to a platform about 300 feet out from the shore. I decided to go first. So they hooked me all up, and told me how everything worked. I ran off the platform and was up in the air for about 15 seconds....then the boat died...which meant that I was headed straight for the ocean. And remember, we are in Mexico, so no one can to my rescue, I sat in the ocean for 15-20 minutes while the guy "fixed the boat". I was finally dragged back into the boat, and then he had to "fix the boat" again so we could make it to the platform. Once on the platform, one of the guys started laying out the parachute again for round two...I was screaming at him, and finally got him to take us back to shore. We got our money back and headed down the beach. We had given up on the idea of parasailing, and decided it was more beer money, but then decided to try it again. We watched a couple people go before us, and then went, this time with no problems, and I made Petey go first...lol. After that we found a cool place with mini huts you sit under and had tacos, ceviche and beers, on the beach.

Our third Port was Huatulco (pronounced Wah-tool-co, but we just called it hauk a loogy....by this point, we were over mexico. It was soooo expensive, and you get so hassled to buy crap or go on tours that we were just over it. Huatulco is a really small town, and we walked it in about 5 minutes, and decided to sit on the beach instead of exploring, and drink beer all day. There was one beach with lots of lounge chair with umbrellas. So we sat at one, and a guy came over and told us we had to pay $10 to sit there...so we sat on the beach in front of the chairs until Petey decided to go find one we could sit at for free. He found one. :D So we sat, drank beers, ate some tacos, and bought new rings. I really wanted a ring that I could wear camping, or somewhere that I think there is a high chance for me to loose it. I'd rather loose a $20 ring from Mexico. So yes, both got new real silver rings, for pretty cheap. I also laid out all day in the sun, and had fallen asleep at one point so i had a very nice sunburn for a couple days.

Then that night I woke myself up kicking my legs, and by morning we had realized we had bites all over our legs. I had close to 20 petey had at least 10...turns out they are sand mites, that were in the sand in Huatulco. They itched and irritated our skin for the rest of the trip (and i still have some scabs from mine...)

Ok, our fourth Port was Costa Rica. This is the one I was most excited about and I was not disappointed. We had a guy pick us (and some others) up from the Port and take us to see Monkeys, Crocodiles, and Tucans. We also went zip-lining, which was soooo fun! the only bad part about that is there were a lot of people for the zip-line place, so we had about 25 other people and about 5 employees taking us through it. so it took a long time. but it was really fun! After that we went to a restaurant and had a "Costa Rican" meal. Fish, rice, veggies. YUMMY! it was really really good. Then we headed back to the ship. We were originally supposed to go to a market but the zip-line took too long, so we weren't able to go to the market place. and Costa Rica is way cheaper than Mexico so we might have been able to do a little shopping...but it was still great. There is a couple that went on the tour with us, that needs mentioning. She was originally from New York, and currently lived in one of those states, close by with her boyfriend. She was Asian, so she had a winy voice (pertinent i promise!). She was not the brightest crayon in the box, and really wanted to be our friend...She asked us where we were from, we said Reno. Her response "oh yeah I've heard of that place! It's in Phoenix right!?"....we responded with..."uh...Phoenix is a city in Arizona...Reno is in Nevada...." she says "That's right! I've never been good with Geography...." really...? lol. well there were lots of other funny things with that couple but that was the best one.

Ok, next was one of the coolest too - The Panama Canal -
It was an early morning, the day started around 5:30am. We got to go under the bridge of the Americas and then through the Canal. So when a ship goes through the Canal, a captain comes on each ship to navigate the ship through. We also had a guy who was narrating for us (in American English!) Also, Panama city is HUGE! I knew they had some skyscrapers and all, but its a huge city. So anyways, when we went through the canal there was another ship next to us when we were going through the locks. so we got to see them go through as well as our own ship. VERY COOL! Also, in the middle of the locks is Gatun (spelling??) Lake. It is a man made lake that is filled by all the rain from the rain forest. The coolest thing about this lake, is there are no buildings on it (minus a couple just past the locks for canal buildings (and a prison..) But building is restricted because they want the rain forest to continue to fill the lake and fuel the canal locks (since its all gravity operated). So it is very cool to see rain forest islands and areas all around you, with NO buildings, NO resorts, or anything. very cool. Also, the amount for a ship to go through the canal varies and is based on size and weight. Our ship was estimated to have been charged about $300,000 to use the canal! The cheapest was a guy who swam the canal and was charged .70, (i think, i know its close to that...under a dollar...) It took us most of the day to get through the canal.

That night I got food poisoning from dinner on the ship....

The next day was Columbia. I woke up, and couldn't even keep watermelon down. Petey went to try to get me some medicine, but they needed me to go down to the medical center...I could barley make it back to bed, so when i could i just slept. Around 1pm I was able to keep some watermelon down, and wanted to get off the boat and see Columbia because I'd probably never go back to visit. So we got off...with plenty of water for me. We found a guy who was taking a bunch of people to the old town of Cartegena, and we were told he would drop us off and take us back 3 hours later. sounded good to me since i was certain i would need walking breaks. When we got to the old town, he decided he knew the town well, and wanted to walk us around. Fine. It was actually really awesome, and he was great (you couldn't tell from my face though I'm sure...he at one point asked if I was ok, and if this was an ok tour...it was it was great, my stomach was just arguing with my body the whole time... We ended at the hard rock and Petey had some beers, and I had soda. Cartegena is a beautiful city. lots of poverty though and more police/military than I have ever seen before. There is lots of attacks and crime because of the drug cartel and its really sad to see how they live and the things that happen to them. There is a wall surrounding the old city (to protect it back in the day) and we got to walk along part of it. It's made out of coral and maybe concrete...who knows. They guys said it was coral though and you could see the coral in it. Cool stuff.

Then we had two days at sea, and then our final stop and where we got off...Miami.

The cruise itself was ok. The hot tubs were broken the whole cruise...and although lots of people told us they were broken, one person accidentally told us they do routine maintenance on them and our cruise was selected for that...awesome. Another bummer is we were woken up almost every night around 1-2 in the morning to a loud banging noise. it sounded as if there was someone above us lifting and dropping a large dresser over and over for a couple hours every night. The first half of the cruise they told us it was maintenance...the second half, they had no idea what it was. so who knows. Not lots of service on the cruise, and the front desk can't actually help with anything so it was frustrating. The food was ok. nothing to write home about. I'll probably never cruise with Norwegian again, but oh well.

We did meet some fun people though. We met a brother and a sister who live in Guatemala, and who we hope to really visit someday. There was another couple who lives in Seattle who were really cool people. We hope to see them too when we are up in Seattle. (now that we have people who we consider family up there we will probably be up there a lot anyways). And there was some more people that were interesting/funny/fun.

Overall a great trip. And me and Petey still get along great, so you know it was a good trip! lol. It makes it way easier when you are traveling with someone you like, it makes an ok trip a good one. :D

So that's basically the trip, I'll have to add pics later hopefully.

The trip home was uneventful. Everything worked out fine. I don't think I will ever go to Miami though. People are very unhappy, mean people. but our flights were great, and our friends picked us up from the airport, no problems with baggage, etc. We drove home the following day after flying in, and drove back in the blizzard...close to 2 feet of snow in Carson and negative temperatures...quite a change from the tropical vacation but it's good to be back home.