Swingin' Cruise 2010: Thanks, Gergely

Our port the next day was Belize City, in, you guessed it, Belize. Kurt went scuba diving (I can't *sniff*) and Alex wanted to stay on the ship to win tournaments and trophies, so Allison and I decided to venture to shore by ourselves for a bit.

 This was our longest tender (boat ride from the ship anchored off shore to the port) at about 20 minutes. I guess the water stays really shallow for a long ways off the coast of Belize City.

Belize City had this touristy, fenced-in port area with shops. We just wandered around the shops, finding interesting things like pipes shaped like ... human anatomy and a really cute doll that Allison wanted to get for her baby girl (who's going to make her big debut any day now!). The doll was crazy expensive though. In the end, I got some rum cakes for our friends who were watching our dogs, and Allison bought candy. She likes to get candy in foreign countries (on Roatan Island we made a special trip to the grocery store, lol).
The next day, which was our last port day--sad; we were at Cozumel, Mexico. This is where Kurt and I were supposed to go on our honeymoon (remember that very long story?). As usual with our other ports, we didn't have any excursions planned prior to stepping off the ship, but we quickly booked a morning snorkeling trip (for way cheaper than the cruise ship would've charged us).

 We got to snorkel at three different spots for a total of 3 hours. It was pretty sweet. We bought a reusable, non-digital, water-proof camera but haven't developed those pics yet. Basically, the reef wasn't like you see in the movies. There actually wasn't a ton of reef. But there were so many fish! We saw all kinds of pretty tropical fish, a couple of rays, a jellyfish, and a few barracuda. Creepy.

When we got back to shore, it was only 11 am and we didn't have to be on the ship till 4. So we decided to do a little bit of self-guided island exploration on a scooter. It was so much fun! We drove all around the island.

 Found a little ice cream/popsicle shop we visted. Twice. I got lime both times. Mmmm...

 Checked out some Lamanite--I mean Mayan ruins.

 And found hole-in-the-wall, off-the-beaten-touristy-path shops to get yummy authentic Mexican food. In the morning, we got fried shrimp tortas that were awesome (for $2 a piece). I didn't get pics of those. And here's Kurt enjoying some fried shrimp (apparently he hadn't gotten enough of that yet) tacos for $1 a piece. He was happy.

Like any good cruise ship, we had towel animals waiting for us every afternoon. This was my favorite, because they even had him hanging from the ceiling. Although he looks like a weird, alien, demon monkey.
The next day was our last. Poo. It was at sea. We got up early and snagged some chairs on the deck. Read, ordered some sodas, grabbed food from the buffet, and watched the contests down by the pool. The boys even participated in one and won.

 Don't mind my strange tan lines. That's what happens when you juggle between 3 different suits in 7 days.

 Our last dinner. We savored it. The food was awesome.

 Yay for our cruisin' buddies!

 Every night the boys ordered two entrees. This is to document that.

 Our waiter Lucas, on the right, and his assistant Albert, on the left.

The next day we did not disembark at our assigned time. Instead, we played card games on the deck (which we did pretty much every night, which almost caused some marital problems since it was boys vs. girls) until they forced us off. It was strange to see the ship so empty. 

It was hard to leave, but the four of us are already planning our next cruise together!