Bates Fam: March 2009

For those of you who don't know, we went on a cruise in February. It was our first and I have to admit, I am not a fan of cruising. I hated how the ship rocked and if you are not a drinker or gambler, which we aren't, then there is really little to do on the ship. I think if we would have went with friends, it might have been a little funner but, really, I don't think another cruise is in my future. I kept on thinking while being bored on the ship that I could have been relaxing on a sunny beach somewhere or exploring an island. Which we did stop in Key West (beautiful) and Cozumel (not so beautiful), but did not get to spend much time there to see what the islands had to offer. I went on the trip with the intention of taking a lot of photos but, we were there for such a short period of time that we didn't have a lot to look at, in Key West anyway. Cozumel was mostly jungle brush (thick, half dead brush and palms) and their beaches were dirty and had a lot of lava rock. I'm sure Cozumel had one or two small, pretty beaches to visit but you had to pay to visit them. We also rented scooters and drove around the island so we didn't want to waste our money on the beaches that were full of people that couldn't even swim in the water because it was too cold. The temperature most the time on our trip was in the low sixties to high fifties with gusts of wind. We did found one little spot with really pretty, peachy/tan sand next to shore and the water was this gorgeous turquoise color but about 10 feet from the shore it was littered with trash and debris. Across the street from this beach we stopped at was a little hut that held a store on the lower part and a restaraunt on it's upper deck - normal, right? Well, when we went to get on our scooters to leave, we noticed this huge 300-400 lb. pig behind this restaraunt that must have been dinner for the next group of tourist. NASTY! You wouldn't see that in America.

By the way, we boarded the ship in Miami, FL. I thought Miami would be at least as pretty as sunny California, but I was wrong. It was mostly concrete, city, cargo shipping, very little beaches and hardly any trees. It was full of Spanish speaking Cubans. Don't get me wrong, I really like Cuban people but, did you know that English is a second language in Miami - Spanish is their first? Everyone there has some sort of accent and it was hard to find any people there who were friendly. Plus it was way expensive, dinners at restaraunts cost you at least $80 for 2 adults and a child, and you couldn't go anywhere in a cab without spending at least $40 one way, 10-15 minute drive. It was also so humid there that I don't know how the people there hold a hairstyle, my hair was flat in seconds.

OK, so I vented enough about our dive of a trip. I'll end by saying, don't make the same mistake we did!

Check out the photos... Start at the bottom and scroll up, I accidently put them in backwards.

It was sooooooo time to go home. Even if that meant a 7 hour flight home. Luckily it was broke up by one little lay-over in Minneapolis. It gave me an excuse to break down and finally buy the Stephanie Meyer books and read them on the way.

Or maybe it was all the Spanish being spoken over the Miami Airport intercom. They would announce the flights in Spanish quite a few times before it was time to board the plane and then once it was time to board they would announce the flights once in English. How crazy is that?!

I think all that water and the rocking the ship was doing made Kolten a little goofy.

Then it was back on the cruise ship at 9:30 that night. I was not looking forward to being on the ship for 2 days straight heading back to Miami.

I must say, it was beautiful at night.

Besides jewelry, this was about the only other kind of stuff to buy in Cozumel. If you did find anything else worth buying, (and let me tell you, you had a hard time doing that) they had it marked up so high that you could buy ten of the same thing in the States.

This was our ship below.

We found the Cozumel Fire Dept. Yeah!

OK, I know, I look just as dorky.

Woot, Woo!

If you can look past Rick's shiny little yellow scooter hat, you'll see they found a blow hole that the ocean water kept coming up through. He wanted to walk out and take a look at it and when he got there he didn't notice where it was at until the water came splashing through and almost soaked him. It just missed him though dang it!

This is the beach we were on.

This is what most of the beaches are at Cozumel. Lava rock.

There it is. HUGE, huh? Also check out the jungle brush in the background. That is what half of Cozumel is covered in.

This is the place that had the pig behind it.

Kind of a neat little Mexican hut though.

This was the true beach we were on. There was broken bottles, dirty dipers, lost shoes and trash all over mixed in with the seaweed. Sad too, it would have been awesome to be on if they just took an hour a day to rake up.

Don't let the next few picture fool you. Yes, the beach does look beautiful from these angles.

This was the little restaurant I was telling you about earlier. We didn't dare eat there but we did get a bottled coke.

The buildings would have been awesome if they weren't so filthy.

This was looking the other direction.

This was looking downtown as you got off the ramp from the ship.

I couldn't get enough of that water.

Imagine parking these babies!

This was looking down at the water as we pulled up next to a ship that was already docked.

Welcome to Cozumel. Don't judge a book by it's cover. This book sucked once you started reading.

Looking down from the ship at some people helping the ship dock. I'm still wondering what their job was on the dock. Was it to hold the boat with their hands so that it didn't hit the dock...ha...ha...ha...

This was what the water turned into.

Then as we pulled up to Cozumel the water glowed with this BEAUTIFUL torquoise blue color. That was by far the best thing in Cozumel!

You could tell when you were headed toward Cozumel when the water color started to change. The water from Key West to Cozumenl was this dark purple/blue color that you see below.

Rick was most of the eye candy I looked at but he did a lot of candystore peaking all around the ship on that sunny day.

Finally a sunny day to go swimming. To bad everyone else had the same idea.

Every night they turned down our beds and made us towel animals. That was probably Kolten's favorite part of the whole trip. Shouldn't Kolten's shirt read boatsick instead off carsick?

I made Rick stand there so I could get some proof to take to the bishop of him buying some booze on the trip. Just kidding, it was virgin Pina Coladas @ $5 each.

Picture of the ship.

This was looking toward the back of the ship from where Kolten was swimming.

But of course, again, Kolten had to go swimming.

The wind was whipping my hair and the blanket around like crazy. Also if you notice, no one else was out on the deck like us crazy idiots.

The picture below is the front of the ship. It was about 6 or 7 at night. The sun had just barely gone down. That night was freezing cold and all we had to look forward to was ocean until 2pm the next day when we reached Cozumel.

What a cutie!

Leaving Key West.

That's all he ever got done doing.

Of course, Kolten had to swim again!

It was actually half way sunny that day, windy though. Look behind me, there must have been more Idahoan's on the ship.

Leaving Key West.

Isn't the water gorgeous!

Standing next to the ship, ready to get on.

Residential Street in Key West.

Key West.

People made money in the strangest ways in Key West. This guy was standing on the street holding a snake and would let people hold it and get a photo for $10. I swear Kolten held that thing for like 2 minutes. What were we thinking? Apparently we weren't the only suckers. He had a short line to hold the snake.

They had really different names for the local hangouts. Kinda neat.

The ship below was one of MANY along this long dock that cuddled next to a bunch of fishing markets, tackle shops and whatever other kind of shops you could think of for fishermen. All of the shops where made out of old rustic looking wood too. Kind of the color of the deck they are standing on. It was so beautiful. It kind of reminded me of the old Jaws movies. I was an idiot though and forgot to turn the camera to the left and snap a shot.

This was a cool little restaurant we stopped at for lunch. The residants in Key West were so friendly. A lot of Americans travel on vacation to Key West and never leave. Just like Miami and Cubans.

We stopped at Ripley's Believe It or Not while in Key West. Kolten will one day regret all of the faces he pulled in the photos we took. This is him standing next to the tallest guy in the world record books. By the way, Kolten is 5' tall now.

City of Key West. See the spruced up golf cart. That is what you saw most of on the streets in Key West. People were clearly on vacation when you hit this island. I think shorts and tanks were the dress code.

Key West.

We rode a trolley from the ship in to the city of Key West through the residential streets. It was really neat seeing the character of the island houses. So charming, I thought. Plus they had the coolest trees.

The ship also had a fun little water slide. Check it out, Kolten was the only one swimming most of the days on the ship. Again, proof that we are from Idaho.

I could not keep my hair out of my face or anyone else's that came near me...

This weather really sucked!

This was one little spot we thought was really pretty in Miami. We snapped this photo as we were leaving for Key West. It was one of the last pieces of land we saw until the next day when we made it to Key West.

This is what you see most of in Miami... I don't know about you but, I really appreciate Idaho after seeing this.

Check out the gray skies. This is the weather Kolten was swimming in.

Finally, leaving Miami...

Miami.

Take a look at the water in this picture... This was in Miami. I would say it is the typical color for most of America. Compare it to the water I will show you in Cozumel and Key West. It is very interesting.

Didn't we make those life jackets look good! (Yeah Right) Notice how much fun everyone was having while they instructed us for an hour how to put on a life jacket and find our embarking letter incase the ship sunk. It probably would have taken me or you about 1 minute to discuss.

It was in and out of the hot tub the whole time, though.

Here is the only tiny swimming pool on the 1500? vacation passenger ship. Notice Kolten is the only one you see getting in the water, yes we are from Idaho, and yes we swim in water when it is only 60 degrees outside and windy.