Monday, January 3, 2011

cruise part 1: excursions

so, out of our 7 days on the cruise, we stopped at 3 different places and hung out on the ship for the other 4.

first stop: Cozumel, Mexico.
casey's brother , cody, set up our excursion to some ancient ruins in Tulum with an LDS tour guide.
so awesome.
we loved every minute of it.
if i were a lamanite/nephite, i would most definitely live in Tulum, it was gorgeous there next to the ocean!
our tour guide, Helaman, was amazing. he knew so much! the pictures on the wall, the time period of them found, and the stories depicted in pictures all coincide perfectly with the timing and stories of the book of mormon, absolutely incredible and so fun to learn!
everything testified that the book of mormon was true!
this was sadly the 1st day that casey's sister, karlee, wasn't feeling well so his mom stayed behind with her causing neither to see the ruins :(
by the end of the day karlee, mom, and dad all left the cruise ship to the hospital and that was the last we saw them :(



(excursions are out of order, sorry)
3rd stop: Colon, Panama
this is the day where a lot of our family memebers were sick and not feeling well.
i was sick the previous day but somehow got enough energy to go out, and i was SO glad i did!
casey's sister (tayli), casey and i got to kayak the panama canal!
the water was much muddier than usual bc of lots of recent rain...
and it sprinkled/rained on us 1/2 of the time...
but the whole time we kept thinking "how many people can say they have kayaked the canal?"
so we still had lots of fun :)
the rain forest was incredibly THICK too!
i was waiting the whole time for some big dinosaur to pop its head out and eat us! (see 2nd pic on right)
we also took a stop at the actual panama canal locks,
pretty incredible is all i can say!
and the pic of our feet is the result of different wet flip flops rubbing on us all day (tayli's are peeling like crazy)

2nd stop: Limon, Costa Rica
our plans of just relaxing on the beach were dampened by the rain and the cost of just driving to the beach!
so with some last minute adjusting, we took a little tour of the city and then went on a boat ride through the rain forest canals!
we saw monkeys, little birds, wild banana trees, and a tiny alligator!
we then took an hour or two to relax on the beach after the rain had passed.
all in all, we really enjoyed our day in costa rica! 
(this is also the day i felt terrible most the time, as soon as our excursion ended i took a visit to the nearest trash can and gave it my lunch)



2 comments:

Cody and Camille said...

Yay for being the first to post! Loved every bit of it. We really did have fun despite all the craziness!:)

Jacie Saltzman said...

awesome!! that looks like so much fun! and what a good cruise! what was it called? and i love tulum! we went there on our honeymoon, but not on a LDS tour, that would have been so cool!! such a beautiful city! we asked our guide if he knew anything about the city regarding the church and he only knew a couple things. what a great break u had!!