Our first stop was at Roatan, Honduras. None of our family has ever been to Honduras, so it was fun to have it be a first for all of us together. We took a picture at the dock right off of the boat. All of the cruise ships use the same ports. There are always multiple cruise ships docked when we stop at the ports; and as soon as you get off of the ship, there are plenty of tourist shops and stores to do your shopping. We were able to get a picture with all of us and the Kasallis family with our cruise ship right behind us.
Turning around from the previous picture, you can see Honduras and the town center at the dock. I loved the green hills and the flags - one for the cruises and one for Honduras. We walked through the shops and headed to the taxi stands. We found drivers to take us where we wanted to go. Our large group of multiple families ended up splitting up between the group that went to a beach and the group that headed to an animal reserve to see sloths and other animals. Our family stayed together and headed to the beach, except for Tessa who really wanted to see the sloths. We were taken to a beach that was off of a restaurant. We thought it was free, but they wanted to charge us to use their beach seats and shade. After paying for the taxi driver, we didn't want to spend another 20 dollars or more per person, so we had a little hiccup there, but we ended up walking down the beach a little to the free part without seats, and then just returned to the restaurant to eat so we could use their tables and bathrooms. Taryn's flip-flops broke on the ship, so we found a shop on the beach to buy her some new flip-flops. There was this huge Honduras flag right in front of the shopping spot, so I took a picture of Taryn with it.
We relaxed on the beach while the kids did some body surfing. The weather was amazing. I just kept thinking about how it was a few days before Christmas, in December!, and I was on a beach in beautiful warm weather.
A group of kids, including Abby, went out on a boat to try snorkeling. They had fun and got a little sunburned. I took pictures of the girls as they found me on the beach. I loved being able to take the picture from the angle so you could see the ocean, the beach, and the first line of trees and green. Honduras was beautiful on the beach. After Tessa returned from their adventure, I took her picture too.
The kids had fun on the beach. Here's Aubrey with the green palm trees and hills behind her. She loved body surfing and searching for shells. Taryn loved the water and sand as well. I sunbathed and put my feet in the water when I got too warm. Tyler tried snorkeling along the coast, but the waves made it kind of hard.
I loved watching the girls play together and here you can see the beautiful weather above the ocean with the blue skies and fluffy clouds. The girls had so much fun.
Once all of the families returned from their other errands and the animal reserve, our girls were happy to have friends to play with on the beach as well. The waves were perfect for body surfing. They were strong enough to surf on, but not too strong that you had to worry about the kids out in the water.
All of the kids had fun together. When they needed a break from the water, we had to do our traditional sand burying. I turned Taryn and Teagan into merpeople.
Logan had surgery on his knee the month before the cruise, so he was limited on what he could do. He had a wheelchair on the ship, but had to use crutches at the beach. He couldn't do any of the fun things in the water. One of the Honduran ladies talked him into doing braids in his hair. Her friend talked Taryn into doing her hair as well, so they sat on the beach together and had their hair braided.
Here's a picture of most of the teenagers on the beach of Roatan. It's Abby, Eli, Brynn, Brynly, AJ, Logan, and Jonathan.
Aubrey was in the back of our van. Audrey took a picture of these kids as we headed to the beach. Warren, Sam, and Aubrey were close in age and did a lot of stuff together. Tessa's group left in a different taxi, but I got some pictures from one of the other adults who went with them. Their group stopped by a pharmacy for some supplies and then went to the animal reserve.
Luckily, the other moms took some great pictures. They got to hold sloths and learn about them. She came back from there convinced that she needed her own pet sloth. She loved it! It was her favorite part of the entire cruise. All of the people who got to see the sloths loved it. They thought it was amazing and that we all should've gone. They got to hold birds and walk around in the same habitats where the animals lived. Lisa Esplin, one of the other moms, said getting the hug from the sloth was the best part of the adventure. She said she didn't want to hold it at first, but with how snuggly it was, she said everyone should get a hug from a sloth because it would cheer anyone up immediately. They all said it was the best thing ever!
Before heading back onto the cruise ship, we made some stops at the stores for souvenirs. The kids picked out shirts, ornaments, and other knick knacks that they found.
Our second stop was in Costa Maya, Mexico. As we left the cruise ship at this port, we had to walk down a long dock and then through a ton of shopping stores before we found the taxi spot. While we decided what all we wanted to do at this port, we hung out by this Costa Maya sign and took pictures. Right next to the sign was a funny post with a hanging coconut. It had instructions on the weather based on what was happening to the coconut. Like if you couldn't see the coconut, it was foggy and so forth. It was pretty funny.
My parents came off the boat at each of the ports, but only long enough to take some pictures with us and do a little shopping. Then they'd head back to the ship and hang out at the pools or on the decks. They said it was the best days for them because there weren't very many people on the boat, so they enjoyed the peace and quiet. My mom had surgery on her knee in October, so she didn't want to do too much walking and the sandy beaches are too hard on her knees. I was glad we got some pictures with them though. These were taken along the dock that we had to walk on between the ship and the town.
We all ended up taking taxis to a beach and just finding another restaurant's portion of the beach. Thankfully we didn't have to pay to use their beach chairs or umbrellas as long as we promised to buy food from them. We saw flamingos on our walk through the town and Taryn and Teagan found this swing as we walked along the sidewalk behind the beaches. There were so many shopping spots along the walkway too. Everyone kept taking turns walking down the row of shops to see about purchasing their secret Santa gifts for their family members. I had pulled Tyler's name for our secret Santa gift exchange and I found him a tiki mask with the BYU logo on top. I thought it was cool and knew he'd love it.
The owners of the restaurant were nice enough to let us use more than their beach lounging chairs. They had kayaks and paddle boards on the beach that the kids were very excited to use. There were also a ton of shells that were on the beach and in the shallow water. Aubrey and Teagan gathered quite a collection of conch shells and other shells. They even found some living sea creatures that they kept in the shallow water until they drifted away.
The kids were really good about taking turns with the kayaks and other equipment. Audrey and I even took a turn to kayak out into the ocean a bit. It was really fun. The restaurant's bathroom had this really cool sink made from shells, so I had to take a picture as Tessa used it.
This was my favorite beach and favorite port day because there was so much to do and everyone was so happy. The kids found a ton of different shells and loved to collect them and show them off. Aubrey and Sam kept finding bigger and bigger conch shells. They would find them as they kayaked out in the water. They were the same color as the sand, so they were really hard to see, but they just kept finding them.
A group of dads and a few of the teenagers went in together to take a fishing trip. The restaurant workers had a boat we split the cost for and they would take you out in the ocean to fish and if you caught anything, they'd cook it up for you right there at the restaurant. Tyler loves to fish so he went out with Logan who couldn't do anything else in the water. They had fun, but they said it was really choppy and bouncy.
Some of the people on the boat got a little seasick, but they were able to catch two fish. I think Tyler and Logan were the ones who reeled them in. When they got back, the restaurant did cook the fish and we all ate some fish tacos that were delicious. Tyler was happy that he got to do some ocean fishing and Logan had a great time too. At the end of the day, the boat driver ended up tossing the leftover fish bait out of the boat, and the huge birds came swooping in. They'd catch the fish right out of the air, so all of the kids had to have a turn throwing fish bait straight up into the air. They thought it was the coolest thing. The most nerve wracking part of the trip was that we had to rush back to the cruise ship after we quickly ate the fish tacos. The group on the fishing boat took a little longer than planned, and we had to wait longer than we thought we would for our taxis, so by the time we made it back to the shops by the dock, we didn't have time to buy any shirts or souvenirs. We basically ran back to the ship in hopes of not being left behind. It was a little scary because they have a set time that the ship leaves and if you're not back on the ship, it'll leave you. So I was sad that I didn't get a bell from Costa Maya and the girls didn't get t-shirts, but luckily we made it back on the ship with barely any time to spare.
Our final destination port was Cozumel, Mexico. With missing out on shopping in Costa Maya, we ended up doing all of our shopping at the beginning of this stop. There were also a ton of shops right off the dock on Cozumel. We all went our separate ways and found our last minute Christmas gifts and souvenirs. We stayed with the Kasallis family for this day while the other families had excursions that took them to other parts of Cozumel.
It was another long walk along a dock to get from the ship to the port. They had these open frames along the dock so I had to have a family picture. I also wanted more of our cruise ship, so we took this one at the end of the dock so you could see what the front of our cruise ship looked like. I love the family pictures I was able to get of all six of us together.
Luckily the kids didn't mind all of the shopping since they had friends to keep them entertained. My girls actually liked being able to push Logan in his wheelchair and practice using his crutches even though they were too big for all of them. Abby and Aubrey loved the huge sombrero hats that they saw at one of the shops. We found the remainder of our secret Santa gifts and ornaments, and I was able to get a bell too.
We took another taxi to a beach and after being told it was free beaches, we thought we were going to have to pay again. Fortunately, a restaurant worker talked us into coming to his restaurant and letting us use their beach as long as we ate there. We were fine with that. The beach was another beautiful one with huge palm trees lining the sand. We used some tables on the sand by the restaurant and ate some lunch and then the kids played in the sand and the waves.
There were some huge floats and obstacle courses in the water, but you had to pay extra for those. The girls were fine with just playing in the waves and searching for more shells. They found quite a few and wanted to take them all home with them. We talked them into just taking pictures with them for the memories instead.
Logan and AJ got matching henna tattoos around their arms. The girls wanted some too, so they talked Tyler into letting them get little designs on the inside of their wrists. It was fun being together, just the Kasibbons. We always get along so well and we love hanging out together. Some of us took a walk down the beach to a little pier where the kids snorkeled off the end. They also had swings along the end of the pier that we all took turns on. The brave ones even jumped from the swing into the water below.
Here are the kids playing in the water with some friends they met on the beach. This little boy was from England and Taryn and Teagan had fun playing with him. You can see the inflatables behind them, but they were content to snorkel in the water and search for shells in the sand.
Here's another picture of Taryn and Teagan with their new friends from England, a brother and sister. They had fun playing together in the water and were sad when we had to leave to make it back to the ship in time. Being at the beaches on all of our port days were my favorite parts of the cruise. I liked the ship and loved the food and activities on it, but being on the beach and relaxing near the water was definitely the highlight of the vacation for me. I think I'm more of a resort vacation girl than a cruising girl I've decided. But it was a great vacation and we loved it. I was happy to be with my family and that we got to do something like this together before our kids start leaving home.
No comments:
Post a Comment