Un-Belize-able

Thursday we made our way into Belize. Belize used to be a English settlement so everyone speaks English. There are 3 stop lights in Belize City and 1 of them works. We started on a 45 minute bus ride, and traffic rules are more like a suggestion rather than law. After the bus ride we loaded into our boats and and had another 45 minute boat ride up the river through the jungle. After I heard we might see alligators, I swear I saw at least 12. Not really but at that point every branch in the water turned into a tail.
We arrived at the Lamanai ruins, which are ancient Mayan temples. It was pretty cool seeing something so old that was still in relatively good condition.

The first temple our guide showed us, we were not allowed to climb on. So when we went to the next one and he said we could climb to the top, I took off. I was racing someone, and when I got to the landing on the top, I panicked a little when I realized I still had to get down. It is steeper then it looks, and a little scary! Not to worry, we all made it back safe!

The made us yummy chicken, beans and rice! And I thought it was incredible.
We had another formal night on the ship that night..............
and Melanie and Sue got down with their badselves!!

Roatan

Our second stop on the cruise was to Roatan, which is a small island off of Honduras. It was definately the poorest of the stops. It breaks your heart driving down the roads and seeing all the dilapidated houses that people were living in. None the less, it is beautiful!! It looks a little more like Hawaii than anything else in the Caribbean, and there were lots of dancers and drummers performing on the pier when we arrived. Roatan was day 1 of scuba diving and we were so excited, we hopped in a van that drove us to the other side of the island where the scuba shop was. It was the neatest little place in the middle of the jungle!
This is Mackenzie, my niece, and Tanner hanging out on the peir.
This is my two younger brother, Tanner and Sean, and my dad and I filling out forms and getting fitted for all our gear.
Ryan and I getting ready to get on the boat.
We had 21 family members diving that day! It was so cool to be sharing this experience with so many people.

Just hanging out


This is my mom at 75 feet below the surface!
It's always incredible to me what the bottom of the ocean looks like, I'll never get sick of it. In Roatan we did a wall dive, which means we went to the edge of the reef where there's a wall that then drops off in to the abyss. The colors are so bright and vibrant, which sadly is hard to capture on a camera. Tan Tan

Later that night we went to the Magic show on the ship I tried really hard to be chosen to go on stage and did not succeed. It was pretty good anyway.

Grand Cayman

Our first stop was Grand Cayman which is part of the British West Indies, so English is the language and they drive on the other side of the road. It is a very nice, clean island. We were all headed to Sting Ray City, which is a sand bar about 5 miles out in the ocean. Back in the day when the fishing boats came in from the reef they would stop here to clean the fish and dump the extras into the ocean. The stingrays soon caught on, and then the divers caught on that there were always stingrays, and thus the popularity now. I was fully expecting to go to an aquarium, or man made pool and I was shocked when our boat took us to this sand bar, anchored the boat and gave us squid to feed them. It was incredible!! It took me a while to feel okay with them just swimming up on my chest looking for food, but it was awesome.
This is Ryan and I on our boat ride out to stingray city. The water was unreal!
This is Sean! All the dark spots in the water are rays.
We also did some snorkeling a little further out and this was one of the fish we ran into. I believe it's a trumpet fish but I could be wrong. We also came across a giant eel hiding under a rock and I was terrified. Although at the same time, in this crystal clear water, nothing really seems real.
This is my immediate family after snorkeling.
Sean and I obviously trying to alert the photographer that there was a giant ray behind them.
My dad dancing with a sting ray.
Even Grandma got in the water to play with them!! The look on my mom's face says it all!!

Finished with a fun day in the sun, we're all headed back to the ship!

Day 1 & 2

So I decided I would document this vacation day by day. Let me start by saying we had a blast. It was so much fun to be with everyone! We did miss a few of you and we wish you were there. It was also really neat to be able to scuba dive with 25 members of my family!! The picture above is me on my way to the airport!! I was so excited!
This wasn't even half of the group!! This was our first afternoon on the ship when we were still docked in Miami!
This is my aunt Patti, me, Sean, my brother, and my mom.

Sunday night we battled it out with the Canadians as we all watched the hockey game on the main deck. It seemed like half the people on the ship were Canadian. Tanner lead the revolution in cheering for the USA, he was head cheerleader. It was so funny!!
That night after dinner we all went to the opening night show, it was good for a few laughs.
Aw, nothing like starting off my morning with my fountain fun card!!
Laying out in the morning!! Monday was a day at sea so we just hung out in the sun and ate!

Then in the afternoon I volunteered Sean to be the Family Feud!! I'm not sure how much he appreciated it but it was entertaining!
Our first formal night was Monday night, so it was fun to get all dressed up and go to dinner.

This is the whole Clark Clan that was on the trip! Please note Wade in his kilt!

Update for now!!

This is just a little snippit of our fun in the Caribbean! We had a blast and I'll add more later.