Future NCL Cruises - Here we go again! :)

When you are on a cruise, you have the opportunity to book future cruises at great prices (seriously). We booked 2 future cruises this time around. We are extremely fortunate to be able to do this!

14-Day Chilean Fjords Cruise
Winter Break 2007















Itinerary:

• Santiago (Valparaiso), Chile
• Puerto Montt, Chile
  
• Puerto Chacabuco, Chile
  
• Cruise Patagonic Channels
• Cruise The Chilean Fjords
• Cruise Straights Of Magellan
• Punta Arenas, Chile
  
• Cruise Beagle Channel (Glacier Cruising)
• Ushuaia, Argentina
  
• Cruise Cape Horn
• Stanley, Faulkland Islands
• Puerto Madryn, Argentina
  
• Montevideo, Uruguay
  
• Buenos Aires, Argentina
  

9 Day Southern Caribbean Cruise
Spring Break 2008















Itinerary:

• Miami, Florida
  
• Samana, Dominican Republic
  
• Tortola, British Virgin Islands
  
• St. John's, Antigua
• Bridgetown, Barbados
• Castries, St. Lucia
• Miami, Florida
  

Various Shipboard Winnings

Ok, we didn't win a free cruise, but did win a bit of goodies.

Lori = $141 from Bingo
Lynn = $161 + a keychain from Bingo
Megan = Satisfaction of being the superior gender from last night's competition.
Joel = $310 from various things

Belize, Part Two

Another lesson learned: Don't let the husband make any unsupervised posts to this blog!

Belize is a pretty amazing place. We took a tour around Belize City on the bus that time forgot that broke down once in-between a few heavily-armed police checkpoints. Yeah, THAT was fun. We later boarded an airboat to see Mantees, native birds, gators, etc.

The country is very young & still developing. from a US standard of living, the residents have nothing (the typical person earns about $80 a week). However, our guides and others we had the opportunity to talk to were extremely proud of their country & how it is much more developed than some of their neighboring counties.

However, everyone we talked to mentioned that pretty much all Belizians (sp?) who had electricity @ home had cable & were very in tune to all-things USA.

Pretty much any kind of meds that require a prescription in the US could be purchased in Belize w/o any needed doctor's note in many of the tourist shops & pharmacies.

Belize It or Not (part 1)

Handy travel tip... Never bring your husband on an airboat ride through the mangroves outside of Belize City. Why? Because he will spend the rest of the day holding his arms out, leaning to the left & making airboat noises (sounds like "Bpphbpphbpphbpph").

More to come tomorrow.

Free Range Iguanas

We're very fortunate. How many people get a chance to see and photograph free range iguanas? Today we spent the day in Tulum, which are ancient Mayan ruins by the sea near Playa del Carmen. Eventually, we'll get the pictures posted. Until then...

Here's an imaginary picture of "George, the Iguana of Great Importance" sunning himself (on 2nd thought, it could be "Georgette, the Iguana Wife of George") on the rocks of the Tulum ruins. A smile crosses George's mouth. He is watching tourists from all over the world (including two from Seattle) fawn over his great importance. George is posing. Posing for a spread in "Mode" (the magazine headed by Daniel Meade -- Betty ran out and picked up some crickets for George's mid-day snack). George rules!

Anyway. We heard over dinner that there was snow/ice in Seattle yesterday. Cool! We are suffering through 88 degree weather while you all are snow-shoeing.

Tomorrow's stop is Belize. We'll miss George.

Progreso (not the soup)

We spent most of the day in Merida, which is the captial of the State of Yucatan. The temperature was in the 90's today, which is a big change from the overcast day at sea and the tornado watches in Houston (not kidding).

The pier @ Progreso is 6 miles long. It was built this way such that large ships could dock without having to damage the limestone shelf that surrounds the port. Progreso usually has a population of around 35K. During Spring Breaks and other key holidays, this population balloons to greater than 300K.

Tomorrow we will be in Cozumel/Playa del Carmen & are planning to see some Mayan ruins.

Good News/Bad News

This is a brief post. The good news/bad news is explained below.

Good News: Things have been truly wonderful so far. There is a great Houston-to-the-ship story which will come later. We also met "Bob" the Cabdriver from India's cousin.

Bad News: Our Macbook stopped booting up earlier today, so there likely won't be elaborate postings (meaning ones with pictures) until after we have returned. There may be a well-traveled Macbook up for grabs sometime soon...

We spend tomorrow in Progreso, Mexico.