Cruise Post 1 of 2: Roatan

You guys.

Justin & I went on a cruise with some of his family (and a handful of others) late last month. I am here now to tell you all about it.

We sailed on the Carnival Magic for seven days and visited three ports:

1. Isla Roatan, Honduras
2. Belize City, Belize
3. Cozumel, Mexico

This is our second cruise. Our first was with on the now-retired Carnival Ecstasy (which is currently being transformed into the Carnival Sunshine) a few months after our wedding in 2010. We were completely by ourselves, and it was the first trip we had taken alone. We drove the near-8 hours to Galveston, stopping to sleep in Conroe the night before boarding. We were so excited and anxious, we drove around the Port of Galveston for 10 minutes searching for our parking lot (which ended up being right in front of the terminal). We were so relieved to just get on the ship! It was terrifying and awesome, and it wasn't until this cruise that we realized how special that time was. We look back and just want to pinch our own little cheeks for being so adorable. (And we're sure we'll continue this cycle for the rest of our lives.)

This cruise, we had 10 people in our party. Besides Justin and myself, we had 5 family members, 2 friends, and a neighbor. We drove two cars, and the car I was in ended up being the fun one. (Duh.) The trip down was extremely stressful, but we made it Conroe intact. We all ate at Wolfies for dinner that night, which is a really good seafood restaurant that sits right on the lake, but many of us were disappointed that they were out of crawfish for the season. AND the most upsetting part is that the servers were all wearing awesome Wolfies t-shirts and sweaters that wouldn't be available for customers for another 2 weeks! Lame.

View of Roatan from the ship in port.

We fell in love with Roatan. It was the first of three stops, and that set up the other two for complete failure, honestly. The people are amazing, the landscape is beautiful, and there's just a sense of community there. We met up with our tour guide, Kislin, who has been leading tours for 16 years. We were taken ziplining first, which is way more fun than I imagined. Afterward, we got to play with some monkeys and see their other animals, like toucans, sloths, and deer. (No deer hunting in Honduras, by the way, unless you want to go to jail. They told us the deer only have two babies in their lifetime, so they are very protected.)

Coconut trees and campaign posters.

View of the ship from the zipline cliff.

In Roatan, most everyone speaks both English and Spanish. The official language is Spanish, but the primary language is English. The teacher/student ratio is so unbalanced that they split classes up so some kids go to school in the morning, and the rest go in the afternoon. Most college classes are taught in the evenings.

An old wrecked ship by the other port in Roatan. (That's the Carnival Victory, not ours.)

Our tour guide took us to the pharmacy so we could get some medicine for one in our party with a sinus infection. They went in to buy the medicine, and the pharmacist asked if they had a prescription. When they said no, she immediately went in to tell the doctor. $20 and half an hour later, they had seen the doctor and gotten their prescription. (Talk about health care.)

The pharmacy.

We had lunch in a small restaurant right on the water. The view was awesome on all sides, and the food was great. The tacos were similar to American tamales, and comparing authentic Spanish food to a type of Americanized Mexican food made me laugh.

Walking up to where we'd eat lunch. (That's the owner of the restaurant.)

The view from my seat at lunch.

View of the restaurant from the pier. We're in the top part!

When we finished lunch, we continued our tour and ended up at a private beach called Parrot Bay. I had taken so many pictures all day, my battery died when we got there. Because of that, I wasn't able to capture the tiny hermit crabs Justin and I encountered as we walked around the water, or the dead squid we saw on the bank. This private beach was surrounded by nice townhouses (contact Century21) and also included a beautiful private pool.

After that, we headed back to the ship. Even though I was tired and sunburned, it was truly sad to leave. We intend on going back someday, and maybe if I'm lucky, we can have a vacation home there! I vote yes.

*All photos in this post were taken with my Samsung ST76.