Last week JP and I travelled down to Miami to catch the Norwegian Dawn and begin our cruise around the caribbean in the warm 85 degree weather! The 5 day cruise went to Georgetown, Grande Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico and was at sea the other 3 days. The ship was quite large and had many great restaurants, bars & cafes, pool areas, basketball court, golf driving range, night clubs, theaters and a wonderful promenade deck with shuffleboard! We spent almost every evening watching the sun set on the promenade deck and playing mean games of shuffleboard. ( I think JP won every game! )
Grande Cayman Island has a beach known as "7 mile beach". Although the beach is actually about 5.5 miles due to erosion, it used to be 7 miles, which is the whole western coast of the island. Here we snorkeled and enjoyed the beach along with almost everyone else on the island.
Cozumel, Mexico. Well we can't tell you much about Cozumel, except that it is an island off the coast of Mexico and we didn't set foot on it. We did an excursion to Tulum, the site of the Mayan ruins, which is on the main land of Mexico. We got off the cruise ship and got on a small ferry and got shuttled across the bay to main land Mexico. From there we took an hour bus ride to Tulum from Playa del Carmen. Tulum we learned was one of the greatest and last Mayan cities. It is situated up on a cliff over looking the Caribbean Sea. This city was not only one of the most protected due to its location but also one of the centers of the trade routes among the Mayan and other native folk. The Mayans were very advanced in terms of astronomy, math, and science and their calendar and ability to watch and predict the ways the starts moved allowed them to accurately calculate the cycle of the moon and the changing seasons. We also learned from our guide, Pedro, that the Spanish had nothing to do with the fall of the Mayan Empire. The Mayan Empire collapsed in the 9th century due to over population, class disputes and ultimately civil war. (So the wikipedia article on Tulum is wrong!) The whole idea of human sacrificing also was something that came about during the civil war period of the Mayans, and when the Spanish finally arrived in the 16th century they saw the destruction and human sacrifices from the civil war. There were still Mayans around but the Empire as a whole had collapsed long before the arrival of the Spanish. Another interesting thing our tour guide told us was that the Mayans were/are descendants of Asians. When the Bering Strait was frozen, Asian tribes crossed the sea into Alaska and some settled there (hence the Eskimo, Tlingit and other Native American tribes there). While others kept on moving south (The Sioux, Hopi, Navajo, etc) that settled in the US. While still others kept moving south and settled in Mexico and Central America (The Mayans) And still others kept going to settle in South America (The Incas).
Miami & The Everglades. Our last day we spent in Miami before flying home. First we went on a tour of the Everglades via fan boat, saw some alligators, turtles and snakes! Then we went and explored South Beach. We walked along that massive beach and down Ocean Drive. The weekend we were in Miami happened to be the South Beach Food and Wine Festival and we were lucky enough to get tickets to a wine and cheese tasting at the Betsy Ross rooftop bar. We were totally out of place as it was not something we planned on doing. We were not only under dressed but also out classed and out of our element. I think we were the only people with a mortgage and only 1 house. But it was free wine and there was a great view of the beach and city on the roof deck.
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