This was going to be my first major trip with Thu's friends. I'm not a huge fan of going on cruises, but it was easy to organize with a group, relatively inexpensive and a good way to see a variety of countries with the possibility of returning later. I thought it was a little funny standing in a lineup before heading out to sea and going over the ship's safety procedures.
A full day at sea. Just as I thought. Boredom, an overabundance of bad food, awkward dinner with strangers, and Slumdog Millionaire playing on a loop in our rooms. At least we were with good company, and had some fun activities planned once we got off the ship.
Seven Mile Beach...a perfect place to kill some time before heading out to Stingray City. We found a poor little crab and tormented it until he made his escape.
The wave-runners were one of the highlights of our trip. We used them to get out to Stingray City. The guide wasn't too concerned for our safety, and allowed us to take off across the perfectly clear water as fast as we dared. The girls all teamed up, and I was luckily left on my own. This is where I first learned how slow of a driver Lien is. It's hard to describe how unique this experience was. Everyone's been on a wave-runner before, but tearing through the ocean, with the colors below in the water changing so quickly as you pass over reefs and different depths turned it into something so much more.
The stingrays are so used to people, they act like puppies. When you approach they know there will be food, and they flock to you. It was a little intimidating at first, being "sting" rays, but seeing the guide handle them, even lift them onto our backs, you realize how tame they are unless stepped on.
Someone had been killed a week before ziplining on Roatan, so we were a little nervous. After looking at the shoddy assembly of the ziplines, and witnessing the lack of safety standards we should have been terrified. However, it was the most fun you can have on a zipline. They allowed us to run and jump off at the beginning, double up on one line, go upside-down. After this crazy experience, I don't think there will ever be a reason to go ziplining again because it will never be this free and exciting.
Afterwards I had a monkey make it's home on my shoulders. He didn't seem to like women, and if approached by any of my group, he would scream and swat them away. I think he was jealous.
After a short walk through the rainforest of Belize, we jumped off a small cliff into the river, where we proceeded to drift on tubes down through a series of caves. The water was cool, the caves were dark, and sometimes the water was just a bit too shallow to float through. It was fun, but didn't quite live up to the hype.
This was my first time snorkeling in the ocean. After a moment of claustrophobic terror, I calmed down and learned how to dive without panicking. Unfortunately, there wasn't much down there to see. The most interesting part was trying to fight the current so you weren't carried downshore away from the group. A couple of us didn't do so well with that. It was a good introduction to snorkeling, but definitely not a recommended place to try it.
Ziplining part 2. Not fun. There were too many restrictions, and after going in Honduras, this was really no fun.
This girl behind Lien kept showing up on our excursions. She was a spoiled, whiny Midwesterner and we just couldn't escape her and the group she was with. She represented everything we really don't like about the cruise world.
