Caribbean Cruise

Carnival.com

Last week I went on my first cruise with my parents, sister, aunt, uncle, two cousins, and one of their girlfriends. I was excited to be leaving the country again and to see more of the world. I tried to prepare myself for the tourist mindset instead of the missionary. Overall it was a great trip. The weather was perfect. We didn't have problems with luggage. It was mostly what I expected; laying out in the sun, snorkeling in the ocean, and watching shows on the ship. 

My favorite port was Belize City. For a couple of reasons: it reminded me a lot of Haiti and my sister, Hannah, and I took a tour by ourselves to explore some of the Mayan ruins. We took a two hour bus ride to the ruins so we saw a lot of Belize and our tour guide shared a lot of information. Because it did look so similar to Haiti I think it was hard for me to be okay with being a tourist but our guide told us tourism is their biggest form of revenue and she loved us being there, taking pictures and telling our friends about it. So that made me feel better.

In Cozumel and Roatan we found beautiful beaches to relax on and at Grand Cayman the nine of us went snorkeling over a sunken ship, fed stingrays, and played with starfish. This vacation was filled with many things I had never done before and I loved that I got to experience these countries with my family. I'm glad I got to go some places by myself first though because after seeing how everyone drives I don't know if my mom would have let me leave America :)