Lydia’s first of many journeys

So to no one’s surprise, we decided to get Lydia a passport and get her out of the country before her first birthday.  While we had high hopes for her travel gusto, it’s always terrifying for new parents to get on a plane with an infant.  We definitely did not want to go on a long flight in case she didn’t take it so well, so we decided that a cruise was the best first journey for our little Liddy Sue!

We ended up on Carnival Cruise Lines because it ended up being cheaper than the others, even with Lydia costing the same as any other third passenger in a cabin.  Other lines have deals for infants, but their base price was much higher.  The Western Caribbean was the best choice for us because Lydia would pick up four new countries, while Jaime would pick up three (and make her country count exceed her age again, a must for the trip!).  I had done this same itinerary before, so no new countries for me, but with Lydia there, it was a totally different experience and I got to see many different sights this time around.

Pre-cruise

The flight, much to our relief, went very well.  Lydia is a born flyer!  It was totally uneventful, then we landed in Tampa and took a free shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express near the airport.  Since Jaime and I were determined not to check any luggage because of the ridiculous baggage fees, we had to pick up diapers in Tampa which was much more difficult than you’d expect.  After a lengthy cab ride, we were stocked and ready.  The hotel provided a crib, but Lydia did not like her new bed and ended up sleeping with us — in a double bed…  Yeah, it was as fun as it sounds!

Cozumel, Mexico

It took a full day and a half to arrive in Cozumel, so we just enjoyed getting our bearings on the ship.  Luckily, Lydia was much more receptive to the cruise-provided crib.  We decided to wing it in Cozumel so we found a taxi stand and started haggling for a ride to the best local runs on the island, San Gervasio.  The first offer was $100, which was cheaper than the cruise but still steep.  I lingered around a little bit and overheard two ladies doing their own haggling and joined in.  With our parties combined, the tout agreed to $50 (for us).  We noticed one other family looking around, invited them to join us, and got our price down to $40; now we’re talking!

Upon arrival in San Gervasio, we were on our own and a guide quickly took note and offered his services.  We turned him down and he tried again saying how important a guide is because we wouldn’t know what we were looking at without him.  We just kept on walking.  The ruins at San Gervasio were pretty well preserved, and it was quite the opposite of what the “guide” said.  Each ruin was labeled and had a paragraph about the site in multiple languages!  None of the ruins were very tall, but the site was impressive in its overall size; it was scattered over a large area with long paths between temples.  Unfortunately, these paths were insanely bumpy and not conducive to using strollers at all.  We ended up carrying Lydia in her stroller for most of the time.  Somehow, she slept right through all of it!

After the ruins, our driver took us to a tourist trap tequila factory.  The guide at the factory was quite amusing though so we didn’t feel as much pressure as the typical unrequested tourist trap stop.  We got to sample a lot really good tequila in the process, and used Lydia as a excuse to sneak out when the prices were revealed.

Belize City, Belize

We winged it again in Belize and quickly found several tour companies right off the pier (I suspect Carnival prevented competition in Cozumel).  After attempting to haggle a bit, I found that most of the companies had very similar tours at nearly the same prices.  I refused to pay full price though, so I found someone that would give me (a meager) $10 off, so we paid $80 for a trip to Altun Ha and a city tour.  It took a while to get an actual van, and we had to wait longer to pick up some stragglers, but that’s how the game works — quick to sell it, but longer to organize it.

The ride out there was annoying and entertaining, both because of the same passenger.  A guy in the back of the van kept screaming (mostly stupid) questions to the driver at the top of his lungs, but then made us laugh by repeatedly asking his wife to take pictures out of the window “take it, take it, take it, take it, missed it!” (repeat literally dozens of times).

The Altun Ha site was phenomenal!  There are two hills still covered in grass so you can see how the others must have looked to explorers.  You enter a large square field with the two covered hills on two sides and two restored ones on the other sides.  You are able to climb and explore everything on your own, which we took turns and did.  Outside of the first field, there’s a much larger template by itself.  From the top of that one, you can see everything crystal clear.  It was quite a sight to see and experience!

The trip back was mostly uneventful except that because of our late initial departure and some dilly dallying at Altun Ha, we were running very late!  We were very concerned about missing our ship, especially because we had to ‘tender’ back to the cruise ship (meaning take a small boat over).  We expressed our concerns but the driver kept randomly stopping to talk about buildings and it was quite frustrating.  We made it with about 10 minutes to spare, which was way too close for our blood!

Isla Roatan, Honduras

In Isla Roatan, we decided to book an excursion through Carnival.  Good thing we did because the port was exclusively owned by Carnival and we wouldn’t have had any other options even onshore!  The port was mostly empty as it was the slow season (there is usually more than one ship in port), but it was nice and clean with lots of shops, if you like that kind of thing.  Our favorite part was a booth where you could get a Honduran passport stamp.  It was run by Rotary International, and they asked for a donation to put running water in local schools.  What a genius idea!

Our excursion took us to Gumbalimba Park, created in 2008.  It was cheesy in parts, but the island is so beautiful, it didn’t matter.  We saw insects and butterflies of the region, heard about the island history, saw about two dozen large macaws (with about half out wandering around), and finally got to play with some local monkeys!  During the course of walking around the park, we also walked across a hanging suspension bridge 237 feet long.  We did it with Jaime carrying Lydia in an egro and me carrying our day bags/water. In hindsight, it was a bit crazy, but I’m glad we did it.  We also had some free time at the end and took that opportunity to swim in the Caribbean Sea from one of the park’s beaches.  It was very nice, and made even better by being the only people to actually partake.  We had the whole beach to ourselves for most of the time we swam.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Our last stop was to Grand Cayman, another port where we had to tender in.  The Cayman Islands are very luxurious and highly built up.  No semi-third world vibe when you travel through the back roads (like in Belize and Honduras).  We also booked our excursion through Carnival for this port.

The tour took us to the world’s largest semi-submarine ship where we cruised around and saw two shipwrecks along with a lot of coral reefs.  There was also a fish feeding stop where our captain dove in and swam around to give everyone a great photo-op as he was swarmed with fish.  It was a lot of fun and we would recommend it to anyone visiting Grand Cayman.

Next, we made a quick stop at Hell.  An area of jagged black limestone that looks like you would picture a hellish place.  It’s a must-stop even though it’s basically just a small gift shop and a post office.  Next, we were off to the world’s only turtle farm.  There you can see tons of turtles of various ages/sizes and have the opportunity to hold one.  It felt a bit strange to be offered turtle soup at the end of the tour….at least they aren’t getting turtles from the wild.  Our last stop was to a Tortuga rum outlet store.  Our driver most likely got a kick-back for bringing us there, but it was well worth it.  Lots of free samples of their cakes and a shot of delicious mango rum, yum!

Post-ports

On our way back, Tropical Storm Issac (as it was known at the time) decided to aim for the RNC in Tampa, so they closed the port!  We had to re-route to the other side of Florida and dock in Port Canaveral.  Luckily our flight was late enough so we weren’t worried, but we saw and heard a lot of concerned travelers.  Rather than deal with the three hour bus ride to Tampa, we just changed our flight to depart from Orlando (thanks for the free change United!).   The flight back was also mostly uneventful (thanks Lydia!).

All in all, the trip was a great success and we look forward to traveling with Lydia a lot more in the future.  We already have a lot planned in the last four months of the year:

• Brooklin, Maine in September
• Memphis, TN in October
• Door Couty, Wisconsin in November
• Gatlinburg, TN in December