Heck, I can't believe I haven't posted here since last July. It's fuc*ing OCTOBER! Have I been too busy? No. I just kind of forgot how to get on here for most of that time and then kind of just forgot I had a blog.
Well, let's see, where was I last time I actually made an entry? I think it was December and I was just heading out for the cruise to the Western Caribbean. That? was fabulous. We left out of New Orleans after spending an extra two days there, we showed Bro S the town (but Bourbon just during the day, I don't think he was ready for night life on Bourbon St.). Then boarded the ship, which was wonderful. I'm totally hooked on cruising, by the way, it totally kicked ass, we never had to pack and there was food all day long, everywhere you went. Plus bars all over the place. PLUS a casino that was pretty much open all the time while we are at sea. PLUS PLUS fab shopping. It was like a little town with all the amenities- you never had to leave.
Anyway, our first stop was Cozumel. We hopped on a bus and took a tour around the island. Saw some minor Mayan ruins, walked on the beach in the rain, and had a pretty good time. Our guide's name was "Moi" which was pretty funny because we all had to wear little hot pink name tags with Moi written on them and to round us up they would call for "Moi" - and all of us in our little hot pink labels would go running. Oh. We also went to a tequila factor, which was pretty cool because we got to drink little samples of all the tequilas they made, and there were about twelve of them. Buzz, buzz. And the funniest thing? On the way to the factory we saw a couple of bright blue signs that said "pee pee station" with an arrow. And it turned out that the designated "pee pee station" was the tequila factory, and there's a great big huge sign out front with the name of the factory on it, and below the name in letters twice as high was "PEE PEE STATION." Cracked me up. I took a pic.
Anyway, back to the ship, and on to Guatemala. Which was actually pretty sad because it's sure a poor country. We were only in Puerto Barrios, and took a tour in a cute trolley, but I felt kind of bad because everybody on the streets looked kind of poor and I felt like a "rich American" come to look at the po' folks. I was actually kind of glad when we got back on the ship. I think in a couple of years, as more tourist money pours into that area, it will help strengthen the economy and the people will hopefully be able to make improvements in their living conditions. I sure hope so.
Next day, Belize. Loved it. We took a tour around Belize City, went to Altan Ha, a huge grouping of Mayan ruins, and back to the city to the Smoking Mermaid for lunch, which was really good. The ruins were fantastic, but I have a hard time reconciling the present with what it looked like in the past in my head. All I see is ruins. So somebody would have to show me a computer rendering of what it might have looked like in its heyday before I really have any idea. My problem, not theirs.
Took pics of a fantastic sunset leaving Belize (from our balcony, thank you - loved it!), then in the morning we were at Costa Maya, a built-for-cruise-ships shopping plaza/beach area/swimming pools tourist area. I understand there's a nearby town (not called Costa Maya) but we didn't see it. It was blistering hot - I felt like crap and almost melted from the heat. Thank God, we didn't have to walk back down the long pier to the ship because I would not have made it. They had cute little trollies running back and forth. Unfortunately, Costa Maya was totally destroyed last month by Hurricane Dean. I understand they're going to rebuild it but it'll be another year or so before it's open again. Too bad because we met a lot of really nice people there - I hope they're all OK.
A really nice day at sea to relax, and then back to NOLA. We had another two days to fart around, took a city tour to see some of the areas outside of the CBD and French Qtr. Went to the 9th Ward, saw where the Industrial Levee failed, saw the barge that came down on all the houses, basically saving some of them from the damages their neighbors suffered. The neighborhood is gone - there were a few people living there in their FEMA trailers, a few of the smashed houses and cars were still there, but most of the damage had been cleared away by that time. We went down the street where my friend lived on Napoleon, her house was destroyed by water damage, as were many, many homes along the streets in that neighborhood (Broadmoor?). There was destruction and construction EVERYWHERE once we left the Quarter. It was just amazing and heartbreaking.
We all have to keep reminding ourselves, this damage was NOT caused by Katrina, it was caused by the failure of the federal levees and the shoddy condition the feds allowed them to fall into. NOLA residents were lied to over and over again when they were reassured that the levees were in fine shape. Because they were not.
Ok, end of rant. The trip was fantastic, excellent, fantabulous, and everything else positive - I loved it. I want to cruise again. And again. If I was rich I think I would buy an apartment on one of those around-the-world residence ships.
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