Pictures from Mexico

Mexico, Consumel

Thursday 30th of January
Conzumel, Mexico,
We need to come back to this beautiful country, we spent some hours on an exploring the Mexico trip, then some hours beside a lagune with fish and Iguanas, end at the beach snorkling with thousands of fish in great crystal clear water. There was also Dolphins to watch and a possibility to pay extras to swim with them. We did not got time for that, so we save that to later , we definitely need to swim with the Dolphins, it looks fun. Casual surf dinner, in the air show, 80’s dance party (which we missed , too tired...)


Cozumel (Mayan: Island of the Swallows) (Kùutsmil in Modern Maya) is an island in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen. It is one of the eight municipalities (municipios) of the state of Quintana Roo. Cozumel is a popular tourist destination renowned for its scuba diving. The main town on the island is San Miguel de Cozumel.
The island is about 48 km (30 miles) north-south and 16 km (10 miles) east-west, and is the largest Atlantic island of Mexico. (It is the third-largest island in Mexico, following Tiburón Island and Isla Ángel de la Guarda.) It is about 20 km (12 miles) from the mainland, and some 60 km (36 miles) south of Cancún. The vast majority of the population of Cozumel lives in the town of San Miguel (pop. 71,401 in 2005), which is on the western shore. The rest of the island is low, flat, and densely vegetated. The island, including offshore islets, has a land area of 477.961 km² (184.54 sq mi). The municipality, which includes two small areas on the mainland enclaved within the Municipality of Solidaridad with a land area of 10.423 km² (4.024 sq mi), has a total land area of 488.384 km² (188.566 sq mi). The two areas enclaved on the mainland are Calica, near Playa del Carmen and Xcaret, and the Xel-Há Water Park, near the Xelha archaeological ruins.

Grand Cayman

Wednesday 30th of January
Georgetown, Grand Cayman and "Stingray City"
We participated in a tour ashore visiting by boat a sand reef to dive, snorkel and swim with the Stingrays. It was a great experience, just fantastic.
Formal dinner, then after ever show, and then the Ice spectacular show, we have never seen better skaters doing an on ice musical.

George Town, Grand Cayman, is the capital of the Cayman Islands, in the British West Indies. The town has a population of 20,626 (1999 estimates).
George Town is the heart of the Cayman Islands financial industry, with over 600 banks located there. Most of these are small one room operations, some having no physical location on the island at all. It also has cruise ship facilities, a cargo dock and several shopping plazas.
Located in George Town are the offices of Government. These include the; Legislative Assembly, Court Houses and the Government Administration Building. The Government Administration Building houses the offices of the Leader of Government Business and other members of Cabinet, the Chief Secretary and his staff and other elected officials and Civil Servants.

Stingray City is a series of shallow sand bars found in the North Sound of Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. It is a popular tourist attraction where southern stingrays are found in abundance and visitors can feed, pet, and interact with the animals.
Contents[hide]
1 Location
2 History
3 Getting there
4 References
5 External links
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[edit] Location
Stingray City is located in the shallow waters of the northwest corner of Grand Cayman's North Sound. It is just inside a natural channel that passes through the barrier reef and consists of a string of sand bars that crosses the North Sound from Morgan Harbor to Rum Point.
Stingray City and a second site near Rum Point Channel called Sandbar are known throughout the world and have been featured on prestigious television documentaries and seen as underwater advertising backdrops for everything from automobiles to batteries.

[edit] History
Local legend has it that the stingrays began gathering in the area decades ago when fisherman would return from an excursion and navigate behind a reef into the sound and clean the fish in the calm water of the shallows and sand bar area. The fish guts were simply thrown overboard and the stingrays eventually congregated to feast on the discarded guts. Soon the stingrays began to associate the sound of a boat engine with a free meal. As this practice turned into a tradition, local divers realized that the stingrays could be fed by hand. In 1987, Skin Diver Magazine sent a reporter to do an article on this anomaly which fascinated the world.

Pictures from Grand Cayman

Jamaica

Jamaica

Tuesday 29th of January
Montego Bay, Jamaica
We took a tour ashore on our own, rented a taxi and got a great 3 hour sightseeing including a swimming tour on on of the great white sandy beaches and shopping of colourful Caribbean attire.
Afternoon poolside with careebean music, casual dinner wigth the colorful attire, and dancing under the stars party.

Montego Bay is a city in Jamaica that contains Jamaica's largest airport, the Sir Donald Sangster International Airport.
Montego Bay is known for its duty free shopping and cruise line terminal at its Free Port on a beautiful, man-made peninsula jutting into the bay. Its sheltered Doctor's Cave Beach with clear turquoise waters is one of the most famous beaches on the island. The bay is surrounded by picturesque low mountains.
Montego Bay is fourth in population to Kingston, Portmore and Spanish Town with about 120,000 people and lies in St. James Parish on the northwest coast of the island. Air Jamaica and several American and British airlines run their Caribbean hub in "MoBay" (Sangster International Airport) connecting the island with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and recently Canada with flights to Toronto and Montreal. The southern U.S. city of Miami can be reached within 90 minutes. The southern U.S. cities of Houston, Atlanta, and Tampa are reached by nonstop flights in less than three hours. Other locations like New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., and Chicago are reached in under four hours.
Montego Bay has recently suffered negative publicity due to the extremely high crime rate, with more than 176 murders in 2006 (up from 144 in 2005) and a murder rate approximately 28 times higher than that of New York City.[1]
The name "Montego Bay" is believed to have originated as a corruption of the Spanish word manteca ("lard"), allegedly because during the Spanish period it was the port where lard, leather, and beef were exported. Jamaica was a colony of Spain from 1511 until 1655 when Oliver Cromwell's Caribbean expedition, the Western Design, drove the Spanish from the island. Christopher Columbus, when he first visited the island in 1494, named the bay Golfo de Buen Tiempo ('Fair Weather Gulf')
During the epoch of slavery, from the mid-17th century until 1834, and well into the 20th century, the town functioned primarily as a sugar port. The island's last major slave revolt, the Christmas Rebellion or Baptist War (1831–1832) took place in the area around Montego Bay; the leader of the revolt, Samuel Sharpe, was hanged there in 1832. In 1975, Sharpe was proclaimed a national hero of Jamaica, and the main square of the town was renamed in his honour.
In 1980, Montego Bay was proclaimed a city by act of parliament, but this has not meant that it has acquired any form of autonomy as it continues to be an integral part of St. James parish.
Today, the city is known for its large regional hospital (Cornwall Regional Hospital), port facilities, second homes for numerous upper class Jamaicans from Kingston as well as Americans and Europeans, fine restaurants, and shopping opportunities. The coastland near Montego Bay is occupied by numerous tourist resorts, some newly built, some occupying the grounds of old sugar cane plantations with some of the original buildings and mill-works still standing. The most famous of these are the White Witch's Rose Hall and Tryall, both of which now feature world-class golf courses.

Bilde fra Jamaica

Haiti

Monday 28h of January
Labadee, Haiti where we spent the day on the beach in great sunny warm weather and BBQ on the beach until suddenly the weather changed in the afternoon to a tropical small storm with much rain. Great dinner in the evening , casual , and 70’s Dancin in the streets (Deck 5 on the promenade).

Labadee (also Labadie) is a port located on the northern coast of Haiti. It is a private resort leased by Royal Caribbean International. Royal Caribbean International has contributed the largest proportion of tourist revenue to Haiti since 1986, employing 300 locals, allowing another 200 to sell their wares on the premises, and paying the Haitian government US$6 per tourist.[1]
The resort is completely tourist-oriented and safe as there is a personal security force. A controlled group of Haitian merchants are given sole rights to sell their merchandise and establish their businesses in the resort. Although sometimes described as an island in its own right in advertisements, it is actually contiguous with the island of Hispaniola. However, the site is fenced off from the surrounding area. The cruise ships anchor offshore and passengers are ferried to the resort.[2]
Attractions include a Haitian flea market, numerous beaches, watersports, as well as a waterpark, and the popular zip-line.[3]

at sea

Sunday 27th of January:

At sea, lots af activities from belly flop contest in the pool, mr sexy legs competition, champagne art auction, to surfing or climbing, or familiy basketball, ice skating, and tons of more.
Evening is suggested attire formal with Tuxedo/Dresses, Captains Welcome aboard reception and formal dinner, then welcome aboard show.

26 Januar gikk vi om bord på verdens største cruiseskip: Liberty of the Seas, Royal Caribbeans stolthet, denne seilasen er den 37 for skipet som ikke har rukket å bli et år enda. En fantastisk skute for store og små, det er ikke mye som mangler om bord her. Vi er 3800 passasjerer + 1500 ansatte om bord, fra 60 nasjoner. Passasjererene er i alle aldersgrupper, alt fra barnefamilier til 90 åringer som klatrer i klatreveggen på pipen på skipet (det er ikke fleip, men fakta). Majoriteten er nok i alderen 35-55, og god stemning om bord. Det er 1500 fra USA, 900 fra Kanada, noen hundre fra UK, 100 tyskere, et 70 talls svensker, 40 talls Nordmenn... ja det er de faktatall jeg husker fra Vise Kapteinens velkomsttale (Kapteien var opptatt med noe annet........ hadde nettopp kommet tilbake fra ferie i Norge.) mer info om dette skipet finner dere på www.RCCL.Com.

Vi har nå seilt fra Miami, forbi Bahamas og Cuba til Haiti i fantastiskt vær. Vi lå i en lagune i hele dag i Labadee på Haiti, og har derfor tilbrakt dagen på kritthvite strender med kokuspalmer over hodene våre, palmesus, deilig vann, 35 grader på land og ja det må vel ha vært nesten 30 i vannet. Vi hadde en deilig lunsj, BBQ på stranden før været skiftet til tropisk regn sånn i kl.14 tiden. Det bøttet ned, og det blåste palmer og kokusnøtter,... men fremdeles deilig temperatur. Kl.15.30 var vi tilbake på skipet, og en time senere lettet vi anker og vi seiler nå videre til Jamaica. I kveld er det Casual kleding til middag, det vil bli 70/80 talls Dancing in the street på promenaden på dekk 5 etter at vi har vært på show og så får vi se om vi tar et nattbad på dekk 11 før vi køyer eller hva kvelden bringer...., her er så mange aktiviteter og gjøremål at en kan blir svett av mindre... men vi tar det som det kommer ikke noe stress her i gården, bortsett fra William og Celine da som ikke helt har forstått at de ikke rekker alle aktiviteter , de er helt i ekstase og svirrer rundt fra det ene gjøremål til det neste. Men gøy har de det. Og flinke er de.
De var også heldig å finne seg en besteveninne, 9 år, fra Bergen (det viste seg at pappa Gjert hadde gått på samme barneskole som mammaen og samme ungdomskole som pappaen til Julie, verden er ikke stor, men så stor likevel.......)

Første kvelden tok vi det pent, gjorde oss kjent med skipet, spiste en nydelig middag, var på familie disco, så på et sjonglørshow av en annen verden, helt rått.

I går var det formell aften hvor de aller fleste hadde på seg finstasen, mange vakre og solbrente mennesker her i går. Vi så en flott musical etter middag, helt på høyde med Broadway, vi promederte på dekk 12 i kveldsbrisen, tok en nightcup på terrassen og stupte i køy klar for tidlig frokost og ilandsetting til Haiti.

Bilder fra Cruise

Litt bilder fra Key West / Pictures from Key West

Etter noen deilige dager i Key West som oppvarming til Karibien så setter vi kursen nettop dit i morgen tidlig.

Her noen bilder fra det sørligste punktet i Nord Amerika