Still Cruisin’

  

        When we went on our first cruise about 7 years ago, we opened up a whole new can of worms!   We had no idea what fun we had been missing for all those years.   If we had only known, we’d have been going on cruises more often.

        If you’ve never been on a cruise, you are missing a real treat!   We try to go on one a year now and love it when some of our friends get to join us.  

 

        This year we went with Cheryl and Scott, two of our good friends, and had a ball!  Our other friends didn’t get to go with us – they had gone on a trip to Africa earlier this year to see their son who was a missionary there.   We did a four stop, 7 day cruise on the Carnival Dream which is a huge ship!

        Even though there was a tropical storm near several of the ports that we visited, we were able to complete our cruise and still have a wonderful time.   We got to snorkel while we were in Isla Roatan, Hondourus and had an absolutely wonderful time.  We saw lots of pretty fish, lounged around on a gorgeous beach and got to see some beautiful sights there.

        When we weren’t eating, we played cards, danced, played games, basked in the hot tub and just relaxed.  All in all it was a wonderful cruise!

Snorkeling - One of God's Wonders

One of God’s wonders has to be the oceans. Several years ago my husband Bobby and I discovered the world of snorkeling and have been hooked ever since. Now, I’m a bit claustrophobic so I haven’t gotten into diving yet and I’m not sure that I ever will, but I love to snorkel.

There is such a peace about floating on top of the water and just watching the world underneath (as long as the sharks stay away – which luckily I have not had to deal with yet!). The colors are so vivid and the fish so funny to watch. I could snorkel for the rest of my life and die a happy woman.

We have a group of friends that go cruising together and we’ve managed to get all of them involved in snorkeling. It’s so much fun when you’re there with your friends. We have only snorkeled in the Caribbean but the water there is crystal clear and most of the beaches are great. I try to find us beaches to go to where we can just walk right in off the beach and snorkel.


So far, our favorite has been Brewer’s Bay on Tortola. The reviews I had seen were pretty good, although some people complained that it was a little too secluded and only had one little restaurant with not so nice bathrooms. When we went, the restaurant was nice (mostly sodas, beer and sandwich type items – nothing fancy) and the bathrooms were clean. It looks like a little shack, but had a nice deck under the shade trees for those who did not want to snorkel.

Look really close there are 3 fish in this picture!

A School of Blue Tangs

You swim out about 50-100 yards and you are over the reef. There are lots of beautiful fish and many schools of blue tangs, and lots of other small fish. The further out you go the better the reef gets, but make sure you have a life jacket and don’t go alone. Brewer’s Bay is at the bottom of a ridge of mountains and has only a small opening out to the ocean, but the currents can get a little strong (but not bad, even for those who don’t swim well).


I would venture a guess and say that most of the cab drivers around the port know where Brewer’s Bay is and will take you there and then come back and pick you up whenever you tell them to. Our driver would not take any money until he came back for us, which made us feel a lot better about being dumped off on the opposite side of the island from where our ship was! It’s a beautiful drive and cost us only $5 each way, but each couple paid the driver $20 which was well worth it. Most of the taxis are little open air buses and so you can see really well and don’t get too hot on the drive over.


For my money, this was far and away the best place we’ve been to so far.