Belize City, Belize - Thursday, November 30th

The night before I got my things together for my excision. Swim suit, towel, sunglasses, sign and sail pass, photo id, sun block, lippy, extra shirt, shorts, and most importantly... underwater camera. I was going snorkeling in the morning and wanted to have everything ready to go.

I also put together a nice little package for Jerome as he was heading to port by himself while I was out snorkeling. I had a map for him, all the drawing slips filled out, the locations as to where the drawings were being held, where he should go to get the free items.... everything. I was going to meet him in Belize when my excursion was over within a half hour.

We woke up Thursday morning to the sound of the travel alarm clock. I turned it off, put my suit on and then my shorts and tee shirt over it. Jerome grabbed some clothes and the digital camera and we headed off to the Lido Deck for breakfast.

Once we had our fill we went to where Jerome had to go to get his tender sticker. Yep, we were anchored out again due to the reef. Well it ended up that they had a tender boat leaving very soon that there was room for Jerome and a few more people who were standing around to go on. What? Okay I guess Jerome is going to shore now... I thought he would leave after me. All the sudden he was saying "I'll see you later honey" and I was pulling him back and giving him a kiss goodbye.

He was gone. Poof.

Okay... well now I've got to get myself over to the theater where I will be meeting up with the other snorkelers. Good thing they have maps of the boat at every elevator! I made my way there and was told to sit on the right hand side. Why? Well there were a bunch of excisions leaving that morning and there was an area for each excision.

I sat and waited... by myself. It seemed like everyone else was talking to someone that they were with.... and there I was... sitting and waiting. It did have its benefit though... once we were told we could go down to Deck Zero I didn't have to wait on anyone else and could just go. I was first in line, first on the tender boat, first to pick a spot, first to get my gear.

We took a 20-30 minute speed boat motor to an island with all of three palm trees on it and a dock. We docked and were told that if we wanted to snorkel off the beach we could, or we could stay on the boat and we would be taken to the other side of the reef where we will need to jump off the boat and then snorkel. I chose the later of the two.

I was the only "first timer" on the boat after we left the island. No biggie.

Well I had been snorkeling once before... when I was 7 or so with my family in the Florida Keys... but I wasn't told at 7 about the taking in sea water and I was back on the boat with the captain within two minuets of getting into the water.

Not this time... our guide told us a few hints about working the snorkel and I listened intently at his every word since I was not only snorkeling for myself... but also for Jerome since I had the underwater camera. I jumped into the water off the boat and adjusted my gear once I came to the surface.

The guy that was sitting next to me on the boat noticed me in the water. He swam over and said, "Hey Kim are you here by yourself? I'm here with my Dad and if you want you can stick with us." At first I was surprised that he knew my name... but then I remembered... I had my Lands End monogrammed bag with me... DUH! I said sure and continued to adjust my gear.

I put my mask on, tube in mouth.... then face in water... COUGH COUGH GAG... oh oh.

This is not going to be fun. Ughhh… I snorted the biggest gulp of sea water I think is possible. Ick. This is not going to be any fun. I hate this. No… wait… positive attitude. I put my mask back on and put the tube back in my mouth. I practiced breathing above the water for awhile and once I figured that out I put my face back in the water. Oh my goodness there are fish right below me. I put my face back in again. Oh take a picture of them… click. Oh look there’s so many… click… oh wait… I’m SNORKELING!!!!!

It was so fun. There I was chasing after fish to get their photo… getting closer to the coral. I saw blue fish, yellow fish, green fish (no Dr. Sues here!). The blue ones had bright white spots; yellow had white stripes, black fish, angel fish, a conch shell, coral, and a jelly fish!

I looked up to see if I could find the guy and his dad… but they were no where around. At that point I figured I should go over by the guide… at least then I wouldn’t be alone and I guess he would show us the best parts of the reef.

I stayed close to the guide and then started to just float and look. Trying to see anything. There was so much to look at. I ended up going off by myself once… It was so calm and peaceful. And then I looked up and noticed I was pretty far away from everyone and swam back right by the guide again to be sure to follow him from now on.

I haven’t had a chance yet to develop the underwater camera, but when I do I will be sure to post the photos, so stay tuned.

We had been out for awhile when all the sudden the guide whistled and told everyone to head back to the boat that it was time to go back to the island. Back to the boat I went. Gosh that was so exciting.

We motored over to the island which wasn’t that far away but we had to go to the other side of it to get to the only dock. We got off and I instantly had to pee. (Sorry… more information than you wanted to know… but it’s not like I would go in the water… especially since we were all pretty close to each other… ewwww no warm spots!) So I headed to the one and only port-a-potty. I had to.

Once out of there I wondered how to go about snorkeling off shore. How far did you have to swim out before you would see anything of interest? Hummm…. Then I saw the guy and his dad. He stated that they were going to go snorkel and I could tag along again if I wanted. GREAT!

Little did I know that when you snorkel off shore you don’t need your fins… just your mask and tube. We were walking into the water and then all the sudden down he went…. The guy just sat down and put his face in the water. WHAT? So I did the same. What do you know…. In two feet of water there were fish. Hangin out. Waiting for me to look at them and take their picture.

We were at the island for a bout an hour and then it was time to head back to the ship. We all piled onto the boat and chatted a bit before the engine took off with a roar. In no time we back at the ship with our sail and sign cards in hand.

I ran back to the room… rinsed off the sea water in a quickie shower and was going to jump on the next tender boat to shore. I noticed a water bottle in the room with a receipt that had Jerome’s name on it. I thought he had come back and noticed the time was a half hour ago…. He must have gone back to shore to meet me but wanted me to know he was here and that I should a.) drink some water after I’ve been out in the sun all morning b.) bring the bottle with me for him and c.) hurry up.

It was about a twenty minuet speed boat ride to Belize City. As the tender boat was pulling up to the dock I thought I saw Jerome. That can’t be him; we are going to meet in store #3 on the map. It is him. I wish I had a camera to take his picture. He was just hanging out on the outside of the store leaning on the wall. I was so happy to see him…. This was the first time of the entire cruise that we had been out of sight of each other for more that twenty minuets. I missed him. (I know… sick!)

Anyways… I met up with him and asked how the city was. He didn’t seem too impressed. I asked him if he wanted some water, he said YEAH! Apparently Jerome hadn’t gone back to the ship. Nor did he purchase the water that he was drinking now. What the heck? Well that just put a damper on things. Was someone using our room number to charge stuff? We will have to take care of it once we get back on the boat. For now, show me the hot spots of Belize.

Jerome seemed so excited to show me around… yet it seems like he’s been here before… oh yeah… he’s been here allllllllllllll morning. Poor baby.

We bought a statue and looked at some tee shirts. Went and got our free charm bracelet from Diamond International. We walked around. I remembered that someone had told me to drink a Belikin Beer while in Belize. I though it was Josh… but he denies it. Then I figured it was Schwa but he denies it too…. Ends up it was my sister Tammy who was just in Belize not to long ago! Anyways… Jerome and I went to have a beer. But first… we stopped at a little shop. They had Belikin Beer t-shirts… Well I’ve got to have one of those especially if I’m going to try it. Ends up the “natives” get the beer cheaper…. Imagine that. So the t-shirt guy took $5 from us and went and got us a deal on our beers.

We sat down and drank the beers out side of the t-shirt shop and listened to the music from the bar where the local bought the beers from. All of the sudden the sun started to burn…. And I mean burn ME!

At first I thought maybe it was just the beer making me warm inside… not so much the case! We started to head for the tender boat. We ran into our table mates from the ship and chatted with them for a bit and told them we would see them at dinner. I was overheating.

We got on the tender boat and headed back to the ship. Once we got back to the ship we went to the room to drop off our treasures. We decided to get some late lunch and then we headed out to the deck to watch us leave Belize.

We took up a couple of deck chairs and hung out for a bit. I became extremely tired and managed to fall asleep for a bit. I didn’t notice I was asleep or that Jerome had gotten up until something flew over head a blocked the sun from me. It was a pelican… and there Jerome was trying to take a picture of it while I was waking up.

We stayed outside and watched the sun set and I did a photo shoot of Jerome….

Then we went back to the room and got dressed for dinner. After dinner we went to the theater for a comedian that was pretty darn funny. We came back to a Pig.