Today we were in Curacao, and our tour started at 08:00. The tour today was a tour in the back of pickup trucks which they had put seats and a canopy in. We went offroad for most of the day and since it had just rained, we got pretty muddy.

We started by going over the large bridge in Curacao, Queen Juliana Bridge. This bridge goes over the harbour entrance. Curacao is a major port island. It’s harbour is really good and it has an international airport with direct flights to the Netherlands and other countries every day. Curacao and Aruba are actually Dutch islands, an EU island just miles off the coast of South America. Curacao has a large refinery which refines oil coming in from Venezuela and then exports it to the rest of the world.

Today we were in Aruba, but we didn’t arrive until late morning. I woke up late, so by the time I got upstairs, the daily ping pong tournament had begun. I participated, then I ate breakfast with the Normandeau’s, Alex and Eric’s family.

Then I played a bit more ping pong (you’re probably seeing a pattern here) and then ate lunch. At this point we’d arrived in Aruba, and it was time to get off the boat for our tour: an ATV tour of the island.

Since we were at sea today with nothing in particular to do, I slept in quite a bit. I woke up and went upstairs and ate breakfast and then played in the ping pong tournament. I am decent at ping pong, but there are some really good players on this cruise, so I’m happy when I win a game before losing.

This morning we arrived on a private island owned by Holland America Line (HAL) called Half Moon Cay. We arrived at around 8:00, during breakfast.

We disembarked fairly early, so not many people had gotten off the boat yet. We began by walking around on the paths around the island. We came across a garden and the gardener called us in to give us a tour. He was very nice and talkative. He explained all of the various plants and trees that were growing in the garden. One interesting plant was the Seven-Year Apple which produces apples (duh) but it takes seven years per apple! We continued walking and saw some horses and then we went out to the beach.

This morning we woke up and ate at the hotel. We took a shuttle from the hotel to the cruise terminal. Our driver was a New Yorker and was really funny.

Cruise check in was fairly painless, and we got onto the boat at around 12:15. Our ship is the Zuiderdam, a Holland America Line ship. It is the sister ship of the Noordam, the ship we went on on our first cruise in 2012. It was a transatlantic cruise to Europe (see Transatlantic Cruise).

We are going on another trip! Today we left for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where we will start our 12-day cruise!

Our flight didn’t leave until 4:15, so we were able to finish packing up all of our stuff this morning. Our trip to the airport and flight were uneventful. In Ft. Lauderdale, it took a long time for the shuttle to the hotel to show up, we had to wait for over an hour! We did make it to the hotel though, and we are extremely tired so we are going to bed. Tomorrow should be more interesting.

Today we were at sea. I woke up really late today: 10:00 late. After breakfast, I went played some soccer on the sports court for about two hours. Then I ate lunch and went for a really quick swim (I didn’t stay long since there were about 50 people around the pool drinking so it wasn’t much fun). I then grabbed my iPad and caught up on my blog writing. After that I went down to trivia. I contributed a few answers so I felt smart. I showered and then we ate dinner. After that we went to a comedy improv show and then to the normal show.

Today we were in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. English is the first language in the Cayman Islands, but many people speak Spanish as well since they are in contact with Hispanic cultures on a regular basis. We arrived fairly late in the morning (11:00) and our tour didn’t start until 14:00 (2:00 PM). It was a tender port though, so we had to wait for our tender to get off the boat. We walked around the town for about an hour and then went to the tour company office.

Today we were in Cozumel, Mexico. We had to take a ferry to the mainland where we were to meet our driver and go to some Mayan ruins. The ferry left promptly at about 8:00 Mexico Time (meaning it left at about 8:15). When we arrived on the mainland after about a 45 minute ride, we found our driver and she drove us to Tulum.