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.

Today we were in Roatan, Honduras - an island about 58 kilometers (36 miles) off the cost of mainland Honduras. We had arranged for a driver to take us to a few activities on the island. As we drove around, our driver pointed out a variety of things on the island. Most of the things were “there’s the house of the mayor/governor/rich lady/sister/cousin/etc.”.

Today we were in Harvest Caye, Belize - a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. The island has been opened to cruise ships for only 11 days, so we were some of the first people to be on the island.

The first thing we did was go paddle boarding. It was pretty fun. I got to the point where I was able to just paddle on one side most of the time, you have to kinda paddle in a circular motion through the water and it works. Then we went into the ocean for a swim and then to the pool to swim. We ate lunch, and after that, Hannah and I went parasailing.

Today we were in Costa Maya, Mexico. (Yay! Another country on my list of “been there’s”.) Costa Maya itself is not a very big town and the only industry is tourism. It consists of a cruise pier, a multitude of shops where locals set up to sell to the tourists from the cruise ships, and a few houses. The Mexican government is (trying) to develop the area into a large tourism city to compete with the Caribbean ports, but it definitely isn’t there yet.

Happy New Years’ Eve! Today was a day at sea. I did a bunch of things today including: playing chess, playing soccer, eating, reading The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 1, Fundamental Algorithms, Third Edition by Donald E. Knuth, eating, watching the Chelsea-Swansea City game, and watching karaoke.

I could describe the day in detail, but that would be boring, so I won’t. Tomorrow we are in Costa Maya, so that should be more interesting.

Today was our last day in New Orleans. This morning we rode the St. Charles Streetcar through the Garden District and this afternoon we boarded our cruise ship: the Norwegian Dawn.

Streetcar

The New Orleans streetcar system is the oldest streetcar system in the world (or maybe just in the United States? I’m not sure). The St. Charles streetcar is the most famous route of the New Orleans streetcar system and that is the one we rode. We got on near Canal Street and went all the way on through the Garden District and a way into the neighborhoods west of the Garden District. The Garden District had some very nice houses. They were old Southern-style mansions with large porches with ornate columns. The windows on the cars were pretty dirty so I didn’t take any pictures, but I’m sure you can find some on the web.

Today we spent the entire day at the National World War II Museum.

There were three main exhibits: an exhibit about the European Theatre of the war and an exhibition about the Pacific Theatre of the war and an exhibit with some WWII planes. Overall, it was a good comprehensive overview of the war. My writing skills can do it no justice so I won’t try. I also didn’t take many pictures, so there won’t be much to this post besides a recommendation to go to this museum.

Today we went on a Segway tour of the city and then went straight to a river boat tour which went down the Mississippi River to the site of Andrew Jacksons stand in the Battle of New Orleans.

Segway Tour

After breakfast, we walked to Decatur street where the Segway tour company is located. We practised riding the Segways in the company’s “office” and then headed out onto the streets.

This morning we woke up to very dense fog. (See below.) I don’t think I’ve ever been in such dense fog for such a long time.

We ate breakfast downstairs and then headed out down Decatur St. (duh-kay-ter) to Toulouse St. (toe-loose) where we met a guide (BilliJo) for a plantation tour. We boarded one bus, but then we had to move to another bus since the first one had some sort of problem. Not a very auspicious beginning to today’s excursion. Eventually we got on a bus and there weren’t any more vehicle troubles.