By many accounts -- including locals who have lived here their entire lives -- this winter has, frankly, sucked. The rainy season started early and it still hasn't ended. Everyone is cranky, it seems. I'm amongst the everyone.
According to a Portland weather stats guru, we have had a whopping 6 -- SIX -- clear days between October and March this year. We typically have 19. I am beginning to relate to this it-used-to-be-funny truth in the depths of my pale and sun-starved soul:
And so to try to drag my attitude out of the water-logged and mossy gutter, I am finally sorting through the copious photos I took on our recent Caribbean get-away. The get-away that now seems so long ago and whose intended sunny attitude-boosting effects have already withered away with each passing day of drizzle and sweaters.
ACK! Infusion of sun, STAT!!
As promised, here are some hysterical and super fun photos from the underwater scooter adventure Rob and I did in Honduras. Thankfully, I've deemed the professional pics totally worth the extra bucks, as we had to buy them on faith without seeing any of photos first. My disposable underwater camera managed a few savable shots. I'm still amazed that developing the film (only one chain in our county develops film anymore -- in Arizona!) cost more than the camera itself.
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| Each of the scooters had a buoy on it so the boat crew could keep track of us. From above, it was hysterical to see all these orange floaties zipping through the ocean! |
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| Rob in a sea of bubbles! |
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| We're coming for ya, fishies! |
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| This might appear on our Christmas card this year. |
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| One of my most favorite photos of the two of us EVER! |
While we were in Belize, we took an airboat ride. Rob claims this takes the place of us riding one in the Florida Everglades someday. I'm not so sure. It was awfully relaxing!
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| It sure looks like we all got right off a cruise ship, doesn't it? |
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| We were told we needed to put our arms in the air to help steer to boat. I'm not sure how true that is but it sure was fun! |
At the small port in Belize, there are several colorful signs begging for tourist photo ops. Piglet and I dutifully got in the make-shift line. As we were waiting our turn, I noticed two other people covertly holding stuffed animals, ready to dash to the sign and hope nobody snickered too loudly as they posed for photos. After nearly 27 years of Travels with Piglet, I knew the tells.
I held up Piglet to the woman with the two bears, "You, too??" I asked.
And then to the young guy looking highly embarrassed holding a larger bear, "You are one of us, too?"
Without any explanations, just nods and smiles of tribal recognition, we gathered at the sign for a group photo. Our photographers worked quickly. Without words, we disbursed with the knowledge that we all might be quirky but we are not alone in our quirkitude.
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| Just going on a hunch that Piglet has been at this a bit longer than the three bears. |
Our day in Cozumel was actually spent on the mainland at some Mayan ruins. It was an all-day excursion that involved a ferry ride, a bus ride, and a fair amount of walking. Then a beach club for a late lunch and some water frolicking if we were so inclined (after seeing the changing rooms, we weren't).
We knew it was going to be a long day but we both panicked a little when we noticed this admonition on our tour tickets:
We have taken a fair number of cruises and a fair number of tours and we have never been instructed to EAT HUGE BREAKFAST.
We are not typically breakfast eaters. And we had already heard the warnings about not taking any "foodstuffs" off the ship into Mexico, dashing our plans to raid the buffet for croissants and bananas on our way out.
This was the best we could muster:
We ended up surviving the day, despite the cold spaghetti and watery beer provided for lunch (see prior blog entry).
The ruins and the resident iguanas provided some nice photo ops.
Our relaxing time at the "private beach club" was sort of disappointing. Private just meant people had paid to use it, not private to the tour bus. So it was crowded and noisy with lots of tourists beyond the cruise ship tour.
By the time we had finished lunch, there were no shady lounge chairs left. Rob and I decided to forego changing into our swimsuits and instead just sort of looked at the water and listened to a guy from Wisconsin talk about the great deep dish pizza in Chicago.
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| Trying to use up the film in our underwater camera. Sort of has a vintage, grainy look. |
Now that we've been home for awhile and my sunburn has long peeled away, we have officially concluded that our trip to the sun was far too short and waaay too far away. We had a great time but we needed more given the winter we had...and are still having. Big, heavy sigh.
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| Sunset in Honduras. I love sunsets. Largely because they mean the sun came out. |
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