Vanessa and I went on a 7-day cruise to the Western Caribbean. Our ports of call were George Town (Grand Cayman Island), Belize City (Belize), and Cozumel (Mexico).
Shipboard
At last, deliverance from Tampa is in sight.
Ness and some buoy.
Escaping the clutches of Tampa Bay. (The original picture didn't come out, but it looks like the ship passes within inches of the bottom of the bridge--quite freaky.)
See ya, suckers! A view of Florida from somewhere near Cuba.
And the open sea straight ahead.
The Devil (on vacation) and the deep blue sea.
Ness and the sculpture thingy in the middle of the Centrium.
Sometimes you just can't leave work behind--Nafa and the ship's library.
Things you'd never thought you'd see--Ness in a black dress and a floral skirt.
Ness and Nafa on one of the formal nights. Hats are optional.
Ness and Nafa and the prom, er, formal picture.
Our dinnermates--I can't remember everyone's names, but from left to right there are Indiana couple #1, Stacy, Kelly, Vanessa, our waiter Gary, his assistant Stedman, Nafa, Fred, Tom, and Indiana couple #2.
Ness from the 6th floor Sports Deck.
George Town & Sting Ray City -- Grand Cayman Island
Ness on the boat going from our ship to George Town.
The tugboat Bloody Bay.
Nafa and the Nordic Empress at George Town.
Arriving at Sting Ray City.
Cuba, 200 miles that-a-way.
Ness in the water with stingrays, apprehensive at first, getting braver, finally in the swing of things.
Ness going to the chum bucket and feeding the rays.
Nafa in the water shortly after chasing some barracuda, trying hard to catch a ray, and later from the top deck of the boat the Emerald Eyes.
Another of the Sting Ray City denizens.
Nafa and Ness at Sting Ray City.
Belize City & Altun Ha -- Belize
The Mayan city of Altun Ha.
The Temple of Heaven and the Temple of the Underworld.
Detail from the Temple of the Underworld.
Ness in front of what was called the Sweetheart's Temple. (It was called this because they found the remains of a woman in there who was buried with a jade hummingbird, the Mayan symbol of love.)
Ness and Nafa atop the Temple of the Underworld.
V pointing down to the jungle from the altar on top of the Temple of the Underworld.
In front of the Temple of the Underworld with '2012' written on my hand (the date the Mayan calendar ends).
Cozumel -- Mexico
Docked in Cozumel.
Our ship, the Nordic Empress (10 stories), and her sister ship, the Explorer of the Seas (16 stories), and the turquoise Cozumel waters.
Nafa and the lighthouse on the way to downtown.
Ness walking around town after a yard of margarita from Carlos & Charlies.
The bold Mexican Armada docked at the Mexican Naval Station (really).
Tampa -- Florida
One of the first sights you see in Tampa--doesn't it figure?
Ness poses with the lovely brownish water of Tampa.
It didn't really sink in that we were out of the USA until I saw this sign.
BACK.
