Set your course for adventure, your mind on a new romance…

Did somebody say cruise? Okay, if you insist, I’ll go on a cruise. But only because you insisted.

The MomUnit “twisted” my arm into going on a 7 day cruise with her, The DadUnit and a few other characters. We’ll be cruisin’ the western Caribbean in January…which is 8 months, 18 days away. But being the ever studious planner that I am, I started to check out the port of calls today.

Our port of calls? Well, we’ll start in New Orleans(NO). I’ve had NO on my list of places to see eventually. I’ve no desire to be there during Mardi Gras or the Jazz Festival seeing’s as I’m not a big fan of crowds. Yet, NO has called to me and the photographer in me wants to spend hours/days/weeks wondering around their old cemeteries. That and see the French Quarter – or what’s left – and a few other sites. So we’ll start there. I’m hoping I can talk the ParentalUnits into staying a couple of days on either side of the cruise. I’m sure it won’t be too hard…I’ll use my inherited persuasiveness – aka Guilt trip.

From there we’ll spend a day at sea. I’m not 100% sure I’m going to enjoy being out in the middle of the ocean. The control freak in my might have issues with not being able to see land. But we’re working on that particular personality – um – quirk. After that day at sea we’ll land in Costa Maya. Costa Maya is in Mexico. It’s a small town, I suspect a tourist town and so will be bombarded with “hey lady, want to buy … ? Is cheap.” According to Google Costa Maya is in the state of Quintana Roo…which is a weird name for a Mexican state. I can’t help but wonder how different their food may taste though…being “that” side of Mexico. Wikipedia told me about a bunch of little towns/villages around it all having a lot of “X’s” and apostrophe’s in the names. I might have to pull out the handy dandy Spanish Dictionary for this trip. The Currently Planned Excursion (or CPE) will be to Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. I’m a big nerd about ruins. I love to go to ancient places and see what is left of them. Buildings that have stood for hundreds of years. It’s what keeps me wanting to go back to Italy. Way…Back…When during my trip to Cancun – the single solitary reason I wanted to go to Cancun was for Chitza Nitza….More ruins. It was fantastic. I think I took 10 rolls of film just there (that was back when cameras held film.) It was spectacular…as well as the torrential downpour that day during our tour…oh yah…good times.

Right so moving on. From there we go to Santo Tomas de Castilla - Guatemala. (Side bar: When I lived in Guadalajara in 1990 I had a friend who couldn’t remember where I was between Guatemala and Guadalajara and so called it Guatalamara.) Hun…anyhow, there is, of course, an excursion that goes to some ruins sorta…again. This one will need to be figured out at a later date.

From there we’re off to Belize City. It didn’t take me long to know that I’ll be taking the excursion to Altun Ha. Another, yep, site of ruins. Apparently there’s a nine and a half pound jade head of the sun god Kinich Ahua there. Oh yah, gotta see that. Did you know that Belize is the only South American country in which English is the official language? It’s one of the only facts from one of my college classes I actually remember.

After spending the day in Belize, we’ll be in Cozumel. Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean off the Mexican Yucatan peninsula. On the aforementioned trip to Cancun, we got down to Playa del Carmen with is just outside Cozumel. But from Cozumel the best, and most looked forward to excursion will exist…to Tulum.

Tulum are – yep Mayan ruins, but they sit on the coast. When in Cancun we tried to figure out a financially capable way to go to Tulum – but couldn’t. So I put that aside for another day. And another day will be here in January 2010.

From there we head home. I’m sure by then after being cooped up in a room with The ParentalUnits for 7 days we’ll want to be well rid of each other. (Hi Mom…just kidding). The cruise is freestyle which – thank god – means no formal wear and it’s eat when/where you want. Part of the reason I hadn’t gone on cruises before (there are several reasons actually) was that there was always this “formal” night and you could only eat at certain times and it was all a bit much. But now, The MomUnit has twisted my arm…so I must comply with her wishes. It is, after all, the good daughter thing to do.