11/28/02: What an Awesome Week

I've had the best week. We've had lots of kids this cruise, because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Very few monkeys; the kids have been great.

I went to a turtle farm in Grand Cayman on Monday. They raise green sea turtles. The conditions aren't the best, but they release some of them and the rest are consumed (bad), but at least they aren't taking them from the ocean anymore (good). Anyway, the babies were about 6 inches long, and I saw one beast at least 5 feet long, and that was just his shell! It was so awesome to see them. The midsized ones are in a tank where you can pick them up. Some of them squirmed too much, and I let them go, but the ones who would take it got Genoa hugs. I can't wait to see the pictures.

Yesterday I went cave tubing in Belize. Fifty passengers and I took a bus an hour and a half to a rain forest. We donned our life vests and hiked, carrying our inter-tubes, about 45 minutes. It started to rain very hard. I mean HUGE raindrops! Pouring. Cats and dogs. This San Diego native has rarely seen precipitation like this. Then it let up, and someone ahead of me on the trail sang, "The other day." So I, recognizing the repeat song, responded, "The other day." We began to sing the song about an interaction with a bear, until he didn't know the next line, so I sang, and he responded. It was cool, singing along with some guy I couldn't even see. When we got to the top of the cave system, we got in the water on our tubes, with flash lights affixed by elastic to our foreheads. We entered the caves at a lazy pace (no rapids here), and more than one person was inspired to sing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me." (For those of you who don't recognize that, it's the theme song for Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. That's what it looked like inside.) At one point, someone yelled, "Lights out!" and we all turned 'em out and floated in pitch blackness. The caves are spacious, and we saw fruit bats on the ceiling and cool formations all around. Someone also sang, "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall," and the rest of us continued with the rest of the line. It was a great group of people, as might be evident. When we got out of the water, we were fed a local dish, then we took the bus back to the pier.

Today, I met up with my very good friend David, whose ship was also in Cozumel today. We went to Playa Del Carmen by ferry with a few other youth counselors, which is mainland Mexico (Central America, neat). The beach was beautiful, and when we got back to Cozumel, I picked up my clean, folded laundry from a laundromat (oh what luxuries one appreciates when away from home).

One of my favorite parts of living on a ship is having a room steward. I tip Iran (from Jamaica) $10 a week and every day he makes my bed, takes out the trash, cleans the bathroom, vacuums, replaces my towels, toilet paper and kleenex, and he changes my sheets weekly. I love this service! And they call this work?!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and Happy Hanukkah.
Love always, Genoa