300 Miles!

I have been running all week during our vacation and Thursday passed the 300 mile mark! It was a seven mile run partially on the deck of the cruise ship (the running track is at the back of the ship but unfortunately most days it was too windy to run outside) and the rest on the treadmill in the gym (a little wobbly because of the rough sea). We celebrated with champagne at dinner (group shot of our nightly dinner partners). Skender and I had a great vacation with stops in Cozumel, Mexico, Belize City, Belize, Costa Maya, Mexico and Nassau, Bahamas. The cruise experience was pretty amazing in some ways and in other ways made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I think Skender and I both gained about 10 pounds because the food was wonderful, this despite all the running and other activities that we did. The highlight of the trip for both of us was the snorkeling, which we managed to do twice (the third excursion was canceled because of the high winds). We also did a mini jeep tour in Cozumel which was great. We didn't meet very many people, partially because I didn't feel all that social and just wanted to relax and hang out with Sken. We did a lot of things during the day together and at night Sken went to the children's camp and I went to the shows. We did meet one person from Saskatoon, Carrie (in the group photo above). We also met a young guy from Peru who plans to come visit us in Saskatoon and has told us that if we want to travel to Peru he can help arrange things for us. I hiked the Inca trail in the mid 80s and fell in love with Peru so we may just take him up on the offer. Lima, Peru is a wonderful South American city and the rest of Peru is beautiful. The people are very friendly and the cultures of Peru are incredible. 

Our favorite place on our trip was Costa Maya, which felt like a place we could go and live for a couple months (too bad we have that job and school thing to worry about). The beaches, as you can see are beautiful and the Mexican people as always are wonderful. We also liked Belize and snorkeled on the reef near Belize City. Skender and I wandered around Belize City a little. It is the kind of city I love, busy, tons of people, and interesting architecture. However, I have to admit that while in the past I would not have worried much about making my way around the downtown, traveling with a child made me a bit apprehensive so we didn't wonder around as much as I would have liked. Also, Skender seemed to be oblivious to the traffic which was a bit unnerving. We are still in Orlando and I hope to take a morning run tomorrow AM before we fly back in the afternoon. Any chance the weather has improved since we left?