Jen and Jerry's Excellent Adventure

Miami, Florida                                                                                                  March 23, 2022 We’re back in Miami.   We were last here on December 21, 2021.   That was a long time ago, and we were not expecting to be back any time soon, yet here we are on the Magical Mystery Tour where you never quite know what is coming next.   We decided to do airboats in the Everglades which we had never done before.   We hopped on the tour bus and almost immediately were informed that we have been mispronouncing Miami all of our lives.   Not “My am Me”   as I expect all of you have also been doing with your Midwest non-accent, but   “Me am Me” which I guess if you look at how it is spelled might make some sense.   The guide was pretty adamant as the term is from area Indians' name for the nearby river.   It is not connected to the Indians with that tribal name who lived in the Ohio river valley.   We spent forty-five minutes on the bus getting to the slowest mov

  Cozumel                                                                                 March 21             How many of you have been to Cozumel?   It’s a popular tourist destination—especially during spring break when the Midwestern body aches for some warm sunrays. Our latest addition to the production cast has a thing about the pronunciation of Mexico (Mehico) hence the spelling in the title for today's post.               We had visited here years ago, but I’d forgotten than Cozumel is on an island, also belonging to the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.   In 1996 the government of Mexico wisely decided to protect and preserve the undersea life by forming the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park. It is a wonderland for scuba diving and snorkeling with many reefs, sunken vessels, and we saw starfish!             There is evidence of Mayan and (earlier) Olmec tribe occupancy dating back to the first millennium AD.   For the Mayans, Cozumel was a major center of coastal trade

  Costa Maya, Mexico                                                                                    Sunday, March 20 Apologies to all of you that we got behind in our journal.   I’m writing this entry about five days after being in Costa Maya, but my notes will carry us through!!!   Luckily, the day-after-day tours and learnings have eased as we are now traveling across the Atlantic Ocean toward Fuchal, Madiera, arriving late morning of April 1.   No fooling!!!   We had never heard of Fuchal.   Please Google funchal, madeira . And its sister islands. You will be as amazed as we!!! Back to Costa Maya.   For you who already know the name of Mexico’s states, Costa Maya is on the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo.   Our ship docked in a fairly new port city with population of 1500 that is built to handle the economies of cruise ships:   island transport; shops for anyone still needing jewelry, souvenirs, or local crafts; spices or in Mexico: vanilla; restaurants and bars.      Miles

  Guatemala                                                                                                                          Friday, March 18                Our first peek at this country revealed mountains and lush greenery: the mainland looked like most of the islands we’ve visited for the past…well, couple of months!   Luckily, we had scheduled a tour through the ship that would take us to our first Mayan ruins and thus, away from the water and into the culture of a new place for us. Looking over largest known plaza in Mayan world from top of restored steps                We boarded a nice airconditioned coach at half capacity due to Covid, so we followed two other coaches that held the other guests who had chosen this tour.   It was a 90-minute drive along the main highway going south-west from the pier. Although it was evident that Guatemala is still developing, we were each presented with a colorful and informative folded map which allowed us to orient ourselves while

  Jamaica                                                                      Tuesday, March 15                         Wake up this morning and find one of the prettiest ports we’ve seen which was definitely a surprise.   From the boat it looked like we were at the doorstep of a small European fishing village.   Not sure what I was expecting on this one, but it wasn’t this.   It was another bubble port today meaning you had to have a ship tour or a government sanctioned tour.   We had a ship tour scheduled so off we went. There had not been a huge number of options, but we had found something called the “Great Huts Nature Walk”.   Now, sometimes the description of the   tour is excellent, and sometimes it does not convey what you will actually be doing.   This was one of the latter.   Our bus took us out of the beautiful port, and two blocks later we saw what had been more expected: much more poverty, very crowded and busy conditions.   Our road was in miserable shape once we lef

  Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic                            Sat. & Sun., March 12, 13 We’re celebrating! Two days including an overnight in one port is a rare occurrence.   No need to hurry aboard before the ship disembarks, and this usually allows small groups of our multi-national crew to have a few hours off the ship.   We’re always happy for them as they’ve been ship-bound for health purposes for months. Often, an overnight in port allows us passengers a chance to be on and off the ship more at our leisure, with the choice of using the local bars or restaurants as a change of pace from cruise fare—which is really delicious!   An added bonus is that our ship is docked across the street from the historical district, walking distance from the two original buildings from the 16th Century:   palace built by Diego Columbus—now a museum and the oldest Catholic Cathedral in the Caribbean.   Also close by was the longest pedestrian mall I’ve seen.   All of this, except for the tr