Honeymoon in Mexico

For our honeymoon, we had the opportunity of going on a 7 day cruise to Mexico. We had heard from multiple people that a cruise is perfect for a honeymoon. Neither of us had been on one so we decided to give it a try. 

We flew to Long Beach, CA and spent one night there. We stayed in the most ghetto part of Long Beach. I felt like we were spending the night in Mexico. We were seriously the only white people in that area. We had to walk a mile to the pharmacy (since we didn't have a car) to pick up a prescription for Chad and everyone that we passed would just stare at us as they walked/drove by. We had one guy come up to us and ask for money, I thought he was going to jump Chad. I am glad we made it out alive :) 

We boarded onto the Carnival Splendor Ship on Sunday afternoon. I have never been on a boat so big! It was absolutely beautiful inside! The cruise had so many activities to choose from. Throughout the week, we pretty much saw and did everything.

This is the main lobby. We loved sitting on the couches and listening to the various performers each night.

Every night we ate dinner at the Black Pearl Restaurant. What's cool about going on a cruise, is that you can order as much food as you want. Chad and I would order multiple appetizers, entrees and desserts to taste a bite of all of them.  I get nervous trying new foods (calamari, shark, alligator etc.), so my meals consisted of shrimp, steak, french fries, and pasta every night.... healthy, I know ;)

Our first day in Cabo, Mexico, we decided to do an excursion with through the Cruise line. We looked at the brochures and picked the #1 excursion to do; snorkeling and Lover's beach. Sounds fun, right?  We took a water taxi to Lover's Beach, but we weren't able to get in the water because the current was too strong...bummer...oh well, at least we still had snorkeling. Both of us have been snorkeling in Hawaii, so we had high expectations. When we jumped in the water with our gear on, we were surprised not only because of the cold temperature, but because the water was so dirty that you couldn't see any coral. We saw 2 fish swim by within 20 minutes. We got back in the boat. In my opinion, that excursion definitely shouldn't be ranked #1 and it's most definitely not worth $140. But it was still so much fun to be together, I mean, we are on our honeymoon...life doesn't get much better than this!!

Our second day in Cabo, we decided not to do an excursion and to just walk around the port and check out the markets. It was fun a lot of fun!

In one of the kiosks, there was a 3 month old tiger that you could hold for $20 (that included both of us to hold the tiger and a picture). It was kind of expensive, but we figured this opportunity is rare, and the money is donated to a tiger fund in Africa. Chad was really excited, and I was really nervous. The tiger ended up being really cute and cuddly. He reminded me of my dog, Ruger. It was definitely worth the $20!

Our next stop was in Puerto Villarta. Since we didn't have much luck with excursions through Carnival, we decided to do our own adventure. We had heard about a fun hike to a waterfall and so we decided to give it a try. We took a taxi to a beach then took a water taxi from there to a little village. I have never been in a village like that before. Everyone lives in shacks and and the kids run on the dirt roads in bare feet. It made me really grateful for what I have!

As we were about to start our hike, we noticed a lady advertising a horse back ride up to the falls. We thought it would be a good idea since we had to cross a few rivers. We only had $35 in cash with us (we didn't think we would need to bring more...) and the horses were $20 each. We told here that we only had $35, but she wouldn't lower the price. So we took off our shoes and crossed the first river. The lady felt bad that we were actually telling the truth and so she sent her son after us with two horses :) We were really grateful for the horses because the hike was really muddy and rocky, we just enjoyed the scenery while the horses did the work.

This bridge was the scariest bridge I have ever been on. There was a sign that said "No more than 3 people on the bridge at a time." The bridge was barely nailed into the ground and was made of tree logs. It bounced up and down as you walked across and had 2 strings for the hand rail.

$5 to use the bathroom?! They must be really desperate for money... 

We finished our hike an hour before the water taxi was coming to get us, so we sat in some chairs in a pavilion by the beach. One of the Mexicans came up to us and asked us what we were doing. We told him that we were waiting for our taxi so we could get back on our cruise. As he was pointing to a large boat in the water, he said that we could take that boat that goes directly to the cruise, plus it was only $10. Since we had to pay $35 for our taxi back to the cruise, we thought it was a great idea! We got on the random boat and headed for shore. As we were getting on the boat, I noticed we were the only Americans on the boat and thats when I started to get a little nervous. We went on top of the boat and sat by ourselves. They said it was going to be a 2 hour boat ride, which really made me nervous because the cruise was leaving the port in 3 hours. If this boat didn't take us to the cruise, we would have barely enough time and money to make it to our ship in time.  

After multiple silent prayers, and a long ride with drunk Mexicans, we safely arrived back on our ship just in time :)

This is the main lobby in the ship. We loved sitting the lounge chairs and listening to the various performers each night. I was really impressed by the interior design inside the ship. It was absolutely beautiful!

 We arrived to the port in Long Beach, CA on Sunday, July 29. We decided to spend the day in downtown Long Beach. We had a lot of fun walking through the markets and different stores. We bought some ice cream and enjoyed our last night viewing the sunset on a ferris wheel ride. 

I absolutely loved this vacation with Chad, we had so many fun adventures that I will never forget. I am so excited to begin our journey together.