Cruise || Day 6 - Cozumel, Mexico

Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico! Kenneth & I have already visited Cozumel before, but we were still excited to go back! Last time we went, we rented mopeds and went around the island and explored so we decided to do the same thing. Renting mopeds are so cheap there. Once you get off the cruise port, walk into town a little bit and you'll find lots of people renting them. You can definitely bargain with them to get a cheaper deal! The further you walk from the cruise port, the cheaper the rental stations get. 

Kenneth & I went to this beach last time we were in Cozumel and loved it! Unfortunately, there was a storm a few days before we got there and the water right next to the shore was really gross. But the floor of the beach is covered in huge conch shells! You can see where people started picking them up and putting them on this wall. I've never seen anything like it. We were pretty bummed that the water was so gross so we didn't get in here.

^ Can you see Steven & Chloee behind us?

We would drive for a little bit, see a cool spot, get out, explore, then back to driving. It's the best way to see Cozumel in my opinion! 

The highlight of the day was finding this one beach again. This is probably our favorite beach in the entire world and I have no idea what it's called. There is a blue in the ocean that's unlike any other blue we've seen. The sand is so pretty and soft. And this beach has really fun waves to body surf in! But normally when a beach has big waves, the water isn't very clear because of the break in the sand. But by some mystery, the water is still so clear here! We can not figure out how it's like this. But the waves are SO fun and it's just pretty amazing. 

The entire trip Chloee and I were saying how we wanted to get 'fancy' drinks at one of our stops but we never got around to it. This was our last stop so we wanted to and we saw a little hut across the street from our beach. So the boys went over to check out what they had. But they came back empty handed and said they didn't have anything. 

Then about 10 minutes later these two locals come over with drinks and chips + guac and give it to us and Chloee and I were so confused like ummm no you have the wrong person haha this isn't for us. The boys were just being cute and surprised us and it was one good surprise! 

Such a perfect day with the best people!! 

xo

Cruise || Day 5 - Grand Cayman

Day 5 was the day I was most looking forward to... Grand Cayman & sting rays!!!

This has been on my bucket list for awhile and when we were looking at cruises, I wanted to go on one that went to Grand Cayman for this very reason. And guess what, it was even better than I thought!!

We separated from Steven & Chloee for this day because we wanted to do different excursions. So they went scuba diving (which I'll add, they said it was some of the prettiest scuba diving they've ever done!) and we did this with a plan to reunite later.

We took a boat out to this sand bar in the middle of the ocean where the sting rays are known to hang out. Again, we hate doing touristy things, but you don't really have any other options unless you know someone with a boat haha. You have the opportunity to let one of the guides give you one on one time with a sting ray, which I recommend. But it's kind of a struggle because there's one guide and a lot of people in your group. So everyone was excited, wanting a turn and watching you.

It's definitely worth it to wait around near a guide because it's a really cool experience! But after we got our turn, we wandered off on our own.

The sting rays swim all around you! They are not shy at all and it's so crazy. We would be standing there and they would swim in between our legs!

^ All those dark spots are sting rays!

It was nice to be away from the crowds and just swim with them by ourselves! Such a cool experience.

Since we already held them, we even decided to try on our own without the guides, which is totally doable!

^ We had no clue who this guy was, but he came over and helped us hold this sting ray.

I thought I would be a little nervous, but I actually felt so calm around them! Some of them have barbs and some don't. So you need to be cautious and aware, but they were so friendly! This was my favorite thing we did from our cruise. Seriously, it was such a cool experience!

After we swam with the sting rays we headed back to our cruise ship to grab a quick bite to eat. Steven & Chloee's tour went a little longer than ours so we figured we had some time. We managed to meet back up with them, which was pretty awesome because we didn't have phones to use. We had walkie talkie's and we used them to find each other again! The four of us took the bus to get to Seven Mile Beach. There are lots of taxi's waiting to drive you to the beach from the cruise port. But they definitely rip you off and it's better & cheaper to take the bus! It's not a far drive at all, maybe 15 minutes? 

We heard Seven Mile beach was something you had to see and I understand why! Out of all the beaches I've ever been to, this was the clearest water ever!! It seriously looked like someone poured a bottle of water into the ocean! 

There's not much to see as far as a reef or sea life. But it's just so stunning to swim in the crystal clear water! 

That night on the cruise ship we went to some hilarious shows, ate lots of desserts and partied at a silent disco! This was my favorite day from the cruise! 

xo