Mexico!

This is the first time I've used Internet since the coffee shop in Victoria, which was about a week and a half ago. I feel so disconnected from the world but now that dry dock is over I'm back to having limited time to see things and that's my priority unfortunately. Facebook just makes me miss home more anyway. The last few days have felt like all I've done is sleep, eat, work, repeat.

Saturday we stopped in Ensenada, Mexico. My very first taste of Mexican culture. We will never go there again, as it was only part of our repositioning cruise from Vancouver. I spent my brief break seeing the sights.

And there wasn't much to see really, it was a 'hot mess' as they like to say here; cluttered, tacky billboards lined the streets. It didn't really matter though because the entire time I was thinking, "I'm in Mexico right now. I'm in freakin' Mexico right now." They did happen to have a decent little park along the way just on the side of the street and there was a Mcdonalds and a Starbucks. I went and ordered an iced drink from Starbees. It was ALL in Spanish, so I just ordered what I saw advertised in the picture cause I didn't know what anything was. The girl spoke english anyway, but I got my first pesos back as change. (side note: I bought flip flops that were $134.00 today! Pesos that is. It's weird how expensive it all seems, but apparently you get 12 pesos for 1 american dollar.)

Today we stopped in Puerto Vallarta, after two longgg days of being at sea. We were so happy to see land and it is so gorgeous here!! Super convenient too, because there is a mall with Subway, McDonald's and Chili's inside and a Walmart right next to it, all directly across the street from where the ship docks. Oh, and a resort just ten minutes away with a beach and a pool we can use for free. Perfect. 

I worked from 7am-6pm today with a 2 hour break in the afternoon. I was guiding groups of people to the gangway to do port adventures for the first 3 hours and I was rather tempted to sneak off of the boat and join them. On my own break, I got off with Cassie where we met up with a couple others coming back from the beach and we all went to Walmart and got food in the mall foodcourt. I bought a sub and paid in pesos. I have no idea how much I actually paid for it, I didn't even understand what she asked for. I just handed her money with a question on my face and she nodded and took it all. Must have been exact? Hope I figure it out soon. Luckily the guy making my sandwich spoke English. Let's just say I am now very inspired (desperate) to learn spanish as quickly as possible, even though before now I pretty much hated it.

The weather here in PV was super sunny and incredibly humid. Apparently the humidity is from the hurricane that passed by in the last day or two, but we've been fine. Last week I got my first real taste of rough seas and I'm very happy to say that I did not get sick while plenty of passengers and kids were tossing their cookies all over the place. Gross. I only felt kinda blah the first night, and been ok since then. Just a little headache at the most. Feel free to tell that to my dad you guys! Proud to have my sea legs. In my cabin I get rocked to sleep every night and since my room is right next to the side of the ship it sounds like a quiet washing machine which is soothing. I love it.

We're in Cabo San Lucas the next two days. One is a short day, the other a long one, not sure which is which, but we are "tendering" for both to get to shore, aka, catching a little boat to get to shore instead of walking the gangway. Slows things down a bit. Chances are with my schedule I won't have time to get off this week. There's always next week. Oh, and some friends of mine went jet skiing this morning and dolphins were swimming right next to them in the water, said they could reach out and touch them if they wanted. Awesome right? I'll have a late start to my shifts next week, starting at 10 or 11am at the earliest, so I plan to get up early with a friend to try do whatever I can!! So excited!

I know I sound like I'm completely loving life all the time here, but I have definitely had my homesick moments. I miss you guys and I wish there wasn't such a massive time difference between us.