Fei is 16!!

Fun day at sea celebrating Fei.  The girls slept until noon.  Then we had lunch together.  Fei got her car keys :)  She seems happy with our surprise. 

It was a relaxing day.  Kids club for the littles.  A movie for the teens and a nap for us. 

Kai's Gotcha

We all wanted to sleep in today.  We usually celebrate Kai on his metcha day but we're all aware his gotcha is on Fei's Birthday.  So today he was up early and Eric decided to take him to the Dr. Seuss breakfast.  He was absolutely delighted. 

 

Cozumel

Mexico.  Loved our day here.  The dolphin experience was pretty great.  I was looking to find fault and be outraged at the way the animals were treated.  I didn't see anything. They were much loved and respected by everyone.  There were lots of eyes on us making sure we were calm and following the rules.  One lady in our group got weird about seeing that our dolphin has teeth and she was asked to leave.  Not sure what the whole story was but it was clear they wanted her out of the pool.  Our dolphin was Olympia, she is 18 and she is a nanny.  There was a six month old there with her.  Cute.  Following what Olympia was doing but not with us just near us.  We learned lots.  We all got to take turns massaging her, tickling her tummy, holding her, giving her hand commands, having her swim up to our hands, letting her kiss our cheeks and finally kissing her back.  After our interaction they served a decent lunch and we could watch some of the other dolphins doing their things.  Some of them were quite active, lots of fast swimming and high leaps.  Playing with balls.  One of the trainers pulled me aside to let me know they choose Olypia for us because she is super gentle.  They were all great about making things ok for Luk and Kai.  Luk wasn't so thrilled overall.  He wasn't comfortable about the cold water, didn't like the life jacket.  Couldn't reach the ground.  Likely would have preferred being with Eric but I passed Kai to Eric after a couple minutes.  He was just too heavy for me.  Kai was full steam ahead.  He has been great with the critters.

We were back to the port with a couple hours to spare so we finally got a bit of shopping time.  Mostly looking for tshirts.  I did find a huge blanket of the Mayan calendar.  Happy with my find ;)  Jia was on the hunt for a shirt with dolphins.  Kai chimed in clearly that he wanted a shirt with a tucan.  We actually found one.

Will post pictures of the dolphins later.  Too slow down loading them.

Dolphin kisses for Valentine's day.

I'll post more about Cozumel later.  For now.  Dolphin kisses.  We all got a kiss from Olympia.  So much fun.

Altun Ha & the River Wallace

Two tours today.  A nice drive through Belize city and then the country side to the ruins in a bus with 35 people.  Our guide Melissa talked the whole time.  Full of Belizian information and she was fun to listen to.  The Mayan ruins were amazing.  Thankful to have had the opportunity to get close. On the way back we took a river cruise on the Wallace river to see wildlife in the jungle.  Crocodiles, Jambora stork, black howler monkeys, iguana, pelicans, herons, a dead manatee, lots of live manatees and pelicans. Lots of fun.  It was a long a day.  Crazy hot at times but overcast most of the day so that certainly helped.

Eric and the girls are up top.

Boys and I are in the shade of the little tree.

The grassy mounds aren't excavated.  There are approximately 500 mounds in the vicinity.  

Our turn to climb ;)

Beautiful girl.

Luk and his new best friend Christine.

George the look out.

Manatees don't come out of the water, just their snouts.  We're not sure why the fuss about schnoze sightings but we saw a few.