Part II: Cozumel, Mexico to Vancouver, BC

So next stop on the trip was Cozumel, Mexico. Instead of cabbing to the downtown area, I declared we walk. It was a lot longer of a walk then we had anticipated but it was good to get out for a long one. It was about 4 miles I would say.

It definitely had more going on, but again a ton of Jewelry stores. Not my bag. We were on land probably for a good 2 hours of walking and just looking around the downtown area. We found a Starbucks so that was nice. I was craving a good coffee but at the time wanted a frap or something cool. It was boiling out there!

We ended up cabbing back to the terminal and sat down at Senor Frogs for a margarita. I went with a virgin pina colada to stick to my "no alcohol until the race" thing. We boarded the ship soon after the over priced drinks.

Next stop on the cruise was Costa Maya, Mexico. This is a port city so everything is catered to the cruises that arrive. There was an option to look at the Mayan Ruins but my family has already done this one. The water was mighty rocky while we were sitting in port. Very windy day.

I ate terribly here! We went to this little place called Mamacita's. We had chips and dip and Margaritas again. (mine a virgin of course). We went back to the ship after and I bolted to the gym and let me tell you, running on a treadmill on rocky waters is not easy! I would be all up on the bars one second then I would be almost falling off the back the next second. Must be careful!

The next stop was Roatan, Honduras. I loved how lush the vegetation was. So Green!

We were greeted by these people, it was great! Wonderful traditional music and dance!

We then took a tour in a van around the island.

Really quite a beautiful spot. There was talks of going to a monkey and iguana farm, but many people were not keen on the idea. Good thing we didn't, a man on ship got bit by one of the monkeys and had his shoulder all bandaged up!

We had one last sea day before arriving in Miami. I went for a run and gym session. I had been trying out the "fab abs" and " morning stretch" classes they offered throughout the trip. Good to get the muscles moving in the morning, nothing too strenuous. Tanned majority of the day as well.

For our "last" day in Miami, we stayed in South Beach. Such an upbeat area! Wish we had longer. My mother and I took this time to shop until we dropped!

First we bought some Starbuck's Coffee and sat on the curb with it. I also had a 0 pointsplus banana of course!

The boys (my father and brother) went off to go for a run and do some pool side relaxing while my mother and I spent the doe. We both did some fairly decent damage.

What I loved about this area (Lincoln st), besides the shopping, was the European inspired style of having restaurants in the middle of this walk way. We stopped for a chicken Caesar salad and some water to fuel for the latter half of our spree.

                                        
 We stayed at the JW Marriott and it was beautiful, right by the boardwalk. This was the view from our room.

 Now, here comes the complicated part. We were scheduled to depart MIA at 6:50 am to Dallas/Fortworth. I admit, we should have been there at least 2 hours before by my family felt for a domestic flight 1.5 hours should be fine. There was a check in counter just outside the airport for the airline we were boarding on. The man that assisted us took our passports inside to get them checked in and cleared. He was gone for 20 minutes. He then scurried back with a sly look on his face informing us we were now 5 minutes too late to check in. We were so frustrated. We were then not able to confirm a flight that day because EVERY....SINGLE...FLIGHT was overbooked. How does that even happen? So frustrating! So we waited on standby for 8 hours. They confirmed us a flight for the next day instead.

The photos blurring because this is how the airport was looking after being at the airport majority of the day.

Okay, so what do we do now. We have nowhere to stay and no luggage because they checked it in. Great. So we booked a place at the Sofitel Hotel, which was an French hotel. (I was just head over heels for the place). We headed off to the Dolphin Mall to grab some things to wear and what not. I took this as an excuse to buy a brand new pair of Mizuno Runners for my next pair of runners. There was so many amazing shops in the mall, many of which were outlet/factory shops. Love that!

After buying what we needed, we went off to dinner. Yes once again, an off plan dinner. I have never ate at P.F Changs before, but it was rather yummy. Off plan, but yummy!

Later that night, my brother and I hit up the surprisingly nice gym at the hotel we were staying at. The next morning my dad and I planned a run in the morning. 

We ran for about 17 minutes then I went into the gym for another 15 minutes on the treadmill. It is so hard for me to run in the heat! Even though it was morning, the humidity was just hard on me.

We then went to the airport WAY in advance to make sure there was no mess up again. We flew to Dallas just fine. Then we hit some more speed bumps along the way. To make a long story short, after eating a terribly unhealthy plate of fish and chips, the airline changed the gate 3 times in different parts of the terminal due to airplane issues and what not. Then the plane was delayed from 5:25 to 5:45. Alright, not too bad right? Everyone boards the plane and the bus that was loading food onto the plane next to us broke down. We sat on the plane fully boarded for about 1.5 hours or more. Finally we are up in the air. I was exhausted and stuck in a gosh darn middle seat. So I curled up with my head on the tray table, probably hurting my back and neck a ton. Half way through the flight I felt nauseous. I have never been sick on a plane before. I popped some gravol and was good. Three quarters into the flight I flew down the isles to the bathroom. This wasn't pretty nor lady like to say the least. I was very sick for a while. My mom came knocking the door to console me after. I was not feeling so hot at all. God clearly had smite me for my evil doings of eating fish and chips.

We finally arrived at YVR about 2.5 hours late. Luckily our luggage did meet us there. However, my dad forgot his passport in the airplane so we had to wait around for another 30 minutes or so. At this point I couldn't help but laugh at everything that had gone wrong. All and all, I know I am not taking this airline again. I found the service to be poor and rude much of the time.

Luckily I had two loving puppies waiting for me at home.