Three Wishes -- Talkative Tuesday

Remember that show Three Wishes? This past week I got to have three of my wishes granted. I will try not to make too many of you jealous. I know it has been cold here. But I had a great trip with my husband who I basically kissed goodbye for the next couple months.

Wish #1

I have always wanted to lie in a hammock on a beach. And yes I know that I am not actually lying in these hammocks. That is because I was too happy soaking in the perfect moment once I got to the hammock to worry about taking a photo. I will say this. I should have stayed in that hammock for at least another 10 minutes. Our photos almost ended at this photo because we temporarily lost the camera after it fell out of Tom's pocket while he was lying there. We were grateful to find it still swinging there in the breeze after we hiked all the way back across the island to find it. We actually loved the island of Labadee. We thought it was beautiful.



Wish #2 Climb a waterfall
There is no photo yet because I still have to get these developed from the water camera. Yes I know this is a wierd wish but I really did have it on my "bucket list." It was a slippery and wet hour long climb but I was so ready to climb this Jamaican waterfall again as soon as I was finished. We climbed the falls with the large group we traveled with and it really was cool to see everyone make it to the top. Afterwards we had some authentic Jamaican Jerk chicken. I made sure to grab some real jerk sauce from one of the stores on the way back to the boat.

Wish #3 Visit the Mayan ruins in Mexico.

Tom and I have always wanted to tour the ruins of Mexico. So we splurged and ordered the tour of the Tulun ruins. Once we arrived at the ruins we ditched our bus tour and hired the LDS guide with some friends. The guide, whose name was Nefi, was part of a family of LDS guides who give tours of the ruins throughout the Yucatan peninsula. Most of them have Book of Mormon names. The insight this guide brought to the tour really changed my perspective of the Mayans.

After we finished the Mayan tour the bus sped us away to a Mexican restaraunt on an absolutely beautiful beach. The food was delicious. I love homemade tortillas. The beach was perfect. Let's just say I spent a wonderful birthday playing in the waves, lying out in the sun and buying $5 homemade lapis lazuli earrings from a lady roaming the beach with her wares.

One of the biggest surprises of the trip was our excursion to stingray city. I didn't think I would actually like this experience as much as I did. I love those stingrays, although their long tails kind of freak me out.



Tom and I also had fun on the flow rider.


Tom got to jam with one of the bands one night. It was pretty funny. We thought they were just being nice the night they offered to let Tom come jam with them. They were not kidding and wanted to know where Tom was when he didn't show up the next night. This band from the Phillipines let Tom sing and play the keyboard with them for about half an hour. We didn't really have an audience. It was midnight. But it was still a blast.

We really had a great time. We ate ridiculous amounts of food. Took lots of long naps. Made new friends and played a lot. In fact we did very little shopping. We were enjoying ourselves too much.