Experience the Travelin Sistahs

Pictures tell a story and so do videos. We're posting a few so that you can see what we saw and hear what we heard. I must say...we had an amazing time.

In Cozumel receiving history of the area

These are videos at the Uxmal Mayan ruins...particularly in the ball court where matches would be held.  A ball would be thrown down the center and the players would have to hit it with various parts of the body (hip, etc.).  Decapitation also became a part of the game.  The Mayans thought the greatest sacrifice was life so this game was truly a blood sport.  

There is also a video where Carnival waitstaff puts on a show! 

Azure Waters and the Wild Side

The water in Cozumel is amazingly blue and clear.  It is so beautiful.  After disembarking the ship, we arrived at the pier.  We talked a taxi driver down and got a 3.5 hour tour of the island for $25 a person.  Our driver was extremely nice, and drove carefully, which was a HUGE PLUS.

Cozumel is a very small island, so it's very easy to see quickly.  We wanted to visit the "wild side"of the island; the East side is called the wild side because it has not had electricity since a hurricane many years ago.  We stopped at Iguana’s, a restaurant with a private beach (a naked beach per the sign).  We took pics, stopped at Chen Rios for a quick photo stop, and headed to our next destination—Playa Bonita restaurant.   

 

                                    Iguana's Restaurant

 

                                        Chen Rios 

I’d read great reviews on Playa Bonita so we just had to try the place.  Playa Bonita sits on the beach, and our table was steps away from the pristine water.  The tortilla chips are fresh and the salsa is pico de gallo, not the chunky salsa you find at Mexican restaurants in the States.  We found that crunchy tacos are more of an Americanized thing.  Also, tacos in Mexico are handmade tortillas.  Ma ordered chicken nachos, I ordered beef nachos, and Tamika ordered beef tacos.  The food was SUPERB! 

                   Beef tacos

 

                             Beef nachos

 Whew!

 

Our last stop was El Mirador, which is a series of rock formations.  Afterwards, we headed back to the pier, took some touristy pics (hehe), and boarded the ship.  

                                          El Mirador

 

Ruins, Hacienda, and a Cow’s head??!!

 

We woke up to the beautiful scenery in Progreso this morning.  Progreso is in the Yucatan Peninsula and is a sleepy fisherman’s town.  We had plans to meet our tour guide, Pablo, who I found through the cruise critic boards (an excellent resource by the way).  We booked Pablo in August, and were excited the day had finally approached.  Our plans were to visit Uxmal Mayan ruins and experience Progreso like locals.   

Entrance to the church in Uman

local market

The view is astounding.  It was worth the long climb to the top!

 Pablo

We met Pablo and set off on our journey.  Having a personal tour guide sure beats getting hurdled like cattle in one of those tourist traps.  Our first stop was the small city of Uman; Pablo took us to a local church and gave us the history of the Mayans.  Mayan history is very similar to African American history; the Mayans worked as slaves and built the church.  At one point, the church was a fortress.  

We visited a local market and Yaxcopoil hacienda, which used to be a plantation that housed Mayan slaves.  The hacienda just took our breath away. 

 Entrance to Yaxcopoil

We then went to Uxmal and visited the ruins.  Fortunately, the weather was great!  The breeze was light and it was not HOT.  All of the natives were cold LOL, but we were just fine.

A cow's head

At the local meat market

Pablo gave us a ton of history everywhere we went.  Legend has is it that Uxmal was built in one day by a dwarf magician.  We saw the Temple of the Phallus, Nun’s Quadrangle, Temple of the Magician, and many other sites, and were provided detailed information on each.  How Pablo retains this information is beyond me, but he is just that good.  Having a knowledgeable tour guide that was concerned about our interests was a highlight of our trip.  

After Uxmal, we visited an authentic Mayan restaurant and ate.  The restaurant was beautiful and all of the servers were dressed in white linen pants and long sleeved shirts.  The food was okay—I think it’s because the Mayan’s season food differently.  However, the experience was wonderful and truly memorable.  

Isn't this restaurant gorgeous?

 
Nun's Quadrangle
 

The salsa was made with habanero peppers and it was HOT!

 the hacienda

 so much fun

 we climbed a lot of steps, but were too afraid (and tired) to reach the top!

Travelin Sistahs & Pablo

Highlighting the Experience...Welcome Aboard!

The Promenade
Here are some pics that depict our experiences onboard. We will post videos as soon as Blogger doesn't take 2 hrs to load them ;-) We know that you're just dying to get the inside scoop!

yum!

A HUGE poblano pepper


Spaghetti

lobster and shrimp for the formal night


all smiles at the Lido Deck


having a great time

1st Sea Day & Riding the High Seas

Well, it’s our first day at sea and the waters are pretty choppy today. Can you believe that this ship is taller than the Statue of Liberty?! We sure can't! We got seasick, which was a first for Tamika and I. This is mother’s first cruise and she DID NOT get seasick at all. A crew member advised us to eat saltine crackers and not drink any fluids to rid ourselves of that queasy feeling. Fortunately it helped, and we were all better in about an hour.

We are in love with our room, and the view of the ocean is just gorgeous. We ate breakfast at the Lido Deck and attempted to lounge around poolside, but alas the weather is a bit chilly.

At the Lido deck

Our itinerary includes stops at Progesso, Mexico and Cozumel Mexico. Tomorrow we will arrive in Progresso and we are just giddy with excitement. We walked around the ship so that we could become more familiar with it; it’s still confusing to navigate around.

Tonight is the formal night so we get to dress up in our fancy smancy clothes and take pictures that will cost a minor fortune if we choose to buy them.

After dinner, we headed to the Promenade where there was a Motown show. Everyone was dancing, and the entertainment was wonderful. We had a really good time sashaying around in our cocktail dresses to the music of Motown. Later that night, we attended a show.

Our room steward spoiled us rotten. These stuffed animals were such a nice surprise ;-)

Ready for the show in the Rome Lounge…

Travelin Sistahs looking fancy!

Ready for a Fun Time?!!! (Day 2)

Tamika & Ma

Me at Mother's Restaurant

TODAY is cruise day and we are very excited. After getting dressed, we decided to venture out into the city. We received recommendations to try Mother’s Restaurant for breakfast. After a ten minute walk we arrived at Mother's and waited outside for about ten minutes. We were then escorted into the quaint restaurant where pictures of celebrities lined the walls. Mother’s is a neat place that serves up French Creole cuisine and very good breakfast entrees. Ma ordered a ham biscuit, and I must say, the biscuits are HUGE and come with a dollop of what appears to be homemade grape jelly. YUM!

Tamika and I both had grits and cheese, smoked sausage, and biscuits. The portion sizes are large and the food is delectable. I haven’t had a smoked sausage in a LONG time and it was so good. Check out the pic of our food!

Breakfast for champions... Yummy!

We left Mother’s Restaurant stuffed and happy. Afterwards, we walked over to Harrah’s casino, played a few slots, and headed to the Riverwalk in search of Café du Monde. We heard such great things about the beignets at Café du Monde that we just had to try them. A beignet is a fried French doughnut with powdered sugar on top. We waited about ten minutes for an order of beignets (everyone was ordering them). They were $2.14 for three and we each had one. The beignets were good, fluffy, and airy. Ma really enjoyed them and it made for a nice experience.

While waiting in line, a jazz band walked around the Riverwalk and sung Christmas classics with a New Orleans jazz twist. It was quite the sight to see!

Nothin' like Christmas tunes with a NOLA twang!

Ma playing a few slots

After leaving the Riverwalk we headed to the Port oF New Orleans to meet our ship—the Carnival Triumph. After a bit of waiting, we finally boarded the ship, dropped off our luggage, and headed to the Lido Deck for lunch. The Triumph is gorgeous! Walking into the 3^rd floor lobby just takes your breath away as one encounters the beautiful décor, Christmas decorations, and the grandeur of the ship.

Okay, back to lunch. If you’ve been on a cruise ship you’re well aware that the food is nothing to rage about—at least its that way for me. We each had samplings of nachos, hamburgers, chicken fingers, and yogurt. The yogurt was incredible—I had two cups ;-) Everything else was pretty average. We didn’t see anything else on the buffet that suited our fancy sans fruit, so we stuck to the grill.

After eating, we decided to head back and REST. Our feet were burning from all the walking we did while waiting to board the ship. We met our room steward who is so sweet, and decided to catch a few zzz’s before dinner.

Dinner was in the Paris Dining Room and fancy smancy…LOL. The dining room is so beautiful, and service was excellent. We dined with two funny ladies from Mississippi, and three other ladies from Louisiana. Tamika and I even found out about a strawberry festival in Louisiana that we will try to attend next year. Mother had the ribs and they were good. I think she lucked out on her entrée. Tamika had a medium well steak that was tough as nails, and I had Mahi Mahi. 


The food was not well seasoned, but then that’s to be expected—cruise lines are not expected to please everyone’s taste buds, so I was content with the good company, ambiance, shrimp cocktail, and vanilla icecream ;-) The food was ALWAYS displayed so elegantly on the china...sometimes it looked too pretty to eat!

At the Paris Dining Room



Stuffed mushrooms

Welcome to NOLA (Day 1)

After the 5+ hour drive to New Orleans, we were TIRED! We headed to our hotel, the Wyndham Garden, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was surely a long day. We decided to order chicken wings from a place called Daisy Dukes, which came highly recommended by the hotel staff. The wings were GOOD, spicy as all get out, and had a wonderful Cajun seasoning on them. I love spicy food—the spicier the better. These wings were sooo spicy that my nose started running ;-)

We’re so excited about our cruise…check back to see what we’re up too next!