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A few weeks ago just before Amil and Randeep left they took me to this lovely little Mexican restaurant in Cozumel. I’ve been back every week since because of the cool quite atmosphere, the great food and the amazingly nice staff who work there.

This is Christian who runs the lovely place called LA CHOZA (the hut) located a few blocks off the main street in downtown Cozumel. He’s been ever helpful in advancing my food ordering Spanish skills and now greets me by name as I come in.

This week I sat down at my usual table and ordered my favorite meal so far - iced tea with lime, chicken soup and beef fajitas. As Christian brought my starters and drink I asked him if he minded if I took photographs of the restaurant. “Of course!” he beamed the moment I asked. As soon as I pulled out my camera he instantly recognized it as a Canon. It turns out his hobby is photography as well and he uses a Canon similar to mine. So, next week he’s promised to bring in his LensBaby to let me practice with it while I eat.

One thing I love about this place is I can sit in the restaurant for an hour, really enjoy my meal and never feel rushed to leave. It doesn’t hurt that the food is delicious as well. Here are some of the photos I snapped… even the bathroom looks inviting.

Last week in Grand Cayman we got to meet up with Amil for a very special treat. Somehow or another I got myself talked into trying a Turtle Burger. Yep, you read that correctly. So… I ate turtle in patty form and it was surprsingly delicious! Tasted similar to chicken. Now, don’t worry. Before I tried this my first concern was that Sea turtles are endangered and how on earth could I bring myself to eat one?! However, these turtles are farm raised and not hunted from the sea. Here’s a picture of my half eaten turtle burger.

On a lighter note I’ve had a few of you ask about how small my cabin is, so here’s some pictures. I had to use a wide angle camera to squeeze it in, so it looks longer than it actually is. But it’s our humble little room good for napping and vegging out during my hours off when I’m not in port. Speaking of ports, this week I’m heading back to the beautiful beaches of Roatan, Honduras and this time I won’t forget my camera!

Yesterday was my birthday and we were having quite a pretty sunset so I went and grabbed my camera. By the time I’d got back it was going behind the clouds. Only got a few shots in, but here’s one. Enjoy!

I know it’s been a while since I last updated but the past two weeks have really been my official settling in period. I’ve gotten to know lots of people and have found a few select people that have become like a second family to me. It may seem strange to outsiders but living on a cruise ship is like living on a little planet that spins 10x faster than the real world and so you get close very fast to the people you spend the most time with.

(L-R: Randeep, Me, Amil, Keith & Stephanie)

Unfortunately the downside to ships is that the people you meet can leave at anytime and sadly two of the first people to really take me under their wings, Randeep and Amil, left yesterday for other ships. “That’s Ship Life,” everyone says, but it didn’t make it any easier to say goodbye. It’s a bit overwhelming getting used to this “life in fast forward” but I wouldn’t trade it out for anything else at this point.

Luckily, Amil’s ship shares ports with mine every other week so we will still get to see each other then which should be fun and I’ve also made plans to meet up with Randeep after my contract is up. Time will only tell if we keep in touch, but I have high hopes.

The island of Cozumel, Mexico is a mere 50km long and is known for it’s coral reefs and diving. All of which I plan to take advantage of during my visits here. There is a dive shop every other building so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a place to certify me…

This week we docked at the international pier instead of the downtown pier, so I just wandered around for a few hours until I got hot and tired and decided to come back to the ship. I got lots of photos as I walked around and I couldn’t help but smile. I’m getting paid to do this!

When I got back to the pier I noticed Carnival Fascination docked right next to us as passengers were coming off and so later that aftenoon before we left port I came into to the internet cafe to see the internet manager on Fascination was also logged on Spark (our work instant messaging system). I sent him a quick instant message… “I see you!” and we chatted for a few minutes then decided next week we’d go for drinks when our ships dock in Cozumel again. It’s nice to not only have the chance to meet people from my ship but also to have that link to other ships as well.

Speaking of meeting people, today I talked to Zach, a shore excursion manager and he was telling me about some of the excursions. All I have to do is e-mail ShorEx to see what all they have going on and if they have spots available I can tag along. Well, that is all for now. Here are a few select photos from Cozumel, but don’t forget to check out the photo albums to see more!

So things have been busy busy busy around here… I’ve hardly had time to blink! But it’s a good kind of busy that makes the day pass quickly and the ever changing scenery outside my “office” window is a perk I plan to take full advantage of.

It’s funny how quickly you can loose track of days around here though… just the other day I got up and flipped on the news to find imposters had taken over Good Morning America. I was thinking I was in the twilight zone for a moment until I realized it was SATURDAY! Already….

I don’t have any days “off” with this job, but I get enough port time off that it fully makes up for the lack of weekend I’m acustomed to. And as soon as my job and ship safety training are out of the way I’ll have even more free time to soak up the sun and really dig my toes into all the perks this job has to offer.

Below are a couple pictures of and from my ship… but this week I should get some port time to really get out there and go exploring! En