Day 2 of Cruising - Labadee, Haiti

Haiti was our first stop on the cruise. I was the most skeptical about this stop because the entire area is privately owned by Royal Caribbean. We were some of the first off the boat. We went to the beach and got a good spot. It was beautiful, a very good day.

The best part was the snorkeling. It was my first real snorkeling experience (I don't count the bay on Long Island). There was a reef and we saw all kinds of fish and coral. The brain coral was so cool as well as the purple fan coral. There was plenty to see right at the beach near the rocks. I'm sure it was not nearly as good as the famous snorkeling places, but we were really happy with it. I had not bought any flippers to go with my mask and snorkel, but now I see the advantage to them. My arms got a good workout.

Anna got the hang of snorkeling using the breathing tube for the first time. She was very excited. She's not a real good swimmer, yet. But the salt water was very easy to float in. Frank pulled her along in the deeper water (he has the flippers). We all spent a lot of time snorkeling and our backs and back of our legs were burnt by the end of the day.

They also had a little market area were the locals came to sell their stuff. They were very aggressive sellers. I managed to purchase a wooden mask but eventually got tired of the constant aggression and having to say "no thank you" ten thousand times.

Despite my doubts, it was one of the best days of the cruise. We haven't traveled to a lot of very warm places (because I prefer colder areas) but I would definitely go somewhere warm to do some more snorkeling.

Susan, Mark and the kids test the water.

The beach that we stayed at.

"We love snorkeling."

Mary and Susan take a break from swimming.