Back from the Caribbean-back to the grind



I haven't had much time to blog lately as Dr. Nancarrow has been out with a pretty severe back injury, so Dr. Mary and I have been running hard. To add to the hectic schedule we went to the western Caribbean with the kids for spring break. We did a cruise out of Miami for 7 days, hitting Grand Cayman, Roatan Honduras, Belize and Costa Maya Mexico. It was tough coming back to work. The 2 big highlights were swimming with the stingrays in Grand Cayman( trying not to let the Weldon feral children be like the Steve Erwin) and Cave tubing in Belize. We took a boat trip out 30 min from port to a large sand bar and 40-50 stingrays came up to us in waist deep water where we could feed them squid.
The females are really quite impressive, reaching 190 lbs ( Oprah size). They let you pet them but always being careful to stay away from the large barb midway up the tail. The kids were a little spooked at first except Polly who jumped right in. You could hear Sarah screeching thru her snorkel.
In Belize we took a bus an hour inland to some huge limestone formations that resemble low lying mountains. After walking 30-45 minutes thru the jungle and some caves we came to a small crystal clear river that ran thru the mountain. The opening was about 20 feet across and pitch black. We climbed into our tubes , put on our head lamps and ventured in together.
We booked the excursion thru "Cave-tubing.com". These guys were the bomb, a virtual
stand-up comedy team....Timmy and Mike. They know the river and the caves and moved us thru without any problems, pointing out Mayan cave paintings and the MANY bat holes in the roof of the cave. It was spectacular.....a must see. After that, the coral reefs, pina coladas and massages on the beach seemed "old hat". But I'm not complaining. Now it's back to the real world and real work...........I wonder when my next vacation comes up?

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