Everybody’s idea of vacation is different. For some people, the ideal vacation includes sleeping in, catching a sunset, or trying new foods. And then there are people who will wake up before dawn to do 15-mile hikes. We as a family are somewhere in between. For one of our recent vacations, we took an 11-day cruise to Central and South America.

Before boarding the ship, I was worried about the length of the cruise. How would a cruise so long feel like? But after we hung around the ship for a little, I realized my mistake. The cruise activities were all so much fun - many restaurants, daily trivia, and even a pool. Other than the ship’s activities, there were also destinations. For each destination, there was one excursion. We attended six excursions - Costa Rica, Panama Canal, Colombia, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.

In Costa Rica, we went on a guided tour through Costa Rican nature where we saw the rarest of sloths! This was super exciting because sloths sleep through the entire day. We saw other wildlife - howler monkeys stealing someone’s lunch, raccoons fighting, and a yellow pit viper.

Next, we went to Panama, one of the seven engineering marvels of the modern world, which helps connect the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. We were lucky enough to see a ship passing through. Before the canal, ships used to take 30 more hours to get to California from Florida.

The Cartagena Colombia excursion was a tour of their history. We tasted some of their food including Freshly made Arepas, (a Colombian type of pancake) with a delicious dip and different varieties of local candies. The cool thing about Cartagena is that it is fully surrounded by walls and has many colorful buildings and beautiful churches.

Then we entered what is commonly known as the ABC islands - Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao.

Aruba had this tour where we looked at some sights in ATVs, rode on Sand dunes, and even cliff-jumped into a 12 ft. natural cave pool.

In Bonaire, we played on Sorobon beach and rented a paddle board which was fun. The coolest thing about this beach was how shallow the water is. Sorobon is so shallow, you can walk two miles into the ocean and still be standing in 4 ft. of water.

And finally, we entered Curacao, where we snorkeled with varieties of turtles and fish. We even saw flamingos and shopped at the local stores afterward. A fun fact about flamingos is that they are pink because of all the shrimp they eat.

Finally, it was day eleven, the last day of the cruise. It had gone by so fast. When I think about it now, I feel like I was living in paradise and want to go back again!