One of my main goals for 2016 was to take some photos of my cats that I am proud of.  I wrote about it on this post.  I will be honest with you, it's it's not been as easy as I thought it would be.  Cats move very quickly and some of mine our seemingly camera shy.  The above photo of my oldest named Chanel (a Himalayan Persian rescue cat) is especially camera shy so I was happy to get this shot of her.

Today I returned from a seven day cruise on Norwegian Cruise lines.  The ship I was on board is named the "Star".  Over the course of the seven days we stopped in four places.  Our first stop was on Roatan which is an island in the Caribbean about 40 miles off the coast of Honduras.  I decided to choose a shore excursion for each of the stops on this cruise.  I chose to visit Gumbalimba Park in Roatan at this port. 

 Here is a view of the rivers that everyone can snorkel around the park in.  This was my second trip to Xcaret.  The first time it was in July and it was very hot.  Being able to explore the area in the water was very welcome.

 I am really not one too visit theme parks especially two days in a row, but Xcaret in Cancun Mexico is an exception.  As I discussed in my previous post HERE, this is not an inexpensive theme park but it offers so much.  I really do think that there is something for everyone at Xcaret.  Cancun has grown into a very large tourist destination and I really felt like I was getting away from all the people while getting to spend time out in nature with animals of all types.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful, the buffet lunch was excellent, and there are plenty of places to sit down and relax. 

In the above photo I'm pretending to climb one of the large ruins.  I don't think I would have made it to the top no matter how hard I tried !

When I was in Cancun last week I really wasn't looking forward to seeing any ruins.  I had seen some before that took a long time two travel To and just didn't impress me.  I'm not saying that they aren't interesting they just weren't my thing.  Our visit to El Ray was really fun as I got to see many iguanas as well as some pretty impressive ruins.  One of the best things about visiting El Ray is the price which was only $3 in American money and it's also right on the hotel strip so it wasn't a very long drive to get there! 

As always you can visit my profile at Pixabay and download and use my photos for free and not worry about getting in trouble here

Here is one of the residents.  They are not too afraid of people.  I think a lot of people are scared of them but the fact is they will run away if you try to get near them.  It amazed me how they really do blend in with the scenery.

I enjoyed the hour or so that we spent there.  The grounds are kept very nicely and it's very different than being on the busy beach and host hotel zone which is just down the road. 

Here I am laying on some different ruins in Mexico on a table which was used for sacrifice a few years ago.



I thought this liked look a mother and baby iguana relaxing together:

Thank you very much for your visit.  I would love to hear your comments and questions.  Have you ever visited any ruins that you were very impressed with or thought we're very interesting?  If so,  I'd love to hear about them.  Have a wonderful week!

~Michelle

The above photo is of my angel Coco who left us on March 19, 2010

I stopped making New Year's Resolutions a long time ago when I realized that I never kept any of them and they always seemed to be the same.  I do believe that setting goals at any time of the year is a good thing for me to do.  Although I do plan to travel this year I want to take more photos while I'm at home.  I especially want to take more photos of my family, cats and friends.

I also got a new lens for my camera that will take really great bokeh photos.  It's a very different type of lens than I'm used to working with. I think that it's going to require a lot of practice as it has controls on the lens itself.  I would like to create some prettier and more colorful bokeh photos than the one of my chandelier you see above with one of my favorite quotes by Dorothea Lange.

You can have/use any of my better photos for free:  Click:  Here

Above are Peanut (age 9) and Princess (age 8)
The above photo is Jasmine who is ten years old and is Elizabeth's sister seen below who is also ten years old.  They were our first "foster" kittens that we fell in love with and decided to keep.

This is Coco's sister Chanel.  She will be twelve years old on May 29, 2016.  We got them from a rescue organization when they were only eight weeks old.  We miss Coco very much, but are so happy to have her sister with us still.


This is Fleur who is almost eight.  She was another foster kitten that we thought it best to stay with us.

 
This is Jack who is about four years old.  Someone left him at our house when he was about six months old.  Our veterinarian believes he is a Maine Coon cat.  He weighs about twenty pounds, but the doctor does not think he is overweight.
Finally, we have two FIV positive (Feline immunodeficiency Virus) cats you can see below.  The orange cat's name is Peaches and the grayish brown cat is named Piney.  Peaches is about five years old and Piney is about four years old.  Since all of our cats are rescues, we don't have definite birth dates for any besides Chanel.  Piney and Peaches have their own room and balcony in our home,  The risk of them infecting our other cats with FIV is very low, but we've decided not to take any chances.

Piney and Peaches are kept healthy with a fairly new drug called T-Cyte.  Few people know about this medication so I will post the link here.  It's not as expensive as one might think it would be.

http://tcyte.com/.

What are your goals for 2016?  I hope the new year is starting well for all of you!  Have a wonderful week!

~Michelle