Caribbean Adventure – Part 3

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Our next stop was Belize City and even first thing in the morning it was 75-80 degrees. We were supposed to get there before dawn but it was later than that for sure. This place is different from the other destinations in that the boat anchors about a mile off shore and you take a “tender” in to the dock. This is another reason we had a problem with our excursion. Our tour was with a non-sponsored provider. The ship told us that we couldn’t take the tender until all the people on the sponsored tours had gotten ashore. It worked out that we wouldn’t have been able to start until about 3 hours after the tour company said we had to be there and they wouldn’t guarantee that we would be back in time to catch the last tender. Simple, cancel that tour and hope we could get our money back.

We hung around the ship for a while. Later on, we took the tender into town just to have a look around. Karen had heard of a crafts market that she wanted to go to. The souvenirs there were a little above normal and we bought a beautiful, handcarved ziricote wooden bowl.

I had been thinking about the letterbox and the problem with the camouflaged container. Linda had finished the novel she was reading and offered it to me to make into a book safe. I went around the ship seeing if I could get an exacto knife that I could use to carve out the chamber, but knives were in pretty short supply. It occurred to me that I might be able to find one in Belize City. After we visited the craft market I asked a police officer about an art supply store and they said there was one called Angelos Press just a couple of blocks away. We went there and got the knife.

The heat and walking were starting to get to Sue so we made our way back to the dock and found a bar/restaurant right outside. We ordered some cervesas and nachos and I started trimming out the inside of the book. It was hard work and took at least three beers to get the job done. I worried about taking the exacto knife back on board but I showed it to them and told them it was a craft knife and they had no problem with it. I took the carved out book to the activities director and switched it out with the camo box and they were a lot happier with it. The woman said she still had to get it cleared with the higher-ups so I just left it with her.

We were back on the ship by 1:00 and spent the rest of the day just lazing around.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

When we woke up the next morning we were at Mahogany Bay on the island of Roatan in Honduras. The bay was completely surrounded with jungle and a little ways off there was the wreck of a ship. The insurance company said it wasn’t worth the cost to salvage it so there it sits. The landing spot was the most beautiful of the whole trip.

Our activity today was a Dolphin Encounter. We got in our bus and drove across the island to the north shore. At Anthony’s Key they had fenced off an enclosure that was home to 47 dolphins. All of them were trained and they rotated them throughout the day. They said that all of them were free to come and go but they stayed because the constant activity and endless supply of free fish were a big draw for them.

After the trainers gave us the rules, we all lined up shoulder to shoulder in a straight line and marched down into the water in the lagoon. Our trainer was there with our dolphin, Alita. They explained that the line was necessary because the dolphins saw open spaces as an obsticle course and would dash in between us. At 300 pounds and able to swim up to 30 mph, they can do a lot of damage. Next to us was another trainer. Her dolphin was Alita’s baby that was full size but still nursing.

Our trainer brought Alita along our line. As long as we did not touch her head, especially her eyes and blow-hole, we could rub her skin as she swam past. She had a slick, soft, rubbery feel. Quite pleasant. He had her do a few tricks out in the open water. Her baby got excited when she was doing one of them and swam out to join her. After that he took us two at a time and had her swim between us.

We joined hands under her and gently let her rest in them. He gave a signal and she smiled and raised her head and tail. There were two photographers capturing the scene. Then, one at a time he had us lean forward with our hands behind our backs and she swam up and gave us kiss on the cheek. When our entire group had gone through the procedure, the encounter was over. We were all thrilled to be near such a wonderful creature and be allowed to touch her.

They have a souvenir shop for you to buy stuff at and a CD of the pictures they took was available to buy. They had a scammy approach to selling them with different prices depending on which sales person you got, but the cost was ok to us. Sue bought a copy and when we got back home I copied the pictures for each of us. The Dolphin Encounter was the best thing we did on the entire cruise and we enjoyed it a lot.

Back at the ship I tried to contact the ship excursions people. Since we missed the Mayan ruins at Belize City, I still wanted to see some if I could. We were scheduled to have a jungle trek the next day which the others still wanted to do but I changed my excursion to a trip to Chacchoben, a fairly newly discovered ruin. It only had a small portion excavated so far. I got my ticket exchanged, all ready for the morning.

We had another great meal at the Rotterdam Restaurant but it was an early evening because the ladies had to leave early for their jungle adventure.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Over the night we had sailed to Costa Maya. Bright and early the ladies were ready and off the ship. I didn’t have to leave for another hour so I was taking it easier. I was gathering up the things I wanted to take on my excursion when I realized I couldn’t find my ticket. I figured Karen had gathered it up when she was getting her stuff together. I hurried off the ship after them. This was one of the longest piers we had docked at. I figure it was almost a mile from the ship to the shore. I hustled as fast as I could thinking that they would leave before I could catch them. They hadn’t gone thank goodness but Karen didn’t have my ticket after all. I dreaded the thought of going all the way back to the ship and then back to the dock again. Karen said that the excursion people were just right over there and why didn’t I go over and see if something could be done about it. I did go over and they recognized me because of our dealings over the last couple of days and they just wrote me a replacement ticket. Whew!

It was about an hour’s bus ride from the dock to the ruin. Our guide Daniel spent the time giving us all sorts of interesting background information and slipping in subtle plugs for products he just happened to have with him. The first thing he showed us was something that looked like what you would think was a ruined temple. But it turned out it wasn’t a temple, just some of the landscaping the Mayans had engineered into the site. When you climbed to the top, there was the real temple. Most of the excavated buildings have been reconstructed so they look like what they would have originally. We also saw the ruler’s temple and a smaller temple that looked the nicest of all of them.

Meanwhile, back in Costa Maya the ladies were having their Jungle Jeep Adventure.

Karen: Our tour guide was also named Daniel. Hmmmm, I wonder if this is just a nice English name they use to keep things simple. Anyhow, he was very enthusiastic and full of fun. We loaded up on an open air troop transport bus and traveled to a resort which was the base for the jeep tour. Our journey was very windy and we traveled over roads filled with potholes. When we arrived at the site, Daniel made much of the thatched bar area and promised that we could buy margaritas at the end of our ride. Since it was only about 8:30am we were a little doubtful that we would feel like a margarita in an hour and a half.

He gave us each bandanas and told us that we may want to wear them over our mouths and noses during the ride to avoid clouds of dust or mud. We all looked at each other and wondered what we would be getting into. The jeeps were small two seaters with roll bars and side windows. We were given helmets and goggles and a brief lesson about driving the jeep. Linda drove one and I teamed up with her. Sue drove another with Celest, who was thankfully feeling better, as her passenger. We started off down the road from the resort, then made a sharp turn down a slope with a sharp right into the jungle. From then on we were on the most ridiculously rugged drive of our life. We drove through foot deep ruts, over tree roots, up steep hills, and down and around sharp turns. The little jeep lurched and bucked like crazy. The drivers held onto the wheel and tried to keep up with the jeep ahead. The riders just held on for dear life! About half way through, we stopped to let everyone catch up. They handed out cold water and we took a breather. I turned to Linda and said, “I believe I will go for that margarita in the bar when we get back.” She assured me that she had decide that after the first hill! It was the craziest adventure I have ever had and fun in its way. As we drove along, Linda asked me if she was missing any beautiful flowers or jungle wildlife. The truth was, I wasn’t able to look any more than she was. The trees and plants brushed the sides of the jeep and the path twisted and turned every which way.

When we got back to the resort, we enjoyed margaritas, chips, and pico de gallo. We strolled down to the beach and sipped drinks as we dipped our toes in the white sand and the warm turquoise water of the Caribbean. We had survived our ride and were standing in the middle of paradise. What could be better?

We went to the Pinnicle Grill again tonight. Sue treated us the first time and the travel agent did it this time. The waitress from last time recognized us from earlier in the week and made a special effort to point us out to this evening’s waitress. We got the whole Charlie’s Angels business all over again. All in good fun.