Western Caribbean: Belize

Wednesday, January 22: On our last port day, we took an excursion from Belize City to the Lamanai (Submerged Crocodile) Ruins. We saw no crocodiles, submerged or otherwise, and were a bit disappointed in the lack of wildlife. The description of the trip failed to mention that you would be on a bus for nearly an hour before getting on the boat for your "scenic cruise" down the river. Oh well.  Venisa and Anthony went on the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins excursion, the one that we really wanted, but we didn't book it in time. Neither did they, but they got the trip when a spot opened up. They saw crocodiles and monkeys and manatees and lions and tigers and bears, oh wait, why am I exaggerating? Anyway it sounded like their travel time was shorter and they saw more cool stuff, but we aren't jealous, we are very happy for them. 

Just as our bus was about to leave, a lady rushed on the bus in a panic because she lost her sister after they went to the restroom. Our tour guide, Elvis Usher, assured her that she was probably on the bus that had just left in front of us. Sit down, we're leaving. (Of course, he had to reprimand her a bit because he had told us to stay in the line.) Anyway, this poor lady was freaking out because her sister was 70 years old and needed her to watch out for her. Elvis was trying to make sure we all knew that he was the best tour guide in the world and that he was going to give us a very fun and happy day. He told her it was hard for everyone to be happy when she was so sad and she just needed to trust him that everything would be ok. "But I don't know how she could have got on that bus, I have both of our tickets," she wailed. After he got through with his opening spiel to us, he got on the phone and found out that the sister was actually on a bus behind us, and assured the crying woman that she could wait for her when we got to the river. He tried so hard to logically convince this woman that she needed to stop being so sad because her sadness made it impossible for him to give everyone the most fun and happy day of their trip. Oh my goodness. Moral of the story: be very careful when you and your helpless older sister use a public restroom. You might spend the rest of the day crying if you lose her, and thus ruin everyone else's day. (Actually, people were very kind and sympathetic to her.)

Anyway, Elvis was a very patriotic Belize citizen and shared many interesting stories with us. He is still very angry with Christopher Columbus and all the Spaniards. He also passed around a cacao pod, which he grows in his backyard. He told us that gas is $6/gallon, and it takes a whole day's salary for him to drive to and from his village to work in Belize City. (Hint: If we don't tip him, he will have no money for anything but gas.) Although someday when his cacao trees mature, he will make a lot of money from them.

The cacao

Our intrepid party, about to embark on the scenic cruise down the New River.

30 people made this a very crowded river cruise. Poor Galen only had half his buns on the edge of the bench and finally moved to the cooler in the middle of the boat. Elvis insisted on taking our picture. He called Will "Big Papa".  He pointed out a Mennonite farm, and mentioned that Mennonite/Amish were one of the five main ethnic groups (The internet tells me the breakdown is mestizo 48.7%, Creole 24.9%, Maya 10.6%, Garifuna 6.1%, and other 9.7%. Another website told me that 3.7 of the population is Mennonite) Anyway, I had to laugh, because Will has always said that Mennonites are a race. There you go.

Hats were in grave danger of being snatched by the wind and flying far, far away. One unlucky gentleman with a long flap of comb-over lost his into the raging river waters. So sad. I realized I had forgotten sunglasses but amazingly, there happened to be a shop that sold them right where we were standing in line to board the bus. And I didn't get lost. Fortunately. The whole bus would have found it twice as impossible to have the happiest day of their trip if Will had been sobbing uncontrollably about losing me forever in the sunglasses store.

Will doesn't have  comb-over but I didn't want him to lose his hat. He really likes that hat. He probably wouldn't have sobbed uncontrollably about losing it though. Probably wouldn't have sobbed at all. At least in public. I am really cracking myself up tonight.

And here we are, about to set forth into the wild jungle. We're all happy. It's been hours since we heard anyone crying.

The jungle is full of exotic, parasitic plants with strange roots and unfamiliar foliage. And Elvis told us all about all of them. I sure wish I could remember everything he told us.

Mask Temple

All of our party climbed to the top of the Mask Temple.

High Temple

And then there was the High Temple, with a yellow rope along the middle of the stairs for the timid to clutch on their way up and down.

Galen and I are not timid. That's us on the left, bolding charging up the 125 steps. Look, no hands!

And there we are, triumphantly posing at the top.

Galen and Elvis

Elvis, the world's greatest tour guide, ran all the way up those steep, rugged, uneven steps. He wasnt even winded. He posed and took pictures of his tour people. He did everything he could to give us a happy experience at the top of the High Temple. Unbelizable.

It was an awesome view from up there.

Will and Carol are down there in the shade on the right. I can't see them, can you? We made it safely down without the rope, although we did not run down like Elvis did. I asked him what kind of fitness program kept him in shape to run up and down those stairs and he looked at me like I was a stupid American or something. He said he rides his bike everywhere and he just does the things a man does. I realized later that if he climbs those stairs two or three times a week, that's a pretty good fitness program in itself!

We finished our trek through the jungle and enjoyed an authentic Belizian barbecued chicken dinner with rice and beans in the hut below. It was delicious. (And there were plenty of forks.) Elvis had told us that they cook the rice in coconut milk, and they season the chicken with a spice that we do not have in the U.S. He happened to have little packets with him that he was happy to sell to those who asked. Can you belize it?

I learned this unbelizable little play on words from Elvis, the world's greatest tour guide.

The boat seemed even more crowded on the return trip. Will volunteered to sit in a special place. Best seat on the boat, he said.

We had an uneventful trip through the narrow roads back to the city.  Elvis Usher lived up to his name and sang a rousing rendition of the Belize national anthem. It was unbelizabley beautiful.

Sadly, there was not a beautiful sunset to view that night, but we did not let that ruin our happy day. A delicious seafood dinner helped.

And a triple chocolate dessert was quite a satisfying treat.

At dinner, we discussed the days gifts, with the topic being three gifts seen close up. Our gifts included each other as we were close together on the boat, the old stone stairs of the ruins, and the manatees seen by just a couple of lucky people!

Western Caribbean: Roatan

Tuesday, January 21: My sunrise run was thwarted by a sign advising the deck was wet, therefore closed. There was no sunrise to see anyway, so I headed toward the fitness center for a little rowing and treadmill time. I got warmed up walking the ship, because I must admit I got confused about where the fitness center was. I was right the first time, the door just wasn't in the right place. Me, lost? It happened a few times on the ship but I always found my way eventually! 

We had a leisurely breakfast at the buffet and watched as the ship pulled in to port. A few rusty old hulks were visible.

After a leisurely breakfast, we departed the ship and took a tram over to the little island below and hung out at Mahogany Bay for the day. Though the skies were disappointingly cloudy, it was 82 degrees and quite warm.

First of all, we had to get past these pirates who really wanted to take their picture with us. We successfully maneuvered around them, thwarting their evil plans.

Maybe if someone had gone ahead and been photographed with the pirates, he wouldn't have felt the need to insert himself into everyone else's pictures!

Will, Venisa and Anthony

Will, Galen, Carol

All right, finally ditched that guy!

So many photo ops.

Riding the tram.

Galen and Carol coming in for a landing.

From Carol's point of view - Venisa and Anthony, and Will & I ahead of them, heading toward the beach.

We went back to the ship for lunch and walked across afterward.

Once again, Will hit the water immediately.

Will and Carol did some snorkeling but didn't get to see a whole lot. Everyone was in and out of the water, lounging in our chairs and enjoying having drinks brought to us.  Carol took this lovely picture after Will asked me to hold his drink while he was getting settled in his chair. He wasn't thrilled when I tried to give him back my nearly empty one.

We enjoyed the beautiful flowers and foliage when we walked to and from the ship.

We discovered this little hut with the swing when we took the "Nature Trail".

Galen and Venisa

Oh and look, there just happens to be another photo op along the trail where Venisa and I need to sit and rest.

It was fun to see all the plants growing outside that we only see as houseplants.

The sun came out intermittently, and eventually drove all of us into the water with our floaty mattresses. That was one of the most fun times of the trip, all of us out there having a great time in the water, with the obligatory brats among us splashing other people. Never feeling very safe in the water, I felt perfectly secure when Will and I joined our floaties at the feet and stayed together. But then…the sun disappeared again and drops of water began falling from the sky, so we gathered our things and went under cover for refreshments.

Carol and I stopped off at a few stores on our way back to the ship.  I came across an amethyst ring and a necklace/earring set of stick pearls and amethysts that I fell in love with and had to have as a souvenir of the trip. Carol also found a lovely necklace. As we were ringing up our sales, the clerk told us they had a special promotion and if you spent over $100 dollars, you got a free palm tree pendant. Since Carol and I together totaled over $200, she would give one to each of us, even though we were paying separately. How sweet of her.

Well, she had my purchase all beautifully bagged by the time we found out my credit card was declined. She took me to the back room to call Visa to let them know my card was not being fraudulently used,  I really was in a foreign country. I was on hold for a very long time and enjoyed visiting with the clerk. She was a very sweet girl, grew up on the other side of the island, and she assured me they go to wonderful beaches that tourists do not know about! I admired her dress and she told me it was the store uniform. She has three of them and she does not enjoy washing and ironing them! I finally decided to take Carol up on her offer to use her credit card so we went back to the front. Guess what, Carol's card was declined this time. It was 5:00 and the ship was leaving at 5:30. I decided I would call again and stay on hold until 5:15. (We were about a 2-minute walk from the ship.) Well, I had to walk away without the jewelry. I have never wanted any jewelry as much as I wanted that.  Oh, it hurt to leave it.

But the sweet clerk came running out after us with my free palm tree pendent, telling me she wanted me to have it. (Carol had offered to give hers back but she let her keep it too.) 

I gave her a hug and wished her a wonderful life! We rushed back to the ship and made it with plenty of time to spare at 5:23! There wasn't much of a sunset but it was pretty nonetheless.

 We watched it from our balcony, then I went for an exhilarating run around the promenade deck before showering and dressing for dinner.  I loved watching the colors of the sea and sky as day turns into night.

Each night when we sat down at our table in the dining room, the waiter brought a basket of rolls to the table and served us. On the second night, Will found himself with a rather tough hard roll and was rather annoyed by it, asking the waiter to take it away and politely expressing his belief that rolls should be soft. The next night, our waiter brought him a separate basket of soft rolls. We were pleased to see the soft rolls appear for him again this night, and every night except one thereafter! (The rest of us liked the hard rolls!)

Another delicious seafood entree. Of course, this was usually preceded by several appetizers, soup, salad, etc. and followed by dessert.

This was a sugar free dessert with an orange sauce. Can't remember what it was called but it was quite tasty.

It was a perfect day to count gifts of sky, water and memories. We agreed that the memory of our day on the beach and hanging out together in the water on our floaties under those unpredictable skies was a wonderful gift!

Western Caribbean: Cozumel

Tuesday morning I got up early and went on a sunrise run on the Promenade Deck. It was beautiful but I forgot to take a camera!  We ordered room service and breakfasted on our balcony so that we wouldn't be rushed to get to our big day out with the ship in port at Cozumel. Turns out we had plenty of time.  As we were in the long line waiting to depart the ship, an announcement was made that the they were pulling up the gangplank to let another ship dock and we would have to wait 30 minutes. A few people around us got grumpy. No one in our group, of course, as usual we cheerfully adapted and adjusted, taking the opportunity to observe the behavior and clothing of those around us. Soon another announcement told us to go wait in another area with seating, so we made a bee line there and I was able to get a fancy coffee from my coffee card, which made the waiting quite enjoyable.

At last we were on our way. Venisa and Anthony had an exciting zipline excursion at an Adventure Park, while we old folks headed to a boat that would take us to Passion Island. We got on the yellow boat farthest to the right.

Passion Island is a tourist resort with plenty of places to relax and soak it in. The tour guide greeted us with, "Hello, is this your first trip to Cuba?" Ha ha.

Below is the restroom building….containers were provided to dispose of toilet paper, because you weren't allowed to flush it. Eeuuw.

The water was not as warm as we hoped. That didn't stop Will and Carol from taking a swim. Galen and I got our feet wet. (We are Troyers from Nebraska who were very underprivileged as children, and we never had the opportunity to learn to enjoy water when we were young.)

Will and Galen chose to relax in the shade. Carol and I enjoyed the sun.

 A delicious Chicken BBQ lunch was part of our package. Sadly, by the time we went through the buffet line, they were out of forks. Yes, out of forks, and had been for awhile. They were also nearly out of chips with which to enjoy their famous salsa and guacamole. Our waiter brought us forks shortly after we started our meal.

 Then more time to relax.

 There are worse ways to spend the day.

 Carol looks like she's enjoying the ride back. Just look at the color of that water!

 We had a little time to do some shopping before it was time to board the ship.

 Carol did some hard bargaining with this vendor for a birthday gift for a grandchild. When he came down to the final price, the condition included a kiss on the cheek. I took this picture the second before he leaned over, tapped his cheek….and Carol actually moved in and sealed the bargain! Oh, the things people do when they're on vacation! I so wish I could have captured the moment on camera!

 Time to head back to the ship after our exciting day!

 We had a chance to relax on the deck and share the stories of our day.

 The sun was setting as we departed Cozumel, and the other ship departed as well.

 Another sunset at sea.

 More delicious seafood for dinner! The night before, I had told our group about the monthly guide for three daily gifts to look for (from the Joy Dare, Ann Voskamp). This day's gifts were three things from God's world. Some of the gifts shared at dinner were: Venisa loved seeing the beautiful fish as she snorkeled, Will was happy to be healthy and able to swim in the ocean, Carol was happy that the six of us were enjoying God's world together. (I also had to confess that when I looked at the list again, it actually said "3 things from God's Word". Those reading glasses are really important!)

And surprise, when we went back to our room for the night, balloons and a birthday card awaited Will, who celebrated his 60th birthday 10 days earlier.