Tag Archives: port

Feb20

My Big Fat Caribbean Vacation Part VIII

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My Big Fat Caribbean Vacation Part VIII
The Promenade Deck on the Mariner of the Seas

The Promenade Deck on the last day of the cruise

1.6.2013

Farewell

Departure was uneventful except for long lines at the terminal. There were fairly long lines at the airport, too, but they weren’t too bad. The lines moved.

The drive from Galveston to the airport was the same: strip malls, restaurants, car dealerships; hotels; motels and the Greek Orthodox Church which our driver called “beautiful.” She also wore a rhinestone pin which spelled out the word “Texas.”

She was our unofficial tour guide on our way to George Bush Airport. Texas, she said, has the tallest building in the world that is not located in a city. The Texans football team is one of the hottest in the country, according to her, so she got into sports.

She also told us that the cost of gas inTexas is $3.05 in spite of the many oil refineries there. I wanted to laugh when I think of the cost of gas in Pittsburgh.

It’s hard to imagine that earlier today we were on the Mariner of the Seas and earlier than that we were in the warm beautiful western Caribbean. I heard that it was still cold inPittsburghand that the snow from the week before hadn’t melted as yet.

Yuck.

For one of the few winters of my life, I experienced summer during the cold winter months. I recommend it.

Goodbye the pampered life.

 

 

 

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Feb20

My Big Fat Caribbean Vacation Part V

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My Big Fat Caribbean Vacation Part V
The Mayan Pyramids of Lamanai

One of the Mayan pyramids at Lamanai, Belize

1.3.2013

Belize and the Mayan ruins

We woke up at 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (guess who woke up first) to meet the group touring the Mayan ruins by 7:15 a.m. at the Savoy Theatre.

We descended to the pier and took a tender to theport of Belize City, the capital of Belize. This port wasn’t as quaint and as pretty as the one in Roatan but it was still nice. It was large and busy.

From the port we boarded a bus which took us through part of the city.  There are hotels and embassies closer to the harbor. As we pulled away toward our destination, we passed a largely residential area. Homes are made of stucco and are either white or painted in different colors; in some cases, they are a dingy gray.

We also passed the home of an Amish family. Apparently, the Amish have been living in Belize, farming the land. They have been known to move, buying cheap land  on which to farm.

Like Jazzy, our driver told us some facts about Belize. It was once a British colony and was called British Honduras. Belize is now a part of the British Commonwealth and has a Parliament and a Prime Minister. (Its current government is similar to Canada’s.)

Education is compulsory up to the age of 14; wearing uniforms is mandatory.  Some students go on to high school and from there to college. English and Spanish is spoken as well as Mayan. The Spanish spoken in Belize includes some Mayan words.

Most consumer goods are imported.  Short on resources? Tourism, of course, is big.

Like the British, drivers here used to drive on the left side of the road. When cars were imported (mainly American cars) with the wheel on the opposite side, the authorities decided to switch to driving on the right side. They, like the Hondurans, haven’t adopted too many traffic signs and signals to continue the um….upgrade.

It must be fun, driving in Central America. (My husband had fun driving in Rhodes years ago and they don’t utilize signs, either.)

We finally arrived at the restaurant/ gift shop/dock where our boat awaited us at the edge of the rain forest. We were served coffee, really good lemonade and ginger cookies while everyone took a potty break:)

            We boarded a flat boat with a white canopy overhead.  At the time, I thought it was great to have that so the sun wouldn’t bake our heads.

We snaked our way through a calm winding river. We saw monkeys, exotic birds, a variety of trees and crocodiles. Everyone would get excited when our tour guide pointed them out to us (the crocodiles, not the trees).

After about 45 minutes or so of fast driving in a drizzling rain (which sprayed our faces and everything else with a fine mist), we reached the archaeological site of Lamanai, part of the ancient civilization of the Mayans. There was a greenish gray cast over the buildings. Although a lot of the vegetation was bright green, the denseness of some of the trees and the periodic rain gave almost everything that shade of color, too.

The rain abated and we followed our guide to the ruins. It wasn’t a flat walk, either. Steps (similar to terraced steps) led to leveled ground that led to more steps until we reached the first pyramid. Before we reached the first pyramid, it began to rain heavily. I guess they don’t call it the rain forest for nothing.

Four pyramids remain standing here; two are in better condition than the other two. Even so, stories are missing even on the ones in good shape. This only underscored  how tall the pyramids truly were.

The one in the best shape is the one tourists climb the most.  All the steps including the ones which bring you up to the level of the pyramids are steep. As I started to go up one steep step to hear the tour guide talk about the history of the ruin, I slipped and fell. I don’t know if the soles of my sneakers were worn to smoothness or I didn’t anticipate the steepness of the step but I sustained two bruises. The one wasn’t a deep cut although I bled but the other bled and instantly swelled up, too. One of our tour guides was trained in First Aid so my wounds got treated. Fortunately nothing was broken and I was able to walk without a problem.

We reached the pyramid that was almost intact as the rain got more intense. It didn’t stop anyone from climbing it, though. Here the steps are steep but some are steeper than others. I guess precision wasn’t an issue or the steps have worn down unequally over time. There is a rope running down the middle of the steps so climbers can hang on, too, although some came down on their rear ends.

I didn’t climb to the top.  My accident told me not to but I had climbed the pyramids in Mexico years ago. Andrea climbed to the top. She said the view up there was awesome. You could see the rain forest for miles around.

It was a nice gesture to her Mayan heritage. She stayed up there for a little while, too. Some day, we’ll go to Copan in western Honduras to see the Mayan pyramids there.

It started to rain again as we went on to the other pyramids. There was one more pyramid that some people climbed although it wasn’t as tall as the previous one. Several stone bas relief at all the pyramids provides photo opportunities for anyone who doesn’t want to climb or is done climbing.

The rain abated as we walked back to our boat. Then it started to rain again on our journey back and this time, it rained harder. (I guess this is the definition of a rain forest: start, stop, start, stop…) Our driver – a NASCAR candidate if he would ever want to pursue that career path – drove so that the spray from the winding river got us even wetter. The back of his loose white shirt billowed behind him. It was fun, though. It felt like the boat was going to tip sideways as he swerved to the right or left.

We passed the Amish farm and farmer on our way back. I’m so used to seeing them in Pennsylvania and Ohio, that the sight was almost incongruous.

The restaurant had a buffet lunch waiting for us: delicious spicy chicken; homemade cole slaw; rice; rice and beans; chips and homemade salsa; rice pudding and cake for dessert and beverages. Alcohol was available at the cash bar.

I bought a hand-carved wooden bowl. Hand-carved wooden products are typical crafts found in Honduras and Belize. Then we drove back to the port in Belize City.

Of course, there are an abundance of trinket, crafts and T-shirt shops here. The tender took us back to the ship. We had a little bit of down time so I got to see Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp.

For dinner that night, I ordered chilled strawberry soup; lamb shank with mashed potatoes; low fat chocolate cake with mint chocolate cream; wine and coffee. Andrea selected tomato mozzarella caprese salad; lamb shank with mashed potatoes; tiramisu and Coke.

RC staged a ‘70’s Dance Party on the Promenade that night that was a lot of fun and later, a song and dace concert which was very good, too.

We returned to the casino afterwards where Andrea lost her $20 and stopped to hear Latin Music.

Tomorrow: Cozumel

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Feb20

My Big Fat Caribbean Vacation Part IV

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My Big Fat Caribbean Vacation Part IV
Native Dancing

Honduran dancers

1.2.2013

Roatan, Honduras

It was fitting that we landed in Roatan, Honduras on Andrea’s birthday. The sky was bright blue and the sun shone warming the earth to 82 degrees. We ran to the pool to watch the ship as it reached the port after breakfast. I got choked up thinking of the time 18 years ago when Mike, Jeff and I went toTegucigalpa, the capital, to adopt Andrea. The port looked like a quaint picture post card which is not what I expected.

I expected it to look like Galveston harbor but I think wiser business-oriented minds decided a port on an island which is a tourist destination should look nicer. The shops’ façades were painted blue, green and yellow and lined the length of the harbor. Native dancers and singers greeted us and posed for photos with whoever was interested in a photo opportunity.

There was a large Christmas tree and a large picturesque “Welcome to Roatan” sign that everyone posed in front of, too. We walked around and browsed the shops until it was time to meet our tour guide.

It wasn’t hard to find her. She held a large sign that read, “Glass Bottom Boat” and we all lined up behind her.

Her name was Jazlyn but asked everyone to call her Jazzy. She loaded us into an air conditioned bus and held our interest talking about Honduras and the Bay Islands of which Roatan is a part.

“What language do you think is the official language of the Bay Islands?” she asked us.

Sensing that this was a trick question, I answered, “Not Spanish.”

The Bay Islands were originally a British not a Spanish possession.  So, English was spoken before Spanish although many people speak both and some know one language better than the other. Some speak and understand one and understand but don’t speak the other. Jazzy didn’t say how many knew which language better. I think she said children learn both languages in school. On the mainland, Spanish is the official language.

When she found out that Andrea was born in Honduras, she gave her a fist bump.

Our first stop was the Village of West End where we witnessed another performance by native dancers. These people like the ones who greeted us at the port are members of the Garifuna tribe. The have their own language (Arawakan) in addition to the English and Spanish languages of the Bay Islands. The Garifuna tribe traveled to Honduras from the Caribbeanin 1797.

They performed dances that their ancestors brought to the New World. The lead dancer got Andrea to dance with her (and I have the photo to prove it).

We had time to browse the shops for handmade dolls; jewelry; woven hammocks; clothing; painting; wooden bowls and vases; shell art; and more.

I asked the clerk in English if I could use my card. (I know they take American cash.) She didn’t understand me and had a young woman I guessed was her daughter answer my question (which was that they credit card company would add 12% to the bill). So I found someone who knew more Spanish than English and another person who knew both. Not a scientific survey of Honduran languages, I admit.

Restaurants were scattered among the shops including a Thai Restaurant called Tong’s Thai Island Cuisine. (There’s a Pizza Hut and a Bojangles somewhere on the island but no McDonald’s.) At the end of the main drag is a small white frame Baptist Church complete with steeple just like many rural churches from long ago.

The town’s main road is brand new. However, the local authorities forgot to add stop signs and traffic signals when they finished construction. When we walked down a street and a vehicle zipped by, we jumped on the sidewalk. The sidewalk consisted of an edge made of cement while the sidewalk proper was filled with dirt.

The road ran parallel to the beach which was dotted with small piers. I assume that there is a stretch of beach where you can lay out and get a tan but I didn’t see it or should I say “them” because I understand there are a lot of them. 

Divers (and there are a lot of them, too) and fishermen take boats out during the day. There are canoes, sailboats, row boats and motorboats.

Fishing and tourism are the main industries on the islands.

Fresh fish is caught every day and is a feature at all the restaurants. Residents also grow their fresh vegetables. Banana, bread (first time I heard of such a tree), coconut, cashew and other trees grow everywhere. A vegetable peddler drives around with a variety of fresh veggies in back of his truck daily. Cashews are abundant and roasted from April through July.

Our next stop was the Glass Bottom Boat which was waiting for us at one of the piers just beyond the village.

We all squeezed in the bottom of the boat which predictably was surrounded by glass. We watched sea life pass us by: sea grass, scuba divers, turtles, various fish…they all coexist happily many feet under the sea’s surface.

As we drove through rural hilly Roatan, Jazzy gave us more information on the educational system on the islands.

There are several schools including a Seventh Day Adventist college. (There was a Seventh Day Adventist school in back of our hotel inTegucigalpa when we were there for Andrea’s adoption.) There are bilingual schools and uniforms are mandatory. As a result of the school system, almost everyone (except one store clerk) speaks some Spanish and/or English. This only applies to the Bay Islands because of its history as a British possession.

There are no school buses. Students walk or use public transportation or, if they live in a remote area, take a cab to school.

Our last stop was the cameo factory. One of three cameo factories in the world is located in Roatan. The other two are in Milan, Italy and Japan. The setting was veryquaint. The factory/studio was on a street that was parallel to the shore. A small flagstone courtyard and an iron bell bordered the property on one side. The bell hung from a wrought iron arch and was another backdrop for photo opportunities.

The crafts people carved beautiful designs on shells of all shapes and sizes similar to scrimshaw. Some pieces were turned into jewelry.

The rest of the neighborhood was residential. The stucco homes (some of which are built on stilts or blocks); tropical flowers and sunny weather looked just like the photos in travel magazines only this was for real.

We could see the Mariner of the Seas and another ship from Holland America docked at the harbor from the cameo factory. Andrea and I walked along the shore, taking pictures and drinking in the sea, sun, palm trees and beautiful flowers.

When the tour was over and we returned to the harbor, Andrea and I ran to the ship to get the cash we left in our vault on the ship.

We spent the rest of the day shopping at the port. There were the requisite tourist shops including a perfume shop (fairly decent prices for brand names), carts with souvenirs and Honduran fast food. A three piece band consisting of three old men played for our musical enjoyment. (They were very good actually.)  We didn’t buy too much because I have a lot of stuff from our previous two trips to Honduras.

Our real objective was lunch and we wanted to eat at a Honduran restaurant not the Windjammer. We found one above the perfume shop. The food was good but the service was very slow. We ate chips and salsa with hot peppers and chicken fajita  with rice and beans – typical Central American fare.

By late afternoon it was time to return to the ship. I didn’t want to leave and I don’t think Andrea did, either. The scenery was too sunny, beautiful and relaxing. When we returned to the Mariner, we decided to get some sun by the pool late as it was. The days are warmer in the Caribbean in the winter but they are also shorter just like they are up north. Andrea ordered an alcoholic Mango Tango (Like!) in another souvenir glass as we watched Roatan recede in the distance. (I just drank wine.) We could see cars wind their way on roads that wound through the hills of the town. Lights slowly lit up the harbor as the Mariner made its way toward Belize.

At the Sound of Music, the wait staff greeted us like they were truly glad to see us. Considering what I tipped them at the end of the cruise, I guess I would feel the same wayJ

On this particular evening, I ate Moroccan chicken salad for an appetizer; sirloin steak with string beans and baked potato; low fat key lime pie for dessert; coffee and Pinot Grigio.

Andrea selected a shrimp cocktail for the appetizer; a vegetarian calzone; Coke, a chocolate parfait and was also given a chocolate brownie as the wait staff and Kristin and Paul (who were celebrating their wedding anniversary) sang “Happy Birthday.”

It was time to see what was happening around the ship. We saw a musical variety show and then headed for the casino – another milestone for her to experience upon turning 21. They didn’t ask for her I.D. when she changed her dollars into quarters bit I offered the info that she was celebrating her birthday. Maybe the gambling age is different than the drinking age? That doesn’t make sense; maybe just lax or they figured she was with me.

She played $10 on some kind of coin game and ended up with $20. Not bad for her first try at gambling while sipping on a Pina Colada. (Like!) I had wine as usual.

 

Tomorrow: Belize and the Mayan Ruins

 

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