Belize City, Belize

The only thing that can mar a morning spent snorkeling at Sargeants Caye on the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere is Pica Pica! Apparently these little buggers are actually the eggs from mature coral that are setting off on their own. We swam through a swarm (school, whole large cloud) of them and they sting! And, I mean they STING! But, according to our dive master, who look mildly surprised as I came shooting out of the water spluttering and flailing my arms as my mask filled with water, they only affect some people. 

In our group of 7 only one other man and I reacted when every surface of exposed skin felt as if it were being assailed with acupuncture needles. We are also the only two who admit to being tormented by Mosquitos. Jerry, the guide, assured us that no permanent damage was being done---"they're not like jellyfish". I can't tell you how little comfort we took in these words.

Besides the killer Pica Pica we saw gorgeous fish ranging from small neon blues to large spotted things with frills, live conch and stag, brain and huge fan corals. Jerry might have given us the genus and species of all of them, but a million needles in your body tends to cause trivia to flee from your brain.

After some snacks on the dive boat we spent some time lounging on an island drinking rum punch. We then returned to the ship, one of 4 cruise ships here, which were all anchored quite a distance off shore to avoid the reef, and because it's fairly shallow and they can all remember the "Costa Concordia".

Fortified by a shower and lunch we took the tender into shore to check out Belize City.  There is a large cruise port facility here and they warn you travel in groups, wear no jewelry, and to be alert if you go outside the area on your own.

So, of course, we marched right through Diamonds International out onto the street, turned left, left again at the bridge and ended up "in town". We never felt unsafe and there were police every 100 yards or so, but there really isn't much for tourists to see in town. There were more banks than a city of 80,000 might reasonably need, some cool old government buildings, and a very 1950's department store that we wandered through which was blessedly air conditioned. 

The Capital is no longer Belize City, as it was moved about an hour inland as the hurricanes kept destroying the records and flooding the buildings. 

Before heading back to catch a tender we fortified ourselves with the local beer (of course you say) and chatted with the bar tender who was born and raised here! 

Now we are sitting on the balcony watching the last tender disappear behind the neighboring cruise ship, listening to the steel drums up by the pool, and wondering if Fritz will order yet another Princess Love Boat Dream for dessert? Any bets?

P.S. Molly, I am still tormenting school children wherever I go. Your father says that one day I will be arrested. Here's today's willing victim!

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

What a pleasant surprise! After all the grumbling we heard when we were re-routed here from Roatan, Honduras we expected a port with nothing going on. Instead this port, in the southernmost portion of Mexico on the Caribbean Sea, (just north of the border with Belize) provided a fun morning of doing nothing and enjoying every minute.

 The town of Mahahual is the big blue dot in the middle of the peninsula.

Walking from the dock into the port area you find the usual array of tourist shops selling "quality junk" according to one honest shop keeper. In addition there is a large pool with swim up bars and a sandy area with lounge chairs. Needless to say, this is as far as some people managed to get!

We bought our $3 pp shuttle ticket to take the straw-covered jitney the 4+ miles into town. There were some intrepid souls walking it, but the road cuts through the mangroves and there's not much to see. Plus, it's a longer trek than it looks from the ship.

Once in town we walked to the right (south) along the Malecon as far as it went (to the Fisherman's Pier). The walkway is being continued but it is under construction at the moment. Turning around and heading back we stopped at the Hotel Carpe Diem and seized a couple of cold beers while we sat and looked out over the water.

According to the Italian manager the entire town was wiped out in 2007 by Hurricane Dean. There were no fatalities as the Army evacuated everyone, but there wasn't one building, one tree or one plant left after the 12 foot waves washed 4 kilometers inland! Given that everything here has been re-built in the last seven years and given the recent economic climate I think they have done an amazing job!

There are a few small hotels along the beach and the usual beach bars and restaurants, but the attitude is pretty low-key. We didn't feel overwhelmed or overly pressured as you do in many touristy beach communities.  The water is very shallow and didn't look particularly clean, but there were people swimming and snorkeling. You could also rent a jet ski or kayak or just lounge in the sun or under a tree or in a hammock over the water!

I wasn't wearing my swimsuit or I would have taken advantage of a $20 beach massage. 

The taxi ride back to the ship was $2 pp which is curious as they usually charge you more to get back than to get into town.

My parting shot is of the swing bar. I wonder if this is a test? When you fall off--you're done!

Leaving Houston on Emerald Princess

We finally pulled away from the Houston Cruise Terminal dock at 10am Monday, a full 18 hours after our scheduled departure on Sunday afternoon. Due to the fog the pilots weren't keen on piloting and the channel was finally closed completely. As we have been passing a steady stream of freighters, oil tankers and other large ships just inches (OK yards) off our balcony we can understand why. Apparently the channel is very shallow, so they dredge the middle but that dredged section is not very wide making them hesitant to allow two-way traffic with no visibility and a bunch of oil platforms dotting the landscape.

Speaking of Houston Harbor, we are actually lucky that we ended up where the ship was docked. I almost always book our own night-before accommodations and transportation to the ship, and as we had sailed into Galveston Harbor previously I researched hotels and taxis for this trip. In the end I got lazy and signed up for the ship's hotel and bus package which was just as well----because we are just now sailing past Galveston's cruise terminal which is quite a bit further down the channel than the new Houston Cruise terminal which we sailed from!

We do now have a new winner in the "longest time to deliver luggage" category. Beating Rome, the former champion by a good 10 minutes, Houston-Bush takes the honors with 70 minutes to get the bags to the carousel after landing. And the apparent cause---RAIN! Perhaps we should send them to Seattle for a little training.

On board we have settled into the ways of things. Fritz was off to the gym at the crack of dawn, while Karen risked life and limb at line-dancing. Positioned between the large contingent of ladies from Texas and the college girls I had the bouffant-haired lady on my right throwing in all kinds of fancy extra steps and waving her perfectly manicured talons in my face, while the two college girls on my left, who must be the only two 20-something's to have never line-danced before, had to hold up their hands to determine which one made the "L" so they knew which was left. Still, after about 20 cruise ship lessons I can now do the Electric Slide with minimal injury or embarrassment. That said, I could have used some of my compatriots--and you know who you are!

At Trivia today we joined Maggie & Charlie from the Twin Cities and Jerry from Pasadena and came one question short from winning! And, really, who could be expected to know Ozzy Osbournes real name anyway! As we each contributed to our almost-successful bid for glory we have decided that we will stick together as a team and we may yet win that coveted fridge magnet!

Because of our late departure we will not be able to get to Roatan, Honduras and so they have substituted Costa Maya, Mexico instead. There has been much grumbling about this fact and we are disappointed that we won't be able to use our snorkel equipment in Roatan's Half Moon Bay, but we will be happy to settle for sandy and sunny and warm.

Speaking of warm---it isn't! The current temperature is 48 degrees which is much warmer than it has been. We are glad we wore our warm jackets as it was bucketing in Houston and you could still see your breath while we sat at the dock. It might be time to warm ourselves up with an Irish coffee. There were some odd liquor rules in effect until we left port. Apparently they couldn't serve Martinis but they could give you a double shot of whiskey. At dinner there were two choices of wine--one red and one white--available by the glass only. Our lovely Ukranian waiter told us she could offer us a nice glass of milk if we wanted.  Let the party begin!!!