This year we decided to trade a vacation week for a cruise. We booked a seven night cruise on the Carnival Liberty with four ports of call: Mexico, Belize, Honduras and the Cayman Islands. This blog post will primarily talk about the ports of call. I'm writing a different post about our time on the ship.
Miami:
We got in to Miami early Thursday. Our hotel was directly
across from MIA and as we drove in we noticed a 94th Aero Squadron
Restaurant nearby. It looked just like
the one that used to be in STL so we had to go there for a glass of wine. Inside was very similar to the one in STL and
it reminded us of how much fun it was to take Mom and Dad there.
Afterwards, it was time to head to South Beach. However, I-395 was blocked due to a drawbridge
that wouldn't shut. Time for a
reroute! We decided to take a detour
through the back streets of Miami all the way from the airport to South
Beach. Boy, did we get an education…it’s
totally different from the beautiful sky scrapers and multi-million dollar
homes you associate with Miami. Instead,
it’s mile after mile of tiny houses with no front yard and with their cars
parked up next to the house. And, there
was a big section of the trip where we saw virtually no signs in English. We didn't feel threatened at any time, but it
definitely wouldn’t be where we’d drive at night!
South Beach is South Beach….we've never encountered anything
else quite like it. There’s the beach, with
thousands of people on it….then sand dunes, then parks/hotels, then Ocean Drive
which is lined with restaurants and clubs catering primarily to tourists. Lots of crazy-cool cars, wild neon, palm
trees, hot looking people, and hawkers trying to get you to come into their
place. We were specifically looking for
Cuban food and were disappointed that all the restaurants had virtually the
same menu with only Cuban sandwiches.
Finally a guy told us we had to get off Ocean Drive to get real Cuban food and he
directed us to Puerto Sagua….which was filled with Cubans eating great
food….highly recommend it!
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| Leaving Miami, South Beach is in the background |
After dinner it was time to stop by an outdoor club to
listen to music. However, we weren't out
to see and be seen. Instead we were more
like “see, gawk and be innocuous”. Great music
and lots of people (median age of 25) but all too soon it was time to go back
to our hotel and watch airplanes.
Beginning the Cruise:
We got to the port around 11:00 and quickly boarded, along
with about 3500 others (and 1100 crew members). Long lines, but
everyone was quickly processed. Of
course Mona was starving so the first place we hit was a buffet. It’s hard to describe how many offerings
there were….you just have to see it to believe it. We sated our hunger and then began exploring
our ship, the Carnival Liberty. The ship
has 13 decks and is about 1000 feet long (not to mention it weighs 110,000 tons!).
There are lounges throughout the ship, along with several restaurants,
cafes and coffee shops. There is also
an incredible list of over 350 activities you can do….games, shows,
casino, pools, Jacuzzis, and on and on
and on….
Cozumel:
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| Mona and Friends |
Our first port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. This is an island about 30 miles off the
coast of Mexico. We decided this would
be our casual day, nothing fancy, just walking and enjoying the city. We shared a cab from the port to the town
square. From there we started
geocaching, taking in the sights and sounds of the little town as we
cached. The shopkeepers were still
opening up but they all managed to talk to us and ask us to come into their
shop. They didn't seem to mind if you
didn't buy anything, they just wanted to ensure you came in to see what they
had to offer.
We stopped at an outside bar called Wet Willies for
margaritas and guacamole. Both were
awesome. Then stopped by a tequila store
for free samples. We got to talking with
the store owner and ended up with lots and lots of samples. Afterwards we somehow managed to grab another
cab and make it back to port. Time to
hit the Jacuzzi!
Belize:
Our second port of call was Belize City, Belize. When we went to school this tiny country was
called “British Honduras” and it wasn't
until 1981 that Belize gained independence from Britain. This is the only country in Central America
where they speak English…quite good English at that. However, when locals talk to locals they speak
Kriol….a blend of English, Spanish, Creole and home-grown words.
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Two Wild Flowers |
We saw lots and lots of wildlife on this ride….howler
monkeys (cross than one off the bucket list!), crocodiles, beautiful birds
including ospreys, herons, frigate birds, cormorants and one yellow
parrot. We also saw lots of iguanas…in
trees, in clearings, everywhere! Some of
these iguanas were six or seven feet long…the biggest iguanas we've ever seen!
Finally we came to a large clearing where there was a
“resort”. There we had lunch which
consisted of jerk chicken accompanied by beans and rice cooked in coconut
milk. Delicious! After lunch we boarded a bus and headed for
the next part of the trip…an ancient Mayan site called Altun Ha. This is a relatively small site, especially
when compared to Chichen Itza, but it’s also where some of the most incredible
finds of Mayan jade have been made, including the crown jewel of Belize, a
skull made from jade.
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| Two of the Pyramids at Altun Ha |
We explored the site for about an hour, including a climb to
the top of one of the pyramids. The heat
here was intense and the air was swimming wet! Our guide told us that
the heat, along with the surrounding swamps and jungle helped keep the
conquistadores from conquering this site.
I can believe it…I’d hate to wear armor in this jungle!
Roatan, Honduras
Our third port of call was Roatan, Honduras. This was our beach day and we took a chair
lift to the nearby beach. From the chairlift we could see lionfish in the
shallows below…were we really going to get in the water here!?!?! At the beach, we put our gear in our
clamshell cabana and headed for the water, lionfish or not! At the beach it was just us and about 2000 of
our closest friends. Luckily the beach
was huge. We floated for a while, I
snorkeled for a while and then it was time to head back to the ship. Jacuzzi time!
Cayman Islands:
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| This Ray is About 5 feet Wide. |
Our final port of call was the Grand Cayman island in the
Cayman Islands. Here we rode a bus to
the far side of the island. This island
nation is known for its banking and it’s not nearly as poor as its neighbors. Lots of nice middle class homes and
businesses here. But, lest you forget
that you’re in the Caribbean, there are still iguanas everywhere! Once we reached the far side of the island we
boarded a boat for our final adventure, a visit to Stingray City!
Stingray City is a sandbar, two miles out in the ocean….yep,
two miles! Our boat anchored seemingly
in the middle of the ocean and then they told us to get out! If you know Mona, you know that she hates
water deeper than her ankles. I mean
h.a.t.e.s! Yet, here she was, getting
off of a perfectly good boat into water that was up to her shoulders! I don’t think she would have done this except it was my birthday.
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| Took this with my iPhone in a bag! |
As we got off the boat we could see triangular shapes
gliding through the water…stingrays!
These rays were four or five feet across and there must have been a hundred
of them! They would come right up to us
and bump into us! It was a little iffy
at first, but then you get to liking it!
We waded to waist deep water and there our guide told us all about the
rays and how they feed on life underneath our feet. We got to hold a ray and then feed one. The ray literally sucks the squid right out
of your hand from several inches away!!!
(Note: You are warned not to wipe your hand on your body after the ray
eats your squid. That’s because rays
LOVE squid, even squid juice and will suck the juice from your body leaving you
with a giant hickey…right Virginia?)
We were out on the sandbar for an hour or so…feeding the
rays, snorkeling with them….and just having a blast! Our visit ended all too soon!!!
Afterwards, we shopped awhile in the port town and then made
our way to waterside bar. There, Mona
made friends with some local women, celebrating a new job for one of them. We met lots of fun people here in the
Caymans, as well as everywhere we visited.
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| Mona and New Girlfriends |
We had fun on all our excursions, but Stingray City was the
best of all. We would both love to do
that again! (And…we’d like to swim with
dolphins, swim with turtles, ride horses on the beach, and, and, and!
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| Hard to see, but in this pic is a dolphin, a baby manatee and a mama manatee. |
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