Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Caribbean Cruise Part II

Belize

Belize was an interesting place. I guess I pictured it as an exotic tropical location, but it was kind of the opposite. It was very run down and impoverished. Once we got out into the country it was thick jungle and just beautiful. Our tour guide was really awesome and told us some really interesting things about the country. Some highlights include:
  • 1 US Dollar = 2 Belize Dollars
  • The hospital system is so bad that even people in the country will go to Guatemala or Mexico to get better medical care. He said only the rich people are able to do that
  • All students where uniforms
  • The only country in the world with Jaguar preserve
  • There is a Mosquito there that will plant itself under your skin and feed on your blood for a couple of weeks - the only way to get it out is to stick duck tape on it and suffocate it and then squeeze it out
  • Exports included: Coffee & Oranges
  • There were only 6 working stop lights in Belize City
You can find a lot of these things online, but it was still fun to learn them in the country!

The excursion we did was inner tubing down a river while going through caves. We saw some really cool formations and went for a really nice 30 minute hike prior too it. The only problem was that I was slowly getting really dehydrated and got an infection throughout the day so I had to go to the doctor and get medicine. Thank goodness the ship had a medical staff otherwise the rest of the cruise would have been miserable!


This was a view of the ship from the Ferry boat we had to take in. Belize has one of the biggest barrier reefs in the world so the boat had to anchor way out from the dock.












Isla Roatan

This place was the most beautiful of them all! We did some light shopping and then parked ourselves on the beach and played in the water. It was very relaxing and actually nice to have an excursion planned.





White feet in the sand



Mangroves...they were so cool lookin!



Later that day we had the wonderful opportunity to relax even more by reading in this comfortable chair on the front of the boat.



Costa Maya

Costa Maya was pretty fun. The only thing we did here was shop and look at tide pools. The tide pools were my favorite because it reminded me of growing up in Santa Cruz and going to Natural Bridges with my dad and exploring all the creatures in the tide pools. I just loved it! We found a cool crab and some sea urchins.










Later that night was the second formal night. Our waiters were crazy and danced for us.

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Day At Sea

All this day consisted of was reading, eating, playing games and doing some more reading. It was awesome. It was really windy and cold but it didn't matter because we were on vacation.






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