Opening the sliding door to the balcony a blast of heat and humidity is just what we need to take our breakfasts with. The Carnival Glory has slipped in alongside us early this a.m. and is starting the tendering to shore process as we anchor. Then the frenzied activity of getting off the ship and into Belize City or on to other tours begins in earnest. We trot up to the buffet to ‘pack our lunch’ as our snorkeling tour includes only drinks and then head down to wait to be picked up directly from the ship. As we sit waiting an announcement tells us we must have photo ID to get back on the ship so we have an aerobic workout getting via stairs from deck 1 to deck 8. We have a 45 min. wait after that so our heart rates return to normal as the catamaran waits for it’s turn to come alongside. But here it is.
Captain Kirk (I swear that’s his name as he showed me his marine license when I asked about his studies - I wasn’t questioning his credentials, just wanted to compare it to what the boys do here for qualifications) takes us on a 45 min. trip (15 mi. SE of the ship) to Rendezvous Caye in the 63 ft. catamaran through 82 F water - yeehaw! Past lush islands with a few small homes tucked in at the edge of the water, and mostly just green jungle down to the blue, blue ocean. There’s the private island - it looks like one of those satires where two guys are marooned on a desert island with four palm trees and it’s only a couple of hundred feet long. We’re told the island was created when fishermen cleaned conchs there and the shells and coral are what formed the sparkling white base.
My travel partner managed to attract the Captain’s attention and got an extended private snorkeling lesson due to her anxiety level (apparently she at first had trouble disentangling her intense grip from his hand to point to the plastic card of fishes they were seeing) But she did manage to conquer the basics so is now a convert to the underwater voyeurism. Since she was in the ‘special class’ I was free to snorkel with the advanced group on the L shaped reef. The snorkeling was amazing although the staff thought the water was cloudier than usual. Saw all the usual Caribbean fish including brilliant parrot fish, angelfish etc. in a 90 min. swim which only felt like 15 min. Back to the catamaran for some rum punches and off to check out Rendezvous Caye. Almost got set up with a shell from another tourist (not only was it stinky but you can’t remove shells from Belize as they’re protected) so it was good the Captain was looking out for us.I learn from the snorkel tour manager (an ex pat from northern England who holds dual citizenship) who is also a mechanic and stone mason during the off season that he has lived here 12 years and considers it paradise. Says he loves his job as he gets to look at lots of women (what a Caribbean man he's become) and he clears $600 Belizean dollars per week during the high season while his wife does crafts (she was originally a teacher when the British base was here). He tells me that the fishery is protected in Belize with a 12 mile limit but a recent survey showed that at night only 5 out of 35 boats fishing were from Belize - the remainder were from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua and they don’t care what they take or what happens to the resource.
We'd taken bagels and cream cheese for our lunch but my travel partner can't find hers, sits in mine and kicks over my rum punch - not that I needed it anyway. Better to have eaten our lunch though than swilling all the included rum punch in the heat as we didn't even have our wits about us enough to think to bring $ for a tip - tourists! The Captain is gracious and tells us he's had a wonderful day with us as the entertainment. What a great trip even though we can't convince the Captain to take us over to Belize City for some shopping instead of straight back to the ship.
As we're returning to the ship there's a small communication error where one of the security with an accent asked my partner to put her bag on the scanner (security is equal to the airport) and she says "pardon?" He repeats himself and points to her bag. When she tells him that she thought she heard him say "put your butt on the scanner" and she was trying to figure out how to do that (and why he would be asking) He says "well, you do have a nice looking butt but that's the first time in the 7 months I've been doing this job that anyone's made that mistake". We were nervous to return again but needn't have worried because if those two made eye contact on check ins after that there were complete bilateral hysterics when the bag got put on the scanner!
A quick change of clothes and down to catch a tender into Belize City as we have a couple of hours before onboard time. A quick ride in and we're standing on the dock where the heat and humidity were both higher than on the caye. We do some shopping at the 'mall' and find some jewelry, t-shirts, Belekin beer for the life partner and the find of the day.... a chair hammock which I'll have to convince the home decorator CEO to hang in the veranda. A band playing on the waterfront so a CD to buy and then it's time to catch the tender back.
We get in line on the pier but decide to ask which ship this line is for? "Carnival" the passenger in front of us says "oops" so we try another queque and this one has an Explorer of the Seas sign for the unobservant like us. A chat with the Captain on the run back who tells us they just shut down Belize if it blows over 15 knots as 3 - 4 ft. seas are wild weather. Sometimes in the 'winter' when it storms (Dec and Jan) it goes to 50 F at night. He is amazed at our description of North American marine weather, lobstering etc. Security is seamless as our 'friend of the scanner' isn't there and his female partner is very business like.
As we're waiting for the elevator one of the security (there's a whole police force on board) is waiting for the elevator and says with glee "you see this elevator coming here, I've been chasing these kids for half an hour, they've been riding up and down, sitting down on the floor, not letting anyone on" When the door opens he says with authority "ok guys, end of the ride, everyone off" to howls of protest from the 10 - 12 teenagers exiting. This is the last week of spring break in the US so + + students but I'm guessing their keepers assumed they were in the arcade, up by the pool or playing ping pong not being pains in the patooties.
We're making 11 knots as we leave Belize City harbour so we decide the balcony is more exciting than flopping in the stateroom as the pilot boat is coming alongside to retrieve the harbour pilot. There's also another speed boat bringing some ? lost luggage and a passenger who is either joining us or missed the last tender - now that transfer would be worth capturing on video. We pass beautiful islands with aquaculture sites, mansions and yachts as we leave.
We find our way to supper and have scallop risotto, roasted garlic soup, tiger shrimp, rice and veggies and tea with strawberry panna cotta for dessert. We stop at a lounge but although the banana daquiri is great, the singer comedian isn't to our liking so we head to the theatre to see Tony Tillman's show. He used to open for Bill Cosby, is very high energy, great singer, impressionist and dancer - if you ever get the chance to catch his act it's well worth it. After latin music (dancing for the roommate) we do not keep the best intentions to get to bed early and it's 1:30 before we crawl in and another 30 minutes of recapping the day. We decide that from what we've seen the people of Belize ar are gentle, polite and have a good sense of humour - it would be a good place to retire in paradise to.
Am not holding out on the photos to post but there seems to be some kind of glitch in the blog as I can't upload photos this past two days. Will try to catch up when the service is back on.
