BlogPrints: La Isla Bonita

Lenore and I just returned from a very fun 30th anniversary Caribbean Cruise. We sailed out of Miami and visited Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel. Hurricane Matthew had just decimated Haiti on 4 October and then headed to Florida and the Southwestern US. It appeared that the storms wouldn't affect our ports. But, as the sailing date of 8 October approached, we weren't sure that our boat would sail or that our flight would be able to get us to Miami.

As it turned out, there wasn't much impact on Miami. The storm was passing North Carolina about the time we had to connect through Charlotte. But, that airport is far enough inland that it only had minor impact on the weather there. Overall, we were only rained on for about an hour's worth during our visits in ports.

This was our third Cruise in 18 months, and the second on Carnival Glory. The worst part is getting onto the ship. The best flight for us to take is the VERY early Saturday morning flight. As such, I didn't get very much sleep and then was without my meds until after dinner on Saturday. It wasn't horrible, but I need to plan better in the future.

There were two days at sea, Sunday and then Friday. The Friday was probably the least pleasant of the whole time because, even though it was sunny, the wind was pretty strong. I was tempted to ask the captain to slow down to minimize the wind:)

Grand Cayman was our first stop and also the shortest port stay. We just took a taxi to some part of Seven Mile Beach and sunned ourselves and went snorkeling. Left hand drive, English speaking, quaint. Did not see a McDonalds. But, saw KFC, Wendy's, and Burger King. The cabbie was quite proud to point out the expensive Hotels and resorts where the famous people own property and visit. It started to rain near the end of our planned stay. So, we packed up a little early and went back to the ship.

I think we had dinner to ourselves the first evening. But, for the rest of the trip we were seated with a nice, friendly couple from the Indianapolis area: Lance and Patty Allen. It was fun to have people to chat with.

The next stop was the Mahogany Bay resort on Roatan. We (Lenore) spent about an hour and a half shopping when we first arrived. I just cooled my heels and chatted with people. I was doing a pretty good job of watching the weather forecasts and such. Right before going to the beach, a lady asked me if we were going to get anymore rain. I said, "no, I think we've seen the worst of it." Then just as we got to the beach, it started to rain hard. Many of the people left for shelter. We found refuge in the outdoor locker area and were determined to wait it out. It rained steadily and hard for about 45 minutes and then cleared and was actually quite pleasant. We snorkeled a bit right off the beach. Then we noticed a pier off to the left that extended into the water about 100 yards. We found much better snorkeling there and both had a great time.

The next day found us in Belize. Our plan for the day was to go on a cave tubing excursion. We did not book this through Carnival. We found a better and less expensive tour on the internet: cavetubing.bz. There aren't many beaches in Belize. They are mostly on the islands. So, this activity seemed like the thing to do.

There was about an hour drive out of the city to a National Park. The city and environs are fairly impoverished looking. But, the park was quite presentable. The cave we floated is found on the Cave Branch river. (Belize is formerly British Honduras, so they speak English, but, they drive on the right hand side.)

After the float, we were served a very nice, simple lunch at the tour headquarters. On the drive back to port, the tour guide pointed out the local LDS Chapel.

Our last stop in Cozumel we took a taxi to Ocean Beach resort. They have a bit of a racket going on. The taxi fare is only $15 one way. But, once you get there you have to pay $17 per person to get in the resort. No big deal. They also try to sell you on all sorts of other stuff, (trying to separate you from your wallet) but, they aren't pushy.

While sitting on the beach next to a young black guy who was going to school in North Carolina (I think) and some of his friends (they all were from another boat) one of the vendors approached him and asked if he wanted his picture taken in a Mexican sombrero. He said, "that sounds racist." I couldn't contain my guffaw. I'm pretty sure he was trying to be funny. The vendor had no clue.

The water here was very warm. I would guess in some spots close to 90 degrees. We did a lot of snorkeling while still staying within the “safe” area.

While on the boat we saw frigate birds and vultures and dolphins, and very early in the morning we saw many small birds flying around the balconies, probably feeding on insects.

We had several hours available once we returned to Miami and we considered going to the beach. But, the weather wasn't great and we had our bags to worry about. So, we just went to the airport VERY early.

Cozumel