Tag Archives: tourism

April 12, 2012

Vacation Videos: Know Us…Love Us!

By Canadian Bald Guy

After posting a couple of videos from this past week, I received some comments about how both Sunshine and I seem to let our personalities come out a bit and that it’s nice to see, considering that we’re always “out there” in photographs but never really in videos. And for all of our online blog/Twitter friends, they now feel just a bit closer to us.

So I figured that I’d post a few videos today. None of them are really particularly interesting and there really aren’t very many of them, but they all tell a story…at least to Sunshine and I.

Let’s start off with something simple, though the only person acting “simple” is me. Y’see, this was taken just minutes before the start of the first “game show” on the first night of the cruise. For those keeping score, this was where I won Ship-On-A-Stick number one…

So the premise is simple: music was playing in the background and both Sunshine and I were overly excited to be on a cruise to the Caribbean. I started acting a fool and Sunshine, ever encouraging me to act silly as much as possible, decided it would look great as a video…

Soon after proposing, an inside joke became the fact that we still couldn’t really believe that we were engaged. Honestly? It’s almost a month since I popped the question and I still can’t believe that it actually happened (but in a TOTALLY good way!!). Sometimes one of us would casually mention the fact that we were now “to be married” by saying as a way to bring a smile to the other person’s face. I happened to do this to Sunshine in a way that she found amusing, thus she wanted me to do it again for the camera. I honestly don’t think this is funny to anybody else but us, but what the heck…

 

Every evening when Sunshine and I would get ready, she’s put hairspray into her hair. No big deal, right? Well, every time she did she’d do the same thing when she finished, which you’ll see in the video. I told her that I’d eventually get it on video, and the final night of the cruise I did. Oh, and for those curious, this guy is David Suzuki…

 

On one of the last nights of the cruise we were up on the Serenity Deck, which is an adults-only section of the ship. It was a calm night, the stars were out, and we seemed to be the only two enjoying the “serenity” of the area (it was around 10:15pm). We just wanted to document how awesome it was to be together in that particular moment…

 

Of course, it was so calm and beautiful and relaxing on this particular evening, I ended up falling asleep. Honestly, I could have slept the entire night up there. Sunshine, however, thought it would be funny to video me sleeping (i.e. snoring). You’ll notice that she starts off the video by being as quiet as possible so to not wake me up. Then she wakes me gently, I notice the camera, and then continue to fall back asleep. This was, quite frankly, one of my favorite moments on the cruise: just her and I under the stars. And I apologize in advance for the darkness of the video as we certainly don’t have any HD equipment (although we’ll take donations…lol)…

 

There was another moment, while in Mahogany Bay, where we took a video to simply document how incredibly happy and blessed we felt. We were sitting in a swing facing the Carnival Legend after spending some amazing time on the beach when I decided to whip out the video camera. You’ll notice at the end of the video, somebody recognizes us as the couple that got engaged on the ship (although they thought we were newlyweds…lol) and offer to take our picture. This is the picture they took:

And this is the video the preceded it…

Now comes the majority of our videos in the form of one inside joke.  It started after Sunshine watched an episode of “Live with Kelly” and Martin Short was on as a guest host. He was talking about how he had this “game” that he and his “actor friends” liked to play sometimes: how convincing they could be while saying a particular line. The line in question?

“That’s a good cup of coffee.”

Of course, just saying it to each other wasn’t enough.  No, we needed to document us saying it on video. Repeatedly. This makes Sunshine and I laugh, so these are posted solely for our enjoyment (i.e. don’t say that I didn’t warn you…lol):

Taken on Lido Deck after grabbing a bite to eat:

 

In Billie’s Piano Bar while enjoying a most delicious milkshake:

 

All alone near the Atlantis Lounge while Sunshine is off “freshening up”:

 

On Lido Deck…again:

 

Sunshine deciding to FINALLY get in on the action:

And that’s about it, kids. Hope you at least got SOME enjoyment out of them. I’ll be back tomorrow to recap our final day at sea…

20 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in tourism, travel, vacation

April 11, 2012

Vacation Day Seven: Mahogany Bay

By Canadian Bald Guy

We were dropped off at the terminal by the good folks from Bodden Tours and we were feeling good about the decision to abandon a private beach for two hours. We were hoping that Mahogany Beach would be worth it for us to come back, not to mention we really hoped that the port area would be worth it for us to shop around a bit. With it being the last port we would visit, we wanted to squeeze every last drop of fun out of it.

Upon arrival we had to walk through the port shops. Because of timing, it really wasn’t very busy and it would have been a perfect time to do some shopping. However, we were desperate to get some beach time in (okay…maybe Sunshine was more desperate than I was, but I still was really looking forward to it), so we began to make our way towards Mahogany Beach.

Before we started, though, we simply HAD to take advantage of the cheesy photo op that was staring us in the face!!

Okay…back to business.

There were two ways to get to the beach: walking or riding a lift. The lift had a fee associated with it, so we just didn’t think it’d be that big of a deal to walk. And kids, it’s literally a five to ten minute walk to the beach…depending on whether or not you stop along the way to take pictures of the lift in action:

The chair lift en route to Mahogany Beach (with the Carnival Legend).

Carnival has created Mahogany Beach much like it did Grand Turk, so it’s a private area meant specifically for guests. It’s also a spot that screams out “awesome” and “beauty” at every turn. With blue water and white sands everywhere you looked, how could you go wrong? I mean, just look at some of the pictures we took while walking to the beach…

We walked by the shops en route to the beach because we had our priorities straight. It was a good thing, too, because the beach was absolutely spectacular. Last year in Grand Turk the majority of our pictures didn’t turn out, so we wanted to make sure that we took advantage of the opportunity presented in front of us.

NO!! DON'T TAKE MY SUNSHINE!!

Well, if the shoe fits...

Yeah...you know it, baby!

Cold coconut water on the beach, anyone?

There were MORE than enough beach chairs for everybody from the cruise.

We walked to the very end of the beach, where I changed into my swimming trunks and prepared to take a swim in the ocean with my lady…albeit a short one (I’m not much of a beach person). This part of the beach was actually pretty cool as there was a bar there with music playing…giving the atmosphere of a “party beach” (the rest of the beach was pretty quiet and tame). We grabbed a couple of chairs underneath a palm tree and both agreed that it was the BEST idea to cut our Bodden Tour short in order to enjoy this beach. At this point, Sunshine took a picture that should be blown up and placed on our wall somewhere…

We swam in the ocean for a bit, took pictures with our underwater camera (that somebody STILL hasn’t gotten developed yet…ahem…), and loved and laughed without a care in the world. The water, though, was REALLY salty…probably the saltiest water I’ve ever been in. But honestly, none of that mattered when the area looked like this…

We dried off and lay in the sun for awhile, but realized that if we wanted to enjoy some shopping then we needed to start heading back to the terminal area. I got changed and on the way back took a few more pics of our amazing surroundings…

The signage was very clear and noticeable. You certainly wouldn't get lost...though you may want to.

Authentic Caribbean flavor on the menu!

As had been the case all week, somebody offered to take our picture for us. Gosh...sometimes it's hard not to believe that we're ridiculously good looking. :-P

We stopped in one of the shops en route to the terminal area and I was FLOORED by this mannequin. Have I just not noticed "local mannequins" changing over the years or is there something a bit...umm...ENHANCED about this particular one?

We took the “scenic route” back to the terminal area and found a beautiful, large swing facing the ship. Again, this was one of those “small things” that we wanted to enjoy, even if for a few minutes, as we didn’t want to take for granted a single minute. As you’d expect, someone came along and offered to take our picture for us.

So we made our way back to the terminal and couldn’t wait to make our way around to all of the shops. One of the first things we saw was some “entertainment”, similar to what we had seen in Cozumel a couple of days before. It’s funny watching back because the one guy on the left looked waaaay too happy (and totally trying to work for tips), whereas the kid on the right just wanted to be anywhere else but there…

 

Yes…I tipped them. How could you not love the dude’s smile?

Now most likely because it was only 30 minutes or so before final boarding time, the entire shopping area of Mahogany Bay was pretty empty at this point. As you would imagine, this meant that we could walk in and out of shops and not have to worry about huge crowds all over the place.

There weren’t only the same shops that you saw everywhere else (i.e. diamonds and other jewellery, t-shirts, boots and belts, etc.), but there was also a “craft market”, which housed a TON of local artisan products. I really enjoyed looking through here because some of the items were so unique.

Some of the many local Honduran souvenirs to choose from.

Really? "Mayan World"? Yeah...I'm sure they'd approve.

The beautiful mahogany woodworks in Roatan were spectacular.

Yeah...ask Sunshine about the Honduran coffee and how good it is.

I had never tried coconut water before, so where the sun was pounding on the both of us (and the warm water I had been carrying around with me all day just wasn’t cutting it anymore), I figured that when I saw a sign for “Cold Coconut Water”, I just HAD to give it a try…

Marketing at it's best, apparently...

Dude taking the coconut out of the cooler.

He chopped off the top and dug a hole in the middle. Voila~!! Instant beverage!!

The only thing left to do was break out the straw.

That's right: drinking fresh coconut water straight out of the coconut with a straw and my pinkie finger in the air. IT'S HOW I ROLL!!

We proceeded to the ship at this point as the lines were beginning to form. We had to walk through a store in order to the dock itself and we were taken aback at the people having the same idea as we had (i.e. wait until the last minute to re-board). The lines began growing so quickly that they had two lines set-up, one aft and one port. We were originally in the first line-up, but it looked like the other line was moving quicker so we walked around to that one.

After a couple of minutes I told Sunshine that the line-up behind us was backing up into the store so we made the right decision.

She didn’t hear me.

I repeated what I had said, just a bit louder.

She STILL didn’t hear me.

I decided to be slightly sarcastic (I know…not me, right??) and spoke overly loud and slow, just to kinda be a jerk. Because it was me and it was Sunshine, we both burst out laughing. Sunshine found it so funny, in fact, that she requested I do it again for the camera…just to show the world how much of a jerk I could be.

We quickly went up to Lido Deck to not only eat (the place was packed at this point), but also to take a couple more photos of our surroundings, in particular the shipwreck that was located right next to our port.

This evening was the last “Cruise Elegant” night of the week, meaning we got to dress up just one more time.

I know...crazy hot, right? Hey everybody...come see how good we look!!

Of course, that meant we had to take a REAL photo with a REAL photographer…just to show the world how happy in love we were.

No...we're not in love. Why do you ask?

The highlight of this particular night was the “Party Like It’s 1980″ event in Madusa’s Lair. We were looking forward to jammin’ to some 80′s songs all week long, but for some reason when we got there at the designated time it was a non-stop Michael Jackson fest.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love 1980′s Michael Jackson music as much as the next guy…but this was excessive. After about 10 or 15 minutes of MJ, they decided to stop everything and have a THRILLER DANCE EDUCATION event. Seriously, some guy from the Ukraine (one of the ship’s dancers) was talking broken English on the house microphone and began teaching about 20 people how to do the “Thriller dance”. Of course, it was done in steps.

Slow…grueling…mind-numbing steps.

The guy seriously sounded like Borat and looked like Mikhail Baryshnikov. It was insanely funny to watch but man were we happy when it was over. I mean, we had waited all cruise to dance to the likes of “Word Up”, “Love Shack” (even though I hate the song), and this incredible ditty (seriously…we requested it!!):

We ended the night with another towel animal and were absolutely exhausted.

With only one more day at sea left, we were at that point in the vacation where you want to stay but you kinda want to go home to the kids, too. But the last day at sea will be talked about tomorrow…

13 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in tourism, travel, vacation

April 9, 2012

Vacation Day Seven: Roatán, Honduras

By Canadian Bald Guy

The day started like most every other day…Sunshine and I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn (i.e. 5:45am) in order to hit the gym by six, eat breakfast by seven, and watch the sunrise between seven and eight. This particular morning was an especially good one for me because I took the next step in my Couch25K workout: I ran for three minutes straight without stopping.

This is a coming from a guy who could barely walk up and down a flight of stairs without getting winded only a few short months ago, so this was a HUGE accomplishment for me. Sunshine could see me beaming and when my workout was done (having run three minutes straight TWICE during a thirty-minute period), I just couldn’t help but show off my excitement a bit…

KILLING my morning workout!!

We arrived in Roatán under cover of darkness, so even though it was after 7am the sun hadn’t risen yet (with a two hour time difference, the sun wouldn’t rise for awhile longer). As we sat around trying to make out what was around us in the darkness, we were asked if we wanted to have our picture taken (at right). Once done breakfast, we decided to head down to our room to get ready for the day.

Once ready to head out, we saw the beautiful sunrise once more…

Good morning, Honduras!!

At this stage we made our way down to the dock and began making our way to the terminal area. We had reserved a “Fun-n-Sun” tour with Victor Bodden tours (a $25 tour of the island that included some unique shopping opportunities, some “monkey business”, and some beach time), but where our port (Mahogany Bay) was owned and operated by Carnival, the restrictions for private operators was that they couldn’t pick up passengers at the port itself. So we had to walk out of the port, then up and over a hill in order to find our guide.

We easily found the Bodden folks, they checked our name off of their list, and we joined up with another six people waiting in an air-conditioned 15-passenger bus (almost all taxi companies and tours used these). Off we went for a tour of the island.  Roatán is the largest of Honduras’ Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Rattan and is approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) long but less than 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) across at its widest point.

The first stop was a very picturesque location that overlooked the ocean. It was littered with straw markets and apparently every tour bus on the island felt it was a great first stop. And again, we were asked if we wanted to have our picture taken. Of course, we had to say yes…

Sunshine & CBG overlooking beautiful Roatán.

The next stop was yet another area with straw markets. This spot, however, was one of the highest on the entire island. It overlooked the local airport and really helped to show off the beauty of the island:

We made our way down a very steep hill to a “shopping mall” (I don’t know how else to describe it, really). While the area looked poor, it didn’t look like the poverty was nearly as bad as what we had seen in Belize the day before. Once inside the “mall”, we saw some absolutely incredible mahogany woodwork…

Mahogany woodworks in Roatán, Honduras

Beautiful mahogany woodworks in Roatán, Honduras

The next stop on the tour was Victor Bodden’s house. Neither Sunshine nor I really had any idea of just what to expect by going here, but boy were we in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

There is a small zoo located on the grounds of Victor’s home. We thought we were just in a world of awesomeness when Sunshine was able to hand-feed a monkey in his cage…

We thought this would be the highlight of the day. Were WE mistaken!!

And then we saw some white-bellied squirrels, which we both thought was interesting…

I've seen squirrels before, but never white-bellied squirrels.

BUT HOLD THE PHONE!!  We got to the next cage, which contained three snow monkeys. We were asked if we wanted to go inside the cage.

YES…GO INSIDE THE CAGE!!

What do YOU think we did??

Hey...that's MY water!!

I was all smiles with the snow monkey.

This was an AWESOME unexpected surprise.

Sunshine making a new friend.

Yes...THAT just happened!!

We were absolutely over-the-moon at this point. We could have turned around and gone right back on the ship and it would have been an absolutely fantastic day.  But our experience hadn’t quite finished yet…

Sunshine and I got to pet a lemur next. They were a bit sleepy because they are nocturnal animals...but still an incredible experience.

Next off was yet another unbelievable experience that we never saw coming. Here is what I’m talking about…

Let me just preface this by saying that Sunshine absolutely HATES birds. She HATES them. They creep her out. She just HATES them. Of course, having said that, she basically said “F*ck it” and walked right into the cage.

Kids…the pictures speak for themselves…

I couldn’t have been more proud of Sunshine for overcoming a major fear and throwing her cautions to the wind. And me? I couldn’t wait to get a photo op!!

Immediately after experiencing this, we both went off to wash our hands (safety first, y’know). As I entered the restroom stall, I was greeted with something I would have NEVER seen at a public restroom in my neck of the woods…

We were just absolutely riding high at this point, and it was the perfect time for them to get us to pay (no…we didn’t have to pay up front). We were then whisked off to the private beach. They said that we would have two + hours at the beach and they would bring us back around 12pm local time (2pm ship time).

Sunshine and I started thinking about it and decided that we wanted to go back to the port. There were a couple of reasons for this:

  1. We really felt as though we had already gotten our $25 worth out of the tour.
  2. We didn’t want to have to pay more money to get into the beach area.
  3. Two + hours was a LOT of time for the two of us to spend on the beach, especially when we’re normally good after an hour or so.
  4. We still wanted to shop around the terminal/port area.

We arrived at the beach and everybody got off the bus. We asked the tour guide if we could be driven back to the port because we weren’t really feeling this beach and kind of wanted to get back to the Carnival beach. The driver spoke right up and said it wasn’t a problem to drive us back to the port.

He asked us to sit up front close to him and we ended up getting what was almost a private tour.  What was even better was that the driver took us “the long way” back, and we got to see a side of Roatán that we probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I was able to get a few pics out of the front windshield of the taxi…

When he dropped us off at the port, we had no problem tipping him another $20 for going out of his way. We were very appreciative of Bodden Tours and would recommend them to anybody.

It took all of thirty minutes to completely confirm that we were 100% correct in our decision to come back to the port area, because otherwise we would have never have been able to experience Mahogany Bay…

But that story will appear in Wednesday’s post!

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in tourism, travel, vacation

April 6, 2012

Vacation Day Six: Belize, Cave-Tubing, & The Piano Bar

By Canadian Bald Guy

When last we left you yesterday, we had just come to the opening in the jungle where the river appeared and the caves were right in front of us.

We were lowered into our tubes and because of the guest/guide ratio, there ended up being four of us tied to each other (most times there are eight tubes tied together). At this point, Nico was our new Cave-Tubing.com guide.  He took us and began swimming through the water towards the cave. It’s kind of difficult to adequately describe what it was like inside the caves. It wasn’t scary at all…it was just surreal. Depending on the depth of the water, Nico was either swimming through the darkness ahead of us, walking through the darkness and pulling us along, or sometimes even holding us from behind due to the rushing waters.

There were two caves in total, the second one larger than the first. In fact, the second one had an indoor waterfall which was really cool. I’m sure I had a smile on my face a mile wide, but I know I didn’t say much other than “Wow” every two seconds (I’m sure Sunshine will back that up…lol).

We exited the second cave and saw some folks getting out of the water to begin their hike back through the jungle. Not us. Nope. Instead, we continued to float on this incredible jungle river into the gorgeous sunshine (turns out the clouds DID burn off, after all). I felt as though I was in a movie…it just seemed too beautiful to be real. I took my camera out and began snapping like crazy.

Looking back at the exit of the second cave, I saw"Ex-Con", who was one of the guides for Cave-Tubing.com. His group of tubers were floating and basking in the sun, which gave him (and our guide, Nico) a bit of a breather.

I took more than a few pics of Sunshine in the tube tied to mine. She was enjoying the experience almost as much as I was.

I honestly think this is the most difficult self-portrait I've ever done. No...I'm not constipated in this pic, but with the life-vest on and sitting in a tube it was really difficult to get the camera pointed in the right direction. That's Nico over my shoulder there, pulling us through the river. Trust me...I was a happy dude at this point and having the time of my life.

As we drifted through the river for about 10 or 15 minutes, Niko was very talkative…giving his opinions on meat, milk, and other “healthy” foods like eggs. He was VERY opinionated and believed vehemently that the trees and the jungle provided the only nourishment that humans need. It truly was a fascinating conversation.

As we rounded a corner, I recognized a rope going across the river as signifying us being back at the beginning of our journey. I honestly thought we’d have to walk back through the jungle, so to know that we didn’t have to was a huge relief.

Nico then decided to have some fun by climbing a nearby rock formation and dive into some VERY shallow water.

Nico showing the tourists how it's done.

At this point, Sunshine made the decision to not just sit idly by and watch…but to say “F*CK IT” and do something she’d probably never have a chance to do again: jump off of a rock formation into a jungle river while in Belize.

Really…I think we both have to give our heads a shake when we realize this actually happened.

So anyway, off Sunshine went…

Sunshine preparing for her leap of faith.

…and she jumped off into the water like a frickin’ champ!!

THAT'S MY FIANCE!!! YEAH BABY!!!

I couldn’t tell you just how proud I was of Sunshine for doing that. I know I’ve got a fear of heights, so I’d be hard-pressed to even attempt that myself. To just be able to tell her children that she conquered fear and did something that very few people ever get to do is something that she’ll hold dear for a very long time.

After drying off a bit, we made our way back to the bus for a seven-minute drive to the Cave-Tubing.com “hut” for a lunch that was prepared for us.

Cave-Tubing.com "HQ". A beautiful outdoor eating/drinking area.

I went to get changed really quick and I was still having a “surreal” moment where I couldn’t really believe that we had done what we had just done. Then, on the way back to the “party hut”, I saw this…

Kids…if there is any lesson to take from this one day it’s this: take NOTHING for granted in life. I mean, when will you ever be in the jungles of Belize getting changed in a very “rustic” restroom only to come out and see THIS in front of you?? I’ll never forget it.

Inside the bar/restaurant/hut, we were treated to lunch: chicken tamales! I’ve never had a chicken tamale before and Speedo said that if we didn’t believe it was real chicken, we could check the bone out for ourselves.  Well…the tamale was so good and so tender, the meat fell right off the bone.

The Cave-Tubing.com chicken tamale!! A tamale is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa (a starchy dough, usually corn-based), which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper, which is discarded before eating. Aztec and Mayan civilizations used tamales as portable food, often to support their armies, but also for hunters and travelers.

In order to wash down our awesome lunch, we ordered a couple of Coca-Colas. Now, down in this part of the world Coca-Cola isn’t called Coke, nor is it made with corn syrup. Instead, it’s made with sugar cane, which gives it a MUCH sweeter taste than regular Coke. It didn’t have the “bite” that you would normally expect (almost Pepsi-esque).

Speedo then saw us with our camera and snatched it up so we could enjoy a photo op of this incredible experience:

Sunshine & CBG enjoying the incredible hospitality of Cave-Tubing.com in the jungles of Belize.

After a short lunch, we all loaded onto the “party bus” for our journey back to the port. The Cave-Tubing.com guys were VERY aware of the time frames that we had to work with and wanted to ensure we made it back before the final tender left for the ship.

It was also at this point where we paid for our excursion. That’s right…they didn’t want money up front. They wanted to make sure that we were all satisfied with our day before accepting our money. I took that to be a great sign of faith on their part, and it also led me to believe that they were going to do whatever they could to ensure we had the time of our lives and they earned our money.

We said our goodbyes to the crew and re-entered the terminal area. With a few minutes left to spare before the last boat would leave, we wandered around a bit.

Sunshine lookin' all HAWT in Belize.

Some of the local wares.

We jumped into a waiting tender so we could make our way back to the Carnival Legend. These guys must be paid by the boat-load because we were FLYING…

The view from the back of the tender en route to the ship.

The water was splashing into the back of the boat and some people were getting SOAKED. I wasn’t getting wet, so I was just trying to play it cool…

Meh...that's all you got?

Sunshine, of course, was sticking her head off the side of the boat to get the full effect of the wind and the waves and was simply having the time of her life…

She couldn't smile any bigger.

The water was blue and beautiful. We almost didn’t want to disembark…

Tenders dropping passengers off after the return from Belize City.

When we got back to our room we saw that we had an invitation waiting for us…

FREE BOOZE!!

This was an invitation that all returning Carnival guests received. A pretty classy move, if you ask me. They want to give small thanks to repeat guests and we appreciated that.

Oh yes...we appreciate it. Really. Honest. It's not all about the free booze, is it?

We took advantage of looking fairly decent to take a picture with our favorite Entertainment Staff member, Peter.

Don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure I remember that Peter is 29 years old and about 8 or 9 feet tall. He's from "sunny" England and had only been working for Carnival for about five or six weeks at the time of our sailing. He was truly a class act and I wish him all the best (I also wish I could remember his last name...lol).

After the free booze and dinner, we decided to take it easy in the piano bar, Billie’s. I think it’s probably more me than Sunshine, but I’m pretty sure we both enjoy sitting around a piano while the player does requests and sing-alongs.

The piano player on this cruise was Alan Brown, who was also from England. He had happened to be the entertainment during the Captain’s Meet-N-Greet, so he knew us from that whole proposal thing. It wasn’t overly busy when we were there, so he took time in between each song to talk to us and engage us in conversation. We ended up going there on more than one occasion, and I think he really helped to add to our entertainment for the week.

The two of us were being VERY silly at this point (we had free booze earlier, y’know), so that led to an inside joke that I’ll share with you even though it’s probably only funny to us.

It was the “finger in the air”. Drinking all of the champagne that we drank over the course of the week made us think that we were all that and a bag of chips. As such, we figured we needed to look the part by raising our pinkie fingers whenever we drank the champagne. Of course, I had to take it one step further by doing it with pretty much every beverage I had…including this vanilla milkshake (WHICH WAS AWESOME!!!) while inside the piano bar:

It's just how I roll...

Once back in our room, we were greeted with yet another towel animal. Just don’t ask me what it’s supposed to be.

Towel animal #4

And with two days of vacation left (including stopping in Honduras and one more full day at sea), you’ll have to wait until next week to find out how it went.

So with that, have a great weekend, everybody!!

8 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in tourism, travel, vacation

April 5, 2012

Vacation Day Six: Belize and Cave Tubing

By Canadian Bald Guy

I don’t even know if I can truly explain just how amazing this day was for me. I know that the next port (Roatan) was Sunshine’s favorite, but this one almost felt life-changing for me. But before I get too far ahead of myself…

Tenders loading up passengers

We woke up at around 5:30am because we knew this had to be an early day. Y’see, the tenders were arriving at 8am to begin taking people off of the ship so we knew that we’d have to be waiting nice and early since we had booked a private tour and not one with Carnival (those folks got priority seating based upon their excursion).

Room service had been pre-ordered the night before, so while we were getting ready for the day, our breakfast arrived at 6:15am, just as we had requested.

We were the second couple waiting outside of the Follies theater at 7:05am, knowing that they were opening up the doors at 7:30am. We were glad that we got there early, too, because by the time the doors had opened a very large line of folks had begun to gather behind us.

As we entered the theater, we were divided into two groups: Carnival excursion folks and “independents” (we got stickers with an “I” on them to distinguish us from the rest). Sunshine and I were the first of the independents, so we knew that we’d be ashore early enough to make our 9:30am private excursion time.

Three or four Carnival excursion groups were called to board the first tender, then they called for the first four rows of independents…meaning we were going to go on the first boat to Belize. This was pretty exciting for us (we really don’t get out much…honest!).

It was a REALLY cloudy day…cool and windy. The guide told us that it would “burn off” by mid-day. Sunshine and I thought he was nuts…how in the world are CLOUDS going to burn off? I mean…we’re used to fog burning off, but clouds? You’re insane.

We arrived at the port and, quite honestly, weren’t overly impressed. It was nice, I guess…but not nearly as nice as some of the other ports we had visited over the past couple of years (even Nassau had a better first impression).

The tender terminal in Belize.

We were let out through the front door by an armed guard (always a nice sign) and were hit with a dose of reality: a ton of locals trying to get us to go on tours with them. The street looked dilapidated and I was a little taken aback.

Fortunately, I immediately saw a sign for the group that we were going with: Cave-Tubing.com. Now, you may find the rest of this post to be similar to an infomercial for these guys, but I can’t help it…they were awesome in every way. Anyway, they checked my name off of their list and we waited for their bus to arrive.

Sunshine & CBG all SUPER excited for our Belize jungle adventure!!

The bus was a regular bus…not some broken-down converted school bus, but a “real” bus with air conditioning and even a customized paint job. I immediately recognized that the Cave-Tubing.com guys weren’t just some local yahoos taking us on some wack “adventure”.

We were told that it would be an hour-long bus ride to the jungle so we settled back for a tour of Belize City. The first guide to help us learn more about his country was “Ex-Con” (a nickname only…he’s not really an ex-convict…or at least that’s what they told us). While he made jokes and provided a lot of information, Sunshine and I couldn’t help but notice that Belize appears to be one of the poorest-looking areas we’ve ever seen. While looking at the poverty all around, it made Sunshine and I ever happier to know that we had put our money directly into the hands of the local economy. No offense to Carnival or any other cruise line that does excursions, but we knew that the money we gave this group would 100% be going to the group…and that’s why (1) it was cheaper and (2) they worked harder.

Anyway, while our 17-year-old bus driver (nickname: Seven) was passing cars and motorcycles on the VERY narrow highway, we were given a GREAT tour of the countryside from the main guide for the company: Speedo. He really made us feel at ease and have a bit of fun. What kind of fun?

Speedo from Cave-Tubing.com

Well…in Belize they produce something called Cashew Wine. The cashew nut is connected to a piece of fruit, but when it’s harvested the fruit portion usually gets thrown out. Not in Belize. Instead, they’ve taken the fruit portion and have made Cashew Wine out of it. Speedo told us that if we were hot he had cold bottles of water for us. However, if we were cool we’d REALLY enjoy some Cashew Wine.

So out came the shooter cups and out came the wine. We were told not to sip it, but to swig it back like a shot of hard liquor. I’m not a big drinker, but you know the old saying…

When in Rome...

We were asked if we liked it. We both said it was alright. Speedo immediately suggested that we needed a second shot to come to a more definitive conclusion, so down went shot #2!! I gotta say…the taste wasn’t entirely my cup of tea, but after two shots the entire group was officially on the “Party Bus”.

We arrived at the Cave-Tubing.com hut on the outskirts of the jungle so we could let those doing the ATV jungle tour off first. They would meet up with us later. After driving down the road about seven more minutes, we arrived at the Nohoch Che’en Caves Branch Archaeological Reserve, which is a protected area managed by the National Institute of Culture and History and the primary starting point for almost every cave-tubing company..

The Nohoch Che'en Caves Branch Archaeological Reserve Outpost.

Speedo told us something that seemed a little odd at the time…we were going to get some dirty looks from the other tourists on cave-tubing excursions but didn’t say exactly why. Boy…would we find out quickly.

Turns out that not only is Cave-Tubing.com “twice the fun at half the price” (they are almost 50% cheaper than the Carnival excursion that does the exact same thing), but they carried the tubes for us!! It was crazy…as soon as we arrived at their building at the jungle entrance, we saw a number of guys load up two large tubes on each arm and just start hiking through the jungle trail on their own. The guys handed over our LED lights that would be strapped to our heads and that was it…we started to make our way through the jungle.

This is the Cave-Tubing.com building at the entrance to the jungle trial. You can see the crew starting to pack up the tubes in order to carry them 30 minutes into the jungle. Unbelievable service!

Our guide for this part of the excursion was Jimmy. If I remember correctly, Jimmy used to be an auto mechanic until he started doing cave-tubing tours about seven or eight years ago. He’s a LOT happier doing this. Jimmy was well spoken and knew a LOT about Belize, the jungle, and just about everything that our small group had asked him about. He was in no rush and took the time to make our hike a fun learning experience.

Our jungle guide, Jimmy (pointing, at left), helps educate AND entertain during our Cave-Tubing.com excursion.

Believe me, Jimmy went into great detail describing these things. Do you think I could remember what they were now? Bah. Still...I remember that these fruits (?) had an extremely tough exterior shell and that locals would use large rocks to break them open in order to eat them.

I cannot tell you just how amazing of an experience this was for me. I’ve always lived around forests as my neck of the woods is dense with trees, but there was something surreal about being in an actual jungle…hearing the sounds and seeing the sights. I couldn’t have been more in awe as we trekked along.

And where some people were just looking around and/or eager to get to the caves, they appeared to not really care that much about the hike there. For me, I never want to reach the point in my life where walking through an actual jungle is taken for granted.

Only around 20% of Belize is actually populated. That leaves a LOT of jungles and forests and natural beauty that remains untouched by man.

Approximately 36% of Belize's land territory falls under some form of official protected status, giving Belize one of the most extensive systems of terrestrial protected areas in the Americas.

Belize has an annual average temperature of 79F, ranging from a low of 60F in winter to 96F in the summer. Overall, the seasons are marked more by differences in humidity and rainfall than in temperature.

Pineapples are indigenous to the area (though more-so in South America). In the Caribbean, the pineapple became associated with the return of ships from extended voyages, and an emblem of welcome and hospitality that made its way into contemporary art.

Belize enters its rainy season at the end of June, and anywhere from light rain showers to heavy storms can be expected through the middle of February. Annual rainfall ranges from a low of 50 inches in the northern sections to a high of 170 inches in the rainforests of the south.

And sure enough, just like Speedo said, as we were making our thirty minute hike/walk through the jungle we ended up passing other groups who had stopped to rest. The reason they were resting was because they were wearing helmets and carrying their own tubes. As we casually walked past them, believe me when I say that if looks could kill…

C'mon guys...you're cramping our style. Let's move!

Can you imagine walking through this holding a tube while wearing a heavy helmet? And this particular picture was near the beginning of the thirty minute hike through the jungle!! So very thankful for Cave-Tubing.com for carrying the tubes for us.

At one point we actually stopped to look at a termite hive. Jimmy asked if anybody wanted to try one. Apparently, if you’re lost in the jungle and need some food, termites are full of protein and can keep you going with their minty after-taste. We all declined, but we asked Jimmy if he was interested himself. His answer? “Nah…I’m a vegetarian.”

Mmmmmm....anybody for a termite? Anyone?

We finally made our way to the river and could see the river and the caves directly in front of us. It was at this point that the ATV folks that we had dropped off met up with us, along with the zip-lining folks that had gone off in a different direction when we arrived at the site. It was all timed very well and you could tell they were organized and knew exactly what they were doing.

Oh look...THERE are our tubes!

It was at this point that I put my camera away in a plastic ziplock baggie to ensure that nothing happened to it should I drop it in the water or if it got wet. As it turns out, I probably could have not worried about it at all because we were safe and sound with our new guide, Nico.

But the next part of our journey will have to wait until tomorrow’s post…

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