Cruise Day 4

Nov 13th - Belize City

The day of our big excursion!  Since it was an all day thing we had to get up early and eat the buffet breakfast in the Windjammer so that we could meet our group by 7:45 am.

Oh, and before I forget, we had somewhat of a scare about this day.  On Wednesday night, during dinner, Becca told us that when they had checked on their excursion (theirs was cancelled on Wednesday and they were told to visit the excursion desk to get a refund and 50% off the next day's), the were told that our original excursion--to the Mayan ruins with a lunch--was cancelled.  We were all a little upset until Becca found another ruins excursion for about the same price and it had a river boat trip!  We just had to wait until after dinner to get it all set up. 

The most outrageous thing was that the ship didn't have a public announcement about it.  They were just going to call each room that evening to inform all those who were signed up for the ruins w/lunch.  The only problem with that was the exursion desk (where everyone would reschedule) closed at 8:30 and a lot of people wouldn't be getting back to their rooms until after dinner and the shows which would be around 10:00 or 11:00!  Meaning they would all have to reschedule early, EARLY in the morning!  But we were fortunate that Daryn and Becca were there earlier in the evening and found out about it!

Back to the story.  So we ate breakfast quickly and headed to the theater where we were told to meet.  There were a TON of people there!  I thought that they were all going to be in our group, but it turned out that there were multiple excursion groups meeting there.  They had us all meet there so we could be tendered (the water was too shallow for the cruise ship to dock, so they had speedy boats taking us back and forth from the boat to the dock) seperately from the rest of the passengers who didn't have planned excursions.

Once we got ashore, we waited with our group until our tour guide came to take us to the bus.  I was worrying a bit because we didn't have any bottled water.  It was $1.95 to get it on the boat so we didn't want to buy it there.  We found a cafe place that sold it for $1 a bottle so we bought two there hoping the tour guide would give us some as well.  It was a HOT and sunny day!!

The bus ride was great believe it or not!  It wasn't the best bus, but I was really happy to be able to see the actual country, not just the shops around the port.  That was one thing I had to get past going on a cruise.  I felt like I was cheating by visiting countries on a cruise.  It's so touristy!  So it was nice to take the bus and see things.  Plus, I got to take a nap.

Our tour guide was great, but had one flaw.  No, not her English.  English is actually the official language of Belize (it was a British colony); her English was accented, but great.  She was TOO WORDY!  It was nice to hear about the country on the bus, but once we got to the ruins, we wanted a short explanation, and then time to explore!

But our guide was very into educating everyone about her country.  I guess that's admirable.  The only problem we had was that we were standing in the middle of an open, grassy area between Mayan buildings under the HOT sun!  And to top it off, she had suggested that we don't put sunscreen on unless we were "highly allergic to the sun."  I thought that meant that we wouldn't be in the sun for most of the time.  But we were.  Needless to say, I got burned, but not too bad, and I actually tanned... minimally.  So now I really have a farmers tan.

After she finished telling us all about Altun Ha (that's the name of the place we went) we climbed to the top of one of the buildings and took some pictures.  At this point I had to pee so bad (I had downed two bottles of water thinking I would be dehydrated if I didn't), I couldn't enjoy it much, but I got some good pics.  I scooted down the steps as quickly as my fear of heights would let me--the stairs didn't have much by way of a railing and they were really steep stairs!

I ran to the bathrooms and then looked for my Belizian (sp?) souvenier.  I know, cheesey right? I found a cool wooden carving that the seller's husband made.  It's pretty solid, so I didn't feel ripped off.  It reminded me of some of the faces and stone carvings on the buildings.

We went to eat lunch after the ruins.  I thought we were going to a restaurant, but we ended up at someone's house and we ate in their courtyard.  Maybe that is a restaurant in rural Belize, I don't know.  The food was good.  And we had some shocking entertainment.  There was a guy who sat at a table behind me who's plastic chair's legs broke out from beneath him!  They were those cheap patio chairs, but still!  Plastic went flying out from both sides of him!  Thankfully, he wasn't hurt.

After lunch we got on a small-ish boat to take down the river and back to the port.  Here's where our tour guide lied again!  She said we didn't need bug spray because there weren't any mosquitos.  Well, there might not have been any mosquitos, but there were sure some other kind of blood-sucking, itch causing insects!  I got bit at least 10-15 times, and they're still itching!  When we got back to Idaho and told our friends about the dumb bugs, their response was maybe those same bugs bit the Nephites! :D

The boat ride was nice and relaxing--other than the bug bites, but they didn't itch then and the fact that we were crammed in there like sardines, good time to make friends :)--and we saw a bunch of cool animals!

The entire excursion took about 7  hours, so when we got back on the boat, we had just enough time to get ready for dinner.  Yummy, yummy dinner and great company!

We should have realized that each show wasn't as good as we hoped.  I kept thinking maybe this show will be better, but sadly, no.  Thursday night's performance was Broadway show tunes, which could have been great, but they chose weird songs from risque shows.  :(  By the end of it, we were closing our eyes and trying to sleep so we didn't have to watch it!

I think it was this evening that all of us went on deck to play shuffleboard?  I know we all went one night, I just don't remember which one.  We had a lot of fun and we took a crazy picture of the guys posing with their shuffleboard pucks.  As soon as I get it, I'll post it!

Tomorrow: At sea, the last day on the boat.