Adventures in the Caribbean: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

One of my favorite features on the cruise ships was the TV channel that plotted our course and showed where we were, how far we were from our destination, our speed, the temperature outside, etc.   I checked this every morning when I woke up, and multiple times throughout the day, too.  When I woke up this morning, I knew we were much too far still from Grand Cayman to get there for 11:00 as scheduled.  

Sure enough, eventually the captain came on to tell us that overnight they had seen a flare and we had had to go off course to see what was happening.  Apparently a coast guard took over before we arrived on scene, so no one seemed to know what had happened, but it had delayed us considerably.  

It was well after 12:00 that we arrived off the shore of George Town, the Cayman Islands' capital.  We had to tender in here, but we were much, much closer to shore than we had been in Belize.       

I am not sure why they haven't built a cruise ship dock, but there were so many cruise ships (I counted seven) that it would be a big construction project to build enough space to hold them all at once.  

We were in no particular rush to get ashore, as we had made our own plans again today.  Actually we didn't even have any particular plans, except we wanted to see a bit of George Town and hopefully find a beach to snorkel from.  In any case, we boarded a tender some time after noon and were ashore in no time.  

Once there we walked around George Town, including a stop at the post office to mail a post card. 

 We saw many of the banks that George Town is for, including some familiar Canadian ones.

The Cayman Islands as a whole are famous for their iguanas, and we were lucky enough to see two in a church parking lot, of all places!

Eventually we were ready to hit the beach, so we sort of did some aimless wandering to figure out where to go and how to get there, and we were mostly unsuccessful.  We did end up taking a taxi van for $5 each along with some other people to get to a beach.  But once we had been dropped off we realized this was not an ideal place to be, as it was very crowded, and the snorkeling prospects seemed dim.  I asked a vendor there if there was good snorkeling, and he tried to tell me there was, but another man told me not to listen to him, and that we should go to Cemetery Beach instead.

So now we were on a beach we didn't want to be on, and had to try to figure out how to get to the beach we wanted to be on.  I knew there was some sort of bus system, and we decided we may as well try to figure it out.  Actually this turned out to be quite easy.  Basically, there are little privately owned vans that run on set routes, and each ride is just $2.50.  They were running at least every five minutes, and we had a helpful driver who dropped us off at a path that led to Cemetery Beach.

This beach was much less crowded, and quite pleasant, really.  However, there were no lockers or anything like that, and I was nervous about leaving our passports and such unattended, so we opted to snorkel individually.  This was not as enjoyable as it would have been to go together, but it was not terrible, either.  We each went out twice, swapping off in between.  I lounged in the partial shade of some nice trees above the beach when I was not in the water.

By the way, Cemetery Beach is, not surprisingly, so named because it is right next to a cemetery.

The reef off of Cemetery Beach is certainly nothing like the reef at Roatan, and we had to swim much, much further out before we started to see fish.  But 50 yards or so from shore the fish were abundant and varied.  Many were similar to fish we had seen at Cozumel and Roatan, but there were some different ones, as well.  Probably the neatest spot we saw was a bit of an underwater overhang, under which were countless fish, most of which were yellow, teeming about, presumably feeling safe in this natural hiding spot.  I could dive down, however, and get right next to them, and have them swarm around me.  They did not seem disturbed by my presence whatsoever.

Once we were sufficiently worn out from swimming out to the reef, we tried to clean ourselves off as best we could, and then walked backed to the road to catch the bus back to George Town.  We ended up catching a bus going the other way instead, because we were in no rush and ultimately the route is just a big loop.  

The ride took about half an hour, and we had a nice tour of the northwestern part of Grand Cayman, and met a nice friendly man who told us lots of interesting things about the island, including some information about their political system and where we could find the legislature in George Town.  We stopped by once we got off the bus.

We still had a little over an hour before we had to return to the ship, and we were in no rush to do so.  The sun was lower and not as bright, and most of the cruise ship passengers had already cleared away, so walking around George Town was very pleasant.  

We stopped for a couple bottles of Caybrew beer, and then toured a little park that has historical murals and plaques and such describing some of the history of the Cayman Islands.  

We also bought a rum cake, which the Cayman Islands are famous for--but then when we got home we discovered the very same cakes imported from the Cayman Islands are sold at Safeway for a lower price!  As we headed to the tender the sun was setting, and only the Carnival Glory was still sitting anchored, as all the other ships had either left or were leaving.

There were two final tenders loading up and we got on the second-last one.  

The sun just dropped below the horizon as we were en route to the Carnival Glory.

The Cayman Islands was our last port of call.  Our final full day was spent at sea, circling Cuba en route to Florida.  We attended another art auction (where Andrea won a bottle of champagne), and enjoyed all of our favorite facilities for the last time.

The next morning we were in port when we woke up.  Passengers were to disembark in phases, and our phase was roughly in the middle, which meant we did not really know when we would be asked to disembark.  We ate breakfast in our room while packing, but had to leave our cabin by 9:00.  We waited out on deck for the announcement telling us to head down to the gangway.  We could lounge and drink coffee, and it was a nice morning, but it still was somewhat stressful, because they couldn't give us a very good idea of how long we had to wait.  It was about 10:15 or so that our phase was announced, and then there was a long line at customs, longer for those of us who aren't American citizens.      

Originally our plan was to rent a car again for the day and perhaps head back to the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades, or maybe visit the YMCA again, etc.  But since I had lost my glasses, and Andrea had not brought her driver's license, driving was not an option.  

Instead, we simply took the Enterprise Rent-A-Car shuttle to the airport, and spent the afternoon there.  We got there around noon, and our flight was not until 20:00, so we had lots of time to kill.  Actually, though, the time went fast enough, especially since we had not had wi-fi on the ship, and did in the airport.  

Our flight to Phoenix boarded more-or-less on time, but it was delayed on the tarmac two hours while some maintenance was performed on a hatch hinge, or something.  Our four hour-or-so flight to Phoenix ended up being over six, which we were not happy about, needless to say.  

We spent that night in a Phoenix airport hotel, and flew home to Edmonton the next morning.  Thankfully, our flight home had no issues (except that it took us home to Edmonton, where there was plenty of snow and freezing temperatures, of course).

Adventures in the Caribbean: Roatan, Honduras

When we woke up the next morning, this was the view from our balcony.

We were in Mahogany Bay, in the island of Roatan, the largest of Honduras's bay islands.

And this was the view from the other side of the ship at breakfast.  

Most of what you can see is Carnival's exclusive Mahogany Bay resort.  We had extremely unambitious plans for today.  Partly this was because the hours we were in port (7:00-15:00) did not allow for a lot of time unless we got up quite early.  But also we were eager to do more snorkeling, and there seemed little reason to go anywhere but Mahogany Bay to do this.

After breakfast we headed off the ship to look around the tourist village and do some things like mail postcards.

The tourist village was similar to one in Puerta Maya in Cozumel--lots of shopping which seemed very inauthentic and overly touristy.  In retrospect this was something Princess Cays in The Bahamas did well to avoid.

Anyway, we weren't too interested in the shopping, but there were two interesting exhibit areas that explained the fascinating history of Roatan's indigenous peoples and the equally fascinating but needless-to-say quite different history of the English settlers.  For a time, the shrimping industry was an important economy for the bay islands, and there was an old shrimping boat on shore that we could look at as well.  Overall I was pretty impressed with the quality of the exhibits.

I was also impressed with the nature trail at Mahogany Bay.  We sort of ended up there by accident, but it was very pleasant and also quite interesting.  Despite the fact that we were smack dab in the middle of a tourist resort, it felt surprisingly secluded and quiet.  We could see the Carnival Glory occasionally through the trees, but mostly it felt like we were on a nice path in the Honduras jungle.

Eventually the trail took us to a bridge, and that's where we turned back to the ship.  We wanted to change and leave all of our non-essentials on board while we snorkeled, and it was a good time to get something to eat as well.  

So it was about 12:00 that we came back to the bridge and crossed to the beach.  

We went to the end of the beach, and that's where there was a pier going out into the sea.

We could look back past the beach and see the Carnival Glory.

From the end of the pier it was only a few metres to reef, and we spent about two hours snorkeling, with plenty of breaks in between to clear our masks and catch our breath--we were still getting the hang of the whole thing.  But I don't think you had to be a rookie to find this to be a pretty great snorkeling spot.  The reef was so close to the surface that at times we had to swim around it.  

There were countless kinds of fish, and rays as well, but the coolest part to me was the vegetation.  In Cozumel we had seen lots of fish, but very few plants.  Here we were swimming above what was basically a sea garden with lots of plants of all colours and shapes.  Some looked scary, as if they were sharp and pokey, and others looked inviting, but we were careful not to touch any, because we heard some horror stories of rashes and burns and such.

If any future Mahogany Bay tourists want to snorkel and want to know if they should just snorkel at Mahogany Bay or go on an excursion elsewhere my answer is simple: just stay at Mahogany Bay.  Save time, money, and have a great time!

Back on board we had time to shower and change again before we sailed off to Grand Cayman, our next stop.  The distance from Roatan to Grand Cayman was the furthest distance we had to go between ports of call, which is why we had to leave Roatan relatively early (15:00), and why we were scheduled to arrive in Grand Cayman relatively late (11:00).

As we headed towards Grand Cayman we went by Guanaja, the second largest of the bay islands.

Adventures in the Caribbean: Belize

Visiting Belize on a cruise ship is quite unique.  This is because they are so protective of the reef, that cruise ships have to anchor something like 8 miles from shore, and all passengers get tendered in.  This makes disembarking somewhat tricky. 

Since we had an excursion booked we were higher priority than some other passengers, so we didn't have to wait long before we were aboard our tender and pulling away from the Carnival Glory.

Belize was barely visible as we left the ship, but about fifteen or twenty minutes later we were pulling into the harbour.

There's a tourist market at the port, with souvenir shops, restaurants, and so on.  We were hurried onto a school bus-style bus, however, to head inland almost immediately.

We had an enthusiastic young tour guide who is a biology student at Belize's only university, and he herded us onto the bus and we were off in no time.  We had what was basically an incidental tour of Belize City, because we had to pass through it anyway on our way inland.  

Our destination was a jungle cave and river system just a little west of Belize's capital of Belmopan, roughly 80 kilometers southeast of Belize City.  We were in Belize City for ten minutes or so--it really isn't very big, and there doesn't seem to be too much to see.  I was surprised at how poor it seemed.  In spots it reminded me of some of the neighborhoods we had passed through a year ago in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

We were on the highway about an hour or so, if I remember right, and then we turned off onto a much bumpier road for a ways.  Belize had had heavy rain the day before, and there had been flooding, which was quite evident once we got off the main highway.  Among other things, the flooding meant some other tours had been canceled, and so more people were doing our excursion than had originally been planned.  

At some point between the highway and the park our guide got a phone call telling him that the park was too busy for us right then, so he had to improvise.  Rather than continue on, he had the bus turn around and go for lunch first.  This was no trouble for us, as we were quite hungry, but it was only about 11:00.

Our bus pulled into a compound with several buildings, including an open air dining hall.  There we were served plates of chicken and rice and beans and coleslaw, which was really quite delicious, and I went back for seconds.

We also were able to drink Belize's famous beer, Belikin.

The dining hall was next to a creek, which I believe was one of the ones that had flooded.

From lunch we headed back up the road to the park, where we stopped at a place to change and lock up our stuff.  The park was so busy that all the lockers were full, but this was actually alright, because then our bus driver simply agreed to watch our stuff and we didn't have to pay for a locker.

From the change room we were loaded into smaller buses and driven about five minutes further up into the jungle, on a road the larger bus would not have been able to navigate.  At the top we were fitted with a life jacket and helmet with a lamp.  Meanwhile an elderly Mayan medicine man was there and showed us various edible plants, some of which had medicinal properties.  He gave me some various leaves and shoots and nuts to eat, some of which were better than others.  

Eventually we had a group ready to go and a new guide led us up a path, along cliffs and through the jungle.  We saw small caves in the cliffs on our right, and the jungle below to the left.  Sadly we didn't see any animals, but we did hear some birds, and our guide showed us some more edible plants and other interesting vegetation.  

We ended up inside a much larger cave than any we had seen so far.  Really this cave was almost a tunnel from one side of the mountain to the other, and that's exactly what the local jaguar uses the cave for--hence it's called "Jaguar cave."  It was pretty cool, certainly the largest cave I had ever been in.  We saw the jaguar's tracks, as well as some artifacts from indigenous peoples.

On the other side of the cave we met up with a small river, and we walked along it for a 100 meters or so before coming to a staging area where we were to be given our tubes.  Frustratingly this was where we began to suffer for having so many people doing this excursion, because they had run out of tubes, and we were stuck waiting for a long time.  

After twenty minutes or so, we were finally able to get into the water, and even the long wait couldn't damage how enjoyable that was.  The water was wonderfully fresh and refreshing, and it was tremendously relaxing to lounge in the tube and float through the jungle.

I think we were on the river for 5-10 minutes before we entered a cave--this one even larger than Jaguar cave.  It was incredible.  It became pitch dark very quickly, but we turned on our head lamps and this allowed some visibility.  

Unfortunately, in the middle of this amazing experience, at some point I tried shifting position in my tube and ended up flipping head first into the water. Actually this was quite lovely at first, but my prescription glasses were on my face when I went into the water--and not on when I came out.  

The water was flowing somewhat quickly, and of course it was extremely dark, and long story short the glasses were long gone.  There was little to be done except get back on the tube and continue the voyage.

Thankfully I am not especially blind without my glasses, so I was still able to enjoy the rest of the excursion.

We were in the cave about fifteen minutes, and as we came out it was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen: absolutely gorgeous with the sun coming through the trees, the scene almost glowed as we exited the cave.

Our guide told us we could take off our helmets and swim the rest of the way down the river to the dock where we would leave the river.  Andrea and I took him up on that and jumped in, swimming the 50 meters or so to the pier.

Back ashore, we made our way back down to the bus, and then back to Belize City, and to the port. 

We were significantly late getting back, but that is the plus of doing a Carnival excursion when you're on a Carnival cruise--they will wait for you.  I managed to rush off the bus and buy and mail a postcard, as well as get our passports stamped, before we got on to the last tender back to the Carnival Glory.

We headed out soon after getting on board, further south towards Honduras.