Day 4 - Belize

So I left off Day 3 with "...shit hit the fan." Well, that was fairly literal. I knocked on my parent's door on Tuesday morning to head down to breakfast in our little family gathering way. Dad opens the door. He looked like death warmed over. There is the patriarch of the family, barely a shadow of himself. He tells me that he spent the entire evening puking and pooping. Sometimes both at the same time. We find out later that he had contracted the Norwalk virus, basically, a food-borne flu-like bug (be sure to scroll down on that page to see the specific header "Cruise Ships"). To tell the full story here--Dad stays in his cabin all day Tuesday, so Mom stays behind to be with him rather than coming on shore. Wednesday, he actually goes to the medical bay, where they immediately quarantine him. He tried to sneak off the ship, but they scanned his ID, and he got buzzed. He does feel well enough to join us for dinner Wednesday night, though he didn't eat much. As Thursday rolls around, our excursion was going to be the one time that the kids and parents were going to do something together. You guessed it--Mom caught the bug Wednesday night. Short story (is it too late for that??)--Mom and Dad never set foot off of the ship for the entire trip. And the outbreak probably affected 35% of the passengers. Fortunately, none of the rest of us caught it. But the changes on the ship were very noticeable. Crew members disinfecting all surfaces at least once an hour. The buffet lines where servers scooped responsible servings of food for you onto your plate, rather than shoveling it on ourselves. We were not allowed to grab an apple from the fruit bowl--it was handed to you by a server in gloves. Even the salt and pepper packets (forget using shakers!) were handed out by a server USING SALAD TONGS!!!

The rest of us could have stayed behind on the ship, but that would have been foolish. If we stayed, we could have gotten sick too. So we went ahead with our onshore excursions. First stop--Belize City, Belize. Formerly the British Honduras. We anchor about 3 miles from shore, as there's no pier available. Local tender boats show up to take us in. This is where the lines began. We stood in line on the ship for close to an hour, waiting to get on a boat. This process was probably the least organized thing of the week. Tempers flared, insults were hurled under breaths, and people took cuts. More on "lines" in a day or two. We finally board the tender boat and head to shore.



Mom looking down from her balcony as I'm leaning backwards out of the tender boat; The port at Belize City; A look back at the ship (using my super zoom lens--it was much farther out than it appears).
We had about an hour to kill before we met up with our cave exploring tour, so we looked around the immediate area. The first thing that struck us was that every different vendor was selling the same crap. And that the crap we saw here was pretty close to the crap at every other port. And jewelry! OMG, the jewelry! I don't know exactly why, but there were literally dozens of upscale, air-conditioned jewelry stores at every port. We avoided these places to the best of our abilities. While the girls checked out more shopping options, the guys find a place to have a cold Belikin beer (The Wet Lizard--cute little place!).


Time for the bus ride to the caves. We're talking about a 90-minute bus ride inland. At least it was air-conditioned. But we had a terribly boring guide who talked in a monotone for the entire drive. We drove through Belize City for a mini-tour, and realized that the modern comforts faded quickly as you got away from the coast. We drove on what might be considered their interstate highway. A two-lane, NON-LINED, poorly-maintained road with no real speed limit. And no such thing as a highway patrol. We were, without question, in a third-world country. The shacks that these people lived in defied description. And even 40 miles inland, most of them were up on stilts. Apparently, when the ocean rises, it comes quite far inland! We turn off of the "interstate" onto a dirt road for the last 9 miles. We wouldn't question why there was blood in our urine over the next couple of days. The washboard of this road was a true kidney buster! We stop off for lunch at a little turn-off, then travel the last 3 miles to the point where we transfer over to the "jungle buggies"-old American half-track trucks that have been modified specifically for viewing the jungle all around us. Nothing else would have made it up there. We climb up to the caves to see how the ancient Mayans lived. They must have been a short, skinny race of people. We all got helmets/lamps, which were quite necessary. While we were in the caves, our buggy driver cut up some sugar cane that was growing nearby. Most of the other passengers had never experience chewing on sugar cane, so were hesitant to do so. Not us! Mighty tasty!



Our lunch stop--amazing how cool those thatched roof shelters were!; The jungle meets the cliff face; A jungle buggie; My dorky sister wondering why it was so dark in the cave.
We took the same kidney-buster road back to town, though it didn't seem as long this time. We got there with a little time to kill, so I found a liquor store (complete with rum samples out in front!). I was under orders from both just.a.girl and Moose to pick up some rum for them while in Belize. After sampling some, I can understand why! I got each of them a liter of rum ($9.00 each), and a bottle of rum cream for me (think Bailey's, but rummier--yummmmmm......). We catch the tender back to the ship, stop by to check on Dad (at the time, with his heart history, we weren't sure how he'd be...). We head to dinner without him (Italian night), and then spread out around the ship for the rest of the night. As I was watching the sun go down, we passed this little island about 25 miles out in the middle of nowhere. Note the shelter on the left end of the island. I could see renting the place for the day! And yes, that is the entire island!


And thus ended Day 4. Tomorrow we go speedboating on some of the most spectacular water you've ever imagined!