Saturday, 23 January 2016 (Part II)
Green Caye RV Park – Dickinson, Texas
Temps: Hi 62F (17C) / Lo 34F (1C)
The previous post saw us embarking NCL Jade at the Port of Houston and enjoying a quiet — albeit a slightly rocky and fairly coolish — day at sea en route to the first of the three Caribbean ports of call on this itinerary.
Now it’s time to disembark the ship and have fun on land for a bit.
A pastel sunrise greets us on the 3rd day of our cruise.
Get ready, get set, go for landing as our buddies at NASA might say ;-)
Monday, 18 January … Cozumel, Mexico
Before we left Houston Captain Vanja advised us that the rough seas we’d be encountering on the way south would delay us by three hours, putting our arrival in Cozumel at 11:00a. No problem. All we had arranged was a beach day — and besides, I always welcome veranda time at sea.
The captain was spot on with his timing. We took advantage of the suite lounge — otherwise known as the Star Bar — to wait to be escorted off the ship as soon as Jade was cleared. This was handled much better than embarkation. We were taken down to the gangway via a service elevator and shown to one of two security check-points to sign out for the day. No one yelled out that we were priority passengers, and as far as the others were concerned, we could have been just a group going off on an NCL shore excursion.
The Star Bar serves as the gathering place for suite passengers disembarking Jade.
When we visit Cozumel, we normally hangout at Mr Sancho’s — it’s a great swimming beach where the warm, crystal clear Caribbean waters even entice me into the sea. This time I suggested we go to Nachi Cocom Beach Club — not because it is necessarily better, but because it works on a reservation system, limiting the number of guests to only 100. Occupancy today was well below that number — mostly due to the low temp, coolish-breeze, and partly cloudy conditions. The sea was also quite choppy today, so I didn’t venture in, but Mui spent a considerable amount of time in the water.
We had heard that the seaweed that plagued us in Port Aransas last year
was on the Caribbean beaches this year … but not in large piles like we had.
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Left: diligently cleaning up small piles of seaweed along the beach.
Right: Palapa, palm trees, and white sand — icons of Caribbean beaches.
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Left: My favorite beach activity is to enjoy a good book in the shade of a palapa.
Right: This is not a snorkel beach, but Mui brings his mask and snorkel along to test them.
The waiter who escorted us to our waterside palapa and chaise lounges took excellent care of us. He stopped by frequently to see if we needed anything. Later, when we were ready for the lunch that was included in the $55pp admission, he brought our order out to the beach for us to enjoy. Vendors selling massages and hair braiding, and others renting water toys, were present as they always are, but they accepted a polite “no, gracias” without being pushy.
Do we have enough food or what? And this doesn’t even include dessert.
The all-inclusive lunch consists of an appetizer, soup or salad, a main course,
and a dessert for each of us — all ordered a la carte off the regular menu.
As for drinks — open bar for both adult beverages and soft drinks.
All in all, I’d say we made the most of our time at Nachi Cocom, especially enjoying ourselves when the sun came out to remind us of how beautiful the aqua waters and white sand beaches of the Caribbean can be.
I never thought I’d ever have to use fleece jackets and Cozumel in the same sentence. But I am forced to do so for this port call. The day’s high of 73F (23C) declined quickly in the late afternoon. A cold breeze really chilled the air, forcing us to put on fleece jackets to watch the Cozumel shoreline disappear from sight as Jade headed further south.
Tuesday, 19 January … Belize City, Belize
A sprinkling of rain greeted us at our second port of call. We visited Belize the first time in the summer of 2003. On that occasion we went inland to visit the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich. For today’s visit, we joined the Z’s and a threesome from the ship for a private excursion to the Community Baboon Sanctuary — home to the black howler monkeys of Belize. En route, we made an unplanned stop at the school where our guide’s wife teaches school. The kids were in class, but they took a minute to stand up and welcome us — cute kids, but I didn’t take any photos so as not to be disruptive.
Howler Monkey skeleton at the sanctuary museum at Bermudian Landing.
The sanctuary is a grassroots conservation effort that involves private landowners in seven villages along the Belize River who have pledged to conserve their land to protect the baboons (as they refer to the howlers in the local Kriol dialect). It is an entirely volunteer effort that is working well to everyone’s advantage — humans and howlers alike.
Can’t miss this brightly painted police station near the village school.
Arriving in Bermudian Landing, where the sanctuary effort began, we went into the museum to pay the $5pp admission fee (later deducted from the tour fee) and meet up with our guide, Robert. A local with first hand knowledge of the flora and fauna of the sanctuary, he has also gone through the official Belizean tour guide training. After telling us about how the conservation effort came about, he escorted us on a walk through the rain forest, stopping to point out plants and trees that are used as herbal remedies.
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The black howler monkeys live in the trees, going about life as usual in close proximity
to the people who have dedicated themselves to the volunteer conservation program.
Our walk ended in a clearing just outside the backyard of one of the landowners. At first the howlers were little more than black blobs moving in the canopy. Robert enticed a youngster with a banana, but it is illegal to feed the monkeys so he desisted from giving the fruit to the animal. Other youngsters soon came down from their perches to feed on leaves and tender shoots that they tore off the tree branches. The alpha male was quite vocal about making sure we knew that we were in his territory. He came down from the canopy, but kept his distance, howling almost the entire time. I got one photo of him, but it was the “wrong end” of the monkey — I won’t share it in the blog to protect the sensibilities of my readers, but you can click the link in the first part of this sentence if you are curious ;-)
I lied — here’s the territorial male in mid howl.
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Enjoy a minute with a Howler.
To say that we thoroughly enjoyed the visit to the sanctuary would be an understatement. Even the light rain that was falling when we first came ashore let up during our short hike and visit with the monkeys, making both all the more enjoyable. On the drive back to the ship, however, it started raining and the downpour didn’t let up until after Jade left its anchorage in the bay.
Carnival Glory leaves Belize during the heavy downpour that marks the end of today’s port visit.
Sorry, no colorful ending to the fourth day of our cruise.
Wednesday, 20 January … Isla de Roatán, Honduras
This was our first visit to Roatán Island — to Honduras in fact. MBZ had said this was a primo snorkeling place. With that in mind, I took the easy way out and reserved the same NCL shore excursion that they booked — the Tabyana Beach Break — so that Mui could enjoy the underwater world.
A pastel sunrise greets us for our day on Roatán Island.
This was another tender port and we had a very early call of 7:00a for disembarkation. The sun came out while we were having breakfast, and it was downright hot by the time we got off the tender boat at the pier. Alas, the sun was just passing through and spent most of the day teasing us by hiding behind the clouds more often than not.
Tenders launched and getting ready to ferry passengers ashore.
NCL Jade anchored off Isla de Roatán.
The ride to the beach was on a rutted, pot-hole filled road that wound its way up and down hills and through poverty-stricken villages. When we arrived at Tabyana, we were given a short briefing and escorted to the lounge chairs lined up like soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder — definitely not our style of beaching it. But the reef was just offshore, so that was a good thing. After seeing me settled in the shade of sea grape trees, Mui lost no time getting in the water even though it was quite choppy. That was the last I saw of him for most of the rest of the morning.
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Left: Side by side loungers aren’t my idea of a good beach break, but I make do.
Right: GoPro in hand, Mui’s ready to go snorkeling.
Despite the chop that pushes him and the fish around, Mui’s happy with the day’s snorkeling.
Once Mui had his fill of the tropical fish and the coral, we adjourned to the outdoor dining room for the included-lunch — beverages from the cash bar where you could run a tab if you so wished. The food was served buffet style and included burgers, hot dogs, and barbecued chicken. All was tasty, but I particularly liked the fresh cut-up fruit … very refreshing.
While we were eating lunch the sun came out and stayed out for a while. We were all set to leave on the next shuttle back to the cruise terminal, but I knew Mui would later regret missing one last swim in such conditions. So I convinced him to change back into his swimwear and go for a dip — no snorkeling, just a relaxing swim this time.
Panorama of the beach around 1:00p when the sun was out and the water was much calmer.
The cruise ship terminal was crowded, so we didn’t dally after the shuttle dropped us off. There was a tender just about to leave for the ship and we were on it. I spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening on the veranda, enjoying the balmy Caribbean temperatures and light breezes.
NCL Dawn remains docked as we bid Farewell to Roatán and weigh anchor.
Jade was an hour late leaving its anchorage. Turns out there was a problem winching aboard one of the tenders. No matter ... I enjoyed sitting on the veranda until dinner time — a light meal at the Garden Café buffet with the Z’s.
Two days at sea completed the itinerary. I’ll leave them to the next post …
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