TravellingJenks

Thursday 14thFebruary: Roatan, Honduras. We sailed into Coxen Hole Roatan just after daybreak after an overnight journey directly east from Belize City, and it was very nice to see green hills again after the totally flat scenery of Mexico, Louisiana and Belize. Roatan is a small island with an interesting history having been under British rule/occupation before it was exchanged for Belize. Consequently, many of the communities still have English names e.g. Coxen Hole is named after a 16th Century English pirate John Coxen. Henry Morgan and Edward Teach (Blackbeard) also based themselves in Roatan at various times. It’s very small, only 20 miles long and on average a mile wide. After docking we walked off the ship to see how much the taxis would charge to take us to a resort in the north of ... read more

Sunday 10thFebruary: The Big Easy aka New Orleans. We sailed up the Mississippi River during the night and were alongside the cruise ship terminal in Central New Orleans by normal wake-up time – although I’d been woken up much earlier by major engine vibrations as the ship manoeuvred up to the dock. After breakfast we got off the ship and spent 45 minutes clearing US Immigration then we were met by a lady tour guide who took us to a bus and a two hour tour of New Orleans: much of it spent in traffic delays as there were many parades being held in town to celebrate Mardi Gras. Our first stop was a cemetery: New Orleans is apparently famous for its cemeteries. Then off to City Park, a 1200 acre former plantation which was very ... read more

Wednesday 6th February: without wishing to appear overly biased on account of Caroline working for Virgin Atlantic our Virgin Holidays vacation to Cancun has got off to a terrific start. With our VA flight from Gatwick leaving at 12.30 pm on Tuesday 5th February we secured an excellent deal at the Ramada Hotel near Gatwick for the Monday night which included two weeks' free parking. When we arrived at Gatwick Airport our holiday package included access to VA's Vroom lounge which was better than any business class or first class lounge that I've ever used before. Then when we boarded the flight we were upgraded to Premium Economy. Eleven hours later we landed in Cancun and were met by a Virgin rep at the airport and were effortlessly transferred to our hotel in Xcaret (pronounced with ... read more

Friday 20thJanuary, Saturday, Sunday On the Friday morning we were picked up from the hotel and taken to Old Sharm, the original fishing port, for a trip on a “submarine”: actually a high tech glass bottomed boat. Old Sharm which is about 10 miles from our hotel is set on a very nice, well sheltered and almost circular sandy bay. The glass bottomed boat was very good in that passengers had seats below deck and below sea level where we could sit and watch the passing marine life and corals. The trip lasted for about an hour and the captain navigated very skilfully taking the boat seemingly within inches of the coral outcrops. Unfortunately the photos taken through the glass windows didn’t come out too well. Afterwards we decided to stay and explore a bit ... read more

Monday 14th March: what does one do in Marrakech when it's overcast and cool with occasional showers? The answer is: not very much. This was our last full day in Marrakech and although it started bright the clouds soon came in and with them a chill wind. After breakfast we tooled up and walked the mile to the Saadian Tombs which was the only major tourist site that we missed the first time round here. Fortunately our feet were not giving us too much trouble and we managed the mile and a bit walk without difficulty.The tombs are located in an almost hidden spot behind a mosque and were only discovered as the result of an aerial survey; having previously been half ruined and forgotten. There was quite a long queue to enter the main tomb ... read more