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Published: December 24th 2012
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MAHOGANY BAY, HONDURAS
Home to the second largest reef in the world After a lovely sea day cruising past Cuba, we arrived in Grand Cayman. We were just about to go off the ship and do a little snorkeling when the skies opened up and it rained buckets. We waited for quite a while and then it got too close to the Riviera’s departure time so we just enjoyed the day on the ship. We have been to Cayman a number of times and have always gone swimming with the manta rays. We were sorry to miss them this time.
When we anchored off Cozumel it was raining again but fortunately it let up long enough for us to take a stroll around town and find a nice family restaurant which served up some pretty good food --Mexican, of course. The first two weeks of December are traditionally a very slow time for traveling. But from the looks of things in Cozumel, there were plenty of tourists out and about.
Our first port in Central America was Belize and it was raining again but we decided to forge ahead. Belize has been in the news for a week because of the problems the rather eccentric John McAfee is having in regards
TRUDE AND HER BROOD
Don, Betty, Trude, Kathryn, Dick to his neighbor who was murdered on Ambergris Caye. Anyone who has a PC probably has McAfee antivirus software. He made his fortune from that invention and moved himself and his money to Belize a number of years ago. The morning of our arrival John was on American television talking about the ineptness of the Belize police, the high murder rate and how he fooled the Guatemala police by faking a nervous breakdown. So we weren't sure how the Belizeans would be feeling about visitors from the US. After some negotiating, we hired a driver to take us around. Raymond had somewhat of a wreck of a car with cracked windshields, windows that wouldn't open and broken door handles. But he was quite knowledgeable and his wife is a cop. He is hoping that McAfee is extradited from the United States back to Belize to answer some questions about his deceased neighbor.
Belize is a very poor country and it has quite a high crime rate. Raymond said that drugs were the biggest problem and the lack of job prospects for young people is definitely bad news. Since tourism is the main source of income for this small nation,
he said how important it is for Belize to stem the crime. It is a beautiful country and divers and boaters are drawn to its waters. Surprisingly most of the merchants in Belize are either Chinese or Indian. We got back to the tender just as a tropical deluge rolled in. The 25 minute ride back to the ship was a bit bumpy and wet.
In Guatemala we had signed up for a boat cruise to an outer island for some snorkeling. But the tour was cancelled at the last minute so we hiked out of the port. Two young boys asked if they could show us around. Christopher and Munoz are nine years old and aspiring tour guides. They took us to the local market and fended off the other little kids who wanted to tag along. As we were walking along I heard some familiar music blaring from a tent. I never thought I would be hearing "Gangnam Style" in this remote corner of the world. We bought the boys some ice cream and some freshly made tortillas hot off the griddle and we all sang a round of "Feliz Navidad" before parting ways.
Honduras turned
out to be quite a surprise. We docked at Mahogany Bay on the island of Roatan. It looked like Pier 39 in San Francisco. Apparently Carnival Cruises bankrolled the whole development. There are fancy shops, restaurants, nice beaches and even a gondola ride over the mangroves. We went to Pirate’s Cove where the reef is close to shore. This is the second largest reef in the world. The diving is quite interesting with many colorful fish and coral formations. Unfortunately the waters in the Caribbean have been invaded by the destructive lionfish which is creating havoc with the ecosystems around the reef. The Hondurans are training sharks to eat the lionfish in an effort to control these aggressive predators, native to the Philippines Islands.
We headed back north up to Costa Maya, Mexico. This area is one of the newer developments in Mexico. My sister and niece have brought their families to the all inclusive resorts here and have enjoyed them tremendously. The area was hit by Hurricane Dean in 2007 and was pretty much leveled. But now it has recovered and is a thriving tourist area.
We had a beautiful cruise with water "flat as a floor”
THE SWINGING BAR
This joint really swings! and blue skies all the way up to Key West. After clearing U.S. Immigrations we hopped on the free trolley into town and visited the famous Truman Little White House. President Truman loved visiting this tropical paradise and did so often.
It was time to pack up and bid farewell to our guests whom we had gotten to know over lunches and dinners. We had a party on the last night of the cruise and everyone seemed quite happy to have shared this brief pre-Christmas cruise on a beautiful ship to some interesting ports.
We will be spending the holidays in Sausalito and then flying to Sydney on New Year’s Day. After our self-drive tour of eastern Australia for several weeks we will board the Regent Voyager for a long cruise ending in England in June. Tune in for more reports as we cruise our way through Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
In the meantime…Season’s Greetings and Happy Cruising!
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