DAY 5

Today required another tender, which means the ship cannot pull up to the port so we have to take smaller boats from the ship to the dock. At our last stop that required a tender, we just went down to get on the boats when we wanted but this stop, we had to get a number. We found this out a little later than most so we were late to meet our tour group. But they took care of us and rushed us in a van to catch the bus with the rest of our group.
Belize, the only central American country that speaks English as their primary language. It was the poorest of all four stops and the most dangerous, one of our guides said that the homes made of concrete meant they had money. Not that I ever felt unsafe, but if I had to rate them, this would be the most unsafe. In the city, there wasn't much to see but we headed about an hour inland to the jungle. The tour guides were fun and very entertaining, they tried to make the bus a bit of a party, which didn't matter to us either way. They have cashew wine that they sell so they were giving everyone a sample and i got the impression from the reactions I saw that it wasn't the best tasting wine. I don't see how it could be, cashew wine, nasty. When we got off the bus, we had to rent water shoes that were nice and moist (gave me the heebie jeebies) and we hiked about 20 minutes through the jungle. The guides insisted on carrying all of the tubes for the ladies. It was a pretty hike and reminded me of a set at Disneyland. At the river, they gave us each a headlight and hooked us in trains. These guides worked hard, they swam along, ran back and forth and pulled us every wich way. Some spots were pretty shallow and our train was a little long so we would get stuck, their big thing was "butts up", Ryan didn't seem to quite get the hip thrust idea and dragged his butt and got us stuck. While we were in the caves it was really dark and I tried not to think of what was swimming under me because I couldn't see a thing. But there didn't seem to be much in this river. After we got out of the caves we floated by ourselves which was entertaining because a lot of people don't get the concept of how to paddle, it was also relaxing.
We finished and got back to the bus and they drove us to their little picnic/ATV location where they had a Belizian, lunch. It was chicken and rice, yellow rice with some green beans and it was seasoned very well, tasty.
They dropped us off at the port and we walked through their market, I found a little clay nativity that had BELIZE carved into it. We were offered drugs, hair braids, massages and a freshly cut open coconut mixed with rum but we passed on all of them.
We caught a boat back to the ship and I decided on a lovely nap. I woke up just in time to get ready for dinner. One thing I loved about this vacation was I could take a late nap and not have to worry about staying up too late. I had to remind myself that it was okay to be up pass 11:30, 12 or even 1. We watched a little show that 2 break dancers put on and then headed over to the comedy show.


the cemeteries are 3 feet under and 3 feet above ground.

cashew wine for everyone.





just wanted to take a swim before getting out. And maybe needed to pee a little also.




.