Carnival Legend - Belize

Belize

It is Friday already...and our last port of call for the cruise.

For Tim and Erica, the day started early. They got up to see the sunrise…the rest of us got a little more sleep. Our arrival time to Belize was 8 am…last returning tender was at 4 pm…and we were scheduled to set sail at 5 pm.

After strongly considering a snorkel tour for Belize I eventually decided to do the cave tubing. Bob and I had already done this…but I wanted the kids to have the experience as well. I mean how often do you get a chance to float on a river through caves?? I read every review on Cruise Critic and also TripAdvisor pertaining to the different tubing tours and eventually contacted Vitalino Reyes with cave tubing.bz. There wasn’t too much information about his tours on CC, but all of the reviews on TA were very positive. I was especially interested because it sounded like we could have a private tour with just our family.

Vito was very prompt in answering all of my emails. My sister has difficulty walking and Vito was willing to try and do anything possible to allow her to take part in the tour with us. In the end she decided to not go with us and instead did a horse-drawn carriage tour of Belize City.

A few days before we left for the cruise Vito called me at home to see if we were still planning on the tour and make sure everything was in order. Since he doesn’t require payment until after the tour I’m sure he just wanted to make sure we showed up…but I also thought it was a nice gesture to make the personal phone call.

There is no cruise ship dock in Belize so the Legend anchored waaaaayyyy off shore. To get to the port require a very long tender ride. I was worried about getting on one of the early tenders because we needed to get an early start to our tour. Traveling to the caves is quite a trip and I didn’t want to worry about running late at the end of the day.

The FUN TIMES said anyone wanting to go ashore before 9:30 am should go to the Follies Lounge after 8 am…and only when the entire party is present and ready to leave the ship. I assumed we would have to wait until all of the Carnival tours had left before we would be allowed on a tender. When we got to the lounge we were all given numbered stickers…ours was “10”…and we sat down to wait. What a surprise when our group (the non-Carnival tour people) was about the 3rd or 4th group called to the tenders! We were lead by a Carnival employee through the hallways down to the gangway on Deck A…a very organized and civil way to disembark. (I still have memories of the mob scene trying to get tenders on one of our earlier cruises!)

The tender ride takes about 15 to 20 minutes even with the boat moving very FAST and if you were sitting next to an open section…you will get sprayed!

Once on shore we followed Vito’s instructions and went through Terminal 1 and found the cave tubing.bz guys in their yellow shirts. I still am not quite sure what our guide’s name was…but it sounded like FABULOUS…and that’s what we called him all day!

We followed Fabulous down the street a bit to where we were to wait for our van. Zach had to point out the Radisson Hotel…his employer!

This photo gives you some perspective into how far out the Legend was anchored.

When the van arrived our family of 7 was grouped with another couple and their two college-aged daughters. Vito, Jr. drove the van while Fabulous acted as our guide.

Just a short distance from the port we stopped at a roadside food stand (which Fabulous called “Belize fast food”) and Vito picked up bottled water for everyone. Fabulous said many locals come to these food stands to pick up breakfast each morning. (Sorry for the poor quality…it was taken through the van window and has a bit of a glare.)

As we started out on our drive to the caves, Fabulous told us all about Belize City and the surrounding countryside…so interesting and informative…he really knows the country well.

Here are some photos as we drove through the city. The first one is a open air fish market we passed.

Fabulous told us that this cemetery was noted in the Guinness Book of Records as the only cemetery in the world with a major highway through the middle. The graves were on both sides of the road for a long distance.

Look closely at this photo…can you see the profile of a sleeping man in the mountain??

In order to reach the caves, you have to turn off the highway and drive down a dirt road…with bumps and enormous potholes. The kids found it hard to believe but this road was actually much BETTER than when we had visited in 2004! At that time it was just barely passable.

There were bathrooms (again much nicer than what we saw in 2004) and changing rooms available where we parked the van. Our group split up into two…Fabulous went with our family of 7 and Vito, Jr. went with the other family of 4. I had brought along some insect repellent with DEET but we all decided to just “chance it” and no one used the spray.

Each of us was given a headlamp and an inner tube with a life jacket tied to it and we started off on our walk to the caves.

After a short distance we crossed the river…there was a rope strung to help you keep your balance as you walked across. The water was swift in places, but not deep. 

Once across the river we began our hike through the rain forest to where we would begin tubing. I did not keep track of the time, but I would estimate that we walked about 45 minutes or so.

Our group walked by some smaller caves and then stopped in a larger dry cave. With our headlamps we were able to see the bats clinging to the ceiling.

Fabulous had us make frequent stops as he would point out different things for us to see…and taste!

Some sort of small fruit…it was sour!

He picked a leaf and used the juice from inside the stem to make a mark on our hands…even being in the river did not wash this mark off!

A pineapple growing in the wild.

The leaves on this plant would completely close up if you touched it.

Several times we had to step over a platoon of army ants. If you look closely you can see the ants marching across the path. Just stopping long enough to take this photo gave the ants a chance to start crawling up my legs! Some of us got bites.

Ants weren’t the only insects that we encountered. Fabulous found a termite nest…and then suggested that we taste them! Bob said they taste “minty”! I will have to take his word for it…I wasn’t about to put a bug in my mouth!

This leaf tasted sort of like rhubarb…

By the time we had reached the river poor Marji was covered with insect bites…she was scratching like crazy and you can tell by the look on her face she was miserable. The rest of us…no bites at all. I felt bad...if only she had used the repellent BEFORE we started our hike. :(

To get into the water required a bit of a hike down a short hill, under some low hanging rocks and then holding onto a rope while you drop backwards into the tube. There was no graceful way to do this...Marji made quite the splash!

Once in the water Fabulous had us all link up together to begin our trip down the river.

Previously when we did the cave tubing we were allowed to “free float” so I wasn’t sure I would like being hooked up together. I will admit my legs got a bit stiff, but it was so much easier doing it this way. Before I ended up with bruises on both arms from all of the paddling I had to do. This time Fabulous did all the work and we just relaxed and enjoyed the ride! He literally ran along side of us pushing and guiding our little train all through the caves.

We floated in and out of a couple of caves and saw some interesting tree roots looking for water.

In one of the caves we could hear the sound of rushing water, but it was so dark it wasn’t apparent where the sound was coming from. One of the large tour groups was coming up behind us so Fabulous pulled us over to the side of the cave to let them pass…and to let us float under a small waterfall.

I know the other cave tubing tours get good reviews, but it was my experience that they often had to rush by us while our small group was able to stop and see the sites along the way.

Eventually we made our way back to where we had crossed the river at the beginning of our hike through the forest.

There was a small cliff hanging over the river and the kids and DH just had to climb up and jump off.

Zach had to out-do everyone else and do a flip. This kid did the same thing when we went tubing in Jamaica…and I nearly had heart failure BOTH times!

  

It was just a short walk back to where the van was parked, but on the way Vito, Jr. coaxed a tarantula out of a hole in the ground. Fabulous carefully let each one of us take turns holding the spider. At one point it jumped to the ground and ran up Matt’s leg and he screamed like a girl!! LOL!!

Back at the parking area, we changed clothes and loaded up the van for the ride back. (There were separate restrooms and changing rooms…all much cleaner and more modern than what we experienced in 2004.) We hadn’t driven too far when Vito, Jr. stopped at the home of his aunt (Vito, Sr.’s sister’s house). There was an outdoor patio area built on to the side of the house with plastic patio tables and chairs.

Fabulous took our drink orders…we had our choice of several flavors of Fanta pop or rum punch. Bob got pineapple Fanta and the rest of us…the punch. (Interesting way to serve rum punch, huh?)

Several minutes later we were served a meal of chicken, rice with beans, and coleslaw. After all of our walking and tubing the food was delicious! We were offered as much as we wanted...and the guys all took them up on the offer for seconds!

There were a few small crafts for sale here as well as Marie Sharp’s hot sauce. After trying the hot sauce on our meal, the kids bought several bottles to take home. After looking at these pictures I also remembered that Zach bought a bottle of cashew wine as well.

Zach’s roommate has a chihuahua so he had to get a photo of his cousin.

For booking the tour, Fabulous gave me one of their yellow cavetubing t-shirts (which I passed along to Bob!) Here are the girls with Vito and Fabulous.

The long ride back to the pier was very, very quiet. Bob stayed awake and had an interesting conversation with Vito, Jr. as he drove, but the rest of the van took a siesta…even Fabulous!

Back at the terminal, Zach decided he needed to do a little last minute shopping to buy gifts for some friends back home…but the rest of us were beat and just wanted to get back to the ship. We got lucky and the line for the tender wasn’t too long. I sat next to a couple of girls that I figured out were Carnival staff. It was interesting to listen to their conversation. From what they were saying it sounded like life on the ship was a bit of a soap opera.

That evening (Friday) was the second elegant night on the ship. Marji and Matt lookin' good...

As we were eating dinner the ship passed by a small island…

…and then another slightly bigger island.

This is what I ordered for dinner. I can’t remember exactly what this dish was called…but they announced that it had won some sort of award in an international competition. Yes…it was good!