< Continued from page 1
Belize
Tendering in Belize was slow, only one gangway used. After going through the hassle described above, we snuck on a ship tour tender. If you're in a rush to get ashore for your private tour, we'd suggest going to the gangway early, before 8, and try and hang around as close to the sign out station as you can. Then try and get on with the ship tour people, but first ask if the tender is going to the Tourism Village, and not a caye or some other tour location.
All the ships anchor far from shore, many sandbars, and you can hardly see Belize in the distance, but the tenders are speedboats, huge twin outboard motors, they really fly, so the ride is only 10-15 minutes.
Sit on the right side for a nice shot of the pretty Tourism Village as you enter the harbor. Party bar and lots of chain shops on the dock, flea market stalls outside the dock. For local flavor exit the dock, turn left onto Fort Street, and go past the vendors a few blocks till you come to a yellow lift bridge on the left. You can get some nice shots of the quaint marina from the bridge, then cross it onto Albert Street, walk up Albert a few blocks, a local hubbub.
Belize is famous for huge limestone caves with crystal caverns, stalagtites, etc, and the popular tour is rubber tubing through the caves. We've done lots of tubing before at water parks, and preferred to walk the caves to get pictures and poke around, and get some exercise. So 4 of us reserved a cave walk of the St. Herman's Cave at Blue Hole National Park, through the Cave-Tubing.com company, run by Yhonny and his guides, for $60 p.p. plus $5 for a good lunch of chicken, rice, beans and lemonade at Cheers.
The park is a 1 hour 15 minute drive down a fairly good highway, bit bumpy at times, no prob.
$4 p.p. park entrance fee, then a 10 minute easy walk through the lovely forest to the cave. We took bug spray but didn't even open it, only saw 2 lazy mosquitoes all day, and a few flies. This was the dry season, Dec-May. You can rent flashlights for a few bucks, but we brought our own. The caverns are huge, and it's best to have the most powerful lights you can bring, to see all the crystalline features, side passages, the river beside the path, rock formations. If your group is not very physical your guide will take you halfway, but if they can handle it you'll go to the end, some climbing over wet sandy or rocky spots, stooping for low ceilings, the end section is trickier. There is no walkable exit, so we then returned the way we came, often seeing things we missed the first time, or from a different perspective.
Shots in the dark tunnel turned out well with both our digital and 35 mm cameras, the flashes were rated for 20 feet but went beyond that. We shined our flashlights on our shirts so the person taking the shot could make us out. Just make sure your camera can focus in the dark, some can't do that. The cave is about three quarters of a mile, and about halfway through we met some other cavers who had set up a lovely buffet on a white table cloth on a sandy area beside the underground river with candles, very exotic, Jake and his friends from Colorado.
There are 2 routes from the park station to the cave, the lowland easy path and the highland path with climbing and great views of the area. We took the highland path back to the parking lot at the station, and then drove a few minutes to the Blue Hole, a pretty sink hole pond in a jungle grotto with a small beach, where you can take a dip. After that we had lunch at Cheers on the way back, one of the most recommended cafes in the area, and it was good. We offered to buy our guide Tim a lunch, but this place gives guides with groups a free lunch. Tim was absolutely excellent, informative and entertaining, and we tipped him a quarter of the tour price. Yhonny was prompt and helpful in setting up the tour by email, explaining everything we wanted to know very well.
Costa Maya
Finally a port with no more tendering. A free tram takes people from the ship down the long pier to the port entrance, where there is a center built for cruise passengers. It has shops, 2 swimming pools, bar, café, loungers on a sandy area, but no beach, all rocks. Rather expensive, $9 drinks, snacks $5-10. Both pools looked awful, cloudy murky brownish green water, you couldn't see 2 inches into it, we'd never get in that. Local dancers do a folk dance in a small amphitheatre, some audience participation.
To the right of the pier (your back toward the ocean) is the Chac-Chi resort, lovely beach, loungers, volley ball, café, bar, music, way cheaper than the cruise area. You'll see it on the right as you go up the pier. Guests were an assortment of locals, foreigners from the resorts and hotels, and cruise ship people, interesting group.
Page 3 > > More on Costa Maya > >
Read more about Bob and Wendy's Western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Miracle.
Belize
Tendering in Belize was slow, only one gangway used. After going through the hassle described above, we snuck on a ship tour tender. If you're in a rush to get ashore for your private tour, we'd suggest going to the gangway early, before 8, and try and hang around as close to the sign out station as you can. Then try and get on with the ship tour people, but first ask if the tender is going to the Tourism Village, and not a caye or some other tour location.
All the ships anchor far from shore, many sandbars, and you can hardly see Belize in the distance, but the tenders are speedboats, huge twin outboard motors, they really fly, so the ride is only 10-15 minutes.
Sit on the right side for a nice shot of the pretty Tourism Village as you enter the harbor. Party bar and lots of chain shops on the dock, flea market stalls outside the dock. For local flavor exit the dock, turn left onto Fort Street, and go past the vendors a few blocks till you come to a yellow lift bridge on the left. You can get some nice shots of the quaint marina from the bridge, then cross it onto Albert Street, walk up Albert a few blocks, a local hubbub.
Belize is famous for huge limestone caves with crystal caverns, stalagtites, etc, and the popular tour is rubber tubing through the caves. We've done lots of tubing before at water parks, and preferred to walk the caves to get pictures and poke around, and get some exercise. So 4 of us reserved a cave walk of the St. Herman's Cave at Blue Hole National Park, through the Cave-Tubing.com company, run by Yhonny and his guides, for $60 p.p. plus $5 for a good lunch of chicken, rice, beans and lemonade at Cheers.
The park is a 1 hour 15 minute drive down a fairly good highway, bit bumpy at times, no prob.
$4 p.p. park entrance fee, then a 10 minute easy walk through the lovely forest to the cave. We took bug spray but didn't even open it, only saw 2 lazy mosquitoes all day, and a few flies. This was the dry season, Dec-May. You can rent flashlights for a few bucks, but we brought our own. The caverns are huge, and it's best to have the most powerful lights you can bring, to see all the crystalline features, side passages, the river beside the path, rock formations. If your group is not very physical your guide will take you halfway, but if they can handle it you'll go to the end, some climbing over wet sandy or rocky spots, stooping for low ceilings, the end section is trickier. There is no walkable exit, so we then returned the way we came, often seeing things we missed the first time, or from a different perspective.
Shots in the dark tunnel turned out well with both our digital and 35 mm cameras, the flashes were rated for 20 feet but went beyond that. We shined our flashlights on our shirts so the person taking the shot could make us out. Just make sure your camera can focus in the dark, some can't do that. The cave is about three quarters of a mile, and about halfway through we met some other cavers who had set up a lovely buffet on a white table cloth on a sandy area beside the underground river with candles, very exotic, Jake and his friends from Colorado.
There are 2 routes from the park station to the cave, the lowland easy path and the highland path with climbing and great views of the area. We took the highland path back to the parking lot at the station, and then drove a few minutes to the Blue Hole, a pretty sink hole pond in a jungle grotto with a small beach, where you can take a dip. After that we had lunch at Cheers on the way back, one of the most recommended cafes in the area, and it was good. We offered to buy our guide Tim a lunch, but this place gives guides with groups a free lunch. Tim was absolutely excellent, informative and entertaining, and we tipped him a quarter of the tour price. Yhonny was prompt and helpful in setting up the tour by email, explaining everything we wanted to know very well.
Costa Maya
Finally a port with no more tendering. A free tram takes people from the ship down the long pier to the port entrance, where there is a center built for cruise passengers. It has shops, 2 swimming pools, bar, café, loungers on a sandy area, but no beach, all rocks. Rather expensive, $9 drinks, snacks $5-10. Both pools looked awful, cloudy murky brownish green water, you couldn't see 2 inches into it, we'd never get in that. Local dancers do a folk dance in a small amphitheatre, some audience participation.
To the right of the pier (your back toward the ocean) is the Chac-Chi resort, lovely beach, loungers, volley ball, café, bar, music, way cheaper than the cruise area. You'll see it on the right as you go up the pier. Guests were an assortment of locals, foreigners from the resorts and hotels, and cruise ship people, interesting group.
Page 3 > > More on Costa Maya > >
Read more about Bob and Wendy's Western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Miracle.
SHARE
