Pre-Trip Blog and Review: Carnival Dream 2/15/14 – Western Caribbean

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Coca-Cola anyone?

 

Here is a Mammals Guide

 

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Some of the Belize Money

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love your money pics. It is so neat to see what currency looks like in other countries. I always try to get at least one money piece from each country we visit but sometimes I forget.

Thanks for posting these. It reminds to look for it on our cruise in 2 weeks

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Snakes!

 

 

 

I remembered the name of our first guide. Her name is Carol. Now, say hello to our second tour guide, I have forgotten her name as well, but maybe it will come back to me soon.

 

She gave us more cultural information on Belize

 

Here are some more pictures from the journey

 

 

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Say hello to our third tour guide, Ken. Yes, it was easy to remember his name since it was so close to my name.

 

 

Ken was reminding us about the local snakes that we should be on the lookout for while on the tour. Don't worry, he did not have to tell me twice, I cannot stand snakes. The only good snake is a dead snake.

More Pictures from the road

 

 

 

 

We made it to the park and since it was important that we remembered our bus number, I took a picture.

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The information provided with the tour mentioned that it's a 45 minute ride, but I was never bored or thinking, "Are we there yet?" The tour guides did a great job with keeping us entertained.

 

The weather decided to help us out and stop raining before we made it to the ruins.

 

Here is the area before entering into the park where they have a shopping area and restrooms. For those of us that did not try to get left earlier, it was time for a pit stop. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ken started his part of the tour as we got ready to enter into the park. As we were walking up to the entrance, Ken spotted this lovely caterpillar. As lovely as the caterpillar looks, she is poisonous so, don’t touch.

 

I guess this is the park dog, fast asleep

 

 

If I remember correctly Altun Ha means Rockstone Water

 

 

Here are some pictures of the area

 

 

 

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This is a leave mixture that could be used to embalm bodies in the on the burial grounds. It has a sweet scent.

 

 

 

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We climbed to the top on one of the smaller ruins. Man they built some steep steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol took a picture for us.

 

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Almost at the end, Cynthia stepped wrong and she thought she might have twisted her ankle. We took a minute to rest with the group.

 

Continuing our journey...

 

 

 

 

 

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Here is a berry that you might want to say away from… I cannot remember if they cause constipation or relieve constipation, but either way, I am not taking a chance.

 

 

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Cynthia decided that since her ankle was giving her a bit of an issue, she would not climb with me up the tallest ruin. So, I decided to go it alone with her support from the bottom. It’s at this point in the tour that you are on your own and given a time to be back on the bus for departure.

 

 

Here is a little section of the stairs that I climbed. Ken warned us that this was the “Belize Stairmaster” and I was starting to understand why.

 

After a couple of brief rest stops, I made it to the top!

 

 

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I was looking for Cynthia, but she was not where I left her on the way up. I made a call out to her and found her on the other side.

 

 

Here she is at full zoom on my camera

 

 

Here I am at the top from her camera

 

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More pictures from the top

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now, I failed to mention earlier that I am very scared of heights. The going up was the easy part. After a short rest, I decided that it was time to face my fear and come down. Here is part of the stairs:

 

 

I was not the only one that was scared. There was another man up top that was bound and determine that we was going to do some sort of sitting movement to get down the stairs. He was really freaking out. I just decided to take it slow and do at my own pace. I did quite nicely and I was very proud of myself.

 

Here I am coming around the back of the ruin to meet Cynthia.

 

 

As we were coming out of the park, I saw this avocado tree that I had to take a picture of as Cynthia loves them.

 

 

 

We went out of the park and walked through the “straw market” is what I would call it, but we did not say long. Some of the vendors were a little too pushy. A check of the time showed that we had a bit more time to spare so; I wanted to take Ken up on his suggestion to try the local cuisine. I thought that I had taken a picture of the restaurant, but I did not. It’s located in the parking lot of the park and I believe that it has a Coca-Cola sign on the building. On special, they had chicken with rice and beans and cole slaw. Here is the plate:

 

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I believe that I paid $5 or $6 for the plate not including a drink. It was very good and it seemed to have flavors that I had never tasted before. I was worried about it being too spicy, but it was not spicy at all. I would have no issues having it again.

For the other part of my meal, a bottled Coca-Cola.

 

I don’t care what country you are in, there is nothing better than an ice cold Coca-Cola in a glass bottle. For those of you that might not know, the Coca-Cola in other countries and especially in Central America, is not the same Coke that we know here in the US. Yes, the recipe is the same but the product is bottled in each country and local ingredients are used therefore, the taste varies slightly by country.

Ken came to have lunch as well and when he got up from eating we took it as our queue to get back to the bus. LOL

 

 

We walked over and checked in and asked if we still had a few minutes to hit the restroom. Since we did, we headed over.

 

These had to be the easiest stairs that we climbed all day.

 

 

We left on our way back to the ship. We were asked to fill out a survey which we did and the tour guides answered questions on the way back to port. We were both a bit tired and we took a few mini cat naps on the way back to the city. Here are some pictures once we came back into the city:

 

 

 

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We made it back to port and we looked around for some shopping. Cynthia was still looking for a pair of sunglasses. After a bit, we decided to use the restroom and see about catching a tender back to the ship. Here is Cynthia showing off a new pair of sunglasses:

 

 

Here are some shots around port:

 

 

 

 

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We did not have any issues as a tender was waiting to take us back. I wanted it to be a double decker so that we could sit on the top and I could get some pictures, but this was a single decker so, I had to figure out a different plan

 

 

 

 

 

Here we go...