short excursion on own?

[LindaKE]

Can anyone recommend something we might enjoy doing on our own for a short while? NCL's excursions don't appeal to us for various reasons, so we are wondering what we might be able to do on our own for a short while - something with little physical exertion.

[wdowns9]

What is listed on the NCL website is pretty much what your options are. This port is a working container dock so there isnt much to do when you get off the ship. There is a tourist village that has local crafts but if you want to see anything else you can take a tour with Gus or with Happy Fish.

[gwhutch]

For those of you looking for a way to spend your day without booking a ship excursion, here is some info on hiring an independent cab driver for the day.

We got off the ship and walked all the way through the "big building" surpassing all the tour offers being directed our way. Once outside we asked for an English speaking cab driver that could take us to a banana plantation and the waterfalls.

We hit the jackpot!!! for $150 for the four of us for the day, we had the most awesome cab driver and had an truly amazing day. Ask for Gerson Mendez. He treated up like family and we feel so blessed to have spent a day with him.

He pointed out things and took us places that were so interesting. We got a good look at "real" Guatemala life. He took us to a restaurant down the street from his home for an authentic rice & beans meal. We got to hold a monkey (Pancha, the "good" monkey), shop downtown Puerto Barrios (where coffee was $1.50/# and smells so good in your suitcase when you get home!), see the banana plantation, see the home of 35,000 iguanas, etc. I could go on and on about the amazing things we saw that day.

We also went to the waterfalls. We were behind the cruise crowds, which was nice. We saw a snake on the trail on our way up, and later reasearched it and found it was a parot snake, or a good luck snake. Waterfalls were gorgous and we had fun swimming in the natural pools. We had taken a bunch of Beanie Babies and handed them out to children we saw throughout the day. (I think they attend 1/2 day school). That was a lot of fun.

I totally recommend going off on your own in Santo Tomas. It was the highlight of our cruise.

 

this post is what made me go with him.

I used him and loved it feel free to email me with any questions

gwhutchison@msn.com

[Sherry Baby]

In response to GWHutch- this sounds like what I would like to do on an upcoming trip in January '09. None of the prescribed tours sound exactly right, so maybe we'll "be brave" and go on our own with a hired driver too. Your experience sounds wonderful.