Wednesday January 20, 2016 Las Vegas, Nevada

We didn't try for an early start.  We had breakfast at the hotel, they had waffles shaped like Texas.  We fueled up the car and were on the road by 8 AM.

Even without the high speed limits of Texas, we made good time.  There were some construction slow downs and from Phoenix to I-40 there was cross traffic.  Our last stop for fuel was in Kingman, AZ.  It was dark before we got to the Arizona/Nevada stateline.  We got home at about 7, and unloaded the car.

It was a good trip after the delays were behind us.  We had a great visit with Curtis and his family.  Unfortunately, we had to cancel the planned visit to see Uncle Curtis Ford.  We also had to cancel the visit with cousins JoNell and Herb in Garrison, Texas originally planned for the New Year holiday.  We did take the time after the cruise to spend Sunday evening and Monday with Uncle Curtis and Aunt Gloria in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The cruise portion of the trip took us to three places we had never been and back to one, Cozumel, that we last visited in the fall 2002.  The new places we visited were; Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize and Costa Maya, Mexico.
I managed to find 11 geocaches and added 2 countries to my list of places I have found geocaches, Honduras and Belize.  That brings my total to 21 countries.

God has blessed us with a level of heath and means that allows us to to enjoy the beauty he created.  Our next planned trip is 4 weeks in Cabo San Lucas, starting in mid-March.  As my Grandmother used to say in West Virginia; "Lord willin' and the crick don't rise."

Tuesday 19, 2016 El Paso, Texas

Saturday the 16th
This was our last full day of this cruise.  It was a day at sea.  We had our coffee and breakfast in the cabin.

At 1:30 we had another meeting for geocachers.  The entire group from the first meeting wasn't there, only Grand Penguin.  There were two others who were interested.  One worked for parks and recreation in a Virginia town.  He set up programs for the parks and the community and wanted to see if programs could be designed around geocaching.

Some time in the afternoon the Captain announced that rough weather was ahead with probable delays in arrival in Houston.  True to the Captain's word we had a bumpy afternoon.  It wasn't terrible but very noticeable.  We did take the precaution and took Dramamine.

For dinner we went to the Crown Grill with a couple we had met the first day of the cruise, Dan and Sherry Chance.  They are from the Woodland, north of Dallas.  They are also RV'ers.  The Crown Grill is one of the premium restaurants on the Caribbean Princess.

It was still rough seas when we went to bed.


Sunday the 17th
Some time during the night the wind calmed down.  We were only 1 1/2 hours late getting into Houston.  Our original disembarkation was scheduled for 9 AM.

Since we were late we went to the Horizon Court and had breakfast before going to our meeting place to wait for our group to be called.

We were in our car and on the way to Corpus Christi.  We had decided to visit Aunt Gloria and Uncle Curtis before hurrying home.  Our original plans had included a visit in Corpus Christi before the cruise.  As you may remember those plans were changed by my medical procedure and its complication.
We got to Corpus in the late afternoon.  My cousin Lael had come down from Houston to visit.  Gloria, Lael and I are the last of the Barker family from West Virginia. Lael was born in West Virginia but has lived in Texas most of her life.  Even though I still think of West Virginia as home, both Gloria and I have lived most of our lives elsewhere.  Gloria in Texas and me in Nevada.

Gerri, me, Curtis Ford, Gloria Ford, Lael Ford Miller

We visited until dinner time and then went to a nearby Cracker Barrel to eat.  Back at the house we played various card games until bedtime.










Monday the 18th

Lael left for the drive back to Houston this morning. We had a relaxing morning and then went to Sparky's BBQ pit for lunch after Curtis stopped to feed some gulls in a parking lot near their  home.








The BBQ had just changed their name.  They had great sandwiches beside the usual ordering the BBQ meats by the pound.  They also featured a salad bar.










We took a drive in downtown Corpus Christi and along the waterfront.

A replica of one ofColumbus' ships

In the afternoon we played some more cards.  I hope we remember how to play them later.  They were all quick games designed for large groups.  We played Left, Right, Center; 31; Mess with your Neighbor, also know by other names and Memory.

After more visiting in the afternoon we went to La Playa Mexican Restaurant for dinner.  We had a great meal but after our lunch we weren't able to do it justice.  I had a dish I had never heard of; deep fried avocado, stuffed with shrimp. before deep frying it was wrapped in the white cheese we normally see inside chili rellanos.

We played more cards before bedtime.  I felt like I was starting to come down with a cold and started taking a Z-pack of antibiotics, in hopes of warding it off.

Tuesday the 19th

A Texas Rest Area

We were up at 5 AM and had coffee with Curtis and Gloria.  By 6 we were on the road.  We gassed up before getting on the interstate.  As usual I slept most of the time when Gerri drove.  After one stop for fuel I drove to the next fuel stop in Ft. Stockton.  We had lunch at a restaurant in Ft. Stockton, well Gerri had lunch, I had French Toast and eggs.

We did stop at a couple of rest stops.  I found a cache at the first one.  Texas has some really nice rest stops.  They also have Picnic areas and Parking Areas, the later two don't have restrooms.  But, if needed they make handy places to take a break.

The antibiotics seem to be working and I felt better  by afternoon.  At one of our fuel stops we had decided to stop for the night in El Paso instead of driving straight through.  I called ahead and made reservations at Hawthorn Suites where we had stayed before.  We arrived at the hotel at about 5 PM.

We went to dinner at Appleby's.  Back at the hotel we called it a night.  Tomorrow will be a long day of driving, with no more Texas 80 MPH speed limits.

Friday January 15, 2016 At Sea Between Cozumel, Mexico and Houston, Texas

The Ides of January, the first month of 2016 is half over.  We docked at Cozumel at about 5:30.  I knew that because the side thrusters woke me up.  I went back to sleep, we had no tours planned for today.  We had our coffee and breakfast in the cabin.  Gerri got ready and went to the pool area.  I had checked the GPS and decided to walk outside and see if any of the caches were close enough to try for.  From the end of the dock the nearest cache that I hadn’t found was 6 tenths of a mile away.  Further than I wanted to walk in the heat and humidity.  I debated taking one of the many Pedicabs that were plying the docks, but decided against it.

I went back on board and spent some time in the library.  The Carnival Magic was docked across from us.  I believe from Facebook that our friend Maryetta Bowman is on that ship.  What a coincidence if I had seen her on the dock, but I didn’t.  That ship is at least as large as ours, with as many passengers;

I met Gerri back at the cabin.  We rested for a while before dressing for the Captain’s Circle Party.  We did watch a beautiful sunset and moon rise from our balcony before going to the party.  We sat with a couple from South Carolina,  They also had ties to the Houston area.  The top two most traveled passengers we introduced.  They were the same people as last week, now with even more days at sea.

We went to our regular dining table and time.  We dined alone again.  Tonight was Lobster and prawns.  We both had Escargot and then the Lobster.  I also ordered the Beef Wellington to make my meal Surf and Turf.

After dinner we stopped by the Crooner’s Lounge.  We heard one and a half songs and the piano player went on break.  We had seen the performance in the Princess Theater twice before so we decided to return to the cabin.  We read and tried to solve Sudoku puzzles before going to sleep.  I think I am getting better at them.  I still fail many of the more difficult puzzles and am much slower than Gerri with the ones I do solve.

Thursday January 14, 2014 At Sea Between Belize City, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico

We were anchored off the coast of Belize early in the morning.  We ordered coffee and breakfast in our cabin.  Gerri’s plan for the day was to spend some time at pool side.  My plan was to go ashore and find the cache that was missing last week when we were here.

We went to the library and got computer chores out of the way.  Gerri went to the pool area and I went ashore.  I found the cache.  The container had been replaced by the Grand Penguins, who had been at the geocachers meeting on Tuesday.  I spent some time in the cruise terminal trying to get an internet connection to log my find on geocaching.com.  I was able to get e-mail but not on line to websites.

Belize City harbour

Belize City harbor

A key off the coast of Belize, there are hundreds

The bridge from our balcony

I met Gerri back in the cabin at about 4 PM.  We went to the Skywalker for hors d’oeuvres at about 5:45. It was lighter tonight than it was last week and we could see that the departure from the Belizean coast required a lot of turns in the winding channel.  Tonight’s feature was salsa and avocado dip.  In the past these have been so so.  Tonight, both the salsa and dip were excellent, the best we have had on board.  Between hors d’oeuvres and dinner we spent some time in the Explorer’s Lounge watching Mardi Gras dancing lessons.  

We had dinner at our regular time and table.  The other couple wasn’t there.  After dinner we watched Karaoke performers in the Club Fusion.

We returned to our cabin and read and worked on Sudoku puzzles until retiring.

Wednesday January 13, 2016 At Sea Between Costa Maya, Mexico and Belize City, Belize

Tuesday the 12^th

This was our second day at sea heading for our first port of call, Costa Maya, Mexico.  We ordered coffee in our room and later had lunch in the Horizon Court.  It featured American Lunch.  We spent some time in the library catching up on computer stuff.

I had put in a request for a shout out to geocachers before we left Houston.  The meeting was set up for 3:30 in the Wheel House Bar.  At this meeting we had 12 people.  Half were cachers and the rest were interested in knowing more about it.  The cachers were us and two couples from Louisiana.  We shared information on caches in the upcoming ports.  All the other cachers had been to these ports before.  One cacher, Grand Penguin, planned to replace the missing one in Belize City.

We went to the early show featuring Duncan Tuck.  He was an excellent guitar player and he mixed that with comedy.  All in all, an entertaining show.  We went to our regular dining table.  The couple from DC were not there tonight. 

Before returning to our cabin we stopped in the Explorer’s Lounge and watched a Game called “Majority Rules.”  Back at our cabin we read for a while, I also tried my hand at some more challenging Sudoku puzzles. Our tour on Wednesday doesn’t start until 12:30 so we weren’t in a rush to go to bed.

Wednesday the 13^th

We were docked in Costa Mayo by 7 AM.  I decided to go to find a nearby cache before our tour.  I left the ship at about 8:30. Because of information given out at yesterday’s meeting, I knew I had to go a couple of miles to Downtown Mahahual to find it.  There was a shuttle to downtown.

Valley of the ships

From the shuttle it was about a 400’ walk to the cache location.  The cache was in an ammo box at the Tropicante Restaurant.  Both workers and patrons knew where the box was.  I signed the log and took a picture to “discover” a travel bug.  When traveling out of the country I usually don’t pick up a travel bug unless I know it’s goal.  I talked to one of the patrons for a while.  Two of the other cachers on the Caribbean Princess showed up.

I took a taxi back to the port.  It was hot and humid.  I was tired after walking from the port village to the ship.  I called Gerri and asked her to meet me on the pier to go to the meeting place for our tour.  The tour was on an air conditioned bus.  The name of the tour was Mayan Cultural Experience.  Our first stop was a village that had a small Mayan Temple.   Our guide explained the Mayans interest and abilities in astronomy and mathematics.  The construction of this temple was based on the Mayan calendar.  Our next stop was the home of a Mayan family, Limones.  We walked through the area observing how the family lived.  We had a snack of taquitos.  The chicken was prepared in an underground oven similar to what the Hawaiians do.  One of the family members gave a demonstration of how the natives used to extract fiber from different leaves to weave useful items.

It was a 45-minute drive back to the port.  Back on the ship we were hot and tired.  We decided to pass on the dining room and have cheeseburgers on deck 15.  After eating we went to the Princess Theater and watched a show by the ship’s dancers and singers called Do You Wanna Dance.  Before returning to our cabin we watched another trivia game.  This time the theme was Rock and Roll.

Back at the cabin we got ready for bed and either read or worked on Sudoku puzzles until retiring.

Monday January 11, 2016 At Sea Between Houston, Texas and Costa Maya, Mexico

Monday January 11, 2016 At Sea Between Houston, Texas and Costa Maya, Mexico

We had only coffee and juice in our room. We plan to try the Mexican Buffet again.  As last week this was a day at sea. 

Our itinerary has changed: tomorrow is another sea day, we then visit Costa Maya, Belize and Cozumel with one more day at sea on the way back to Houston.

We went to the Mexican Buffet at about 1:30.  It was better than last week.  The tacos were straight out of the refrigerator but this time we expected that so it was no surprise.  After lunch we went to the Club Fusion.  We watched the last of Bingo.  We played the afternoon trivia game.  Well, played may be stretching it a bit, we only got 6 correct out of 20 questions.  At least we got to check our own answers and were spared the embarrassment of someone else knowing how poorly we did.

After dressing for formal night we went to the Skywalker for Hors D’oeuvres.  The feature was Steak Tartar. Since we had had a late lunch we didn’t partake.  We did chat with a couple from Enid, Oklahoma.  We talked until it was time for them to go meet their daughter and her friend for dinner.  They were celebrating their daughter and her friend’s graduation from college.

Our dinner seating had been changed from any time dining to the second seating in the main dining room.  We went to the Palm Dining Room and were seated at a table for 4.  The others at our table were a young couple from the Washington, DC area.  They lived in Maryland but the other side of the street was in DC.  It turned out that he is a policeman at the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC.  This was their first cruise and the first time they had been on a vacation without their 5-year-old daughter.  We had dinner and dessert before Joe and Nicole had to leave, they were signing up to be contestants on the Match game that started at 9:45 and had to be there early.  After we finished our coffee we went and watched the match game.  Joe and Nicole had not won the drawing for contestants.  The game is patterned after the TV Newlywed game, but featured a newly, intermediate and longtime married couples.  A little racy at times but pretty funny.

After that we returned to our cabin.  Gerri read for a while and I tried my hand at some of the Sudoku games in my book.  Only the more difficult games were left.  Earlier I had completed a puzzle from the ship that was rated tricky.  I was deluded into thinking I had gotten better at the more difficult puzzles.  I had been delusional; they were still beyond my skill.

Sunday January 10, 2016 At Sea Between Houston, Texas and Costa Maya, Mexico

Some of what I write today may sound like complaining.  It is not, I am just describing the day as it happened.  Keep in mind that the last day of one cruise and the first day of the next cruise isn’t usually very eventful.  The day mostly consists of getting the cruisers from the past week off and the cruisers for the next week processed and on board.  So it wasn’t like we had elaborate adventures or tours planned.

We had the alarm set for 7 AM but a ship wide announcement came a little earlier than that telling us our arrival in Houston was delayed.  The delay was caused by high winds.  The passage from the Caribbean up Galveston bay is winding and narrow.  We went back out into the gulf and waited for a new pilot time scheduled for 9 AM.  This set the schedule back by two hours that eventually stretched to closer to 3 PM.

Caribbean Princess

The original plan was for us to move to a new cabin at 9 AM and then go through customs and immigration at 10:45. Around 1 PM we were moved to our new cabin.  We tried to get something to eat, but all the restaurants had closed down.  We unpacked and then went to deck 7 at approx. 2:30 PM to wait for the final departing passengers to be processed off the ship.  The in-transit passengers (us) were then led by a cruise member to customs.  If you can imagine the chaos ashore with 3000 arriving passengers and 3000 departing passengers trying to get ashore and making new travel arrangements.  We were finally ashore through customs and back on board by 3 PM.

Since we hadn’t eaten we waited in the International Café until they had salads and sandwiches ready to serve.  By the time we finished arriving passengers were starting to come aboard.  Some of them had been waiting in the terminal parking lot since 11 AM.  Many were not happy! 

We went to dinner in the Island Dining Room and were seated quickly.  Eventually two other couples were seated with us.  They weren’t together but were both from Texas.  Word is that this is the last season for Princess to sail from the Port of Houston. Subsequently many of the passengers are from area within easy driving distance.  We have heard a couple of reasons for the cruise line leaving Houston.  The most plausible is the 3 hour trip to the Caribbean from the terminal and being subject to high winds or heavy fog.  We had pleasant conversation and a good meal.  Tonight was one of my favorites, Prime Rib.

After dinner we went to the Princess Theater and caught the last of the Welcome Aboard Show.  We saw the same comedian that gave a show last week.  After the show the ship held the Muster Station drill at 9:30. Since we had attended last week, we didn’t go to the drill.

We went to our cabin and read until about 10:45 before retiring.  The ship didn’t leave port until about 10.

The itinerary of the cruise was changed.  We now with have two days at sea before arriving in Costa Maya.  We then visit Belize and Cozumel before having one day at sea returning to Houston.

Saturday January 9, 2014 At Sea Between Belize City, Belize and Houston, Texas

As formal as we got on this cruise

This is our last day at sea for this leg of our voyage.  We ordered our breakfast and coffee in the cabin.  Later, Gerri went on deck to listen to a band while I stayed in the cabin.  She wasn’t gone long, it was windy and the band had been cancelled.  She also checked on our photos that had been taken by the ship photographers last evening. The photos were not ready.  We then spent some time in the library catching up on computer junk and listing to a singer in the Piazza.

While checking on the photos a second time we ran into Chip from the couple we had dinner with yesterday.  We made arrangements to meet them for dinner again in the Island Dining Room.

Back at our cabin we decided to dress for dinner before going to the Skywalker for hors d’oeuvres.  Tonight’s feature was the shrimp fountain, my favorite.  At 7:30 we met Chip and Laurea Irving at the International Café.  We checked in for seating and waited a short while.  No one else joined us, and we had a pleasant conversation and a good dinner.  They are in their late forties and are from the Dallas area and celebrating being married five years.  They knew each other all through school but never dated then re-met and were married.

We had coffee and desert, made another trip to the photo shop and listened to the singer in the Crooner's Lounge for a while.  After that it was back to the cabin for a little reading before sleep.  

The time to vacate the current cabin is 9 AM.  We also have to go through the terminal for customs and immigration check and re-board the ship.

Friday January 8, 2016 At Sea Between Belize City, Belize and Houston, Texas

This was a full day at sea returning to Houston.  We slept in and ordered coffee and a light breakfast in our cabin.  I spent quite a while finishing computer chores and then went to the library to finish them.  The internet connection is surer and faster there.  I still have trouble using Gerri’s new computer.  It does things like shrinking the font for no obvious reason.  I am sure I am touching something, but haven’t figured it out yet.

Gerri went to the pool are for about an hour before the humidity got to her.

Earlier in the cruise I had asked for a shout out to all geocachers and those interested in geocaching to meet.  The cruise director’s staff had arraigned for us to meet in the Wheelhouse at 3:30. These shout outs are usually on sea days.  The trouble with meeting today was that we had visited all the ports of call for the cruise and we were headed back to Houston.  Thus it was too late to plan anything about going caching with others aboard.  Since we are on this same ship next week I plan to ask for the shout out to be on the first sea day of that cruise.  Of course I have already logged a cache in the ports except Costa Maya where we will be next week.  There were 16 people at the meeting.  There were couples from Montana, Utah, Texas, Ohio and Australia.  The experience levels varied from interested to very experienced.  We exchanged a few travel bugs and had a lively discussion for about an hour before the meeting broke up.

We checked our cruise pictures and since there was no hors d’oeuvres party tonight we went to the cabin and enjoyed the sunset from our balcony.  This was one of those evenings that brought us to love cruising.

At 7:30 we went to the Captain’s Circle reception in the Fusion Lounge.  This event gives us a chance to meet the ship’s captain and bridge crew.  They also give a little spiel on future cruises and recognize the 3 most experience cruisers aboard.  We are far from such recognition.  The days at sea for those recognized was from 840 to 1030 days at sea.  We have about 170 days.

We went to the Island Dining Room and were seated with a very nice couple from the Dallas area.  We had a good meal and lingered over coffee and conversation until about 10 PM.  We returned to our cabin and read before calling it a night.

Thursday January 7, 2016 At Sea Between Belize City Belize and Houston, Texas

Like my last posting this blog covers several days.

Monday the 4^th

This was our first full day on the ship.  It was a sea day and cool.  The sea was choppy but not rough.  We slept in and instead of ordering our breakfast in the room we decided to go to the Mexican Buffet.  The food tasted good but wasn’t hot.  They had crispy beef tacos that were actually cold, straight out of the refrigerator. 

It was formal night so we dressed up.  We went to the Elite Lounge for the last 15 minutes or so of the Captain’s Circle, Platinum, Elite and Suite passenger Hors D’oeuvres party.  It wasn’t well attended and we passed on the hors d’oeuvres, the main item was Steak Tar Tar.

We had to wait ½ hour to be seated for dinner in the Island Dining Room on deck 5.  We sat with a couple from Detroit and a mother and daughter from Texas.   

After dinner we went to a production show, Piano Man, in the Princess theater.  Bed time was early because we had booked a tour that started on shore the next day at 7:30 AM.

Tuesday the 5^th

We were in port at Cozumel, Mexico.  We had a tour booked and went ashore at 7:30 AM.  We didn’t have time for coffee.  Due to rough seas the catamaran portion of the tour was canceled.  We took a bus tour around the island.  Cozumel is 32 miles by 8 miles and has a population of about 90,000.  The island is mostly low and flat; the tropical vegetation doesn’t grow much over 20 feet tall. 

We stopped at a Mayan village, El Cedral.  There was an ancient Mayan Temple alongside a Catholic Church built in the 1700’s.  There was shopping and a tour of a Tequila factory. 

Our next stop was a beach side attraction that had a refreshment stand and a great view of some arches formed by sea erosion.  There was an Earth Cache that had to do with arches.  I wasn’t able to get to the right coordinates to get the information required to claim the cache. 

Our next stop was in a downtown area at a Museum that had a restaurant.  Gerri and I had fish tacos for lunch there.  Where our ship was docked there were 3 other cruise shops, from the restaurant we could see another two cruise ships docked. 

We had been to Cozumel one other time when I was on the board of the Clark County Credit Union.  We were at a conference in Cancun and took a tour to Cozumel that included snorkeling.  Nothing looked familiar, I’m sure the popularity of the Island has increased as has the number of hotel and resorts.  Before boarding the ship, I was able to find one cache in the terminal area.

Back at the ship we rested for a while before going to the elite lounge for hors d’oeuvres.  The Elite Lounge wasn’t very busy.  On some cruises these are well attended events held for Platinum, Elite and Suite passengers.  We were also here for a little while on Monday night and it wasn’t crowded then either.  Tonight the main item of hors d’oeuvres was smoked salmon on toast tips, they also had the customary cheeses and vegetable available.

We went to the Island Dining Room again, there was a ½ hour wait tonight too.  So far I don’t care for the anytime dining.  Tonight we sat with two couples from Texas, Austin and San Angelo.

After dinner we went to the Princess Theater.  The comedian Steve Moris did about an hour show.  We had seen him at the welcome aboard show on Sunday.

We don’t have to go to bed as early tonight.  Our tour at our next port doesn’t meet until 9:15.

Wednesday the 6^th

We arrived in Roatan as the sun was coming up.  Our tour was set for 9:30 and it looked like a long walk to the terminal.  Our tour was booked at the last minute for a town tour and glass bottom boat ride.  Our ship had docked at a fairly new dock and terminal.  It would accommodate two ships but ours was the only one there.  We were told that it was part of a $65 million complex built by Carnival which owns Princess.  The bay where we docked is called Mahogany Bay and consisted of the docks, private swimming area, a chair lift type sky-way to various locations around the bay including a private beach, shopping, Zip Line and a lagoon for kayaking.  There were probably other things to see and do, but we had our tour to go on.

The tour took us through the main downtown area and past the other cruise ship terminal owned by Royal Caribbean.  As we passed the older ship terminal there were two ships docked there and two at anchor.  The streets were very narrow and the traffic was heavy.  It was about a 45-minute ride to the dock where we boarded the glass bottom boat.  Our guide, who spoke with a slightly Texas accent we thought because their number one music to listen to is Country and Western.  She told us she had never been to the USA, she got a big laugh with that comment.   She gave us a lot of information on the history of Roatan.  Roatan was once ruled by the British and since the 1980’s has been under the jurisdiction of Honduras.

Once aboard the glass bottom boat we traveled along the reef.  A marine biologist narrated this part of the tour, pointing out the various types of coral and fish.  We did see one sea turtle.  The views were spectacular, but didn’t come out very well in pictures. 

There were so many vivid colors among both the coral and the fish that don’t show up in the pictures.  This is the second largest reef in the world and goes from Roatan up to the Yucatán peninsula.

After the boat ride it was on to an area called the West End where we attended a performance by a group from one of the main ethnic groups of the island.  I don’t recall all the information but the group was descended from former slaves who fought with the British against the Spanish and lost.  They then fled to Roatan which is about 30 miles off the coast of Honduras.  Negotiations for the transfer from British sovereignty to Honduran took over 100 years.

We had time for shopping and looking around.  Gerri bought several small items from the street vendors before we headed back to the ship.  There was a cache in the shopping area near the dock that we managed to find before boarding the ship.

We relaxed before going to the Skywalker for the Platinum Elite and Suite hors d’oeuvres. Tonight the featured Item was goat cheese with rosemary.  Again the affair was lightly attended.

We had made a dining reservation for 7:30. We were seated with three other couples and had a good meal with pleasant conversation.  Mostly about where we were from and what we did or had done for a living.

Since we had an early tour again tomorrow in Belize we were in bed early.

Thursday the 7^th

We were up early and went without coffee again this morning.  Our tour was to meet in the Princess theater at 7:15. We were anchored and had to go ashore in tenders.  It was five miles by boat to Belize City.  Fortunately, we were in local boats as opposed to the ships tenders, they we more comfortable and faster.  I wanted to take a picture of the ship as we departed but realized I had forgotten my phone.  Gerri did have her camera so we got a couple of pictures.  The trouble was I use my camera for geocaching and would have to return to the ship and come ashore again to try to log a geocache in Belize.

As with the previous tours this one started with a bus ride through town with narration about history, economy and interesting sites.  We boarded our airboats at a facility at the edge of a large swamp and were taken through the lakes, lagoons and mangrove groves that made up the area.  This particular swamp covered about 500 acres and we saw a wide range of birds a d a few small alligators.  Our guide was very knowledgeable about the wildlife and plants; he was also very entertaining.  Besides the wildlife sightings we had a thrilling ride through the swamp on the air boat.  If you have never ridden an air boat, I recommend it, it is quite a rush to skim across the water with a huge engine roaring in your ears.

Two small crocadiles

A slightly larger crocadile

We returned to the cruise ship terminal in the bus and boarded the boat back to the ship.  Shortly after leaving the dock I felt something hard in one of the cargo pockets of my shorts.  It was my cell phone, too late to go back to the dock.  Back at the ship we had lunch in the International Café.  Gerri went to the pool area and I returned to tenders and went back ashore to find a geocache.  After lunch Gerri went to the pool area and I returned ashore to hunt a geocache.

The first and closest cache I looked for was missing.  I walked to the second one, taking the long way and a couple of dead ends before arriving at the cache’s location which was at another entrance to the cruise ship terminal.  I started looking around and saw a couple doing the same.  They were caches too but had come on one of the 4 other ships in port. We located the cache quickly and talked for a while.  They too had been unable to find the other cache I had looked for.  On the way back to the dock I checked the area of the first cache again with no luck, I had to log a DNF.

We cleaned up and went to the Skywalker for hors d’oeuvres.  It was a little busier and tonight’s feature was salsa and chips.  The had both pico de gallo and guacamole. We opted not to go to dinner in the dining room.  Gerri picked up some items from the buffet and I had pizza on deck 15.

We went and saw another comedian in the Princess Theater and the stopped by the Crooner’s Lounge to listen to the singer/piano player.

Before sleep we both read for a while and then called it a night.