The morning started entirely too early, when our room service appeared at 6am. We were to meet our ShoreTrips tour guide at 8am on the pier, so there was no sleeping in. And I have to admit, not being a morning person in the least, there was a brief moment when I honestly wanted to say “Screw ziplining, I want to sleep in.” But man am I glad I didn’t.
Ziplining through the Honduran rainforest was, simply, amazing. It was hot and took some effort—but it was so worth the $57 per person. After our group got off the pier, we had to wait about 15 minutes for the van to come pick us up. Then it was off through tiny winding roads with crazy as hell drivers and pedestrians with a death wish. In about 10 minutes or so, we were on the other side of the island at the South Shore Ziplining Company (I think it was called). There were four guides with us, and they got us all belted, harnessed, cinched, and helmeted up, then there was a quick 3-minute safety brief and we were off!
Oh, they told us we were NOT to take pictures—we were to concentrate on keeping our hands in the positions they told us (so we would keep ourselves headed straight and so we could brake). But, as soon as they said we couldn’t take pictures, they said they would take them for us! So one guide had like four cameras on his arm and around his neck, and he just alternated using each of them for taking pictures throughout the morning. (So we all have to do an email exchange so we can make sure we get the pictures that are on everyone else’s cameras!)
I was the very first one off the platform, and it was sooooooo exhilarating! It went so quickly you had to remember to take time to look down and around (instead of just forward to the next platform)—with the lush greenery whizzing by on all sides. (Well, actually, I didn’t remember to look down until about the third platform.) Some platforms we all fit on, so they waited until we were all there before starting the next line. Others were smaller platforms, so they would start us on the next line while people were still coming in. Between a few of the platforms, we had to walk up flights of stairs (and when I say flights, I mean steps cut into the side of the mountain, braced with pieces of wood—and in a very few instances, real wooden stairs) or up mountain paths—with roots and rocks and trees and all.
The guides were absolutely wonderful, even though there was a bit of a language barrier between us (some more than others). You could tell they did this all day, every day—as they knew exactly what they were doing (a good thing when your life is on the line), when to stop for us to catch our breath, and when to stop for photo ops—and they seemed to move around and up and down like monkeys. We all moved along fairly quickly, and soon we were nearing the end. I didn’t count how many lines we did, but I’d guess it was at least eight or nine. The best one was at the highest point, looking out over the ocean, and it was our photo opportunity:
They also warned us it was the fastest line of them all. All morning long they had pretty much been telling us NOT to brake because we’d end up going too slow and then we’d have to drag ourselves to the platform (not fun, a few of us ended up having to do it) but on this one, they said feel free to brake ALL the way down otherwise you will come in TOO fast. I’m not sure if they didn’t trust me or what, but they sent me down with a guide. I honestly didn’t care why they did it, because it gave me a chance to just look around and not have to worry about keeping myself straight or braking or slamming into a tree at the end of the line. So, I got to go down sideways, and enjoyed a nice view of the ocean as my legs swished a few tiny tree branches on the looooong way down.
Everyone just had an ABSOLUTE blast and it could not have gone better…and everyone in our group was extremely thankful to Tom (and me) for setting it all up. I am sure Costa Rica would have been great as well, but we were very satisfied by the whole experience. I can easily see us doing this again and again, whenever and wherever we get the chance. I highly recommend it to anyone.
Afterwards, they said they could take us to the beach at no extra charge—except most of us didn’t have suits, as the beach hadn’t been on the itinerary. So after some discussion, it was decided those who wanted to get off at the beach would do so, and the rest would continue on to the ship. Of course, there were more language barriers to overcome, and unfortunately, we never really did—as we got to the beach, there were four of our group left in the van, and the driver just disappeared (although the van was still running so we were sure he would come back). Then the other couple decided they would just stay, so it was just me and Tom left in the van.
Neither of us had our suits and I didn’t want to go to the beach if I couldn’t go swimming, so I just wanted to go back to the ship so we could shower and/or change, then we could go back to the beach. I was also feeling kind of non-social so didn’t feel like hanging out at the beach with a group of people. But the driver didn’t come back. And didn’t come back. And didn’t come back. And we saw him wandering around. So Tom was like, “Well, I guess we’re staying.” So I was immediately crabby because I did NOT want to be there, it was NOT what I wanted to do, and I was seemingly being forced to do it anyway.
So I took of my shoes and socks (and ankle braces!) and stomped off to at least go stand in the ocean. After a few minutes it was so hot I said screw it, took off my t-shirt, flung it onto the beach, and waded out farther into the water and dove in. Everyone was like “What the—?” and before I knew it, Heidi was taking her t-shirt off and coming in as well. She said she never would have done it if I hadn’t, so she was glad. So we were out in our shorts and bras just having a good ol’ time. The water was crystal clear and the perfect temperature—just slightly cool but warm enough once you were in it for a bit.
Then the others started heading into the water, and the guys yelled out to us (we were probably 30 yards farther out) some comment about going topless, so I took off my bra and waved it over my head. Again, much laughter from the group—and cameras were coming out of pockets. Heidi quickly followed suit, and then another girl joined in the fray as well. It was hilarious! I can’t wait to see the pics of the three of us waving our bras over our heads!
While we were there, we struck up some conversation with the people in the cabana next to ours—a bunch of really nice people overall, but there was one couple from California that we really clicked with, so we chatted with them quite a bit. Tom said he had actually seen them the night before at the Disco (after I had gone back to the room to preserve my ankles). We were talking about shore excursions for Belize, and ended up inviting them to go cave tubing with us—and we were all really looking forward to it.
A few drinks, a bit of sun, and two hours later, it was back on the van. Some of the guys wanted to buy some rum, so the guide said he would take us to the grocery store—which ended up to be about a 30-minute round trip. (I thought it was somewhat asinine to want to buy alcohol here, when we had been at other ports where alcohol was more easily accessible—plus you could buy it pretty cheaply on the ship, but oh well, what can you do? Apparently we had no say in anything once we booked the trip, LOL.) At least we got a good view of the ship from where we were—and we got to experience even MORE crazy driving (some of us just shut our eyes). Then they dropped us off back at the pier and some went one way to go shopping and we went back to the ship, perusing a few of the booths that were set up in between. There were lots of neat wood bowl sets and intricately hand-carved jewelry box-type things for pretty cheap prices, but we really don’t need any of that, so I bought two tiny carved keychains.
Then it was back on the ship to get out of the wet clothes and grab lunch. Then it was back to the room to shower and watch us debark. As I type, we are on our way to Belize… I wish I had time for a nap, but unfortunately, dinner is in an hour and Tom’s alarm is going off in 10 minutes. So I may just close my eyes for a quick few minutes.
Which I did, and woke up in a frenzy because I had slept for what I thought was way more than 10 minutes, and Tom hadn’t woken me up, so I was thinking we had either missed dinner or were going to be late. Except we weren’t—I had been looking at the time on the laptop, which is not the real time. You see, Daylight Savings took place while we were on the ship but we were instructed to NOT change our time until we were headed away from Belize Wednesday night—apparently it would be easier to just keep the original time as long as possible. We also had to deal with time differences in Roatan today, double- and triple-checking the time to make sure we got back to the boat in time. So anyway, the laptop doesn’t know we weren’t supposed to make the time change, so it changed automatically, so when I awoke with a start and thought it was 5:15 it was only 4:15. I know, damn, I could have slept longer. It’s amazing how tired you feel once you stop moving.
It was our last formal night, so it was dress blues again for Tom and a new dress for me, bought especially for the cruise. We had more photos taken on the way to dinner, just in case we ended up with a good one (although we blew our wad on photos earlier in the week, with the other formal photos). Our dinner table was sparse, as one couple was at the supper club and we aren’t sure where another was, so there were only six of us. Moments after we sat down I realized we hadn’t brought the camera—on the way out of the room I asked if we were going to need it and we both thought no. Duh. I’ve only been taking it to dinner EVERY night to take pictures of the menus (so I can describe the meals) and the actual meals themselves. Oh well.
So for starters, I couldn’t decide between the three soup offerings, so I had a Corn Chowder, a Lobster Bisque, and a Chilled Bing Cherry soup. The best was the Lobster Bisque. Tom had something with shrimp and crawfish in it (yummy). For salads, I went basic with a Caesar and Tom had something with green beans and cherry tomatoes. For dinner, he had grouper and I had Chateaubriand, which was amazingly good. The dessert special for the evening was Baked Alaska, which we both had—then we finished up with a hot chocolate (me) and an espresso (Tom).
After dinner we stopped in the casino and I lost another $2 (getting up to a $5 gain during the process). I just had a $10 left so decided to quit there. I’ve lost track along the way, but I think I am down about $4—not too bad in the grand scheme of things. Then it was back up to the room to get out of the dress duds and relax for a bit before our friends got out of their late dinner and we headed to the comedy show at 10:30. We went downstairs to hang out around the piano bar while I surfed the net a bit and posted to the blog. Jennie (my coworker who is watching Maggie) sent pics of her daughter playing with Maggie—and although we LOVED them, it made us miss her!!
While we were sitting at the piano bar, who do we see walk in but the couple from the beach! I went in to say hi and chat for a few minutes, except it was so loud it was difficult so we said we would see them later at the comedy show. Our other friends then met us outside the bar, where we visited for a bit, then went to the show. The comedian was excellent—much better than the first one earlier this week.
After the show, it was off to the dining room for the midnight Gala Buffet—where the chefs go all out to create these masterpieces…of mostly crap you’d never want to eat, LOL. It was all beautiful and creative and amazing…but after the hour-long photo session (during which we just gabbed away with the couple from the beach), when we all got to eat, most of it we determined was completely inedible. Lots of gelatinous ooze, weird flavors we couldn’t tell were either fishy or fruity (seriously), a plate of sushi-looking items but with that strange jelly holding it all together, etc. In the end, we had a big plate of REJECTED items, and we ended up not eating much at all. By the time we were done eating and ready to go to bed, it was about 1:30am, so it was off to bed as we had to be up at 6am to get ready for our cave-tubing excursion!