12/15 At sea and in the kitchen

We are still enjoying the breakfast buffet; with all the choices, our breakfasts are getting a bit random....

Today was really windy. The ship was rocking significantly and the outer decks were closed due to the high winds. That's OK, we had an indoor event planned: we met at 10:30 on deck 5 for the kitchen tour. It started with Mimosas that didn't agree with my cough drop, then on to the tour. 

Our guide told us that the kitchen hierarchy is reflected in the neckerchiefs: yellow indicates a 1st tour, blue is more experienced, and red is for the section head.

They cook their bread fresh, which is why it tastes so good. Can't imagine how much bread is needed to keep all these passengers happy.

I may have to try the popovers, now that I know they are made fresh.
The ship has a capacity of 2,600 people; this trip there are 2,360 people aboard including 850 employees (150 of them are kitchen staff). That may be why they use 7,000 eggs a day! During the cruise there are no days off for the staff, although they may get a shift off.

We learned about the plate warming machines, which help keep the meals warm during the walk from the kitchen to the dinning room. And the areas where fish and raw meat are handled are off limits to most of the staff, except for authorized personnel.

There is more than one kitchen on the ship; this particular one that supports/preps for Windjammer because it's a huge operation and could not keep up if they had to cook everything there. They wisely use pictures and descriptions of the ingredients, garnish, and allergens, to make sure every plate served looks exactly like it should. Randy did this in his kitchen, too.
There seems to be a lot of scratch cooking going on; here a chef was creating soup stock from bones and cooked carrots.
Because it's so windy today, the wine has been moved off shelves and onto the floor. There was concern about it crashing to the floor!.

After the tour, as we walked through the center atrium where the staff had an event to honor veterans, including singing the national anthem and a big cake decorated like the US flag.

We had lunch in the 4th floor restaurant again, then I headed back to the cabin to try to nap away my cough.

In the evening I joined everyone for dinner but didn't order anything. Too bad, tonight was lobster night!

Tonight we shared another bottle of wine. Somehow our table always ends up looking like a party table!

12/14 Cozumel

Today we set the clock back and got up around 8. By 8:30 we were at My Fair Lady restaurant on Deck 4, before getting off the ship. Puppy liked Krista!

The ship is so pretty from here - looks like the dock was built with this view in mind.
We walked around the area a bit and got some meds for Randy and earrings for me.  Then we found a place to book an island tour that seemed like a nice way to spend the day. 
We hustle back to the ship to get ready, pick up a few sodas for the road, and we were ready! Our van driver spoke very little English so he didn't talk much. He drove us through a rough-looking town and a rough-looking stretch outside of town. We were starting to wonder if this was such a great idea when he stopped at a homey-looking location, settled in a small clearing in the forest.  This is a great place!
The dog's name is Bacardi. Good dog.
The man in charged walked us out behind the building to a small area with visual aids. This man is passionate about his business and his tequila. He even passed around some mosquito spray so we would be safe and comfortable. 
He said the area of Jalisco is the source of tequila, and the purpose of a worm is to check the quality; if it's alive to the bottom, the stuff is good. Blue agave is one of the best - it takes 12 years to make. 

He introduced us to "Mexican yoga" - swallow, breath in through nose, lift the chin, and breath out through mouth. We had about 8 samples and they were all excellent. I don't really drink but after all that none of us felt even tipsy!
This one is the one I liked the best.
This was a great stop!
Next our quiet but friendly driver took us to Punta Morena beach on the other side of the island, where we wanted to spend the rest of our tour time. This is a beautiful small beach. 
Today it was too windy to brave those waves but we weren't here to swim anyway. We were here to relax!
After a while a guy came over to take our food orders. OK, we'll split some nachos. $31 was more than we expected but there was a lot of food and it was good.
We were supposed to leave soon to see more sites but we all wanted to spend the rest of our tour right here. I looked for driver to tell him but couldn't find him. Oh well, he'll find us. We snacked on what Glenda calls Puppy Chow and lay in the sun.
The driver came to see if we wanted to leave or stay here until it's time to just go back. Great! And I'm glad we did because soon a guy came along with a couple of animals, asking if we wanted photos.  Who told him that I ALWAYS want animal photos? His macaw is named Blue and she was very sweet. In spite of those big claws, she was very gentle and didn't dig in. 
His other pet was a big iguana named....Princess! I just love a big scaley lizard named Princess! I gladly forked over $10 for this.
Krissy got her photos, too.
Blue had a trick: at the "bang" cue she pretended to get shot. So cute!!!
Eventually we did have to leave this bit of paradise. We rinsed the sand off via a home-made shower and went back to the ship.
Onboard we got a real shower and another nap before heading out to dinner. We really like the staff - they are so nice.
My dinner was excellent: lasagna and lemon tart.

12/13 Almost Roatan

We were supposed to go snorkeling today but Randy wasn't feeling well. The weather was questionable so the others decided not to snorkel today, either.  

So after Aaron and I went to the desk to see about canceling our trip. They sent us ashore to talk to the lady organizing the busses taking people out to their various tour locations. She agreed to cancel the tour for Randy and I, and change the other 4 to a tour of city and beach. 

They went ashore and I brought some orange juice back to Randy. He napped while I read. We watched a bit of Polar Express on TV before going to lunch. Randy enjoyed his steak and fried but I thought my spaghetti Bolognese was better.

Later I met the rest of the group in windjammer - so glad that they all enjoyed their day. We played cards awhile until. After a short break for a nap we all met up to play Animal Video trivia, where, for a change, we won! We were awarded 4 plastic royal Caribbean cups (major awards!) before going to dinner.

 
The Maitre'd Anant is from India. He told us a bit about India, and about his niece who speaks excellent Spanish and has a good job because of that. He seems to like his job and love his family - good balance!

We really like all of the staff here - besides being efficient, they were very nice.

And a cute lobster towel waiting for us in our room!







12/12 Belize

Ship time was set back 1 hour today. Our gang met up on Deck 4 at the My Fair Lady restaurant at 8:30 for a good breakfast.

We went back to our rooms to change shoes because it seemed unusually cool and wet outside and we were scheduled to take City Bus Tour with Rum Factory today. We waited in line for a tender to take us ashore, followed by a surprisingly long tender ride in the rain.

Our bus driver Victor wasn't going to let a little (or a lot) of rain get in the way of his tour. He pointed out the tall monument that marks the grave of Baron Edward Bliss, who spent 3 months anchored here and wrote a will that left the bulk of his fortune to Belize. So far it has provided over $900,000 to Belize - pretty good for a guy who never set foot on it!

Lots of English actually settled here, attracted by the natural beauty and the vast fortunes to be made from local Mahogany trees. Now the trees are protected and harvesting is managed. 

Victor pointed out that the Mosquito Coast movie was partially filmed here. And he spoke a little Creole for us, which he said is really just their normal English, just spoken really fast and slurred together. 

He pointed out an old English-style house of an elderly English woman who, after she passed, was embalmed and put under the house in rocking chair. 

Victor said this area is a little below sea level, which makes for good fishing but can be tough in bad weather. Hurricane Lisa (2022) was hard on lots of houses here. But people are still living houses like this one:

The Nazarene high School is this long yellow building; it would look better in nice weather.
Victor talked a lot about life in town. I thought it was interesting so I made a lot of notes. 

Laws: You get 15 years in prison for robbing a tourist. If you have an unauthorized gun, you get 5 years plus 3 months per bullet. And there is a $500 fine for littering, or 3 months in prison. There is an 8 pm curfew for girls and boys, and if they don't comply the parents have to appear before a judge. And the police don't carry guns, and they drink beer instead of coffee!

Housing: You can find a nice hotel for under $600 a month and $275,000 can buy you a middle class house on the ocean front. This area looks poor and run down, but this is old capital; Victor said the new one is modern. I like old better than new but poor is always difficult. 

People: The population is about 50 percent young people. Every Friday night there is a big party for singles, and currently the attendance ratio is about 10 women to 1 man. There are 5 languages here: Creole, Spanish, English, Garifuna, and Mayan. Unfortunately they have several gangs in town, including Bloods and West Side Crips. 

Travel: Gas costs $8.06 a gallon. When the bus made a turn, Victor would tell us where the road led to: 92 miles to Mexico, and Princess Margaret road would take us to Houston, Texas. There are only 4 traffic lights in town. Taxis here have green license plates.

Food: The locals eat a lot of rice, beans, and chicken. Generally they go home for a big lunch, then eat lightly at night. There are mostly Indian stores and Chinese restaurants here.  Mennonites supply the chicken and milk and make great ice cream. They don't have many fast food chains, only Subway and Pizza. The other fast food for burgers and chicken is Chicken Express, which are owned by the Mennonites.

Stores: The big cigarettes factory is surrounded with rolled razor wire. There are a lot of Guatemala sidewalk stores. Bridies store is their local version of Walmart, with a large warehouse that is properly painted yellow.
General stuff: They have a Prime Minister, not a president, and they have crocodiles in the river that goes through town. Olympian runner Marion Jones donated a lot for a track (her mom is from Belize) but Victor said it hasn't been completed yet. Besides mahogany, Belize exports cashews and lobsters. Almost all of the government and large buildings are painted yellow - don't' know why. They call cricket basketball and call baseball soccer. They have 2 local TV stations. And there is a swinging bridge that connects the north and south sides of the city. It can only be used from 5 am to 6 pm because it is manually operated by a 4-man hand crank. 

Next it was time for our Rum Factory tour at Travellers Liquors. 
Inside was nicer than rainy outside.
How nice, not just a tour but also a gift shop!
Out to the street again, past more houses that have not faired well through weather and age. 
Some roads were so flooded that they were unnavigable.
We were dropped off near the dock to wait for our tender back to the ship. It was a nice area, with shops and an open air restaurant. We settled in and ordered some beef nachos that were quite good.
Then back on the tender, with the rain settled down to a light drizzle. The guys who work on the tenders are very casual about the whole thing.
After all this we still had time to get to the Windjammer for a snack before! Then I played cards and Randy napped until it was time for dinner.