Cruisin'

Dec 5 2009

Sitting on the deck of the Norwegian Jewel in the sunshine, heading for the Caribbean. Decided to get a tan for the first time in more than 20 years. I lasted about 5 minutes before the stern voice of my dermatologist started booming in my head. Waiting for Michael to bring the sunscreen I’d left in the stateroom felt like spending time on death row. I felt like I was totally living on the edge. Out in the sun with no sunscreen?? Good god, woman, what were you thinking?? 20 minutes with my face turned toward the sun and my whole life flashed before me! When Michael finally arrived and I slapped gobs of the white stuff all over me as fast as I could, I felt a sense of reprieve, like an eight year old who’s been given 10 hail marys and 10 our fathers as penance for the sins she invented in the first place to appease the priest in Saturday afternoon confession.

Dinner companions last night were a motley crew made up of people from 4 corners of the US. The couple from Utah were easily pegged by the plastic refill cups of soda they carried to the table. I don’t usually use names in my blog, but theirs was Elder, which cracked me up when they talked about completing their missions – Elder Elder. I accused them of making that up, so of course they had to show me their IDs. The couple from N Carolina had a gregarious outgoing wife and almost completely mute husband.
Rounding out the table was the couple from Connecticut, who made polite conversation and left early to catch a show.

I have so much fun people-watching on cruises! There are the couples who look like birders – the ones wearing matching outback hats and REI shirts, Tevas and a weathered, almost haunted look about the eyes. There are the super-fit, who spend their time vigorously working out, jogging, or race-walking in a desperate attempt to keep the buffet from winning. The look-alikes are next, the ones who have obviously given up all pretense of good health and youth, who have identical round bodies and are invariably found sitting down. But surely my favorites are the dancers – the ones who spend much of their free time perfecting their moves on the floor like Astaire and Rogers. Man I love to watch them! There is one couple who have to be in their 70’s who are in great shape if a little beefy, but who dance like there’s no tomorrow, with smiles on their faces and a quiet and subtle joy of movement, and most importantly, of moving together. They are the ones I could watch all day.

Dec 8
Roatan, an island belonging to and 40 miles off the coast of Honduras, gives the impression that the relaxed and laid-back people have been hit by a hurricane of epic proportions. It is as if these cruise ships, a rather recent addition to their economy, were spewing out money and everyone wants to scramble for “theirs.” The new dock, likely built by Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) is the most elegant thing in town, and we were greeted by costumed drummers and dancers waiting to have us take photos with them (for a price, of course). We were bombarded by dozens of van and taxi drivers all wanting to take us around this little island, shouting and shoving maps into our hands. We walked about 50 yards away from the crowd and were trying to decide what to do when an old guy in the most dilapidated van, held together by baling wire and spit, offered us a two hour tour for $30. We didn’t even haggle – just decided to hop into the back seat and hold on! Once inside, I thought oh boy – this guy can just take us to the jungle, rob us and chop us up with a machete and no one would be the wiser. But of course he turned out to be a great guy and we had a fun time. He took us to a sleepy little town on the other side, away from the hotel zone, where everyone had hammocks on their porches and the potholes slowed down traffic long enough to enjoy the incredible turquoise waters and to see the wares for sale in front of the little shops. Our driver, Luel, showed us where all the millionaires live; shipping company owners, mahogany exporters, politicians. He pointed out a couple of hulking shipwrecks, burned out freighters just left in the water for the ocean to take care of. In the viewing turnoffs were several women with small children selling hand made bracelets and other native goodies. They swarmed the van, sticking their hands in the windows dangling their wares. Apart from all the others, by herself, was one tiny girl with a dried seahorse for sale; I will regret forever the way I ignored her. I find it difficult to know how to handle this type of situation, when the answer always lies in simply acknowledging another human being. I find myself trying to look past them as if they weren’t there, because to look them in the eye encourages them and makes them try even harder. But this darling child – I could have handled that better. I speak Spanish, for goodness sake; even if I didn’t buy her stupid seahorse I could have said something to acknowledge her existence. This is gonna haunt me. I’ll do better next time.

We ended up spending three hours with Luel and enjoyed every minute. Of course he took us to a tiny market area with more native goods for sale, where I bought grandbaby Claire a little black rag doll. It was fun speaking to the lady vendor, who had her daughter and granddaughter there with her. That common bond of oohing and aahing over grandbabies – that is a great culture barrier remover! On the way back down the hill we went by the spot where the little sea-horse vendor had been but she was no longer there. Luel told us she lives right there and probably just went home. Although 60,000 people live on Roatan, all the native families know each other. Luel said there is a large population of Hondurans who come to the island looking for work.

Back in town we walked the main street – typical latin chaos, tiny basement storefronts selling plastic flip flops and soccer shirts, some overripe bananas and jewelry made of coconut shells. Of course we found an internet office. While Michael checked his email I chatted with the employee, who told me her daughter is super intelligent and therefore goes to private school. She wants to be a doctor, of course, but the mom said there’s no money for that education. When I asked about scholarships, she said they only go to kids from public schools – a real catch 22 as far as I can tell. The daughter was there at the time and I learned that their school year runs from February through November; she was on school break and hanging out with mom for a bit, bringing her lunch.

Dinner this time was with one other couple – New Yorkers who were very personable. The type of people who are willing to share a dinner table on a cruise ship are invariably personable and gregarious – people who aren’t that way, don’t eat with strangers!
The after dinner show was a ventriloquist with a female Jamaican dummy and was quite funny.

Dec 9 Belize

Amazing day!! We were tendered into Belize, probably due to the coral reef stretching along the entire coast. Easily a 20 minute ride to shore, maybe 4 miles or so. I would have liked seeing the anchors dropped, but on this huge ship there is no viewing area for that kind of maneuver. Anyway, once in Belize City we were bused to a park about an hour away. Our guide, Derek, was very entertaining and funny, which made the ride pass quickly. Belize is flat as Florida, with some mountains of maybe 800 feet in height off in the distance. We passed a few well-to-do properties, but mostly tiny groups of cinderblock homes up on stilts. Belize City has several schools and one university, all very small, and no more than two or three hotels of maybe 4 stories. Still, it looks like a nice place to spend some vacation time.

When we arrived at the park, we were almost immediately strapped into harnesses, given hardhats and thick leather gloves, and sent up a flight of wooden stairs to the first zipline platform. My fear of heights wanted to kick in but I pushed it away and stepped blithely off the platform. Amazing!!! All told, we zipped across the jungle in 7 or 8 lines, some very long and high. With each platform, I got more and more nervous, instead of less! Go figure!! But it was all so much fun that it overrode the fear and I would do it all again in a New York minute.

Next came the tubing through the underground river. First we had to walk through the jungle about 30-45 minutes, with our guide describing the plants and their medicinal uses. We stopped at a termite hill and several people in our little group tasted termites but not me. I did taste a plant that supposedly would save my life if I were dying of thirst, if I could ever find it again.

Funny, I think my gray hair (the first time I’ve not dyed it since I was about 40) really makes me look old because several guys in their late 30s early 40s asked if I would like them to carry my tube but my pride wouldn’t let me accept the offers. I didn’t say it was easier to carry my tube than my scull, but I was surely thinking it!! We plunged into the icy river after that long hot trek and had to form a chain in order to get us through the pitch dark cave without losing each other. This meant I had to stick my feet into the armpits of a total stranger, and Michael put his feet in mine. There were 8 in the group and that’s how we went down the river. The cave was awesome, illuminated only by our headlamps. People were fairly quiet and we could see others’ headlamps bobbing along ahead and behind us. We were given a good lunch and enjoyed sitting with a nice guy from Chicago whose wife didn’t want to zipline.

Dec 10 Costa Maya

Goofy town – really not much in Costa Maya that we could tell. On the pier there were many shops full of the typical Mexican wares, but past that was basically nothing. We took a taxi to the nearest town and used the internet, returning to the ship about an hour later. Until now I have totally spaced out the shopping I wanted to do in Mexico (I usually try to buy coffee wherever I go) but the one grocery store only had instant. Back on the ship we found out there was another town about 10 minutes away along the coast, but by then it was too late to go back out. Too hot anyway. We lazed on the pool deck all afternoon thinking about the temperature in Denver. Michael spent most of the time knitting (I’ve created a monster!!) which attracts quite a bit of attention. Several men stopped to tell him they also knitted, and one said he does cross stitch and had to bring it back to show him! Many heads turned as they walked by and realized it was a guy knitting! I told him the men were going to steal his lunch money but that didn’t seem to bother him. He’s an animal!!!