Day 11
MS Elation
Gulf of Mexico
1001 statute miles from Leavenworth
18 knots
Heading 316

Again, I apologize for the late posting... the seas were very rough at 7:30 this morning when I took the GPS measurements (most of the exterior decks were sealed off due to the winds). I came back to the room and decided to lie down for a while to ride it out.

Anyway, we're going to be talking more about Thursday's trip in Belize. When we last left our intrepid explorers, they had entered the Howler Monkey preserve in Jamacian Landing, Belize. I should note here that in Belize, these monkeys are referred to as "baboons." So, when you see signs in the pictures referring to baboons, it's the howler monkeys we're talking about.

The preserve was founded in the mid 80's by local farmers and a researcher from, I believe, Harvard. The farmers have promised to maintain a "skeleton forest" through and around their crops to preserve the monkey's habitat. Our guide, one of the local farmers, explained that it really wasn't a big deal for them to do this, since the people and the monkeys generally leave each other alone -- the crops they grow are mostly corn and rice. Perhaps if they were banana farmers, it might have been a very different story!

There are some other local crops. Here is our guide in front of a cashew tree:

And here is the group in front of a mahogany tree (if you look closely, you can see a monkey bridge connecting the forests on the right and left side of the path).

We walked. And looked. And walked. And looked. No monkeys. We went to one spot where we could hear them, but the guide said they were over a mile away. I took this picture of PJ next to a "monkey crossing" sign:

Then the guide was going to look for more, and he asked us to wait by this bar. Some people took the time to purchase a bottle of Belize's only domestic beer; I took this picture of a painting outside the bar, figuring it would be the only monkey I saw that day:

So then I saw our guide coming out of the woods, and he was motioning to us to follow him. We caught up to him... very muddily, I might add. This is the dry area of Belize, meaning it gets about 60 inches of rainfall a year. We followed him through the forest, and sometimes the canopy was so heavy I lost GPS lock.

Then... there they were. Right in an area we had already travelled! In fact, it was right where I was standing when I took a picture of the mahogany tree.

They were off the side, about 10 feet into the forest. The guide beckoned us to come in. Wonder how close we got? Well, here is a picture of PJ feeding a howler monkey!!!!

I am very happy this picture came out as well as it did... the monkey snatched the leaf from her, and it was just good luck I got the pic. PJ had a smile glued on to her face the rest of the day.

After that, we drove back to Belize City. We ate at a place called the Wet Lizard. It's next to (but not part of) the duty-free villiage. I was afraid it would be too commercial... you know, like going into Carlos and Charlie's in Cozumel. I was pleasantly surprised to find it's a real bar and restaurant right on the water, with authentic (and tasty!) local food.

Here's a pic of the harbor from their balcony:

Anyway, that's all for now. Not completely sure if I'll be able to post again before I leave; if not, you will hear from me by Monday.

Day 10
MS Elation
Carribean Sea
1368 statute miles from Leavenworth
18.2 knots
Heading 036

Sorry for the delay. Yesterday in Belize was by far our best day ashore, and there's just so much to write about, so I'll do it in several segments.

The first thing I do each morning is to go up on deck and get a GPS fix. This morning, I did that, and wrote down all the info... and looked at the water. It was azure, not green, so I presumed I was still in the Carribean. Of the port side of the ship was land, so that would be the Yucatan. And then, looking behind the ship, I saw an island, surrounded my cruise ships. That could only be Cozumel. So, the link you click above should show north of Cozumel. By the time I post this in the afternoon, I'll be in the Gulf of Mexico.

So, yesterday we took a tender into Belize City. A tender is a small boat, runs at about 20 knots. That's about the same speed as the ship, but it seems a lot faster when you are that close to the water!

The tender lands in the "Tourism Villiage", a duty-free shopping zone. Some nice shops, but we didn't have a lot of time -- it was time for our tour of the howler monkey preserve!

We piled into the van (there were ten of us plus the driver) and it started with a brief driving tour of Belize City. I wish we could have seen more! I mean, I knew some of the basic facts about Belize... I knew it was a stable, English-speaking Central American country... but it was still pretty weird to be in that environment and see the signs in English and no other language!

Here is picture from Belize City (taken from within the van) of a house of some note:

And this is outside of the city... it's one of those online casinos. Our driver was telling us that the investors asked the Belize government if they could set up an operation like this... the government didn't have any objections as long as all of the employees were Belizian. It's a good size complex; the photo doesn't to justice to its size, but it is representative of the buildings.

We drove for about an hour; only half of our journey was on paved roads; the rest was on a dirt road with plenty of washboards to keep the ride pretty bumpy.

Our guide explained that everyone knows English... most speak Creole, and some speak Spanish (which is probably useful being completely surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries.

Then we arrived at the preserve:

More about that on the next report.

Day 8
MS Elation
Carribean Sea
Heading 78
1.2 knots

Yesterday was a leisurely day in Cozumel. We docked at the pier that's about three miles south of downtown, and after browsing the shops at that pier, we caught a taxi into town.

Our first stop was at Lapis Rugs. I love to look there... some beautiful rugs, and we had some Turkish Tea as well. Yummy!

The real challenge was to find the restaurant we really liked last time. And fortunately, we did! This time, I also saved the location in the GPS. It's called Costa Brava, and it's on seventh street about a block from the road that runs along the coastline -- right next to the parking lot from Punta Lagosta. Quite yummy.

We got several things in Cozumel, including a new silver chain for PJ. One thing we did get, but can't talk about, is something that's a gift for someone that may well be reading this, so look back here after Christmas. :)

Today is Belize and we have a tour of Belize City and the howler monkey preserve. The Belize cruise ship pier is still under construction, so we'll be anchoring offshore and taking tender boats in.

We should be dropping anchor within the next few minutes or so (the posting of this update generally comes anywhere between 15 and 45 minutes after I take GPS readings, since there isn't one place where I have both wireless connectivity and a clear view of the sky).

Next update tomorrow!

What? Pictures? Oh yeah. Sure.

Me and PJ in Cozumel

A towel elephant our steward made.

Day 7
MS Elation
Carribean Sea
1367 statute miles from Leavenworth
Heading 213
16.5 knots

I want to apologize for not posting last night... I was having some problems with the laptop and it crashed twice on me, and I decided to save it for this morning.

Yesterday, we went to go see the magnificent Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. There isn't much to say except... wow. The two hour bus ride there was well worth it.

Here are some promised pictures (if this goes well):

Above is PJ in the ball court

Above is me and PJ in front of the pyramid

Currently, we're steaming towards Cozumel. We're almost there... I can see the island, and several other cruise ships arriving. We'll spend the day browsing and shopping, no tour planned.

I'll try to update tonight. If not, tomorrow we're in Belize and visiting the Howler Monkey reserve!

Day 6
MS Elation
Gulf of Mexico
1273 statute miles from Leavenworth
13.5 knots

First off, I want to apologize for the lack of pictures. One thing that I didn't do is test out how the wbloggar software would deal with pictures, and my attempt yesterday to include a picture failed.

Worry not, dear reader. I should have so much picture content tonight that I'll have to find out how to make this work!

Last night, we were at dinner and talking about our port of call in Progreso, Mexico. Brett made the obvious pun: "Do they make soup there?" We won't really have time to find out, because our entire port visit will be taken up by our trip to the Mayan site of Chichen-Itza. So, we should have lots of pictures!

Anyway, I need to make this short. If you have clicked on the map, I am sure you have noticed that we are almost to our first port.. Still gotta get breakfast before our 8 am departure for the tour.

Day 5
MS Elation
Gulf of Mexico
978 statute miles from Leavenworth
Heading 142
16.2 knots

When you make reservations for a cruise, you give them your preference of an early or late dinner seating. We requested early, and we had our request cross-referenced with Brett and Tonea. We did get the same table assignments, but we had the late seating. I was a little concerned about waiting until 8:30 to eat, but not too much, since they feed you eight times a day anyway!

So after I uploaded yesterday's update, I went back to our cabin, and found PJ, who had been resting. She wanted to do something, so we decided to go to the casino. After I had lost about $20 at the blackjack tables, I decided to take a break and walk around the promenade... and there I saw the sushi bar.

Now, I have very little experience with sushi... in fact, with the exception of some on the buffet at oriental restaurants (which was certainly of low quality and as a result I didn' enjoy it), the only sushi I've ever had was on the last cruise, where California Rolls were offered as an appetizer in the dining room one night. I tried them and loved it... and on this ship, there's a sushi bar open from 5:30 to 8, and they'll give me all the California Rolls I want! That fits in perfectly with the 8:30 dinner time, so I will have my sushi meal every day!

We caught up with Brett and Tonea for dinner. We were seated at a table for 10. We were joined by four women, who were travelling together and were a little... loud? Maybe not the best table company, but I get the feeling that we're not gonna see them every night anyway.

Tomorrow is a port day in Progreso, and we've booked a tour to Chichen-Itza... we're all looking forward to that. Lotsa pictures then!

Day 4
MS Elation
Gulf of Mexico
693 statute miles from Leavenworth
Heading 140
Speed: 15.3 knots

Well, I didn't get to post yesterday like I had intended... as I suspected, we didn't have net access where we stayed for the night.

But hey, I am getting ahead of myself.

So, we drove to Norman to meet Brett and Tonea at their house, for an 11 a.m. departure. And, remarkably, we did leave their house at 11.

The first time, that is. I won't bore you with the details, but we spent an hour and a half or so running around, doing errands (including returning to Brett and Tonea's house). We had lunch with Tonea's grandma in Pauls Valley, and, another dozen or so stops later, we were in Galveston.

We hadn't made reservations for a hotel room that night, since we weren't completely sure how far we'd get. So, we're driving along Seawall in Galveston, and Tonea pulls into a high-rise Holiday Inn. Brett and I walk in, and walk out when we're told the rooms are $115 a night (which is why I didn't want us to walk into a high-rise hotel anyway). We went down the road to a Days Inn, where we got a double-double for $49.99 a night.

This morning started with an alarm clock going off for a very long time. It wasn't ours... it wasn't Brett and Tonea's... it belonged to the people in the room next to us.apparently apparently, one of the things that an extra $65 a night gets you is thicker walls.

No matter. We got up, had some breakfast at Golden Corral, drove around some, and then got to the pier and started in the first of many lines.

Those of you who have taken cruises before know what I am talking about. No airport, no amusement park, no bookstore on Harry Potter release day ever has a line in the league of that of a 2000-passenger ship during its four-hour embarkation period. Do the math -- they have to process passengers (check tickets, take pictures, go through security, take pictures, guide to the ship, take pictures, get shipboard account deposits, take pictures --- all at the rate of one person every seven seconds.

So, once we do get on the ship, we find that we can't get into our room. See, our reservations were cabins TBA, so we didn't know our cabin assignments before we got on board. The agent wrote "M-7" on our tickets, and Brett and Tonea had M-5. Their door opened... ours didn't. Two trips to the information desk, pleading with stewards... to no avail. It was a miserable customer service experience from Carnival.

Turns out that M-7 wasn't our cabin -- M-1 was. Seems the agent wrote sloppily on the ticket, and nobody noticed we
were trying to get in the wrong room -- including the people -- nay, the officers who were trying to resolve this at the Purser's office.

I noticed it when I saw that when they were doing a pass of delivering luggage, one of our suitcases was put in front of another door. Sure enough... my key opened that door

Anyway, the nice surprise is that both us and the Morrows got outside porthole cabins, an upgrade from the category 4A inside cabins we'd bought.

I'll make sure we have some pictures to post tomorrow. It'll be easier than the last cruise -- I can use my own laptop in the atrium with their wireless internet access.