Hiking is Hard. Asheville Day 4

Despite our best intentions, we did not get an early start to the day. But that was probably for the best, as it was foggy for a good chunk of the morning. By the time we did make our way out and towards the Blue Ridge Parkway the sky was gradually clearing.

We stopped at the visitor’s center to pick up a map and doublecheck road closures, and then again at the Folk Art Center to check out what they had on display, and then we began driving north. We stopped at pullouts along the way and enjoyed sunny views over valleys. Once we turned around a bit south of the road closure, we stopped at a hiking path that ran by a stream. We hiked up a little less than half a mile, but my lungs were yelling at me long before we reached the top. Once there, we took a little breather before heading back down, which was almost harder as we had to make sure we didn’t slip on the slightly wet rocks and occasionally muddy ground. My legs were totally fine until later in the day, though!

We headed back into Asheville and stopped at White Labs Brewing for lunch. Mike got a flight of their beers and I had a cider from a nearby local cidery and we split a margherita pizza. From there we went back downtown to check out Batter Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar, which I’d read about and we’d walked by at the Grove Arcade the other day. I was honestly a little disappointed by it; it sounded cool–a used bookstore where you could wander the stacks while sipping champagne or tea. But the book selection was definitely geared towards rare book collectors (which is fine!) and the entire place felt more like a bar/restaurant that used books as a gimmick, rather than a bookstore. We walked over to the used bookstore at the public library, and although they also did not have a huge selection, I enjoyed browsing there more.

We went back toward where we had dinner last night and stopped in the French Broad Chocolate Company Lounge for a snack. Mike had a stout cake with buttercream frosting and I had the quintessential chocolate cake with a tiny cup of chocolate ice cream. It was really tasty! We did a little shopping and then headed back to the room to chill for a bit.

For dinner, we headed to Thai Pearl in the suburbs, and then we continued on to Noble Cider and Mead for our final cider tasting of the trip. We both really liked the cider here, and we found some old Trivial Pursuit cards and tried to answer the questions as we sampled. We were either really good at the questions or totally floundering, but since the questions are from 43 years ago I don’t feel too bad about that.

I’ve really enjoyed Asheville, and I feel like we barely scratched the surface of what we could do here. I definitely want to come back!

Tapas! Asheville Day 3

We had another slow start to the morning, in part because it was overcast and gray (and eventually raining). But we did find syrup at breakfast this morning at least!

With raincoats and hiking boots at the ready, we drove to the River Arts District and parked in a public lot near one of the studios. We switched from sneakers to boots, which was a good choice since it was raining in earnest throughout the morning. We had timed it a bit early for the galleries to be open, but to get to the majority of them we had to walk across railroad tracks and up a hill and by the time we made it there most of the ones that were going to be open today had turned on their lights.

We walked a good distance and checked out a number of galleries. Some were definitely not to my taste, but there were a good number of others showing works I really liked. By the time we finished I had a large collection of business cards, so I can check out their work online once I’m home. Several of the galleries had multiple artists’ work on display, and a number of those were ones we’d also seen yesterday at Woolworth Walk.

We ended up driving to one part of the district and by the time we got their it was raining pretty steadily. There was a barbecue restaurant in the area and we decided against joining all the people who were lined up outside in the rain; instead we looked up other barbecue restaurants and ended up at Luella’s BBQ. And I’m glad we did! Our food was really good; even the buns for our sandwiches were great.

After lunch we headed out to Well Played, a board game cafe. It’s spring break here as well, so the place was packed with families and kids, but we arrived just in time for them to seat us at a table for two. They offer sandwiches and snacks, but I opted to just have an Irish hot cocoa as we played a few games. It was really noisy so we chose games one or both of us had played at least once before; neither of us really thought we could focus enough to learn something entirely new. Their games are really well organized and the staff was overwhelmed but friendly. I’m guessing it’s probably really nice during slightly slower times.

We hit up Urban Orchard Cider around the corner from Well Played and tried two flights of their cider. Mike and I both agreed that it’s the best cider we’ve had here so far. Unfortunately my favorites are not available canned, but I’m glad I got to try them. One of them tasted like cinnamon apple sauce! As we left the area to head back to our hotel, we passed many, many other breweries and distilleries; you could drink your way through Asheville for days and still not hit them all.

We had a dinner reservation for 8:45 at Cúrate, a Spanish tapas bar. Luckliy, Mike had a thought about making a reservation, because there weren’t many times available. I’d been looking forward to eating there since our first night here, when we walked by and I saw croquetas on the menu. We chose to drive to the restaurant and park in a garage, since it was still rainy and would be fairly late till we got done and had to walk home.

The restaurant was amazing and we had so much good food. We had croquetas, a salad, eggplant fried with honey, brussels sprouts with fried cauliflower and a yogurt mousse, a cheese platter, pulpo (octopus, for Mike, who had not had it before), and cheesecake and some mousse for dessert. And, of course, sangria to drink. I was really excited to be there and to eat all the things.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunnier and warmer, so we plan to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway some. So we need to have an earlier start to our day!

So Many Books! Asheville Day 2

Some of the online reviews for our hotel complain about traffic noise with it being right off the highway, but although I could hear cars last night, it was only the usual city noise. They didn’t keep me from sleeping; my own brain’s inability to shut off did that!

Despite having a hard time falling asleep, I woke up fairly early for vacation. We had the hotel breakfast, which was good and had a lot of options (with the exception of regular syrup; the only choice was sugar free). I grabbed an apple for later, although I expect I won’t have a lot of time to feel snacky on this trip with all the amazing restaurants. We were on our way walking back downtown by 9:30.

The walk under the highway was a little less off putting this morning, though still not the most pleasant. We walked (and I huffed and puffed and grumbled about needing to get into shape) up the hill on the other side of the underpass and then promptly turned down a street and undid all the elevation gain. I was walking along in my usual obliviousness, but fortunately Mike was paying attention and noticed all the little fairy doors (and one fairy fire escape) at the bottom of some of the doors to the buildings we passed. We also passed the Chicken Alley Mural (the picture for this post), which I’d seen mentioned and then completely forgotten about.

We turned down a street with a lot of little shops, none of which were open since it wasn’t yet 10 am. We ended up going uphill again, but thankfully it was more gradual so I didn’t feel quite so out of shape. Another turn as we headed toward the Grove Arcade and we found ourselves outside Woolworth Walk (not yet open). We followed that street down and passed Malaprops Bookstore, which fortunately opened shortly so we were able to go in and spend money. I definitely needed more books! I really wish we had an indie bookstore like this back home; it’s really nice to see shelves of staff picks and have conversations with the booksellers. I picked up a few books I’ve been wanting to read for a while, though I need to read the books I brought with me first.

After we left the bookstore, we finished walking to the Grove Arcade, where we made a circuit outside and noted the restaurants and shops there before going inside. We’ll have to go back because one of the primary draws for me (another bookstore and yes, I do have a problem) isn’t open again until Wednesday, but I did hit up a yarn store. The building is cool, with shopping on the first floor and offices upstairs, and it’s full of little local shops.

Back outside, we headed to Woolworth Walk, which was now open. Inside we perused a lot of booths with work by local artists. Mike picked up two small prints and I picked up a lot of business cards so I could check out more of the artists’ works online later. There’s a soda fountain along one side of the space and the entire gallery smelled like bacon from its food. Mike pointed out a sign for the Woolly Mammoth: 10 scoops of ice cream with 10 toppings. I immediately wanted it, of course, but we hadn’t had lunch yet and by the time we did eat, I was too full to insist we go back for it. I’ll have to fit in my ice cream needs later, I guess.

After fulfilling our shopping needs we walked back to the Arcade to go to a Hawaiian restaurant for lunch, but to my disappointment it wasn’t open (despite the hours posted online). So we walked to Tupelo Honey for lunch instead, where we shared a mimosa flight and both got chicken and waffles (Mike chose to get the sriracha one for some bizarre reason). Then it was back to the hotel for a rest, with stops at another gallery and then at a used bookstore. I was very good and did not buy even more books.

After chilling for a little while at the hotel, we headed back out towards the Blue Ridge Visitor’s Center, which we soon realized would be closed when we got there. So we diverted to the Black Mountain Visitor’s Center instead, where we picked up a number of brochures. I found yet another bookstore, and only got one book there. Then it was back to Asheville to drop off the car and walk back downtown.

Our first stop was Botanist and Barrel, where we got two cider flights to try. The ciders were different from what I usually have, and while we loved a couple of them, some of them were just not our taste at all. They were not very sweet, so when we stopped at Bold Rock Cider for dinner and had some of their cider, it was a striking difference. Bold Rock was very, very sweet. But it went well with the food we had; my bacon and apple grilled cheese with goat cheese was delicious.

We walked a little bit more around downtown before heading back to the hotel. Tonight we need to really plan out the next couple of days, since it’s supposed to rain a lot tomorrow before being beautiful on Wednesday. Despite the forecasted rain tomorrow, I think we probably need to get some walking in to help balance out all the amazing food and drink we’ve been having here!

Spring Break! Asheville Day 1

Even though I’m only subbing, I still get to enjoy spring break. Mike and I set out this morning for Asheville, a drive of a bit over 6 hours. He drove the entire time (I did volunteer to take a turn if he needed!), with a stop in Corbin, Kentucky for lunch. We did not stop at the KFC restaurant and museum, which my parents and I went to last June; instead we ate at Cracker Barrel right off the highway.

Outside of Knoxville, the GPS directed us off the highway and we twisted through the mountains until we were approaching Asheville. I kept dozing off during the drive, but the parts I was awake for were pretty! Once we got to Asheville, we found our hotel right off the highway. It’s newly renovated and pretty comfortable.

The hotel is a fairly short walk to downtown, but the walk is down under the highway and is one I would not be comfortable making by myself. Even with Mike it wasn’t great once the sun started going down. But the weather was great for a walk and once we got downtown there were plenty of people out on the streets. We stopped into a few shops along the way to our dinner destination and made mental notes of where we needed to revisit. We also found a fun selfie spot and Mike tolerated me making us take one. There is an art installation on a wall (the picture for this entry) with a space on a railing in front to prop your phone for just this reason.

We walked to Wicked Weed Brewing’s Brewpub for dinner, where we ended up eating next to two women from Columbus wearing Hocking Hills sweatshirts. Our drinks were good; I got the sour flight and Mike got their cider at first. But our food was amazing. After the obligatory (and tasty!) pretzel with beer cheese (and also with a very horseradishy mustard to which I said “no thank you”) Mike got a bison burger and I got the fish and chips and we split candied brussels sprouts. The brussels sprouts were so good that I could have eaten an entire bowl of them by myself. We were both more than full when we left.

I’d thought about stopping for some gelato on the way back, but neither of us had room in our stomachs. Other than a quick stop in one store (where I got a perfect purple raccoon purse thanks to Mike!), we headed straight back to the hotel. Between the food and the drive, we’re both ready for a rest! I’m not sure what tomorrow holds; we’ll figure it out either later tonight or tomorrow morning. But I really like what I’ve seen of Asheville so far and I can’t wait to explore more of it!

Canal Cruising

A short little entry today, as we didn’t do a lot. After an evening spent circling because there was no anchorage point for us, we started our day moving into the Panama Canal. We entered the first locks around 8:30 this morning.

Unfortunately, today was incredibly hot and humid. The real temperature was in the upper 80s F, but the perceived temperature was closer to 100ºF. I watched us proceed to and through the locks from inside the upstairs lounge, and even there I was feeling overheated with the sunlight coming through the windows.

From time to time, Cristin and I watched us sail through Gatun Lake from our balcony, but we really couldn’t tolerate being outside for more than a few minutes at a time. What we saw was really picturesque, at least! There were several other ships moving through the canal, and for a while we were behind a large container ship. The captain told us that we were not allowed to overtake other ships, so our speed had to be matched to the ships ahead of us. Eventually we did pass the container ship, as it had to go through the new, larger locks on the other side of the lake. Our ship was small enough to go through the older small ones to enter and to exit the lake.

We are all a little tired from the excursions and being away from home, so we had a relatively relaxing day. Cristin and I went to afternoon tea again, and I went to the Hanukkah service with Mom and Dad, but mostly we spent time reading or resting. We arrived in Panama City right around sunset.

If the day had been better for us in terms of weather, I probably would have watched a lot more of the canal crossing outisde. Unfortunately the heat left us all feeling completely wiped out; even a brief time out in the rain didn’t help. But what I saw of it was pretty cool, and it was really interesting to see all the ships moving through in both directions.

We have to be out of our staterooms by 8:00 tomorrow morning, so we’ve pretty well packed everything up tonight. We’ll probably make an early night of it; we have to start regaining some of the energy we spent on all our excursions. It really was a nice trip, and Viking is a great cruise line. I can’t wait to go on another cruise with them.

All the Pets I Cannot Have

Last country of the trip: Panama! We docked in Colón this morning.

After breakfast, Cristin and I joined what seemed like most of the ship in waiting to leave for our excursion (an aerial tram trip in the rainforest). Panama required us all to have a face to face passport examination, so it took a little while to get to our bus, but at least we got a stamp out of it!

Our guide told us a bit about the history of Panama and of the canal, which her great grandfather had worked on in the early 1900s. Our driver was really engaged in the excursion, too, and stopped the bus several times to show us animals he’d noticed (sloths and howler monkeys). We also saw agouti and some type of bird whose name I didn’t catch, all before reaching Gamboa Rainforest Preserve, our destination.

We had a brief stop at a hotel for restrooms and a glass of punch, then headed up to the aerial tram. Each gondola holds six passengers, and we had handheld audioguides to listen to explanations of what we were seeing. As is my habit, I had the guide set to Spanish, and fortunately it was just as understandable as the ones in Spain. We had some nice views of the Chagres River on the way up, but didn’t see any animals from the tram. At the end of our ride up we walked up a tall observation tower, which gave us views of the river and of the canal. Other than some insects, we saw no animals at the tower, either. We did see a toucan and coatimundi at the platform before starting, and another coatimundi on the platform before descending. The park employee there had bread for us to toss to it, and eventually it climbed up the platform to ask us if we had more (we kept our distance).

After the tram ride we saw poison dart frogs, orchids, a variety of butterflies, and a two toed sloth whom the handler fed hibiscus flowers. Cristin told me I wasn’t allowed to bring any of them (or the other animals we saw) home. We boarded the (thankfully air conditioned) bus and headed back to the port. We had a box lunch to eat on the trip: ham and cheese sandwich, chips, an apple, and a cookie-ish dessert.

When we got back to port, we gave a brief thought to maybe doing some shopping, but opted to just quickly browse the duty free store between us and the entrance to the cruise dock and then to get in out of the heat. At the time we got back on board (sometime after 3:30) it was 87ºF outside and the perceived temperature was 97ºF. I do not like heat and humidity and was really grateful to be back in the air conditioning and to take a shower.

In the evening, we stopped down at the Hanukkah service again and had more delicious latkes. Then it was off to dinner (always tasty) and next to trivia. We won again! We tied with two other teams for first, and then had to go to three tie breakers before we finally won by being the first to call out the answer to the third one. This was the last trivia of the cruise; we also won the first one, so it was kind of a nice way to bookend things. Mom, Dad, and I headed to the show after trivia while Cristin went to the room to rest. The show was amazing, and we had champagne for a toast there. The cruise director read off how much food and alcohol we used on the trip and it was a lot. Like 4000+ kilos of meat and 5000+ bottles of wine.

We’re currently circling around until we get to go into the canal tomorrow. Our pilot will board at 7:30 am; every ship making a transit of the canal is required to have a local pilot running things. We’re all looking forward to seeing the locks at work, though we might struggle to stay out on the deck for long–it’s supposed to be 91º before accounting for humidity. It’s hard to believe we only have tomorrow left!

Sloths!

We woke up today in Puerto Limón, Costa Rica, well before our alarms. We had time to grab breakfast and I had time to finish a book before we headed ashore for today’s excursion.

Today Cristin and I were headed to a kayak and nature walk experience. We had a bus ride of over an hour to reach Punta Uva, during which we passed through towns, crossed rivers, skirted national parks, and saw a black sand beach (with much finer sand than the black sand in Hawaii). According to our guide, Costa Rica has 6% of the world’s biodiversity and they work hard to protect it.

When we got to Punta Uva we divided into two groups. Cristin and I were in the group that was kayaking first. The kayaks were double, and Cristin took up the job of steering us in rear seat so I could take pictures from the front; I had my waterproof case from our cave tubing experience. Our kayak guide pointed out numerous animals—sloths, monkeys, bats, and turtles—and we picked out some birds and crabs on our own. I’m not sure any of the pictures I took really show them; on screen they often just looked like dark blobs. The sloths we saw were often curled into balls clinging to branches and looked like furry hives from a distance.

When we finished our kayak trip (during which we got stuck on an underwater log only once despite me slacking as the spotter because I was looking at everything but the water) we changed places with the other group and took our nature walk. Our guide, Enrique, somehow managed to spot a lot of animals that we would have totally overlooked. We saw more sloths, howler monkeys, leafcutter ants, and even two toucans! The walk took us up to the top of the point and we had a nice view of the ocean. The water was really warm; I walked on the edge of it in my hiking sandals.

We had a small snack—chips and salsa, watermelon, pineapple, and a cracker with some kind of jellied fruit square on it—before heading back to our bus. We had a very brief stop in Puerto Viejo for souvenir shopping, but couldn’t stay long because we needed to make it back to the ship. Amazingly everyone was back on the bus with two minutes to spare before the deadline! Our driver put on some extra speed on the return drive, and we made it to the pier right around 4:00.

After showering, we went out on the balcony to watch the ship push off. We had an amazing view of the mountains with the sun setting behind them. I then changed for dinner and met Mom and Dad to go down to the Hanukkah service organized one floor below. This was not hosted by anyone from the cruise, so a woman there took charge of running through the service, and we all also went to the giant menorah on the first floor so they could light it. The cruise had arranged latkes, sufganiyot, and challah, along with some wine, so we had a nice pre-dinner snack.

We met Cristin at the Restaurant for our actual dinner. Service was slower than usual tonight for some reason, and we arrived later than we usually do, so we skipped trivia again tonight. I think the long, busy days of excursions are starting to wear us down! We have another day of outings tomorrow, plus we’ll be switching back to Eastern time and “losing” an hour, so we all decided to call it an early evening and just chill in our staterooms until bedtime.

It’s hard to believe we have only one day of excursions left, and only two days remaining total! Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more restful for us while still being fun.

Afloat on the Ocean

Today was a fairly chill day. We are at sea on route to Costa Rica, and I think our adventures of the previous days wore us out.

Cristin and I had a later breakfast at the buffet, then joined the saucy crafting ladies again. We both made good progress on our projects, but eventually everyone started drifting away and the room got fairly hot from the sun through the glass above. We relocated to the upper floor of the Explorer’s Lounge, where we read and crafted until noon approached.

My parents joined us for team trivia, and we scored our best round yet! Unfortunately at least 4 other teams also scored that, and we lost the tie breaker. But it felt good to get a good number of answers correct (and I think I was maybe the only one in the room who knew Mr. Darcy’s first name is Fitzwilliam). We headed to the Restaurant for lunch, which we hadn’t done before (either we had lunch on our excursions or we hit up the buffet). We wouldn’t be eating there for dinner tonight; we had reservations at one of the specialty restaurants.

Post trivia and post lunch, we returned to our rooms for a brief rest before heading down to the theater for a talk about animals of Central America. The facts were interesting, but as Cristin pointed out, the speaker really needed to revamp his powerpoint. It was an interesting talk, but the food and the busyness of the previous days had left me really tired, so I had to work to stay awake.

We went back to the room once more, where Cristin read on the balcony and I attempted to rest. We decided to skip afternoon tea today, as delicious as it is, because we were still really full from lunch. Once I gave up on rest, I joined Cristin on the balcony for a while till she headed in to do her own resting. We rallied for the lecture on explorers at 6:30 (this lecturer did a much better job with his presentation and was very engaging), then changed for dinner and headed to Manfredi’s.

Dinner was delicious, but the portions were enormous! I definitely should have asked for a half portion of my main course. We rolled our overstuffed bodies back to our rooms after and quickly prepared for the excursion tomorrow. As tired as I am, I’ll be grateful to do something active after a day of sitting around and eating!

(Stop) Monkeying Around

We woke up in Roatán, Honduras, really close to land! We had an earlier start today, but we didn’t have to take a tender or a ferry so we didn’t get up super early. We had breakfast at the World Café and then headed to the pier.

The pier was really long, but we made it to the line for our excursion, where my parents were already waiting. We piled onto a little bus with a very narrow aisle; every person had to turn sideways to pass! For some reason Viking did not give our guide the radio for our Quiet Vox devices, so we had a hard time hearing him on the ride. Once we got to Gumbalimba Park, we paid for a locker rental (one for the four of us) because we were not allowed to bring bags with us—the monkeys would try to take and open them.

Our guide, Juan, was easier to hear when he wasn’t competing with the noise of the engine. He showed us a variety of trees: coffee, mango, cinnamon, almond, and a couple more I’ve forgotten. Then we headed to the insect building, where we saw pinned beetles, moths, butterflies, scorpions, and more. Some of the butterflies were an amazing iridescent blue.

It was pouring when we left the building, and we sheltered under an archway for a little while (well, I was overheated so I stood in the rain while everyone else sheltered). Eventually we just had to get wet, and we walked up the to the pirate cave. The town we’re in is called Coxen Hole, after a pirate who apparently buried treasure here. The building had models of the park and or pre-Spanish life and was air conditioned.

Back outside we saw iguanas, walked across a 238 foot wobbly bridge that crossed water 33 feet up, and arrived at the macaw area. The animals in the park are not captive; while there were cages all were open and the birds can fly anywhere. We had a photo opportunity with the birds, and a couple of them became intrigued by the people standing around, so by the time Cristin and I were getting our pictures there were four birds. The two on me were very interested in my pink hair and had to check it out with their beaks.

From the birds we went to the monkeys. The monkeys are also free roaming and while we waited our turns one of them with a baby on her back started making the rounds of people’s heads. She apparently really liked the products that some of the women used, going to town rubbing on their head, and screaming angrily when one of the trainers tried to convince her to move. We all had our turns with monkeys as well, and then we headed back to the entry area. We gathered our belongings from the locker, admired the ocean, did a little shopping, and boarded the bus back to the pier.

We did a tiny bit of shopping at the pier as well, then returned to the ship for lunch. We couldn’t have spent a lot of time on shore even if we wanted to; back on board time was an hour and a half earlier than on previous days. After lunch, Cristin found a quiet spot for reading and knitting, and I headed to the Explorer’s Lounge to crochet and read. I stepped out onto the deck to watch them cast off the lines, but didn’t have time to watch us push out from the dock before I left to go meet Cristin for afternoon tea.

Tea was delicious and I asked for an extra scone this time. We sat by the window and watched the water as we had our tea and treats, and then sat and just chatted for a while. Eventually we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner, which we went to with Dad while Mom headed up to the barbecue on the pool deck. Dinner was delicious, as always.

Cristin started some laundry while I went to meet Mom and Dad by the pool for the Explorer’s Society, where those of us who had traveled with Viking before got to have a free glass of champagne (that I had to track down for us). We didn’t stay long; it was right by the pool and very, very humid. They couldn’t open the retractable roof because it was too windy outside. I returned to the room and then went with Cristin to throw our laundry into the dryer. (I say went with her, but we are across the hall from the laundry room so it wasn’t exactly a challenging trip. Self service laundry is free on this cruise line!)

We’re at sea tomorrow, so it should be a relaxing day. We need one of those after all these busy days in a row! It’s hard to believe we’re passing the halfway point of this trip already!

Un-Belizeable

New day, new country for me! Belize it or not, this is my first visit to Central America.

We gained an hour overnight by moving to central time, but Cristin and I still woke up early. It meant we got to take our time in the morning, so we didn’t feel rushed to get ready for our cave tubing adventure. We both wore bathing suits to the excursion today, so we didn’t have to pack those this time at least.

After we assembled in the theater with everyone else leaving this morning we sat and waited for our group to be called to board the tender (because of the reef the ship can’t dock at the pier). The ride to the mainland wasn’t long, and when we arrived we had time for a bathroom break before boarding our bus.

Our guide, Roy, was very engaging. He talked about everything from the Maya to Belize’s roads, from the effects of various hurricanes to why cashews cost so much (I can’t Belize I didn’t realize each fruit on the tree only produced one nut). The buildings we passed were all brightly colored, and Roy kept reminding us we could buy land there, if we wanted.

When we got close to the cave tubing area, we had to transfer from our tour bus to a repurposed school bus. The tour bus couldn’t make it up the last hill, apparently. It was just a short little up and down—totally walkable—but we all packed on to the school bus and endured the stuffiness for the minute or so the drive took. There weren’t enough seats for everyone, but there were bars to hold for those standing.

At the top of the hill we headed over to the shoe and locker rental counter. Those were both included in the price of the excursion, but the waterproof bag I bought for my phone was not. I wish I’d thought to get one at home before leaving, but I feel like I’ll get enough use out of it to make it worth having bought it.

Cristin and I shared a locker. Once we put everything away we joined the rest of our group to be divided up into groups of 8, the most a guide was allowed to take into the cave. Then we donned life jackets and helmets with headlamps, grabbed our tubes, and began the walk to our starting point. One of the first things we did was cross the river on foot. It was about waist high on me at the deepest point. Then we walked along wooded paths while our tubing guide, Camilo, told us about the area.

I had sprayed bug repellent before we began the walk, but apparently I was too tasty and the mosquitoes came after me anyway. Fortunately we didn’t really stop moving until we got to the cave entrance. I plunged into the water to my neck as they got the tubes ready, so I had some escape.

The tubes were tied together and the guide had a lead rope for them. Cristin and I were at the front. It didn’t take long for us to leave the daylight behind, but we had our headlamps to help. There were some fabulous cave formations, and I guess seeing is Belizeing because whatever shape Camilo declared the formation to resemble I could make out. He also pushed us all through a very little waterfall pouring down some rocksWe saw bats, both flying around as our lamps disturbed them and hanging from the ceiling. Right as we got to the exit of the cave, we saw a lot of minnows swimming in the water.

The exit is right by where we picked up the tubes, so we dropped those and headed to the lockers to grab our stuff. We changed and went over to get our lunch, which was also included. We had rice, beans, chicken, and cole slaw and it was all very tasty. When we finished eating we had a few minutes to look in the souvenir shop (where they tried to sell us the picture they took of us crossing the river; we did not like either of them enough to spend $18 on a print). Then it was back to the bus and back to Belize City.

Cristin and I were the last two off the bus, and Cristin’s unBelizeably good eyesight revealed a cellphone left on one of the seats! We brought it off the bus and I held it as a lot of our group stopped to use the bathroom, hoping one of them would see it and claim it. As I stood there, Roy came up and handed me the Viking bag and number paddle and asked me to give it to the Viking staff. When I did, I also handed over the phone and we told her what group it was; hopefully it gets back to its owner.

We thought we might do a little shopping on the pier before taking the tender back to the ship, but pretty much everything was closed. We wandered into two open shops, but then gave up and headed back to the ship. Although we didn’t see much of the country, you’d better Belize I had a good time! (Have I hit my Belize pun limit yet? The guides do it all day long!)

After showers and a rest back in our room, we met my parents (who had just gotten back on the very last tender) for an early dinner. From dinner we went to trivia, and Cristin and I decided to see if delicious strawberry daiquiris helped us win (they didn’t, though it was a hard round with the winning team only getting 9/15, so I felt better about our 7). We took the remainder of our daiquiris down to the evening show, a celebration of famous duets. The show was really good, but I was disappointed that their finale of “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” did not include a lift like in the movie.

Tomorrow we have a shorter excursion with my parents. We were promised monkeys, so I’m hoping I might get to play with one or two. And I’m also hoping we’ll be a little less exhausted in the evening! Hopefully I will have some un-Belizeable stories to tell tomorrow (last one, I promise).