Fort Lauderdale Again and Home

Saturday – 14 December 2013 – Boulder, Colorado, USA

We were obliged to disembark Silver Spirit at precisely 9:45am on Friday as the US Authorities reminded the ship's officers that all passengers must be off the ship by 10:00am so that Customs could do a thorough inspection. Customs never forgives or forgets. As we walked down the gangway we noticed that the ever attentive ship's personnel  had shaken the Etch-A-Sketch holding our personal data and now were addressing us as "Sir" or "Madame" having already forgotten our names, well most of the crew anyway. Thus is the life of the luxury cruise passenger. But we were not offended. After almost 800 days on cruise ships, I gotten used to the peculiarities. Earlier in the cruise we noticed that the passenger information channel on TV seemed to be indicating a barometric pressure consistent with being in the center of a tornado or perhaps 15,000 feet above sea level.

Upon leaving the ship and being thoroughly interviewed by the US Authorities, we were met at the exit of the Port Everglades Cruise Terminal at Pier 21 by Mike and Kathy Borenstein who had driven from Colorado to nearby Hollywood, Florida to see his mom and family and to ask us how their house in Cozumel was. It was great seeing them even though it would have been neat had they been in Mexico when we were. The four of us took a long walk along the beautiful Ft. Lauderdale Beach, now during our third visit to that town in three weeks. We had a nice lunch at an upscale beach restaurant. We said goodbye to them at FLL Airport, saying that we'd look forward to seeing them in Colorado, a place that we don't seem to be often.

The cruise greatly exceeded our already very high expectations. We enjoyed the surprise upgrade to the three room suite with its capacious balcony and its proximity to the very cozy Observation Bar. But most of all we were delighted to see Heinz and Ellen Biesdorf again, the primary reason for booking this trip. Our flight home went reasonable well, arriving in time to partially unpack and have a light dinner. The next morning we looked out to a beautiful Boulder scene that reminded me why it's worth going to the Caribbean in November and December.

A special treat was a surprise visit by Jim Bisciglia, my friend and cruise travel agent who joined the Silver Spirit for the 2^nd segment after hearing how wonderful a time we were having. Jim and I spent our after dinner hours in the Obs. Bar in great conversation, and Jim joined us on our Cozumel and Belize adventures. Great seeing him and looking forward to spending time with him as well as the Biesdorf's whenever possible in the future.

We are now planning for our next big boat ride this Spring, a return to Silver Spirit, but alas not the Silver Suite,  for the 16 day crossing from Fort Lauderdale (!) to Barcelona, a two day stay in Lisbon, and then a nine day cruise on the wonderful 380 passenger Silver Whisper from Lisbon to Southampton.  I'll be posting a graphic of the route in the coming weeks.

MB, Boulder Colorado

The Conch Republic Ain’t What It Used to Be, But What Is?

Thursday – 12 December 2013 – Key West, Florida, USA

Our last port of call was Key West, Florida. For many years Key West was known for its isolation, mild climate, and charm. While the climate remains, the cruise industry has contributed to the loss of the other two factors. Nevertheless, we had a very nice relaxing day in port and even got in about six miles of walking.

After a delayed clearance by the US Authorities (who never forget or forgive), Barbara and I ventured out for a walk to the traditional center of town, the intersection of Duval and Front streets. The Diamond International store was on one side, and crowds of 20-somethings were drinking beer as they walked around looking for yet another early morning bar. One group of young men wore tee-shirts reading, "Jason's Bachelors Party/Prepare to Start Your Liver". We noticed that the iconic "Conch Train" tram ticket booth did not list the prices. Neither did any other of the well-known tourist attractions.  Perhaps the tourist industry in the self-named, Conch Republic, counts on the less sophisticated mass market cruise ship passengers and those young visitors who have already started their livers.

We avoided the more touristy part of town—which consisted of the entire island wide length of Duval Street—to spare ourselves of the many bars where strip shows and/or loud live music were already in swing and instead ventured to the still quite lovely adjacent streets. We walked to the end of US Route 1 to take the required pictures of each other, including at many of the  various places indicated as the "Most Southern Point in the Continental USA". We were relieved to see that Hemingway's House was still intact, although we did not spot any of the descendants of the famous high living author's six toed cats. So it seems Key West's reputation for its large percentage of characters was still intact as well. I concluded that Key West might be characterized as quite similar to New Orleans but now without the history, the charm, the great food, or the music. Save the long drive from Miami and stay at one of the nearer keys. You'll thank me.

We sailed out in early evening as crowds gathered awaited the nightly sunset drunken debauch in Mallory Square, completing what turned out to be a most enjoyable and relaxing cruise despite some less than perfect ports. Did I mention the huge suite and attentive butler?

Wonderful Belize

Tuesday – 10 December 2013 – Belize City, Belize

I can't say enough good things about Belize. I've flown to Belize three times over the years and each time stayed a number of days in luxurious lodges in otherwise pristine jungle and then a few days on the the Barrier Reef which is second in the world in size to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Belize is a stable democracy, the people speak English, and the country has a great history of sensible development where local ownership and operation of hotels are required.

Due to the reefs, the Silver Spirit anchored some distance off the capital city of Belize. High speed shuttle boats were provided to take us to the "Belize Tourism Village", a development of shops, tourist bars, and jewelry stores.  This facility, built by you guessed it, Diamond International, is adjacent to the real town of Belize City, once kind of dangerous but now quite walkable. I know that because a walking map was provided. (I usually interpret the unsolicited provision of a walking map in an unknown city as an admonition to avoid streets not on the indicated route. Just saying.)

We had pre-booked the all-day Lamanai Temples & River Expedition excursion from the ship.  This provided Barbara's first visit to a Mayan ruins and also a chance for me to see the Orange Walk District, an area off limits to tourists when I visited in the 1980s and 1990s due to this area's proximity to an area of Mexico to the north where drug wars were then quite rampant.

Belize is 90% undeveloped land. The excursion started with a bus shuttle to the town of Orange Walk where we boarded high speed excursion boats for the hour and a half 26 mile very scenic ride southwest, up the New River into Belize's interior. (By the way, the river was named by the indigenous people for the newcomers, that is, the Spanish.) We saw wildlife along the shores as we held on to our hats in the 30+ mph boats.

The destination was the Lamanai Mayan ruins, a complex of temples and monuments dating as far back as 2000 years. Some ruins are yet to be fully excavated. The structures adjacent to the one mile round trip walking trail in the jungle were stunning. We visited a temple with jaguar faces built into the construction, and another called the Mask Temple had really neat looking stone faces. The local guide was the best I've experienced at the three or four Mayan ruins I've visited over the years, including the spectacular Tikal Ruins in Guatemala which I visited on a muddy Land Rover ride from Belize 30 years ago. This guide not only explained the interpretation of the temples but also detailed how the archeologists came to their conclusions of the human sacrifice of the winners of the ritualistic handball games. (I'm not making this up.) I believed the guide's explanation, even before the most welcome local Belican Beer.

A number of our hardy tour group decided to climb one of the Mayan pyramids as many of us watched in awe and took pictures. (As one of the latter I said loudly, "I climbed a bigger Mayan pyramid in Tikal." The guide just scowled at me.)  At the furthest temple, I succumbed to guilt and climbed alone a different pyramid as the rest of the group just shrugged, turned their backs, and walked away.

I guess the lessons I came away with from this trip were,  1) to climb the first pyramid you get to, and 2) not to play handball with a Mayan especially if you're good at handball.  The boat ride back was equally speedy, made less daunting by the aforementioned Belican Beer. We arrived back to the ship via the Diamond International shuttle craft as night fell. We immediately sailed away for a restful sea day en route to Key West.

Definitely a Real Place

Monday – 9 December 2013 – Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala

The furthest southern extent of this cruise segment was the busy commercial port of Santo Tomas. Located in thick jungle, a real town provides services to a Guatemalan Navy base as well as housing the port workers. The primary reason for this port stop was to provide the opportunity for Silver Spirit's passengers to take the 9 hour excursion by air to the spectacular Tikal Mayan Ruins or to the Copan Mayan ruins in neighboring Honduras. Both involve more than hour long flights each way and were priced at $700 per person.  

After reading the tourist literature Barbara appeared not to be too impressed by the local excursions offered by the ship. So we opted to walk into town on our own instead. Actually Santo Tomas was charming. Unlike the non-existent place of "Costa Maya" we stopped at yesterday, Santo Tomas was a hard working town with a nice mixture of well-dressed young people and Garifuna, the descendants of Carib, Arawak, and West African people. We took a long walk observing the local scene before returning to the ship for lunch.

We spent the afternoon sitting behind the Panorama Bar at the stern of Silver Spirit watching the ballet of the port operations as big movable cranes loaded and unloaded container ships. A Planters Punch (or two) helped to make this a most enjoyable day and helped me forget the dreadful experience of Costa Maya as well as, frankly, everything else. When we returned to the suite we discovered that the butler had drawn a bubble bath in our Jacuzzi.  (Perhaps the chef in Suishin Restaurant had passed on a request.) From our veranda we observed most of the town's children were marshaling to watch us leave for Belize. Make of that what you will.

A Cruise Port in the Middle of Nowhere

Sunday – 8 December 2013 – Costa Maya, Mexico

118 nautical miles south of Cozumel is not anywhere. There's no nearby town other than a small settlement of the few survivors of a fishing village that was destroyed in a hurricane. Nevertheless, Mexico and commercial interests developed a phony port in the very isolated southeastern corner of Mexico called, "Costa Maya". Its purpose is exclusively to amuse the mass market cruise ship passengers with slick tourist bars, huge shops selling very tacky souvenirs, and two (2) gigantic Diamond International cruise diamond and jewelry stores and an equally gigantic Tanzanite International shop.

The ubiquitous Diamond International chain was said to have built the complex which is closed from the wilderness surrounding it by a fence; the only opening is to provide access to a parking area for shuttle buses for glass bottom boat rides, half day fishing excursions, jeep tours, and a tour of a reconstructed "Mayan Village", complete with an opportunity (for $119 per person) to, "Interact with a local family and enjoy a freshly prepared lunch of traditional Mayan/Mexican cuisine. Bottle water, soda and beer are available." The Carnival Cruise crowd can also purchase for $69 a three hour "Salsa and Salsa Beach Break", whatever that may be. There is no access to the crystal clear water or miles of white sand beaches adjacent to the "cruise port."

Barbara and I elected to stay on the ship except for a quick walk through the shopping complex where I practiced saying, "No, gracious", to the dozens of solicitations to purchase whatever each salesman had to offer.  And there were a lot of salesmen for Silver Spirit's 480 or so passengers since the port can accommodate three 3500 to 5500 passenger ships and our ship was the only one in today. We noticed that the line handlers were resting up before their hard work of casting off Silver Spirit's lines so that we could get the hell out of Costa Maya as quickly as possible.

In the evening I had my best success tying my hardest to tie well bow tie. So the day wasn't a complete loss.

A Very Nostalgic Reunion, a Visit to an Empty House, and a Friend’s‘Favorite Place in the World’

Saturday – 7 December 2013 – Day at Sea and Cozumel, Mexico

After a return visit to Fort Lauderdale where we left the ship only to be reprocessed in the dingy cruise terminal by the US Authorities (who as you may recall never forget or forgive) we spent a lovely sea day heading southwest to Mexico in calm seas. This began our second segment of this 18 day cruise, this time on a "Western Caribbean" cruise itinerary. A very big highlight for me was being greeted by Helen Harrison who had joined the ship in Florida for a few days. Helen had been the Tour Desk Manager on Song of Flower, the ship which addicted me to luxury cruising on  my very first cruise in the early 1990s. She was also fiancée and later spouse of "J. J. Stewart", the primary Cruise Director on Flower for whom I worked for a number of times on month long engagements as Enrichment Lecturer.

Helen is now Silversea Cruises Headquarter's Director for Tours and was making a training visit for a few days.  I was surprised she remembered me, but at a long—very long—lunch on the sea day from Ft. Lauderdale to Cozumel we reminisced not only about that very special ship but also she recalled every detail of my first cruise, from Bali in Indonesia to Cairns, Australia. Apparently, that was a very special itinerary as it called on ports that had never before seen a cruise ship including Komoto and the northern tip of the York Peninsula in Australia.  Before Helen disembarked in Cozumel I sent my regards to Bob (JJ's real name) and we expressed our hope to meet again on land or sea. 

Silversea's six ships and the now three ship Seven Seas Cruise Line are in essence all derived from Flower, still sailing as Quest Expeditions' "Ocean Diamond". Cruise ships never die, but they do get renamed.

After breakfast on our huge veranda, the next morning found us in Cozumel. This is a small island off the Yucatan Peninsula made famous years ago by Jacques Cousteau. Since then it has become a world renown diving center as well as (unfortunately) a base for the large mass market cruise ships on short "Mayan Riviera" itineraries from Miami. We watched a couple of Carnival ships sail in before us, fortunately to the dedicated Carnival facility some distance from downtown where Silver Spirit docked next to a ferry.

Barbara and I had booked a ship's excursion on the "Atlantis Submarine", a real submarine that takes tourists comfortably down to as deep as 200 feet below the service. The Cozumel operation is the only one currently in Mexico, although Atlantis runs similar subs in Hawaii as well as in a number of other Caribbean islands. Barbara wasn't thrilled with the somewhat tackiness of the safety briefing at their office and gift shop before the shuttle boat to the sub's mooring as the room was decorated kind of like a 1960s fried seafood restaurant. World War II submarine sounds played over loudspeakers. However I was able to avoid the mandatory overpriced commemorative picture taking by claiming that Barbara and I were "not married to each other". Try it, it works. At least it amused the other tour takers.

Despite the tackiness of the introduction, the sub ride was quite enjoyable. We saw, uh, fish as well as large coral formations in the local protected underwater park and even went over the edge of the shelf where the sea floor drops down abruptly from 100 feet to a dark abyss more than 6000 deep.

We next bribed the cab driver hired to take us back to the ship to drop us off instead at our friends Mike and Kathy's house near the small downtown. They were not there, but I've been hearing about the house for years and wanted to see it. They built the lovely duplex to provide a base for their diving obsession and as a rental property. We sat by their pool before the property manager came to give us a tour. Nice place.

Then we were off to the undeveloped side of the island to visit "Coconuts", a local hangout and proclaimed by usually pretty measured Mike as his favorite place in the world. I made a frantic international call to him to ask if it was safe to drink the margaritas, as drinking anything in Mexico other than beer or bottle water can be troublesome. He assured me that the water and ice cubes at Coconuts were safe but that it wasn't prudent to drink more than one of the gigantic and quite tasty margs. The guacamole and chips made for a wholesome and nutritious lunch.

We returned to Silver Spirit by 4 pm for "tea time" where I was surprised by the head waiter with a lactose free very rich chocolate cake and some chocolate dipped strawberries. And you ask why we keep doing this.