DAY 5 - THE BANANA COAST- HONDURAS, TRUJILLO - CONTINUED

As I said in my last post, there was too much to say about day five in Trujillo, Honduras for one past so I am splitting it into two.

after returning to the ship we went back to our state room, deposited all our purchases and finds. I found a number of stones and other interesting objects as we walked along the beach. There were a variety of things that I found, a rock that had small deposits of copper on the outside, several pieces of coral and a really interesting piece that looked like it might have been a home for some small sea creature which after closer inspection it seems that it might have been the barrel of an old gun that had become attached to a rock and over time it became encrusted with stones.

After lunch we walked around the top deck to make up a mile, as if we had not walked ans climbed enough in the morning in Trujillo! Having achieved our mile walk we sat out in the shade in deck chairs and read. I started reading a new book on my Ipad, Volume I of Essential Chinese Medicine   Essentials-Chinese-Medicine-Volumewhich is the first volume of a giant three volume compendium of traditional Chinese medicine. As we sat reading the crew started pulling up the boats from the water, the very boats that they had used to tender us to shore. it was an interesting process to watch.

Afterwards we went to the Stardust theater to see the comic JP  The-Comedy-Magic-of-Jean-Pierre. we had started to watch him on the first night out by the motion of the ship caused my wife to be sea sick so we had to leave his first performance part way through.



After watching JP we went to the art gallery to see the unveiling of several new works of art. There was also complimentary wine. The first painting that they unveiled was a still life by Peter Max, Peter_Max.

1. 1. 

It was quite beautiful, bursting with color. I liked it. the next two works of art were etchings by Rembrandt Rembrandt.



 One was a self portrait completed near the time of his death. The second etching was a scene of his childhood where Rembrandt grew up. The third etching was another self portrait but when he was a young man. As much as I appreciate the technique of etching and Rembrandt's artistry in this medium, I could not see my wife and I hanging a Rembrandt etching on a wall in our house. We are not people who would buy a work of art just because it was by a famous artist, we would have to like it as well. I guess I am just a Philistine when it comes to etchings. the third artist was Itzchak Tarkay, 

 an artist from Israel. Most of his work was in acrylics but he painted a dozen or so watercolors of women in various poses. When the paintings were unveiled i was immediately drawn to their beauty. The color and the way that the artist balanced color and composition showed the hand of a master. We were told that these paintings we going for $2500 - 3500 a piece. I would say that that would be a bargain. I would love to own a Tarkay painting but we don't have the wall space, we still  have works of art that we have yet to hang in our house.

Caribbean Cruise - Day Five - The Banana Cost - Honduras - Trujillo

Today, we are going to the Trujillo in Honduras Trujillo , it is also known as the Banana Coast, I am not sure why. Again, we are going to be tendered to shore in small boats from the Norwegian Jewel.

It is a beautiful morning and we are looking forward to going to a place that has not yet been ruined by tourism. As we move towards the shore, Trujillo looks lovely.

It was only a short ride to shore, about ten minutes. we landed about 9:00AM. There were local singers and dancers performing at the terminal when we landed.

There were souvenirs near the terminal but it was disappointing that it was more of the same stuff that we had seen the day before and the day before that. We had a vision of all these souvenirs being churned out in a factory in China then shipped to all of these sights to be bought up by tourists, and there were people buying them.

Trujillo is a new place for cruise boats to stop, you can see that it has not been developed. The historical area of Trujillo is not very interesting and they want you to pay $3US to look at the ruins of an old fortress. It was hardly worth $3US, I took a few pictures from a distance instead.

We walked around the town for about an hour, going into some of the local stores to see what they had to offer. We found the local hospital which was interesting.

There was a church near the town square so we went in to take a look. The church itself was not all that interesting but my wife took the time to light a candle.

For the rest of our stay in Trujillo we spent our time walking along the beach which we found to be quite satisfying. The feel of the sand on our feet, the sound of the waves, the feel of the water as it caressed our feet was all satisfying and relaxing.

as we approached 11:00 AM we returned to the terminal. We bought some rum and a local liquor, that I was told, is like vodka. I guess we could use it for making crisp pastry.

When we got back on the boat to take us back to the ship it was starting rain and the waves were quite active. The ten minutes that it took to get back to the ship were quite interesting. My wife found the ten minutes nerve racking but it was pretty entertaining for me. The little boat was tossed about on the waves, going up and down with each succeeding wave. I think everyone was thankful to get back on the Norwegian Jewel.

There was a lot more than happened that day but I am going to stop the post here. I will continue the rest of the day in part two of day five.

Caribbean Cruise - Day 4 - Tuesday, December 2, 2014. Belize City, Belize.

By 7:55 on Tuesday morning, I had completed my qigong practice, we had eaten breakfast and we were sitting in the Stardust theater waiting to be called to go ashore for our tour to the Mayan ruin in Altun Ha Altun_Ha. we did not wait very long before our group was called.

Because the Norwegian Jewel could not dock at Belize City Belize_City we were tendered to shore in smaller boats. We went to shore in a small, open-sided boat. On the trip to shore, the air was light and breezy, very pleasant. The boat was rocking and bobbing gently in the water as we waited for people to get on. As we traveled to shore I saw little islands or atolls around us. In the distance I could see buildings on the shore, behind us I saw our ship getting smaller and smaller. It was about a 45 minute trip from the ship to terminal #1 in Belize City. The shuttles run every half hour from the ship to shore. The shore is littered with shops and restaurants.

It took us about an hour to get to Altun Ha by bus. It was an interesting ride, the guide gave us a running commentary about Belize. At first, we thought that it might not be a bad idea to spend a few months a year in Belize when we retire but by the time we finished our tour we reconsidered that idea.

The tour in Altun Ha was interesting. As we were walking to the site the tour guide gave us background information on the Mayans and the site. In 1961 Belize City was almost completely destroyed by hurricane Hattie Hurricane_Hattie. People went to the site of Altun Ha to get stones to rebuild the city. It did not take too long before the authorities realized that this was an archaeological site. the government of Belize hired an American archeologist, Dr. David Pendergast /David_M._Pendergast who was the Field Director of the Royal Ontario Museum's ROM excavation of Altun Ha. He uncovered several tombs which we saw during our visit. In 1977 he discovered the Kinich Ahaw jade head jade head. The tour guide proudly informed us that it is the large jade sculpture to be found in that part of the world.




















According to our guide, the jade head is kept in a vault in the bank of Belize and it is only brought once a year for all the Belizians to see. After the talk about Altun Ha, we were allowed to climb one of the main temples. My wife and I climbed to the top and took pictures.

After looking at the site and taking pictures, we took a walk through the gift and souvenir shops. They were expensive and not all that original, we had seen similar looking souvenirs in Cozumel. we kept seeing the same figures and images over and over again.

Back in Belize City, we were dropped off at a restaurant called the Smokey Mermaid where they gave us a glass of rum punch which seemed to go down okay and did not bother my stomach. We walked around the area a bit and \i took a few pictures of the Taiwanese embassy taiwanembassy which did not look like any embassy that I had ever seen before.

Apparently, Taiwan and Belize have very good relation. This probably accounted for the the reason why there were so many Chinese restaurants and businesses in Belize City.

All in all, it was a good day. we spent the rest if the afternoon on the upper deck of the Norwegian Jewel basking in the lovely Belizian weather. I finished reading the book that I had brought with me on the trip, Super Survivors, by David B. Feldman, Ph.D and Lee Daniel Kravitz Super Survivors. It was a book about how some people not only survive catastrophes in their lives but actually use the experiences to thrive and achieve great things. It was a good book, and inspiring book! I have to think about how to apply the learnings of this book to my own life.

We had dinner at Tsar's, a restaurant decorated in the style of a Russian palace. We found that the quality of the food and the service was much better at Tsar's than at Azur. Our order was taken promptly and the server brought our food within a reasonable period of time. The hot dishes were hot and the salads were crisp and fresh. We were finished our entire meal by 5:30 PM, at Azur we would have been still waiting for the entree to arrive. We would have stayed for desert but we wanted to see the show, acrobats from Russia. Instead, we went up to the Garden Cafe for dessert.



We watched the Russian act called Deja Vu duo-deja-vu, they were a husband and wife team. Both of them were superb athletes, strong and controlled but able to move with grace and elegance.The performed singly and together for a full 40 minutes. The husband sang a couple of songs as well, they were incredibly entertaining.

Caribbean Cruise - Day 3

Day 3 - Monday, December 1, 2014.

I was up at 6:00AM to practice in the fitness center. This morning I found something that I could use as a substitute sword during my practice, there was part of the frame of an easel that had come apart and was laying in a corner of the aerobics room. It was the right length. About ten minutes into my practice an older gentleman came into the room dressed in exercise clothing. He had a yoga mat with him as well as a timer and some other gear. He set himself up in one of the corners of the room and went through a kind of timed yoga routine where he held modified yoga poses for a timed period. I went through my practice, when I got to the sword practice I took the piece of the easel that \i had found. as soon as the piece was in my hand I could do the form again, it was as if part of my that had been missing had been restored to me.

After breakfast, my wife and I spent the morning in the tourist area of San Miguel, in Cozumel Cozumel, a island off of the coast of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.

The tourist area is a long strip along the waterfront starting at the dock. It isa series of streets with stores and restaurants, all for the benefit of tourists to deposit their American dollars. We were also looking for opportunities to spend some of our cash on souvenirs to take home. Some of the stores did spill off the main street onto the side streets but I did not want my wife to wander to far off the beaten track because I did not know how safe it was. On the main street there were armed police on every street, I imagine to keep order for the tourists.

Here is a picture of our boat from the terminal in San Miguel, Cozumel

I was amazed at how blue the water is

We wound up buying two maracas for our grand daughter as well as some clothing. We also bought two bottles of tequila to give away when we got back home. We returned to the ship around noon for lunch then we went back out again. When we were returning to the ship, my wife noticed that there were several people with bags of groceries from a store called Mega, we could see the store from the ship. When we returned to the town after lunch, we went to Mega. We bought a bar of soap for $.35 because we were tired of using the liquid soap on the ship. We also bought a bag of ancho chilis that my wife will use for cooking Mexican food, and finally, we bought three palmiers, two plain and one with chocolate. Palmiers are a French pastry from the Langedoc area of France. I would guess that they are one of the traditions that Mexico kept after the French left Mexico in 1866. My wife was happy, she got to shop  in an authentic Mexican super store instead of a touristy shop on the waterfront.

locals dressed up as natives to entertain the tourists

Back on the ship we had an early dinner so that we could go to an art lecture on Rembrandt, Chagall, Picasso and Dali. It was an  interesting talk. The speaker was very enthusiastic and we got to see some original art by these artists. After the talk we to see a  comedian, David Naster  David Naster, in the theatrer David was very funny.

I was a long day so we went to bed early. Tomorrow promises to be an equally long and interesting day.

Caribbean Cruise - Day 2

CARIBBEAN CRUISE - DAY 2 - AT SEA

Sunday, November 30th. we went to bed early on Saturday night, Saturday had been a long day and we were still tired from our adventure on Friday, so we slept soundly in our state room on deck six on Saturday night while the night owls and revelers partied the night away on deck seven, two decks above us.  we did not hear a thing. I was up at 6:00 AM and made my way to the fitness center on deck twelve. I walked up the seven flights to deck seven as a warm up for my practice. What struck me was the absolute quiet. The only sounds that I heard was the muted sounds of the board as it sailed through the Caribbean. I guess all the party goers were sleeping off the effects of Saturday night. When I got to the fitness club there were already a few people waiting to get in ahead of me, that was a bit of a surprise. I guess not everyone was hanging out at the clubs the night before. As soon as I walked up to fitness center the door opened and we all went in. everyone went for the machines, I went into the aerobic studio and closed the door. I had the entire studio to myself. I went through Yi Jin Jing  Yijin Jing as I would on the weekends followed by a slow Taijiquan  Tai Chi practice. Typically, I would also do my sword practice  Taijijian after Taijiquan. As I did not have a sword with me, I did not think that  US customs would like the idea of bringing a practice sword on a cruise ship, I thought I would go through my sword practice without a sword, after all, I practice with a sword every day. \i figured that the moves were ingrained in my muscles. I was surprised to find out that after the opening salutation, I could not do it. it seems that the sword is an extension of my hand and arm and when the sword is not there, the memory of the moves is not there.

After my practice I went to the Garden Cafe to get hot water with lemon for my wife and I, we drink hot water with lemon every morning before breakfast as a cleanse. Wen went to the Garden Cafe for breakfast, they had fresh fruit, baked goods and a lot of other things. There as no lack of things to chose from for breakfast. A breakfast, I saw an elderly Chinese man with a cane that had a dragon's head on the top, now that would make a great substitute for my sword!

After breakfast, we did a couple of tours around deck 13 for exercise, 2 2/3 around the deck is supposed to equal one mile. It was warm and sunny outside but it was also very windy on deck 13. After out walk we went back to the Garden Cafe for a drink then we went to the theater for a presentation on all the things that you could do in Cozumel, Mexico, mostly they revolved around shopping. After listening to everything that the presenter had say about Cozumel, we decided that there nothing that we were really interested in doing. either the trips were too long, some lasted the entire day or we were just not interested in the tours. We wondered if we didn't go on the tours, could we still go ashore? I had a lot of misgivings about tours with dolphins and stingrays. On the one hand, visiting with dolphins  Dolphin and stingrays Stingray  may be the only chance that they will ever have to come in contact with nature. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of taking wild animals and forcing them to do tricks, especially dolphins who are, apparently, very intelligent animals with highly developed social and linguistic structures. It seems to me that it is insulting and abusive to treat dolphins like carnival animals. As for stingrays, I think that it is insane to treat stingrays as if they are house pets! Stingrays are wild animals that could, without warning, turn on you and deliver a lethal dose of toxins that could kill a person.

At 10:30AM we went to a cooking demonstration for sushi, my wife was particularly interested in attending this session as she is with everything about cooking and food. The first part of the session about sushi was okay, the presenters gave  a simple demonstration on how to make sushi. The bonus was that they had plenty of samples to hand out. The second part of the presentation was about Teppanyaki. It seemed to have more to do with cooks entertaining the crowd with their cooking utensils than it did with actual cooking. We watched the entertainment for a while then we left to go to the next presentation.

At 11:30AM, we went to a talk about reducing toxins in the fitness center on deck 12. It was a good talk but for us it was preaching to the choir. The speaker was one of the trainers at the health club. He gave the group information about the perils of toxins in a simplified form but still, a lot of the people there simply did not get. I is amazing how little people know about their own bodies and what can happen to their bodies if they do not take proper precautions.

After lunch we went to an art auction that was presented by Park West.  Park West Gallery The first night on the boat we were invited to attend the art auction. We thought it would be something interesting to see even though we had no intention of buying anything. On the other hand, if we did see something that we absolutely had to have we might have considered putting in a bid. As we walked around, glass of champagne in hand, we looked at all the art that was on display before the auction. Truthfully, we did not see anything that we considered to be a work of art that we absolutely had to have, so we left.

Since it was such a nice day, we went up to deck 13 and sat in deck chairs but it was so windy that we had to move down to deck 12 where it was sheltered against the wind. After, when we were sitting outside the Garden Cafe drinking lemon water, the drummer from the band that was playing came by and sat with us. He was an interesting guy, originally he was from Guyana but now he works out of New York. He was very interesting to speak with.

That evening, there was a fair amount of motion from the boat during dinner. after dinner my wife did not feel well. I think that she had a touch of sea sickness so we went to our state room where she laid down for a while. that was the end of out first day at sea.

Caribbean Cruise - Day 1

 

CARIBBEAN CRUISE - DAY 1

 

 

The next day, Saturday, November 29th, we were up at 7:30 AM even though we had gone to bed late, well after midnight. We had a nice breakfast that the hotel provided then we went outside for a walk in the wooded area adjacent to the hotel. My wife was looking for large Texas pine that she had heard about but, unfortunately, we only found the usual variety of small pine cones that we have in Canada. The walk was great, the temperature was a warm 20 degrees Celsius, at least it was for us. The sun felt warm on our bodies, it was nice. Reluctantly, we returned to the hotel to get ready to go back to the hotel get out transportation to the ship. While we were waiting for the shuttle to take us back to airport I sent a text message to our family to let them know that we had arrived in Texas.

 

At the airport, we purchased transportation to the cruise terminal and transportation back to the airport from the ship when it returns on December 6th. We could have used Norwegian Cruise Lines to go to the ship Norwegian ship transfers , it would have been a little more convenient because we could have booked it at the same time that we booked the cruise. We decided to wait and see if we could book something at the airport. We found a company, Super Shuttle, that offered transportation to the Bayport terminal in Pasadena, Texas for half the cost that Norwegian was charging. The interesting thing was that the desks of Super Shuttle  Super Shuttle and the Desk of Norwegian were about twenty feet away.

 

It took 45 minutes to drive to the cruise terminal. the cruise terminal in situated amongst the oil refineries, not really an idyllic location for a cruise terminal but there it is. The terminal itself is new and nice looking as you can see in the picture. If you can ignore the stacks of containers all around the terminal it looks all right.

 

We went through the process of getting checked in on board which took well over an hour but we got through the process and got on board the Norwegian Jewel, our cruise ship.

 

 

 We had dropped off our luggage before we got on board to be delivered to our state room later. The first thing that we did was go to our state room to drop off our carry on bags, put our valuables in the safe in the state room and go to lunch. By this time, we were both hungry so we had a substantial lunch, salad, fresh fruit and bread. It was satisfying.

 

After lunch, we explored the boat. I wanted to see the fitness center which is on deck twelve because I planned to use it every day of the trip, so we went there first. The staff gave us a guided tour of the fitness center and the Mandara SPA. The fitness center consisted of a room with exercise equipment that faced out onto the water, a nice view when you are exercising.

 

 

The other part of the fitness center was an aerobics room which was lined with mirrors on two walls. I was to become very familiar with this space over the next week. The tour of the SPA was interesting but expensive as SPAs usually are. They had massage rooms, Rooms for facials, hot tub and hot stone treatments, treatments to rejuvenate your face using Botox injections and an acupuncturist who looked interesting. The idea behind the tour was to make you buy something which would be all right if there was something that had interested us but we really were not interested in any of their services, at least not at that time. Other people seemed to be very interested. I guess that is what some people do on cruises.

 

We had dinner on the first night in Azur, one of the complementary dining rooms.

 

 

We had salad and crab cakes for an appetizer which we shared. For the main course, we had Mahi Mahi and a shrimp dish which we also shared. For desert we had pistachio Crème brûlée which we didn't finish because it was overcooked. One of the things that we noticed about Azur on the first night was that the service was very slow. We attributed it the fact that it was the first night and they had not quite gotten themselves organized. Instead of waiting for tea or coffee we went up to deck twelve to the Garden Café which was buffet style dining for drinks. My wife had a cappuccino and I had chamomile tea which I find settles my stomach after a meal. I also had a piece of pecan pie and a piece of red velvet cake. The pecan pie was disappointing, it was mostly sugar. The red velvet cake was good.

 

After that we went to the theater where there was a presentation about the entertainment for the week. 

 

 

 The entertainment was all right, but the combination of the lights and the motion of the boat in the water made my wife nauseous so we left and went to our state room. After a short rest my wife felt better. My wife watched television while I wrote in my journal. That was our first day on the Norwegian Jewel.