Wendy's trip log: June 2019

May 25th-June 2 2019
Miami/ Roatan/Belize/Costa Maya and Cozumel

Mark and I left NY around 6am and flew for a few hours, then another few hours until we made it to Miami. I survived the flight. I seem to be getting better with flying the more often I go. No medications or alcohol was needed to rest my nerves.

We arrived in Miami around 12:30 pm, spent some confusing time arranging our LYFT but finally made it to our hotel.
We stayed at the Miami Hyatt. It was very lovely and we were able to get into our room right away.
We had lunch in the hotel I started my drinking early and had a Pink Flamingo. I'm not sure what alcohol was in it but it came with a Popsicle.

After some lunch we spent some time at the hotel pool and then we headed to Bayside Market Place for the afternoon and dinner.

Out the rear door of our hotel was the canal. There were some lovely views of the city and we enjoyed the many water travelers.

The Hyatt had several art pieces throughout the hotel, this one was in the front part of the building.

This piece was in the lobby. There appeared to be a whole floor of artwork. Which I did not notice until we were ready to go the following day.

Mark and I headed towards Bayside Market and somehow got lost. (We seem to be good at this.) We ended up walking at least a mile in the wrong direction. It was HOT and I was frustrated, downtown Miami was not exactly looking as safe as we were told it might be. Once we were in the right direction, it was much less "creepy" and more tourist like.

This market area at had all kinds of stores and a whole lot of people. Miami is certainly an interesting place.

There was music everywhere among these walkways. Everyone seemed to have a jump in their step. I wanted to to the TANGO myself. We found a nice place to relax in the shade and have a beer. Did I mention it was HOT?

We had a great view of this guy who was dancing along the walkway and every girl he could get to dance with him. He would just start dancing at them, most times he would get a response. This lady was getting into it.

Up close.........

This guy was also enjoying the music. He danced and danced....

He was certainly enjoying himself.

We tried to get some dinner at Planet Hollywood but we were told there was no seating on the outside deck (which looked empty) and Mark had a blow up when after seated we waited for some time before we were offered drinks so we left. I personally am not a fan of Planet Hollywood or even Hard Rock Cafe. We have been to several all over the country, but I feel the food isn't that good and it seems to be VERY expensive. Visits are usually for the novelty only. Instead we had Italian on the deck and it was incredibly delicious. The service was quick and it was actually much cheaper.

We got to watch the boats come in. This one was a true PARTY boat.

After dinner we started our walk back to the hotel. We walked the correct way back and got to enjoy views along the bay.

We stopped and spent some time just enjoying the evening.

There was some history to this statue, I am sorry I cannot remember what it was.

Back at the hotel I took these pictures out our window. The skies were certainly LOVELY. Mark and I could have enjoyed Bayside much longer and I am sure the dancing went well into the night, but we were so tired from the long hot day. Bed was welcomed early.

Day 1

The following day was CRUISE TIME. After spending some time in the hotel pool early that morning and taking our time preparing to go to the port. We finally made it to check in. It was INSANE. Quite possibly the most frustrating boarding we have ever experience. Mark was told we should have had priority boarding due to our cruise status, but noone ever said anything to us so we sat and waited and waited and waited. I still was happy......

Much of day 1 on board was the usual, so I did not get a ton of pictures. We pretty much sought out a space on deck to call our own and enjoyed. Our first day was at sea. We hit the upper deck and enjoyed the sun. We had this guy in our room!

and these as well....Day 2

On our second day we simply enjoyed the ship. We did everything you would expect; DRINKS, SUN, GAMBLING and LOTS of EATING.

That evening we had our first show. It was Burn the Floor, Mark and I saw a similar show on our first Cruise. This evening the captain came out and shared some words. He was actually pretty funny.

Day 3:

We docked in Roatan Honduras. We had an excursion planned. I was very excited.

After meeting up with our guide and standing in the insane heat, we were lead to these mini vans where we waited for our additional guests. Of course Mark and I were stuck with the stragglers. Everyone else had already left. At least they had the air on for us. It was so hot.

Where were we off to? Well we went to see animals. I was stoked. After a short drive through town we arrived at this animal area and were lead in to see the parrots.

Then we got to hold him.

This was cool, but my favorite part was the SLOTHS.

Sloths only poop about one time a week, and they are easy animals to maintain. I wanted so bad to bring this guy home. He was so cute.

Suddenly he was hanging out with me and he started moving towards Mark.

Bye Buddy...We learned that this was a male Sloth, and you can tell the difference from the coloring on the backs. Females do not have this flashy black and brown.

Their fur looks rough but it was actually soft.

he really liked Mark.

Up next were the Monkey's.

As you can imagine they moved much more quickly then those Sloths. They were everywhere.

It was hard to get them to pose...and they were sure into everything. One went into my purse.

This one took this women's hat off her head.

After our fill of these lovely animals we were off to another fun activity.

We jumped on a boat and headed into the ocean for a little snorkeling.

Here we were in the middle of the ocean.

I was a little nervous, but we really had a great time. I sure I wish I brought my own snorkel however because the one I had let water into the nose part and I was constantly needing to pull my mask off. My eyes were burning. Mark was having the same problem, so we ended up plugging our nose with our hands. It made moving around difficult. I did get to see some cool critters and lots of fish among the corral. We saw a few conchs some really big lobsters (really big and they move fast) and I got to hold a sea cucumber. They look so weird like concrete, but they are soft and squishy. They have little sucker on them as feet.

I would defiantly go snorkeling again.

We returned back to the boat and Mark and I pretty much had the ship to ourselves. We headed up to the top deck and spent most of the late afternoon enjoying the not so hot hot tube by ourselves. It was supper enjoyable and the views were amazing.

These were some of the amazing views just from the ship.

That water is incredible.

Day 4

The forth day was at Harvest Caye Beleze

This was a small island offering a beach and swimming pool. Mark and I headed directly to the beach were we did a little sampling of the ocean before we decided to dip in the gigantic pool.

pretty nice!

The Island (Im not sure if it was an Island at all, but there seemed to be water surrounding us.)

There were a few shops and restaurants to visit. As well as a walk through Wild Life area.

These wooden creatures were so cool.

Butterflies.

Our walk back to the ship was long but pretty.

Once back on board we both fell ASLEEP. We did not expected to, but we slept most of the afternoon away. We must had needed it. We awoke just in time for dinner and headed to the fancy (included in the all inclusive) Manhattan Club.

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the on board entertainment.

Day 5

Day 5 was docking at Costa Maya. We had another excursion planned. We were a little nervous about where we were suppose to connect for this excursion. Just and FYI, Mark and I have never used the ships excursions on any of cruises. Call me cheap, but the prices seem INSANE. Generally we had just made our plans once we have docked and gone with it, but this time I had made arrangements with Tripadvisor. I believe that we saved hundreds doing excursions this way rather then using the ships.

The downside to doing excursions off the ship is you are not aways sure where you are going and you may end up walking quite some distance. On this excursion, we walked in very humid, intensive heat for some time before we found our excursion pick up. The ship excursion generally takes you directly to where you need to go. Generally not only do we save $, but the excursions are not as crowded as if you took the ship excursion.

We rushed through Costa Maya to get to our destination pick up, but there seemed to be a ton of things to do just in port at Costa Maya.

Just look at all the fun the area had to offer.

based upon the buildings and costumed people, can you guess where our excursion might be heading?

We are going to a Mayan ruin.

The even had Flamingo's.

After walking what seemed like forever...We finally found were our excursion began. We loaded up in a mini van with about 6 other people and our tour guide (who was awesome). On our way we stopped at one of the cemeteries. Culturally burials were very different then within the USA. People are buried above the ground in cement blocks.

More traveling we arrived at the Chacchoben ruins. The ruins are estimated to be from 200BC.

So...I could write so many things about the Mayan culture that it would take an entire blog to write on, but there are a few interesting facts that I was unaware of about the culture.(These are coming from my memory of the tour, so if you are a student of the Mayan culture...please do not give me a fail for incorrect information First off, I was not aware of just HOW MANY ruins there are in the Mexican area and the South American areas. The Mayan people have been around for many many years, LONG before what we often think of when we think about civilized and well organized people. They were intelligent well developed civilization that valued and established the calendar system. Their belief's dictated the building of the pyramids, how these structures were built, predictions of the weather and even human sacrifice. They had Kings and wise men who lived in closed areas where philosophers would study the skies developing the seasonal systems, days of the week and predictions of weather. These men were seen as highly regarded individuals, who would often do their work in rooms on the tops of the pyramids. Unlike the Egyptians, who buried their deceased with in the chambers of the pyramids, the Mayan's had rooms with in the structures to bring them closer to the heavens. The strongly believed in the underworld and caves were used to bury the dead. They also had a custom of burying their deceased in the structure of their homes before moving them to caves.

These pyramids were not excavated until the 1970's. Before they looked like this they were only mounds of foliage taken over by the jungle. On this property there are still many mounts that look like hills scattered about the area that are likely more pyramids buried beneath.

There was a sweet aroma that loomed throughout the air, I was told it may be from these plants.

There were descriptions on how these were created and they even had a system on how they developed the stones to the size and shape.

Below is one of those mounds that may have a pyramid below it.

This tree located in the center of the community was the life tree. I cannot remember what kind it was.

In this picture, you can see where there are flat area's with in the pyramids, these areas were once rooms. The rooms walls were made of plant material, which is why none of the home structures are still around.

Below is the wall that runs along the property. Our guide reported that this kept the common people out. She thought that people were kept out and prevented the awareness of knowledge, as this would make the elite people less useful.

The division between homes. Due to flooding and the belief in becoming closer to the Heaven's homes were built on top of these stone structures.

This is a bee hive. (I know...what!) These tiny bee's create a very expensive honey.

In the picture below where this interesting tree grows is were a home once stood.

Although we were not told if people of higher status were in homes of higher elevation, it would make sense. The Mayan's were well established farmers. Corn was the main product and also the name of their culture.

The Mayan's were also great warriors and often would fight against other Mayan developments. Generally the prisons of these wars were used as a sacrifice to the Gods.
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Mayan Hieroglyphics

Mark on the tip top.

It was all so interesting. Soon we were back in the van and on to our next adventure.

These were some of the pictures I took on the way.

We stopped on the side of the road and got fresh pineapple. Yum.

Then we headed to a butterfly house.

Sadly we were told all the butterfly's had died the day before. We were not given an explanation why, except that it had to do with flooding and pesticide. We were able to go into the larve house and see where these pretty winged creatures are born.