23 December 2015
Tucson, AZ

We are at home in Tucson after a very long day of travel on Tuesday.  Airports were crowded and flights full, but everything was on time. We were able to arrange for an earlier shuttle than our 11:30pm departure from PHX to Tucson, so we actually arrived at home about 90 minutes earlier than scheduled, just after midnight this morning, pleasantly surprising the cats who had been told we would be arriving around 1:30am.  

But I still have much to report about our last days on the Riviera, before concluding this blog and telling you about my next cruise, which I have already purchased and paid for.  

Sunday, 20 December 2015
George Town, Grand Cayman Island

We are supposed to anchor off the coast of George Town at noon today, but last night's rough seas have dealyed us about 90 minutes. By the time everyone has lined up and waited their turns for the tenders, it is well after 2pm when we set foot on land.  And since our stay here has already been shortened one hour by a pre-announced early departure, we don't have a lot of time to spend on this little island.

We have not planned a shore excursion, because this is my third visit in as many years, and I have seen the major sights, primarily the Queen Elizabeth Gardens with its blue iguana sanctuary.  And unfortunately there isn't much to do in town since many of the shops and restaurants are closed on Sunday--even with three large cruise ships anchored offshore.  We walk around the waterfront shops and streets for a while, but the humidity--which seems even higher here than in other places we have visited--soon drives us indoors for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (there aren't many other choices).  While not one of my favorite restuarants, the food is usually good but unimaginative American fare.  My breaded shrimp were very hot and freshly prepared; too much breading, but otherwise very tasty.  I have now eaten at three Hard Rocks, all in rather exotic locations:  Beijing (1994); Siem Reap, Cambodia (February 2015), and here.

ms Riviera Anchored off Grand Cayman Island

Disney's ms Magic (as seen from our veranda)

We are tendered back to the Riviera by 4pm, well before our sailing time at 6pm.

Tomorrow is a sea day, perfect for packing and preparing ourselves for the journey home.  In the next blog entry I will report more fully on our experience on board the Riviera, including the ship itself, the food, and the service.

Sunday Morning 20 December 2015
Sailing to George Town, Grand Cayman Island

After a very nice dinner in the Grand Dining Room last night (both of us:  chicken consomme; baby lettuce salad with pancetta (for me) and/or almonds (for Will); lobster Thermidor for Will and Roast Rack of Veal Loin for me.  Will has a very complicated and delicious chocolate mousse cake with caramel ganache; I choose plain old raspberry ices. Fortunately, the large waves begin to recede and we have no problems over night.  By the time I am writing this on Sunday morning--after breakfast of Eggs Benedict in the Grand Dining Room--the sun is shining, the breeze is light, and the waves have substanially subsided.

Saturday 19 December 2015
Cozumel Island, Mexico

Today we return to Mexico for a visit to the resort of Cozumel and our final shore excursion.  The trip is planned for 3.5 hours, ideally short after our very long excursions at other ports.  But because of poor planning and logisics, the tour lasts almost 90m minutes longer than planned. And since the Riviera is sailing one hour earlier than in the original schedule, we have no time to explore or shop on our own.  The first parts of the tour are quite fun, but the final 45 minutes are spent at totally unnecessary places to spend money--a tequila "museum" and a chocolate factory demonstration.

The Riviera is docked on the west side of the island, location of the main town and most of the resort hotels. Usually this side of the island has the better weather, but today it is very windy with intermittant rain.  Our coach drives us three miles across the widest part of the island to the calmer beaches of the eastern shore. This part of the island is dotted with beaches made from the dying coral reef, with water sprays that imitate the shapes of the spiny coral.

Our next stop, the highlight of the excursion, is a visit to a cultural center where we are treated to the history of the Mayan people in dance and song.  The entertainers are young and enthusiastic, the costumes colorful and appropriate, the music loud and stirring.  In fact, much more entertaining and enjoyable than the really poor shows on the Riviera. However, the show runs longer than expected; the guide tells us that this is the reason for the excursion lasting so much longer than planned.

After the performance, the coach takes us to the tequila museum, where we  get to taste very tiny sips of several flavored-tequila drinks: coconut, almond, and pomegranate.  At the chocolate factory there is a short demostration of how chocolate is made from crushing and rolling cocoa beans and then adding honey, sugar, and flavorings.  The chocolate is very bitter in its original state as created by the Maya, but the Spaniards convinced them to add sugar in the 16th century (probably the only positive of the Spanish incursion), that makes chocolate much more palatable.

We return to the Riviera for lunch and sailaway just before 2pm.

As we dress for dinner on Saturday night, we are experiencing our first rough seas.  In fact, I have not felt the movement of the sea this strongly since 2008, when we sailed to Alaska.  I guess I have been lucky to have sailed 200 days without even thinking about using any seasickness medication.  We are hoping that as soon as we pass through a storm that is approaching Central America, a few hours sailing will bring us to calmer waters.  

Friday,18 December 2015
Roatan, Hondoras

Roatan, the largest of the Honduran Caribbean islands, sits with its two smaller sister islands, Utila and Guanaja, about 50 km off the northern coast of Honduras itself.  It is surrounded by a coral reef and is a popular destination for divers, as well as other water sports
enthusiasts.  The ms Riviera docks at Mahogany Bay, a beautiful facility built by Carnival Cruise Lines. But we head inland today for our shore excusion run by the ship's Culinary Center: a "farm-to-table" experience.  

   

The first stop is a visit to the Arboretum run by the government. The gardens exhibit the variety of plants and tress that grow naturally on the island, as well as others brought in to enjoy the intensive sun and high humidity.  These include a wide variety of fruit-growing plants--oranges, grapefruits, breadfruit, Malayan apples, banana-apples--as well as orchids and other flowering plants.  The Arboretum is also home to a herd of feral cats and free-range chickens, who seem to get along rather well.

It's then a short coach ride to a working hydroponic garden, for a really interesting demonstration of lettuce and herb-growing and harvesting.  It takes only 58 days for lettuce to go from one small seed implanted in a pipe with running water to fresh produce ready to go to market.  In fact, our tour guide harvests a quantity of fresh lettuce to take with us for lunch.  Most of the produce grown here is purchased by nearby hotels, cruise ships, and local supermarkets almost immediately after is is harvested.

After the hard work of hydroponic farming, we take another short coach ride and then a five-minute boat ride to Little French Key,a private resort where we see a cooking demonstration and have lunch.  Our chef prepares fresh shrimp three ways (with mango cocktail sauce, sauteed with garlic, and fried with coconut breading).  We also enjoy dried and salted tapioca chips with rum-laced fruit punch.  The shrimp is served for lunch, along with chicken and rice and beans.  

Our Guest Chef at Little French Key

Will on the Beach at Little French Key

Departing from Little French Key

The tour is running late so we don't have any time to enjoy the beach facilities at Little French Key; we hop back on the boat to take us to the bus to take us back to the ship.

It's Friday evening and we are sailing from the Honduran island of Roatan at a speedy pace to our next port on the Mexican island of Cozumel. We have been lucky to have good weather; the early weeks of December saw a period of rain almost every day.  Of course, the sunshine brings hot weather and very high humidity.

Thursday, 17 December 2015
San Tomas de Castillo, Guatemala

The Caribbean coastline of Guatemala is large bay and a very short stretch of land; the primary beaches for tourists are on the much longer Pacific coastline.  The sister cities of San Tomas, where we are docked, and Puerto Barrios, are large commercial ports, primarily used for exporting produce to the US.  From our veranda we can see long lines of trucks depositing large containers for loading on three waiting cargo ships.  There is a market selling local crafts and souvenirs, but not much else to interest the tourist.


Our shore excursion today takes us the last of the three major Mayan sites we are visiting, Quirigua Archaeological National Park.  This site is higher up in the mountains of southern Guatemala, quite close to the border with Nicaragua.  There are no pyrimids or stone structures at this site, but there are five authentic stelae (carved stone monoliths); these were discovered covered with the soil and vegetation of the jungle. Thus, they are quite well preserved and the carvings are intricate and beautiful. The tallest is over ten feet high and there is one that leans like that famous tower in Italy (pictures courtesy of Will).

The government has opened a museum here, but the exhibits are in Spanish only.  There is also a shortage of electric power (throughout Guatemala) that keeps everything--including the restrooms--dark most of the day.  But the grounds are well kept and our guide offers clear expanations of everything that we are seeing. The day is extremely hot and humid and even our eyeballs are sweating, so our vision isn't always clear.

We head back to the ship in the early afternoon and enjoy really good hamburgers and fries from the Waves Grill on the pool deck.
As we get ready to sail at 6pm, all the taxis from town line up on the pier and turn on their headlights and honk their horns to bid us farewell.  A group of local ladies, accompanied by men on drums of various kinds, dance a feverish goodbye as we sail to our next destination.

Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Belize City, Belize

Today is Wednesday, so it must be another day of ruins in Central America.  We are anchored about 5 miles off shore with three other much larger cruise ships.  Large, very new local tenders take about 20 minutes to make the crossing to the port facilities in Belize City, the largest and most commerical center of the country.  Belize was formerly British Hondorus; in the 1960s it gained independece from Britain and changed the name of the country, but are still memebers of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Since we have another score excursion this morning, we again take advantage of our Butler, who brings a hot breakfast of fresh-cooked eggs and bacon, along with the usual fruits, juices, pastries, and coffe (with warm milk).  We meet our tour group in the Riviera Lounge and await the call for our tender to shore.  Today's bus ride is thankfully shorter than yesterday (just a little more than one hour), but the bus is older and the springs are shot, so it is a rather uncomfortable ride.

But our destination is the Lamanai landing point on the New River, where we embark on a high-speed catamaran ride to the deserted Mayan city of Lamanai--the only one in Central America for which we know its actual Mayan name. The ride lasts a little more than one hour, and our captain, Andy, takes great pride in his ten years of experience guiding boats along this river.  He delights in high-speed curves and abrupt stops to look at wildlife (mostly birds). But the spray of the water and the lightness of the breeze is a welcome relief from the heat and humidity.

The Lamanai site itself is well cared for, with good signage.  The original community was about 10 miles long and 5 miles wide.  We will walk through only a small part (thankfully!), across grass fields and well-tended pathways.  We visit three important sites:  the Jaguar Temple, with its great abstract jaguar face carvings; the Mask Temple; and the High Temple, at which many tourists climb to the top (on specially-built wooden stairs).  However, not us and not today.

We have another journey downriver to our original point where a light lunch of chicken and rice and beans await us.  Then it is back on the bus for the drive to Belize City and the 20-minute tender to our ship.  Our guides have given excellent presentations in very good English, providing another day of exciting discoveries and very long travel.

Tonight we again eat in the Grand Dining Room--Will has blue crab salad appetizer, endive soup, and coq au vin; Larry has frog legs served vol-au-vent, Caesar salad, and rack of lamb with garlic bread c rumb crust.  Excellent choices all around.

Tuesday, 15 Dcember 2015
Costa Maya, Mexico

Costa Maya is a small port on the coast of Southern Mexico, just a few kilometers north of Belize.  It was built recently just for the purpose of hauling in large cruise ships.  There is a large shopping center and some very tacky fake Mayan decorations; the closest real town--with a very nice beach--is Mahahual, only 3 km away.  But the port is the gateway for tourists to reach several authentic Mayan ruins and to experience their history and culture.

After another in-suite room service breakfast, we head to the Riviera lounge to await our first shore excursion on this cruise:  a full-day trip to two Mayan sites buried deep in the foliage of the southern Yucatan:  Dzibanche and Kohunlich.  This turns out to be a very long day, with 2.5 hour bus rides each way, hour-long visits to each of the ruins, and a very late lunch at a roadside cafe on the way back to the ship--all told about 8 hours.  The journey itself is not particularly interesting, but the bus is air-conditioned and comfortable.  Besides the driver, there are two local tour guides who share their knowledge of Mayan culture (both come from long Mayan bloodlines).

Roadside Soda Stand

Roadside Graveyard

Our first stop is at Dzibanche, the ruins of a city being consumed by the jungle.  The site comprises several pyramidal structures, some with pictograph inscriptions, others covered with foliage.  A central grass area--originally paved with stone--is the site of games, political meetings, and religious services. From here it is a 9km drive to Kohunlich, a much-better preserved and landscaped series of dormitory rooms and temples.  The more hardy souls can climb to the tops, but Will and I are content to view these marvels from the ground.  It is very hot and humid at both locations, but the trees and grass at Kohunlich provide some relief from the weather.  Blessedly, the sky is clear and the sun is shining, so the mosquitoes are staying home and out of our way.

About half-way back to the ship we stop for a late rather-disappointing lunch of chicken or beef fajitas and soft drinks.  We arrive back at the pier just in time for the final boarding at 5:30 and casting off the lines at 6pm.  We have a reservation at Jacques at 9pm, so we can have a brief rest before dressing for dinner.