The good news is that any excursion arranged through Carnival is going to be safe. They will get you back to the boat on time, they will give you safe food and water, and they will keep you on the beaten path.
You do not have to purchase shore excursions to go on adventures. If you want to live on the edge, save some money, or whatever, you can waltz right off the boat and do whatever you like. Just keep in mind that arranging your own excursions is at your own risk. If you do this, I wish you luck. Don't forget to take some pictures of the boat as it sails away without you!
Patty and I went on an excursion at every port we stopped at. That included the Grand Cayman island (Britain), Costa Maya (Mexico), Cozumel (Mexico), and Belize City (Belize).
Our first stop was the Grand Cayman island. Aside from its scenery, Grand Cayman is famous for its many banks. If you are a large, evil corporation and you need to do some "discreet" banking, Grand Cayman is the place to be! We learned throughout the course of our tours that Grand Cayman also has a large number of churches for its population. If I remember correctly, they have 300,000 people, 500+ banks, and 752 churches. Banks and churches? It's the Grand Rapids of the Caribbean!
The port was busy. There were lots of tourists from the boat and lots of people trying to sell tours to the tourists from the boat. The port was right on a busy road in the middle of a busy commercial district. Almost every tour went to the same basic stops, so it was not obvious to us at first which tour was ours. Each tour had a sign, and most said "Turtle farm", "Stingray city", etc. Thankfully, we were able to muddle through the confusion of our first stop and get on the right bus.
Our tour guide was very friendly and had lots to say about the island. Unfortunately, it quickly became obvious that something had happened to the island. Most of the trees were overturned and brush and bramble were scattered and piled in large fields. Many of the buildings were damaged. The most expensive houses and apartments looked fine, but many of the native houses looked like they were in rough shape. Roofs were missing and doors, windows, and walls were being repaired.
Our tour guide confirmed that hurricane Ivan had ravaged the island one year earlier and that they were still recovering. He said that it was one of the two worst hurricanes to hit the island in history. Damage was extensive, and many still lived in temporary trailer homes. Interestingly enough, trailer homes were outlawed before the hurricane, but were brought in for the emergency. Once recovery is complete, the trailers will be moved back off the island.
Despite the damage, only three people had died. The islanders had well-established procedures for surviving hurricanes. One of the casualties of the hurricane did not follow the procedures, and died as a result. I believe the other two died due to medical conditions - not as a direct result of the hurricane.
Our tour guide pointed out the local Burger King, which was up and running only three days after the hurricane to provide food and drink to the people on the island. The local Coca-Cola bottling plant also recovered quickly and provided bottled water to the residents of the island. Our guide said everyone on the island was very grateful.
Other points of interest were the condos owned by Bill Gates (and other assorted rich people) and the Governor's mansion. If you are insanely rich, there are condos and apartments available right on the beachfront.
The gift shop, of course, played up on the name. Think of any funny phrase involving going to hell. Now imagine that funny phrase plastered on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and postcards. The owner of the store even had a goatee and fake horns.
The whole experience reminded me a little bit of Metropolis, IL. The town is named Metropolis. It has a big statue of Superman. It has lots of gift shops. That was about all there was to the town. This was such a big deal because...why?
Thankfully, this was the most gimmicky tourist stop of our entire trip. It got better after this.
The turtle farm was an interesting place. I do not know if it was purely a business venture or if it was funded by the government. Perhaps it was both? The turtles were raised on this farm for one thing: being eaten by people. Some were released into the wild - on what criteria I do not recall. The rest were eaten.
Do not be outraged yet. The idea behind the turtle farm is to raise turtles for those who want to eat them and leave the wild ones alone. It is an effort in conservation. That is why I was not sure if this was a business, a government-sponsored program, or both.
Anyway, the turtles are kept in huge circular tanks that look like big wading pools. And by "kept", I mean "crammed." There were many, many sea turtles in each tank. Sea turtles are not small either. Think of, say, a lawnmower. Now think of a lawnmower with a shell and fins. That is a really weird image - but it is about the same size as one sea turtle.
Looking at the tanks, all I could think of are the lobster tanks you see at big grocery stores like Meijer. In those, there are lots of lobsters and nothing else. The same was true for these tanks. It was a big pile of sea turtles milling about in a big tank and nothing else. Unlike the lobsters, the turtles are constantly moving since they like to swim and they have to come up for air every so often.
The turtles were cool to look at and listen to. They make a distinctive noise when they come up for air. Similar, perhaps, to the sound of a scuba diver taking in a breath? It is hard to draw an analogy.
The turtle farm also had a small zoo of other animals, it included an iguana and some other animals I do not remember. The zoo was not very interesting. What was interesting were the baby turtle tanks. Tourists were allowed to reach in and grab a baby turtle. It was like picking up a big squirming rock. The baby turtles did not like being picked up very much but, oddly enough, they calmed down quickly when you patted them on their heads.
According to our tour guides, the largest stingrays can reach a diameter of six feet across! The stinger on the stingrays is a defensive measure against sharks. The stinger must be "activated" before it will do any harm. Our guides said that stingrays will not activate it against us, since they love people! We are their meal ticket. We give them free squid in return for them socializing with us. The only thing you do not want to do is rub the scent of food on yourself. Supposedly, the stingrays have about 4 horsepower of suction when they gulp up their food. They are also pretty dumb. If they smell food, they will attempt to suck in parts of your body. This results in a "Stingray Hickey" - which supposedly can last up to a month!
We were given a snorkel and a little dead squid. The water was not deep, and we had no trouble walking around. As soon as we were in the water, it did not take long for the stingrays to head over to our group. One of our tour guides grabbed a passing stringray and held on to it. We could help hold it if we wanted, and Patty did. They glide so gracefully in the water. You may not guess they are so heavy - I believe they can be around 140 pounds.
We also got a "Stingray Backrub." You see, the underside of the stingray is very soft and pleasant to touch. The best analogy we have found so far is that it is very similar to the inside of your cheek. Its not slimy and gross, but soft and nice. So, the stingray backrub was a cute way to get up close and personal with them. The tour guide who grabbed the stringray rubbed it across the backs of both Patty and me at the same time. It was a unique experience.
After that, we attempted to feed a stingray. At first, none of the stingrays were approaching us for our little squid. I gave up and stood up for a while, and was surprised when a stingray came right at me, partially lifted itself out of the the water to about my chest level, and sucked my little squid right out of my hand! Shy it was not. It made a distinctive sucking sound that was audible even though the stingray was still underwater.
After the squid was gone, we just watched them under the water. They were very graceful. At times it looked like they were flying - flapping their "wings" underwater. When they were moving more slowly, they rippled their bodies to move forward. They were really fascinating.
However, some did not think they were so great. There were a couple women who were freaking out about the stingrays. The stingrays are not shy and they will brush up against you when they are passing by. Some could not handle that part. It is mean, but I thought this was funny. It reminded me of the women in the old cartoons that would stand up on a chair and scream, shout and pull up their skirts whenever a cartoon mouse entered the kitchen. As our tour guides said, the stingrays were not going to hurt anybody, so what was all the fuss about?
Anyway, to sum up, if you go to Grand Cayman and do not pay a visit to Stingray City, you are doing yourself a great disservice. There really is nothing else like it.
Costa Maya had the "least" amount to do of all the stops. That is, it had the smallest selection of shore excursions of all the ports. This does not mean it was a boring place. Most of the excursions involved enjoying the beauty of the surrounding area. There was kayaking, snorkeling, horseback riding, and dune buggy driving. We chose kayaking, and it was a wonderful experience.
Before we even got in the water, we saw something I thought was fascinating. It was thousands of little jellyfish. They were brown and partially translucent. They were about the diameter of a nickel and about the length of a push-pin. I had never seen a jellyfish before, and these were (apparently) not poisonous. They were not much to look at out of the water - they could not move and were just a pile of goo. In the water, they followed the current and shook a little to move themselves around. I noticed that many had washed ashore, dried out, and died. I thought they were very cool.
We were served lunch: tacos made from chicken and locally-caught lobster! They were delicious - and served with homemade tortilla chips. To top it off, we were given some of the local Mexican beer. This was the first beer I have ever drank and I have to say it was pretty good! It was not nearly as bad as I expected beer to be.
While we were eating, some of the locals came out to sell us things. One man had an iguana riding on his head, and you could take your picture with it for $4. It was pretty silly - which is just the kind of photo-op I like. I am now the proud owner of a picture of me with an iguana on my head.
Another woman came by with her daughter and sold handbags, bracelets, scarves, and other cloth products. She could not speak any English - except for prices. Patty bought a very nice handmade purse from her for $5.
Another women came up to us and sold us a bag of banana chips. As you would expect, they were thin dried banana slices. They only cost $1, but we realized after the fact that we were in Mexico - and that we would not be eating the local food without risk. We decided it would probably be best to skip eating the banana chips. They were probably safe, but we certainly did not want to risk being sick the rest of the trip!
Yet another woman had a table set up. She sold rosaries, crucifixes carved from fish bone, and other handicrafts. We bought a polished conch shell from her. The shell was big and was a rosy, sandy color on the polished side.
Conch shells, by the way, were everywhere. They were along or in the many dirt paths in the village. They were not as pretty as the shells for sale, since they were dirty and unpolished. But if you like shells, this was the place to be.
I also noticed that cacti were growing wild everywhere. Some of the cacti were about eight feet tall! For a native of Michigan, I thought this was pretty neat.
To top all of this off, our tour guides (who were the friendliest people you will ever meet) actually climbed some of the palm trees and cut off some of the coconuts for us to eat! They used a machete to cut them open and we were able to drink the milk and eat the meat. Coconut fun fact: the "meat" (white stuff) on the coconut is very bland by itself. You are supposed to eat the brown skin on top of the meat to get the coconut flavor. When you do this, the coconut is delicious. The milk was sweet and creamy.
To summarize, the clear water kayaking was fun, but exploring the fishing village and having fun with our tour guides was even more fun than that! It was an unexpected, but wonderful surprise!
Costa Maya has a very large shopping center at port. There are shops in buildings you would find in any American strip mall, and there were also shops in grass huts constructed in the main plaza. The sales tactics here were very different from what you would find in America. The salesmen in the grass huts were extremely aggressive. The salesmen in the buildings were less aggressive, but in each case the salesmen would follow you around their stores, talk to you, and name prices for anything you were interested in.
An important fact: for all of the goods in the port, the quoted price is not actually what you pay for it. All of the prices in all of the stores are negotiable. If you buy in bulk, they will give you a deal. If you attempt to walk away, they will lower the price of anything you were interested in. I believe that in attempting to walk away from one of the more annoying salesmen, he lowered the price of some candleholders we showed interest in to about one-fourth of the sticker price. The men in the grass huts will do anything to keep you in their store and buying their stuff. If you do not like aggressive salespeople, then I recommend you stay away from the grass huts.
The plaza also had a saltwater pool to swim in and an outdoor theater some dancers were performing on. The shows definitely had a tourist trap feel to them. We did not linger there for too long.
We saw some pretty exotic animals. A spider monkey came right up to us and sat on a rock probably not six feet way from the path we were on. Less exotic was some variety of deer that was kept in some of the pens. We saw a tapir - which most of the tourists mistook for an anteater. It seems as if anything with a long nose is mistaken for an anteater by tourists. Sometimes I wonder why elephants are not mistaken for anteaters more often. We saw a jaguar and lionesses from a safe distance away. They also had an aquarium with sea turtles, all manner of fish, stingrays, and a crocodile. I got to see a flounder up close. Its two little eyes poked out of the sand like little periscopes.
In the middle of our tour of Xcarat, we took a river swim. We gave our stuff to the park employees, they gave us life jackets, and we got into a small saltwater river. The river was too deep to touch bottom, and it had a current that would take you along for a ride. This river went underground into caves, and you could see fossils of shells and coral in this cave. If you looked closely, you would also see there were small fish in the water with you.
This river ride took about 45 minutes. It was fun way to cool off after a hot day of traveling and exploring. It was also a nice way to burn a few hundred of the tens of thousands of calories we had been consuming during the trip.
One thing that was unfortunate about Xcarat was that our tour was rigid. Xcarat is really like an ecological theme park, and there is lots to see and do. But we had a schedule to keep and a boat to get on, so we did not get to see everything or take our time as much as I would have liked. One thing I was particularly sad to miss was the manatee pen. I had never seen them before, and I was not going to see them on this trip.
Aside from the animals, Xcarat had many beautiful sites to just hang out at. There were lots of coves for swimming, lots of clear inner tubes for goofing off in the water, lots of chairs and umbrellas, and lots of hammocks spread across palm trees. It was a picture-perfect Caribbean site.
Some were swimming around while this was going on, and it was amazing to me how fast they were. They could turn on a dime in the water going at what seemed like amazing speeds. Its a contrast to see a dolphin zooming around the water like a sports car and seeing humans floundering their way through the water on the surface - going at about a snail's pace.
After the little staged show, we swam to a deeper part of the pool and hung out while the dolphins swam around us. We were allowed to pet them if they let us. They signified they were ok with touching by coming up to the surface and swimming by us. If they were underneath the water, they did not want to be bothered.
We had to be careful, since our fingernails could damage the dolphins' skin. Their skin was not soft. It was tough, but not unpleasant, and had a fine texture to it. It felt like a diver's wetsuit.
Some of them seemed particularly interested in Patty, and would sit in the water in front of her for a while - just looking at her. They even rolled on their backs for her, so she could pet their stomachs.
We stayed in the water for what seemed like a long time, while the dolphins swam around us. It was a fun and unique experience. It was superficially similar to swimming with stingrays, but dolphins were not the same as the stingrays. They had a power and intelligence to them that the stingrays lacked.
The ride there was not boring, since our tour guides talked about their country, its history, and Mayan history. Belize, unfortunately, needs some work. Our guides attempted to put a good face on it, but poverty seems widespread in Belize. There were no people dying in the streets, but the many of the houses we saw were shacks, and trash was piled in many places - usually right next to the shacks.
Most of the poorer-looking buildings were on stilts. Even far inland, the scattered houses were all on stilts. Belize was experiencing a drought when we visited, so it seemed strange to us. Did water really come that far inland? Perhaps it does, since we hear a hurricane hit Belize only a couple weeks after we left.
Most people worked in the city (Belize City) but lived in the country. Most people were too poor to own a car, so there was an extensive bus system in place. Every few miles, it seemed, there was another bus stop shelter with people waiting in it. Our tour guide said that commutes are long in Belize. Some take up to two hours.
The countryside looked barren. There were lots of shrubs and plants, but no farms in sight. The only agriculture that we saw was a couple orchards growing fruits. Houses (shacks) dotted the landscape - but much seemed untamed. Mountains could be seen far in the distance.
Our tour guide said some things I took with a grain of salt. For instance, he said that about 12% of the population is unemployed, but they choose not to work. He said there are plenty of jobs in Belize, and they had to import labor from outside the country to fill all of them. He was also quite convinced that black men were known to the Mayan civilization. He presented as proof a photocopy of a Mayan decoration which depicted a face with "clearly Negro features." He discussed how mainstream scientists were unwilling to accept this theory. That was my cue to smile and nod.
Xunantunich is a Mayan ruin abandoned thousands of years ago. It is in the middle of jungle, and to get to it, you have to cross a river via a hand-cranked ferry. The site had a small museum, and they explained many details of Mayan history along with guesses as to the particular history of Xunantunich.
The relics themselves were magnificent. The main pyramid (ziggaraut?) was dozens of stories tall and looked (rightfully so) like a man-made mountain. Most memorable was our climb to the top of this pyramid. We had to climb the huge original stairs, when sometimes it was easier to crawl on all fours than take the big steps up. We then had to climb stairs that were placed by later explorers. These were easier to traverse, but nerve-racking because you were very, very high up with nothing separating you from a fall of several stories. At the top, you could survey what was once an entire city, and see for dozens of miles in every direction. Indeed, our tour guide noted that we were looking at Guatemala about twenty miles in the distance in one direction.
Sometimes the local plants were just as interesting as the buildings. We were surrounded by a forest of huge tropical trees. Their leaves were tens of feet long and the trunks stretched up several stories. On some of the tree branches were dozens of insect nests. We learned later that these were tree ant nests. Occasionally there were also huge termite nests.
Thankfully, we had about ten minutes to shop for goods from the locals when we left. Like in Costa Maya, these people offered for sale a collection of cheap, unique handmade goods. Many of the things available for purchase were woodcrafts - which seems to be Belize's specialty in tourist goods. I presume it is from cutting down their plentiful rain forests. Most other goods were cloth products.
We purchased a "secret box" - which is like a jewelry box, but has a puzzle-box method of opening it. We also bought a small "worry doll" - which was a small cute doll (it looked like a handmade finger-puppet) that, according to Mayan legend, will take away your worries at night if you place it underneath your pillow.
We also met the hotel's pet macaw. Our guides recommended we did not get too close. The bird's wings were clipped, and I think it was bitter. So it enjoyed spreading the misery around by snapping at anybody that passed too close by. Since macaw beaks are very strong, we took our tour guides' word for it.
It was a nice time to have a rest and talk with our fellow travelers. At this stop, we talked to one of many fellow guests that claimed to own his own business. Maybe this was true. But then, my experience has been that people that go out of their way to tell you they own their own business often do not, and are just trying to impress you.
Driving away from Xunantunich was not quite as exciting since the tour guides no longer talked. After a long day of walking in the hot sun, most people slept.
What made the day memorable, however, were the fires. Our tour guide had said earlier that fires spontaneously erupt in Belize and that they were nothing to worry about. He said that dry conditions, maybe bits of glass, maybe human actions, maybe other contributing factors led to fires springing up. It even helps some of the local trees, which rely on fires to open up their seeds.
We saw this up close on our drive back. We could see a few columns of smoke in the distance throughout the trip back, but one of the fires was right next to the road. In fact, it was on both sides of the road! We briefly drove through a thick cloud of black smoke and had large fires on each side of us. Our tour guides were nonchalant. It was all a bit surreal.
We passed through the smoke and fire without incident, but it was a bizarre experience nontheless.