Belize

The day we hit Belize the weather turned sour. It was very overcast and windy. Because the water is so shallow near the coast, we had to dock 5 miles out in the Carribean Sea and have tender boats take us to shore. We had planned a shore excursion of a city tour and a tour of a Mayan ruin. So off we went on this tender boat with three Central American men guiding us. Interestingly, Belize is the only Central American country that has English as their primary language. In the middle of our trip, flying across the ocean, jammed packed onto this boat, we see black smoke billowing up from the side of the boat and then inside the boat! It was at this point that I realized, there are no lifevests to be seen. The boat comes to a complete stop and Doug is formulating a plan of survival if we have to abandon ship! Thankfully, the engine fire that had occurred put itself out and they were able to restart the boat and coast us slowly to shore. From there we loaded onto a large bus and took a tour around the city of Belize. What squallor! Very sad conditions. Good experience for our older girls to witness. From there, the bus took us on an hour ride up to the Mayan ruin. It was sprinkling the entire trip, but of course once we arrived at the ruin site, it began to downpour- and I mean downpour. Since you had to do a small hike to get to the ruin our hopes were dashed and we ended up staying on the bus. Traveling back to the ship for an hour with five soaking wet people did not appeal to us!

I was never so happy to get back onto our ship. Since being home, Doug has checked the state department website for Belize and after reading what we did, we would have never gotten off the ship had we known. Very corrupt and dangerous country. They even mention the unregulated tender boat industry! We are thanking God for protecting us on that excursion. Shocked that cruise companies even use this as a port of call....and their were four other cruise lines anchored out with us on the day we were in Belize--unbelievable. Below are some pictures.