After another full day and two nights at sea, Miracle dropped anchor shortly after sunrise in the harbour at Belize City. Belize is the diving and snorkeling capital of Central America, and its coral reef is second in size only to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. To protect the reef, large passenger vessels are required to anchor well out to sea, and the passengers are transferred to shore in small boats. With 2,700 passengers on board the Miracle, this was quite an operation.Belize is also well-known in the USA as a tax-free shopping haven specializing in jewellery, and many passengers, particularly those of the female gender, were chafing at the bit as the first of the tender boats arrived to whisk us into Belize city.
We hired a minibus and driver to take us on a half-day tour of some of the nature sights in the countryside around the city. The guide told us that Belize was once a British colony; this is the reason why English is the principal language. The population is comprised of four main ethnic groups. One is the Mayan people, and the first stop on our tour was to inspect a centuries’ old Mayan temple ruin that was discovered overgrown in the jungle only a few decades ago during a road-building project. It was a pleasant place and we were permitted to climb to the top to get a view of the whole complex and surrounding jungle.
We then visited what was touted as a baboon sanctuary, but the resident animals were actually black Howler Monkeys. The noise the dominant male made from the tree-tops as we encroached into his territory was very impressive. Our young Belizean guide had established a relationship with this particularly monkey family, and they responded energetically to his monkey-calls. He was able to get two of the family to come down from the trees and within an arm’s length of the tourists standing on the jungle path below. The only other animals we saw at this place were 20 billion mosquitoes that swarmed around us whenever we entered a darker spot on the path. The guide had issued each of us with a brush that looked like a horse’s tail, to wave at and swat the mosquitoes. But that was only slightly effective, and by the time we got the DEET spray from our backpack and applied it to our skin, I was covered in mosquito bites on my face, neck and legs. Hopefully none of the mozzies in this hot and steamy tropical jungle are carriers of malaria, denghi fever, encephalitis etc.
Our minibus then returned to Belize city for a short drive around the port area. Then there was only time for a quick stroll around the tourist market before we had to board the tender boats for the 15-minute return journey across the harbour to the Miracle. As with the two previous shore excursion days, we had had a great time, but in each case the sight of the Miracle in the distance as the tour ended was a very welcome and alluring sight indeed. This was our first time on a cruise ship, and it was a very different, almost surreal, experience. During the day we had the opportunity to see some great sights in countries where many of the people are financially very poor and have to cope with the most basic of living conditions. But then at the end of the day we were whisked back to the closeted and luxurious cocoon of the cruise ship where we could take a shower in air-conditioned comfort before heading to Bacchus to make our dinner selections, and then be entertained in the Phantom Lounge. Anyone who did not feel very fortunate at the end of each of these shore excursion days must not have been thinking.
By 4.30pm all of Miracle’s passengers had re-boarded in Belize Harbour, and shortly after 5 the anchor was raised and we were on our way again. Later over the dinner tables there was the usual interesting talk about the different tours people had taken and the sights they had seen. But tonight there were also excited recountings of the day’s forays into the shops of Belize, and the jewels and other booty brought out. Later, the concert hall, casino and bars (even Dr Frankenstein’s I noted), were back in full swing.
