Key West - The Conch Republic?

Thursday, December 12, Silver Spirit arrived at Key West soon after sunrise.  Michael and I were able to use our cell phones to catch up on e-mail while we were approaching the port.  I mentioned in a much earlier post that the ship's Internet was all but unusable; the situation had not improved and we were not using the ship's system much.  Each time we entered U.S. waters we turned on our cell phones to use the cell system to check mail and download maps and such.

I had not been to Key West or any of the other Florida Keys so I was looking forward to seeing the strange characters and partying tourists.  Mallory Square where the ship docked and Duval Street are the heart of Key West tourist land .  Whitehead Street a block west of Duval has many historic houses and is much quieter and more relaxed.  Michael and I took two long walks around the city and took in most of the sights. We took an early morning walk before the streets got crowded and another walk in the afternoon when the bars and restaurants were in full swing.  Mostly we avoided the bars and restaurants and looked at the historic sights.

Approaching Mallory Square Pier before 8:00 AM

Walking From the Pier to Front Street

Key West got the nickname "The Conch Republic" as something of a publicity stunt in 1982.  U.S. Immigration officials had established a checkpoint where U.S. highway 1 joins the mainland.  They were stopping all vehicles to search for drugs and illegal immigrants. This disrupted travel to the Florida Keys for locals and tourists alike.  The mayor and city council of Key West declared the Keys independent of the United States on the grounds that they were being treated like a foreign country by the government.  Key West started issuing passports, not really seriously, and a publicity campaign for the Conch Republic took off.  I was told that some people actually tried to use these fake passports as actual travel documents.  The results were not good. The Conch Republic though, has been a great marketing idea.

He is Looking For an Open Bar at 9 AM

Historic Lighthouse in the Center of the Island

Crowd at Hemingway's House - I Didn't See any Six Toed Cats

Audubon Cottage

Historic 19th Century House

The Beginning or End of US 1 Depending on How You Look at It

Retro cinema with plastic Marilyn Monroe

1800s surveyed southernmost point but it no longer is

This house is south of the marker

Another Southernmost Establishment. There Are Many of Them

As the Silver Spirit pulled away from the pier a few minutes before  sunset, Michael and I watched the crowds gather at Mallory Square as they do each evening to celebrate sundown.  The partying was getting underway in earnest.  We enjoyed cocktails on our veranda as Key West receded in the distance.  Our celebration of sunset was much more subdued.

The following morning we left Silver Spirit at Ft Lauderdale.  We had lunch and a wonderful walk on Ft Lauderdale beach with our friends Mike and Kathy who had made it to Florida a few days before we did.  We said one last goodby to Heinz and Ellen at the airport before an uneventful flight home to Denver.  We had a wonderful warm weather vacation while Colorado suffered the season's first really cold spell. It was great to see so many old friends.  The cruise  turned out to be far better than we expected.

Belize - A trip to Mayan Ruins

December 10 Silver Spirit anchored in a huge bay near Belize City.  We were a good distance out from the pier since the water in the bay is very shallow except in the dredged channel.  Instead of our ship's tenders taking us ashore, a large catamaran ferry from the port sped us at about 30 mph to the pier.  This saved at least half an hour giving us more time four our all-day tour.

Soon our twenty person tour group to the Lamanai temples, boarded a tour bus for an hour ride north to the New River.  From there we split into two groups and boarded speedboats for another hour ride up the river to the temple site.

Tour Guide Julie

Our Rainy Embarkation on the New River

Belize is the former British Honduras. It is the only English speaking country in Central America. It's population is a mix of Mestizo (mixed race), Mayan, English, Spanish and black peoples. It is the least populous Central American Country.  Surprisingly, there is a Dutch-German Mennonite group, mainly in rural areas, that supplies most of the local fruits, vegetables and grains. Sugar cane is still raised in the countryside and we passed a rum distillery on the river.
Ironically, it was next to an alcohol rehabilitation center.

Spider Monkey

Mennonite Farm

The area from southern Mexico to Guatemala and Nicaragua is dotted with the ruins of Mayan cities and temples.  Lamanai is not one of the largest nor one of the more famous temple complexes but it offers a really fascinating view of a partially excavated Mayan site in real wilderness jungle.  Our tour was lead by a guide who was most knowledgeable about the archaeology and history of the site and explained why scientists have concluded what the use and purpose of the various structures are.

The Jaguar Temple

Intrepid Travelers Scale the Main Temple

I Heard the View From the Top was Lots of Jungle

Stela 9 Temple

Carving on the Stela - Lord Smoking Skull

Mask Temple - Female Face, Left - Male Face, Right

Detail of Female Face

Michael Climbs the Mask Temple

Unexcavated Palace

Belize City Pier at Sunset

Michael and I both thought that this was the best tour on the entire trip.

A Strange Port in Southern Mexico and a Glimpse of Guatemala

From Cozumel, Silver Spirit made a short overnight trip south to a very new cruise port on the southern coast of Mexico, just north of the border with Belize.

Until a few years ago this stretch of coastline was nothing but mangrove swamp, palm trees and white sandy beach punctuated every few hundred miles with small fishing villages.  The Mexican government created a cruise port here to encourage tourism and development.  Costa Maya has become a jumping off point for tours from cruise ships to various Mayan Ruins in southern Mexico. It also has one of the largest tourist shopping centers I have ever seen.

Center of Shopping Compound

Silver Spirit offered tours for fly fishing, jeep riding on the beach, a glass bottom boat ride, a beach barbeque and a tour of a contemporary Mayan village.  The tours mostly departed from the village of Mahahual three miles from the pier. Our opportunity to see Mayan ruins would come later at stops in Guatemala and Belize.

Since none of the tour options was particularly interesting,  Michael and I decided to spend the day reading on our veranda with a trip ashore to view the large shopping center complex designed to part cruise passengers from their money.

Swim Up Bar at Senor Frog's

Dolphin Pool at Costa Maya

Made in Mexico Handicrafts

Was it ever a tourist trap!  Two Diamond's International stores, a Tansanite International, three gift shops selling t-shirts, sandals, hats, refrigerator magnets and bottles of sand decorated with little figurines.  I heard one woman telling another, "I saw something just like this in Dubai. Isn't it great?" I imagine most of the souvenirs were made in China and shipped to the appropriate tourist shop with the appropriate country label.  These souvenirs all said "Mexico" somewhere on them.  We also saw a shop selling a hundred different types of Tequila. We walked by three bar/ restaurants including the inevitable Senor Frogs.This one had a large swimming pool with a swim up bar.  Among the shops there were t-shirt and sunglasses stalls and tiny shops selling bags and hats "handmade in Mexico."  The shopping center was fenced all around with chain link and a guard post protected the exit to a sandy road leading to the fishing village. I found the whole place bizarre and a bit sad.

Diligent Line Handlers Waiting for the Order to Cast Off

Sunset over Costa Maya as we Sail for Guatemala

The next morning, December 9, we docked at a commercial pier in Santo Tomas, Guatemala.  Here, the tourist shopping center was inside a warehouse filled with what appeared to be local crafts, independent tour operators and only one tiny Diamonds International store. The rest of the pier was occupied with a busy shipping operation.  Various freighters were being unloaded and loaded the whole day.  Tourism was only a small part of the port activity.

Tourist Center at Santo Tomas

The main reason for the Santo Tomas stop was that SilverSea offered two nine hour tours to two different sets of Mayan ruins, Copan in Honduras and Tikal in Guatemala.  Each involved an air flight from Santo Tomas, a long bus ride and almost $700 per person participating.  Michael and I decided to wait until we arrived in Belize before we visited Mayan ruins.  None of the tours to local attractions particularly appealed to us either.

Jim, Michael and I took a longish walk into the town.  Santo Tomas is a town that mainly supports a Guatemalan naval base and the port.  The town was a real town, the people were real people going about their normal lives.  All the tourist activity appeared to be confined to the port. Seeing real people was fascinating.  They were poor by U.S. standards but not poor compared to people on some of the Caribbean islands we had seen.  Some streets were torn up for water and sewer work before they were to be paved with concrete.  We were passed by many people on motor bikes and bicycles but there were cars and trucks on the streets too. It was definitely a middle class environment.  The open air stores and houses with only gratings over the window openings seemed strange until I realized that in a moist, hot year round climate window panes are not required, nor necessarily desirable. Air circulation is more important.

Streets in Town of Santo Tomas

The three of us enjoyed the walk and the friendly people we met who were pleasant but intent on their own business.

A Sea Day Then Cozumel, Mexico

Silver Spirit took a day December 6, 2013 to sail from Ft Lauderdale to Cozumel, an island off the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.  During that time I read a little, attended two lectures and a cooking demonstration and generally relaxed and enjoyed our veranda.  I watched the north coast of Cuba slide past the balcony rail for most of the afternoon.

Michael and I attended a spectacular dinner in the "Champagne Room", a small restaurant that charges extra for more expensive food and wine.  Our cruise agent, Jim, hosted the dinner and invited us and our friends Heinz and Ellen Biesdorf to share an elaborate, multi course dinner accompanied by some beautiful wines.  Dinner began at 7:30  pm and we closed the place after 10:30. Jim, Michael and I then moved to the Observation Bar on the top deck, only a few steps from our suite. We were there until after midnight.  I'm sure that this was the latest Michael and I had stayed up during the past month.

Captain Pontillo and the Mexican Pilot Supervise the Docking

Line Handlers Secure the Ship

Cozumel, Mexico is a very popular cruise port.  There is a small pier in the center of the town (San Miguel) and an enormous cruise pier a few miles to the south of the town.  Fortunately, the Silver Spirit was small enough to dock at the in-town pier.  Michael and I did drive south past the larger pier and past the two Carnival ships docked there to take a ride in a real submarine, underwater along the reef that made Cozumel a tourist destination and one of the premier diving spots in the Americas.  I took my new, larger camera and shot scenes of fish and coral in the blue underwater light. It was really exciting to go more than100 feet underwater and out over the edge of a 3000 foot drop off where all we could see in a down direction was black.

The Tourist Submarine Atlantis

The Tourists Enjoy the Underwater View

Fish

Following our submarine ride, Michael and I with Jim in tow, took a taxi to some friend's Cozumel house.  Mike and Kathy happened to be stuck in a snowstorm in Arkansas on the way to Florida when Michael called them to let them know we were at their Mexican house in warm sunshine  and to ask if it was safe to drink the Margaritas at Mike's favorite bar in Cozumel - Coconuts.  Assured that the water was safe although more than one Margarita was definitely not safe, we found another taxi and negotiated a trip to Coconuts on the other side of the island.

Mike and Kathy's Pool

Overlooking the Pool

The Margaritas were very good as were the chips with guacamole and salsa.  Three very happy tourists returned to Silver Spirit for an afternoon nap.

Coconuts Bar

Lunch on Top of the Hill

Tequila the Parrot

Beach on the East Side of Cozumel

Silver Spirit Docked at the In-Town Pier