Caribbean Cruise — 2019

Today is the first time any of us have been in Honduras.  Henry slept in and Jeff was up earlier, so the rest of us went to the American Icon for breakfast.  Our tour met on the pier, so we went out early and walked around the shops near the ship.  The group boarded several small buses around 11:00 and went for a 20 minute drive to the site of our Eco-Park Adventure Tour.  Joseph, our bus guide, told us that the Roatan Island has a very low crime rate, while mainland Honduras is so crime-ridden that many people are trying to get to the U.S.  border.  Tourism is the biggest industry on Roatan Island, but the city and houses are very modest and there’s lots of trash around.  Apparently there are 5-star hotels on the island but most houses do not have AC and still pay up to $200 a month for electricity.  After getting off the bus we were surrounded by some very friendly White-face Capuchin monkeys.  They would jump on your shoulders or head and wanted to grab sunglasses or other loose objects.  Next was the butterfly house, where our park guide Jose gave us lots of info about the butterflies we were seeing.  We then started walking about .2 of a mile on a path through the jungle.  It was not a difficult walk but you had to watch where you were stepping.  We walked across 2 suspension bridges that weren’t at all scary.  There were 3 hammocks at the rest place where we saw some native critters, including spider monkeys and white-tail deer.  We were told that iguana meat was a menu item here but we didn't stop to eat.  We got back to the ship and went to the Windjammer for lunch.  Anne, Chris, Jay and Barbara played general trivia at 5:00 and had a respectable score (13 of 15 right answers, but the winning team had 14).  If we had known the inventor of the flush toilet was Sir Thomas Crapper (not James) we would have tied the winners.  At 7:30 we went to see the Ice Games, which were on the ice rink in Studio B.  The costumes were colorful as was the lighting.  It was pretty impressive that they were able to do some jumps and lifts on such a small rink.  A female skater from Canada did some crazy spins and acrobatics on a ring suspended from the ceiling.  We had a late dinner again tonight and Barbara tried the NY strip steak that Jamie loves and it was very good.  HAL seems to have a problem making a medium rare steak, but it’s not a problem here.  Jay didn’t go to the casino and Barbara should have stayed away, too.  We are very happy with the quietness of the cabins at night—thought there might be noisy kids running through the ship.  The food is better than expected and if we avoid the Windjammer at peak times we can find a table pretty easily.  We’re being much more flexible on mealtimes on this cruise.  The others in our party are having more than 3 meals a day and B & J are snacking more too but trying to avoid going hog wild.  One complaint is that many passengers, not just children, are ready to get on the elevator and block the way before anyone can get off.  More positive than negative things overall.