The last entry for the Caribbean cruise takes us to Roatan, Honduras, part of the Mohagany Bay Islands, and to Costa Maya, Mexico, home to one of the newly discovered Mayan civilizations, Chacchoben, which means Red Corn.
For the trip to Roatan, we had rented scooters and planned to explore on our own across the island, however a heavy rainstorm dampened these plans, and we returned our scooters shortly after heading out. We took a water taxi to a popular tourist area called West Bay, and had lunch there and walked along the beach. From there, we went back to West End, did a little shopping, then back to the ship and some more shopping and walking along the beach before embarking and heading to the Yucatan Peninsula.
In Costa Maya, we had arranged a tour that would take us about 80 kilometers from the port to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. Here, only about 10% has been excavated, and the company plans to leave parts uncovered so visitors can see what it looked like after being dormant for many years. From there, we went to a Mayan village where two ladies prepare an amazing traditional meal for us, and we even got to make our own corn tortillas, so now I have had lessons in making both flour and corn tortillas from my friends in Mexico.
Enjoy the pictures. Off to get ready for class, then hang out with the group from Mt. Prospect.
Docking in Mahogany Bay, Roatan
Beach in West Bay
This bird landed by me at lunch, I made some noise, and it yelled back.
My future beach house
Our ship in dock
Toes in the water, toes in the sand
Mayan Pyramid in chachhoben
This is how it looked when they first found it. They think there is another here
A room off the pyramid
Houses were built on top of these steps, they left the dirt on top to show what it looked like before
Mayan Eggplant
One of our cooks, who taught us tortilla making
There is mine
Chiles
Beans, those are Cocoa beans right in front
mmmm plantains
My plate of goodness
Be honest--did you write WISH YOU WERE HERE or did you stumble upon it?
ReplyDeleteErin -- We stumbled on it, but it made a good pic, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteThe next day, the last port of call, at Costa Maya, was my favorite. In spite of the extremely rainy weather, this tour of Chacchoben and the lunch at the Maya house were spectacular. Also, the scare about whether we would make it back to the ship on time also got interesting. Good thing one of the trip sponsored tours was late returning, or they would have been pulling up the gang plank on our heels.