Belize City, Belize
I had a long day of flying; it was the first time really flying by myself. I went through Victoria, Seattle, and Miami and then arrived in Belize. I know that it sounds silly but I was really happy with myself and how well I travelled. When I arrived in Belize I was greeted by Mr Davies and then we waited for Jessica O and a new boy Jeremy. We drove back to the ship I had lots going through my mind I was really worried about second semester and how things would turn out. I also had a lot on my mind, universities, school, doing well in school, and figuring out what I should do with the rest of my life. I may want to do medical school but then that would require that I do an internship which then means I have to decide that soon which because I would have to do that during the summer, And summer is coming up soon. Enough about that, Belize so we got to the ship and it look dazzling, all the kids were gone so it was only Jessica, Jeremy, Sam.W and I on the ship we unpacked and got our stuff organized. Low and behold an hour later we had to provision. Everybody came back when I was taking down the flag and I got so many hugs it was great. The next day I stayed on the ship and fully unpacked, and I was on galley and I had gang-way. That night though I went out for dinner, Belize City its self was not the prettiest city but the atmosphere was great. People were friendly and some time too friendly, there were smiles and greetings everywhere. Being blonde and blue eyed gets you really noticed! We when to the Radisson which was a hotel for dinner because we had heard that they had the best burger. We sat down, the restaurant was by a pool, and there were plants and climbing root s over the bar it was really cute restaurant. Are table started with only 7-8 people and by the end there was 15-17 people it was really fun we had a big dinner and everybody talked about their breaks back home. That night we had a port program organized by Sam D and Elisha’s dad, we had a band that played traditional music and there were appetizers and such it was really fun. The next day we left, eventhough I did not spend much time in Belize I am glad a got a bite of it because it really is a beautiful place. The most memorable thing about Belize would defiantly have to be the colour of the water.
Havana, Cuba
As we entered port we could instantly see the culture everywhere, old building, old architecture, old cars, and beautiful hillside. We got into port one day early which was nice because that meant that we would have more time to spend there. Immigration took a while but we finally got out of the ship. The area in which we were docked looked like a movie scene there were cars from the 50’s, the port looked very old and ruff. It was enclosed into a square shape, it just looked really authentic. We were not allowed to go on shore leave that night, but the next morning we went and explored. I went out with Jamie, Victoria, and Ben. To get out of the port we needed to show our passports and show our names on the paper and they had to check our bags. We had never had so much security. The first step was to go to a bank because we needed money, the banks in Cuba were so securitized, they would only let a certain amount of people in the banks at one time, this meant that we had to wait a least half an hour just to get into the bank. There were types of pesos the convertible pesos which they gave to tourists and the local pesos that were not convertible to anything. The architecture was not what I expected it to be. It was so European, but in an original way. The buildings were tall and they looked like they had a lot of culture. Victoria, Jamie, Ben and I walked around for the day we had lunch at cafe Paris which had nothing to do with French food but it had really cheap food. We all got individual large pizzas each for 3 convertible Cuban pesos which is basically on par with the Canadian dollar. We walked around went to the market and we got our picture taken by these people on the street with a very old French camera, we each got a copy of the picture in black and white and i also go the negative version of it. We also got Cuban cigars for our parents we had no problem getting them through customs were as some of the boys got theirs confiscated. The customs officers were really strict when it came to bringing in things to the port. There had be a government approved sticker with red numbers on it and some part of it had to be shinny. We went back to the ship and later on that night we had a girl’s night out, we got all dressed up and we really wanted to go dancing but we came to this restaurant that had a flamingo dancing show with live music. We had an authentic meal while watching flamingo dancing it was a nice night. The next morning we had shore leave all day and that night we had a port program to go and see a cabaret. The day was spent restaurant hoping and looking around we were not allowed to leave Havana because we did not have a certain visa; we had to stay in the old city. That night we went to a cabaret ...it was interesting to say the least; the teachers had not expected it to be that ‘revealing’ but it was interesting. There was this contortionist and she did some pretty crazy things. The night was long, we got back to the ship at roughly 1 in the morning and then the next morning we had to wake up a 6:30am to go to Veredero for a beach day. Veredero was very touristic but it was what we needed, a nice relaxing day at the beach. The water was lovely and I took a risk for myself and I went snorkelling. We took a catamaran out to the middle of the bay and snorkelled with a guide. It was so cool, I was really proud of myself for doing that it was my first time snorkelling and I can’t wait to do it again. We even got to feed the fish it was really fascinating. All in all Cuba is one of the ports I would really want to come back to
Dominican Republic,
We were docked in the middle of a palm tree forest; it was boss (heather smith). But actually it looked like a movie scene. When we docked and cleared customs we left right away for Las Terrenes. We took safari busses to Las Terrenes it was roughly an hour bus ride and it was really fun because the roads were bumpy; therefore, we were flying everywhere. We arrived at night to a beach were we had a dinner that consisted of Rice, beans, fish, lasagne and bread. They also served us this juice that was made with real fruit. We spent a lovely night walked along the beach and then our home stays picked us up. My home-stay parents were Jill and Steve and they lived on a resort area in a small vacation home. We had to take a 20min taxi cab to get there and there was a portion of the road that was so destroyed by the rain that there were massive puddles every were it was entertaining. We had to take a cab because our home stay had a quad so they really could not take four of us on it therefore we took a taxi. With me were Sienna, Bryn and Sarah N. We sat and talked to our home stay, they gave us Ritz crackers and peanut butter. That was such a treat because a girl on the ship has a huge allergy to penuts: therefore no peanuts are allowed on the ship. That night I had such a great sleep in a comfy bed with clean sheets! The next morning we were treated like royalty and they made has browns, sunny side up eggs, toast, PEANUTBUTTER and freshly cut fruit, and juice. We had a great breakfast and then we were off to work. I was assigned the playground with Jamie, Victoria, James, Felix, Jeremy, and Noah. We had to dig up all the gravel to build the foundation and then dig holes for were the post were going to go , that was some back breaking work. The guy we were working with was French from France, and I was the only one who could speak French in my group; therefore I had to translate the entire whole construction plan. I really enjoyed what we were doing it was so much fun. I mean it was tough work, but we were all working together which was really nice. We had two hours to get back to our home stays to shower and get ready for the pig roast and dancing on the beach. Getting to the beach was fun Bryn, Sienna, Sarah’s, Dave, Mark, and Dan and I rode in the back of a pickup truck it was really crazy just because the roads were so bumpy and there were so many people in the streets, looks of heads turned when we passed , we stood out like a sore thumb. We got to the beach, you could see the full pig being roasted ....Anyways the atmosphere was great there was music playing, people dancing, there was the sound of the ocean crashing, people were laughing, and it really was a great place to be. Bryn and Sarah N went back earlier and Sienna and I stayed back for a while and got a ride back in the back of a pickup truck. (Do not worry it was not a random persons truck it was the home stay organizers truck) Anyways it was a nice ride we were also with a couple of guys from class a float. When we got back to our home stay, they had chocolate for us and they had also made popcorn and nachos. Having Home stay parents for two days was really nice, we got to be pampered for a short period of time, my only regret is that we did not spend much time with our home stays and we did not really get a chance to explore where they live. Oh, I forgot to mention In the Dominican EVERYBODY rode motorcycles and ATV’S, you almost never saw a car and there were really no rules when it came to a side of a street. It felt like you were living in a motor cycle gang, except that everybody was very nice and kind.
