We arrived very early in the morning at George Town due to the high speed overnight transit from Jamaica. Our tour disembarked at the normal time and its first stop was a butterfly garden. Seemingly just a pleasant stop, this was actually a very impressive enclosure, habitat, and breeding facility hosted at the Cayman Turtle …
We enjoyed our Enrichment At Sea day after leaving Panama as a time to rest and reflect. Just kidding, the hours were packed with activities, parties, dancing and the captain’s formal dinner. We stayed up much too late and probably didn’t drink any water. So I recall quite a haggard morning (unpictured) as we disembarked …
We again find ourselves with an overnight port stay and two days to take in the local scene, this time in Panama. We were docked right in the center of the commercial port of Colón, a bustling hub of activity due to its proximity to the canal. On the first day we took a planned …
After a day at sea spent recovering from our three day landfall streak, we arrived in Costa Rica. We would remain overnight this time, so it felt like less of a rush to go out and see the sights before dock time arrived all too soon. The ship took the opportunity to bunker more fuel, …
We arrived in Honduras the next day, continuing our back-to-back landfall. The ship docked in Puerto Cortez but we had signed up to visit the Lancetilla Botanical Garden which sounded like a very nice excursion. We were not, however, informed of how far away this destination was. From our point of origin in the port …
Our arrival in Belize came hot on the heels of our departure from Mexico. Once again we found ourselves anchoring quite a ways off shore and and tendering in to dry land. Our destination in Belize was Jaguar Paw Eco-tourism adventure park about an hour drive outside the city. We scooted through town pretty quickly …
The MV Explorer had no trouble making the transit around Cuba with a day at sea in between. We queued up in the theatre waiting to be called for our various excursions. The shore leading to Playa Del Carmen has quite the shallow draft so we were forced to moor and tender ashore. Once on …
Back on a Boat We flew into the airport in Nassau and took a quick cab ride over to the port area to check-in with the MV Explorer for the Enrichment Cruise. We didn’t do any touring of the city itself, the urge to get our cabins confirmed and our luggage stowed was too strong. …
The voyage ends, as all things must. The staff pulled no punches in the final days of our semester to make memorable moments. The formal Captain’s dinner and sea Fear Factor filled the time while our faithful ship made for the mainland. We made port to little fanfare; frankly mostly anxious parents waited on the …
Day One We docked in downtown Honolulu at pier II right next to the Aloha Tower. (by now we were experts at noting landmarks for locating the ship!) After more than two months away it felt very good to be back in the US. Aside from declaring as citizens rather than visitors, there were some …