Central America, Part 1

I had the desire since I was a fifth grader in Mr. Harding geography class to visit Central America. Our South and Central America geography class covered interesting stuff…. the likes of pirates, explorers, the Mayan and Aztec people. So, when Denise suggested “let’s do a cruise this winter”, I suggested, “let’s do Central America and the Panama Canal”.

We embarked on a 15-day Viking Ocean cruise ship, the Viking Star visiting 6 Central American countries. Our itinerary included visiting countries of Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Jamaica. Viking provided plenty of opportunities to listen to on-board resident historians (retired professors) on lectures about the history and culture on each of our port-of-call.

Our first port-of-call was Cozumel, Mexico.

Cozumel, Mexico

An international ironman race was going on when we arrived shutting down the waterfront and downtown area. Over 1000 raced a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run….in one day.

Getting around was little difficult. Our 45 minute taxi ride had to find alternate routes to get us to our “Taste of Mexico” el restaurante. It was an interesting ride as we got to see the normal side of Cozumel.

Our “Taste Of Mexico” excursion consisted of tasting two of the most popular flavors of Mexico; tequila and cocoa bean (chocolate). We learned that tequila is a sipping drink, much like wine and champagne. For tequila to be sold as tequila, it has to be distilled in a very specific location in Mexico, just like champagne. A bottle of champagne can only be called champagne if it’s from a certain region in France.

We were given three types of tequila. 1. Silver tequila, not aged just newly distilled. 2. Aged in wooden bourbon barrels for 1 year. 3. Aged in wooden barrels for greater than 1 year. I thought the aged in wooden barrels for 1 year’ was the best.

‘It is to be sipped not shotted”. We learned how to sip which allowed the pairing flavors of coffee beans, lime and chocolate on our tongue. After trying the pairing, the flavors were great! We now have a new tasting to our favorite tasting list.

Our second stop was to Mexico popular “Mayan Cacao Company”, famous for their cacao (chocolate). Cacao is one of Mexico great exports. Our presentation included raw cacao beans, smashing them and adding spices to create a flavor of rich grainy chocolate taste.

Belize

Belize is the only Central America country that has English as its primary language. Belize is probably better known for the Mayans that lived there more than 5000 years ago. There are over a dozen ruins to visit. Off shore, the famous Great Blue Hole is located in shallow lagoon. It descends some 400ft. Divers from all over the world visit its depths.

My port-of-call excursion takes me to explore a mile long cave about an hour and a half drive into the jungle. The travel there was an adventure of its own. Streets are narrow, lots of vehicles and the mightier you are, the more commanding of the road you are able to be. They have two speeds, stopped…..and wide open… Road repair…what road repair? It was one of the bumpiest ride ever! As we approached the dense jungle, we had to change vehicles to an ATV bus for the last part of the trip to climb over and get through.

It took about an hour to float through the cave. The slow moving river flowing through was at the perfect speed to explore. There were bats in the ceiling, flowing water from above creating beautiful water falls, openings to the outside providing daylight views of the jungle…and then there were all the rock formations….The whole experience was awesome!

I had a chance to eat at a local place. Only one item on the menu…chicken, red beans with rice, coleslaw. $8 American with local beer.

Roatan, Honduras

This is a snorkelers paradise. The reefs that skirts the coastline has the highest diversity of corals in the Caribbean. The tropical climate provides excellent growth for tropical plants. We rated this country to be the most beautiful of the 6 countries we visited. On this port-of-call, we did a guided tour of a botanical garden located about 45 minutes drive away.