If It's Wednesday, We Must Be In Belize!

Today we talk about the Belize stop during last weeks cruise on Caribbean Princess.  I've been to Belize several times, but I've never been there on a day when it didn't rain.  I have always been there with only one exception between November and February so I thought it was my timing.  I was trying to give Belize the benefit of the doubt and had decided that this must be the rainy season.  Nope!  It turns out that November to April is the best time of year to go.  So maybe it's me.

Since my cabin was on the starboard side of the ship and we were once again traveling north, I had access to sunrises now from my balcony, I mean assuming I could manage to get out of bed in time to catch one. As luck would have it on the morning we arrived in Belize I woke early enough to catch the sunrise and although it was overcast. there was still some pretty color to capture.

Belizean Sunrise

We arrived in Belize early in the morning on Wednesday.  I had no excursions planned for Belize.  On previous stops there I have done a city tour that ended up at a little resort/museum on the outskirts of Belize City and I have done several different snorkel trips.  For some, snorkeling in the rain may not seem like a problem.  For me, it's a problem.  I know, I'm going to get wet anyway when I snorkel.  But the rain makes it cold.  Plus without the sunlight to shine in the water, the visibility is greatly reduced.  On top of that, it seems like the snorkel boats take you to really deep water for snorkeling in Belize.  These might be great diving locations. But I don't like being 30 feet above the fish.  There are other excursions available in Belize, but I just didn't feel like planning one for each stop this trip anyway.  So considering my excursion experiences there in the past, this seemed like the right spot to skip one and I am so glad that I did.

Belize is a stop that is always tendered meaning there is no dock for the ship to tie up to.  The ship anchors off shore and they load you on small boats and take you to the dock.  The tender ride is about 15 to 20 minutes each way which I think makes it wise to plan your day so that you only leave the ship once.  So if you have an excursion, you need to plan your time so that you shop along the dock either immediately before or after the excursion and then you only have to make one trip back to the ship.  I don't have the patience to wait in line for ship tenders more than twice a day.  The reason that they can't dock in Belize has to do with the water depth and the reef.

Our ship at anchor as we pulled away on the tender.

So on  this stop in Belize we all planned to take the tender over after most of the excursions had left so that we wouldn't have to wait around too long.  That meant that we had a later than normal breakfast and then were ready to go to shore around 10.  Mom had read somewhere about a chocolate factory on the dock that did a tour and she was determined that we should do that.  So, it was really our only plan for the day.

I should tell you that as we were sailing into Belize on Wednesday morning we were followed by two NCL ships and one Carnival ship.  So there were to be 4 ships in port on this day, making it very crowded in Belize.  I think by now, you are all aware of how I feel about NCL and Carnival so I won't go into it.  Let's just say that most of the people on the dock in Belize last Wednesday weren't the sort of people to wait patiently and allow someone using a walker step in front of them to use a ramp.  These are the sort of people who block the accessible ramp so that they have a convenient place to smoke their cigarette and watch the person using a walker try to make their way around crowds to finally make it to the stairs, fold their walker, have someone else carry it down the stairs and get another person to help them walk down the stairs just for entertainment.  Since our friend Doris needed a walker to get around Belize, this was a little annoying at least to me although Doris never expressed any concern.

Once we got to the dock, we started following Mom's directions to get us to the chocolate factory.  Mom's like a homing pigeon.  You can blindfold her, spin her around in a dark room then take the blindfold off and tell her to point north and she'll get it right every time.  The chocolate factory was located at the far end of the pier away from where we got off the tender.  The name of the chocolate factory is Moho Chocolate and to say it is a factory is somewhat of an overstatement.  It is a small building with a couple of different rooms enclosed in glass so that the customers can see what is taking place inside and all chocolate production occurs in this space. From what we saw, there seemed to be fewer than 10 people running everything from production to sales and tours.  So, when I say it is a small operation, I mean small.

Lady in one of the glass enclosed rooms making chocolate

While Mom, Dad and Don helped Doris make her way past the countless idiots blocking ramps, I went on in to inquire about the tours Mom had read about.  The small shop was so crowded I could hardly get inside and finally got in line at the cash register to ask.  When it was my turn, I asked the girl about the tours and was told that a tour was about 5 minutes long, it cost $2 per person and the "tour guide", Charles was currently conducting another tour (5 feet away) but would be ready for us in about 4 minutes.  So I gave her $10 and told her that we wanted to do the tour. She told me that we should sit down and would be called when it was our turn.  So we all made our way to the corner indicated and took seats.  Soon afterward, many other people began to sit around us.

Charles the tour guide explaining the process and going over the different flavors of chocolate bars available

When the girl came to get us for our tour, apparently some of the others felt they should have gone ahead of us.  I'm not sure why, these were the same people blocking the wheel chair ramps earlier out front that we went around to get inside.... But we went ahead and began our tour which consisted of us walking behind a rope line 5 feet away and then Charles began the $2 tour.  He told us about the entire process of making the chocolate, showing us both roasted and unroasted cocoa beans.  In fact while he conducted the tour he took a batch out of the roaster (I guess that's one of his side jobs), and told us about the various items they produce within their little factory.  It was actually a very interesting tour and I highly recommend it.  Mom had read that at the end of the tour you were allowed to make your own chocolate bars.  But we didn't get to do this.  I think it was because they were just too busy while we were there.  One of the funniest things about the tour was the two men standing on the other side of the rope who listened to every word of the tour and followed us along the rope line. Apparently, the $2 fee for the tour was out of their price range so they just listened in on ours.  During the tour we got a little taste of milkshake and then were given samples of as many different types of chocolate that they produce as we wanted (the tour crashers got no samples).  It helped us to figure out what we wanted to purchase.  I wound up with  3 dark chocolate bars, one with chilis, one with ginger and the last one with cocoa nibs.  I've already eaten the ginger one.  It was to die for.  The other two bars are currently in my freezer and I plan to save them for a special occasion.

The last stop of the tour - the cold room

They produce both dark chocolate and milk chocolate along with cocoa powder for cooking.  I would love to have gotten some cocoa powder, but since I just bought a two year supply of Hershey's Cocoa during the holidays, it seemed like a wasteful thing to do.  They also sell soaps and a few other items and have a coffee bar where you can get your favorite chocolate flavored coffee drink whipped up.

After leaving the Moho Chocolate Factory, we started making our way back down the dock toward our tender shopping along the way.  Dad and Don went and found a place to sit while Mom and Doris went into one of those big duty free stores and I visited my favorite shop in Belize The Loom which is apparently closing. :-(  The girl working in the shop told me that they were being forced out by the mega duty free shop next door which Mom and Doris were shopping in.  She said that the owner of that business has already taken over 6 other shops and theirs was the last hold out.  But they were down to their final days.  So, everything in the store was being liquidated.  It's a shame.  The Loom is a local textile shop that sells hand woven items for the home including comforters, shams, pillow covers, table runners and rugs among other things.  The quality of the textiles is remarkable.  I bought 3 pillow covers while I was there and am kicking myself because I didn't buy one of the table runners.  Each time I have ever been to Belize, I have looked forward to shopping in The Loom.  But now, most of what will be left on the dock is the mega duty free stores which I refuse to spend money in.

Belize Harbor - despite the flag it's not an American territory.  But most of the businesses on the dock are now owned by Americans.

Once we were back on the ship, Mom and I had decided to get in a hot tub.  But sitting in a hot tub in the rain had no appeal.  So, we wound up going to visit Joseph in the Lobby Bar and then having a lazy afternoon.  It was wonderful to tour the chocolate factory but it would have been much nicer if it hadn't been so crowded and I was happy to have one last chance to visit The Loom before they close.  But maybe next time, I'll work a little harder to find an excursion.

Since we were heading back north, I was no longer on the correct side of the ship to photograph any sunsets.  So my evening was much less busy than evenings past.  In fact, I got to the Lobby Bar where I was supposed to meet everybody for dinner about an hour early giving me plenty of time for people watching. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about Cozumel which was our final stop of this cruise.  Have a great Thursday and try to stay warm!