Mom and Mal Cruise -- Day 5 -- Belize City

I was awakened as we started the process of mooring about 5 miles off the eastern coast of Belize today. I watched from the balcony as we churned up a bunch of silt. I got dressed, drank my caffeine, and listened to a couple of podcasts as I took watched the sunrise and took pictures, of course.

I woke Mal up around 6:30 because we were supposed to start tendering around 7. When we cruised to Belize in 2019, the sea was very choppy and we didn’t eve try to get 4-year-old Malcolm onto a tender. This time, he was sure he wanted to go, water conditions be damned. Fortunately, it was practically glass out there and he was ready to step foot in Central America for the first time (for me, too!). 

We went down to the piazza to grab some breakfast, but spoke to a crew member and found out they were already boarding tenders, even though it was a bit before 7:00. We managed to get on one of the first two boats boarding simultaneously, and were on the mainland before 7:30!

Although vendors offered to braid Mal’s hair, call taxis for us, and give us their own private walking tours, we had our route planned out and only caved in when a woman approached us selling necklaces with a crystals on them. Mal got a red one, and thus we contributed at least a little to the local economy.

Across the street from the Belize sign and the li’l light”house,” there was a wooden playground that Mal enjoyed for a few minutes before we backtracked through the marina and made our way across the swing bridge into town.

Mal mentioned that his stomach was kind of hurting, so we ducked into a bodega to grab him a soda. He picked out a Pepsi, and I got a 2-pack of Oreos and another individual pack of some Mexican strawberry biscuit-type things just in case he was hungry. He wasn’t, but we hadn’t eaten anything so I wanted to be ready. We were there so early, not much was else was open yet.

When we got to the register, he rang it up, and it was $4 (the prices were on everything). I asked him if he took US dollars, and he said yes, “As long as it’s dollars” (I’m guessing as opposed to credit, because he didn’t even have a cash register, but was just writing down totals in a notebook). I told him I had cash and he said, “$2.” I had forgotten the exchange rate and really wish we’d loaded up with more stuff! That would easily have been $5.50 or more at one of the gas stations in Jonestown.

An interesting interaction in the store: Everything was pretty compact, so the walkways were extremely narrow. As we were making our way to check out, a man walking toward us reached across where we were to get something and Mal just kept walking, straight into the guy’s arm. I don’t know what Mal’s thought process or plan was, but it looked like he was playing Red Rover. I said, “Mal, you can say ‘excuse me.’” Mal did say it, and the man looked at me and said, “That’s why I stuck my arm out, to see if she [sic] would say ‘excuse me.’” Well, I guess we failed that test then!

We encountered several street dogs (and a couple of dogs with people making their way around town). There was one following me hopefully as we exited the store, so I broke off a corner of the strawberry biscuit and handed it to him. He took it gingerly in his mouth, the spit it onto the sidewalk. That dog didn’t want my stupid cookie! He wanted MEAT! Looking at him, I realized he was an older puppy, but not super skinny. People probably fed him better than what I had, enough that he was choosy about what he gulped down.

In our two-mile stroll, we got to see the Belize High (Supreme, depending on what sign you were looking at) Court; St. John’s Cathedral, the oldest church in the country; and the Belize Government House. We also saw a really old cemetery which opened in 1792 and closed in 1881. We passed two schools, a primary school and a lower school, and could hear classes going on. We also walked past a beautiful newish church building, gleaming whitewash and tinted blue windows all tilted open to allow the breeze through. We could hear the congregants clapping and whooping (on a Thursday morning, so Catholic mass?).

Mal’s stomach wasn’t a whole lot better, so we decided that two hours was a nice visit and we’d go back to the ship so he could rest. We got lucky in that a tender was leaving the moment we returned to the marina terminal (I did grab a cucumber water that the cruise line had as refreshment for people waiting to depart), and besides us, there was only one other passenger on the boat! There was also a ship’s officer, but this 100-person (minimum) boat was ours, like a private charter.

We got back to the ship before 10 AM, just as an announcement was sounding ship-wide informing passengers that the tender process was going smoothly and to enjoy their day in Belize. Too late!

We saw that Nana and Pappy were in the Princess Live! venue and went to tell the that we were grabbing some breakfast at the International Cafe. We somehow missed them, and saw that they were in their room, so we called them and left a message. Nana ended up coming back down pretty quickly; fortunately, they were on their balcony when I called, rather than resting. Pappy came down as we were finishing up and was ready to get a light lunch in the buffet. Mal said his stomach was bothering him enough that he didn’t feel like walking around or even swimming (which is how you know he’s serious), so we came back up to the room and have been hanging out for the past hour and a half or so. 

(Later) Near 4:00, Mal perked up and was ready for some food. Of course, since dinner was about an hour away! But we went to the International Cafe, his favorite, and he had a Chocolate Symphony. And then he had another one. We hung out there and listened to some music, and then we decided to try to get an early seating at our main dining room, since Nana and Pappy had a reception that started about an hour after our scheduled seating, and since I hadn’t eaten since brunch.

I enjoyed two appetizers: vol au vent, and a chilled ginger coconut soup. We all dipped after the main course, skipping dessert. We had to go back to the International Cafe for me to try a Chocolate Symphony before Mal exploded in excitement. I tried one of their gluten-free options, which was a vanilla mousse kind of thing. It was pretty; looked like it was covered in gems, which turned out to be Jell-o jigglers, basically. Meh. But the symphony was creamy and delicious and probably felt extremely elegant to Malcolm.

We went to the shops to see if they had postcards (for one of Nana’s friend’s moms — they didn’t) and ended up buying a tumbler for D and a keychain for myself. James and I both have pretty nondescript key chains, so it can be a challenge to avoid grabbing the wrong one when rushing out the door.

We went back to the room to unload, and Mal was telling me about a TV show idea he has. He walked me through several episodes as we sat on the balcony enjoying the cloudy moonlight. At about 7:30, he wanted to go to the kids’ club. I was able to finish the book I was reading and get some stuff packed. I went to visit with my mom the last hour the club was open because I was afraid that I would fall asleep and forget to pick Mal up!

He came back from the club with a chicken hand puppet he’d colored. We both went to sleep pretty soon after that.

More pictures, in case you're in to that type of thing.