Not exactly what you want to see when you step onto your cruise ship balcony to gaze at the tropical sea, right? Not just that there's a crapload of tankers out there, but it's a metallic morning with a stiff breeze and just 64 degrees and you've signed up to go snorkeling. You're committed. The cruise line has a Draconian 48-hour cancellation policy. The $74 per person excursion charge has already been added to your swiftly escalating cruise account, and no matter what, you're going. This is kinda like eating a restaurant meal even though it sucks, or staying through a revolting movie just because you've paid for it.
And besides, it's a "free" cruise, which means I won it. No kidding. I took my elderly mother to a promotional event at a retirement center where the big prize was this cruise. My number came up. It seemed really lucky to win, even though PK and I aren't exactly cruise material. But here we were a couple days into the cruise thinking that an opportunity to skim above a piece of the world's second largest coral reef—we were in the Caribbean off the coast of Belize on the Yucatan Peninsula—was not to be missed—or dismissed just because our teeth were chattering.
So we followed the herd onto a safe and comfortable craft (everything on cruise vacations is safe, if not always comfortable) and headed with about 125 of our closest friends to the reef six miles distant. It wasn't getting any warmer.
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| This is a crew member enjoying the unseasonable March cold. |
We arrived at the reef and were given our safety briefing; wear the mandatory flotation and don't go beyond the approximately basketball-court-sized area defined by crew members in plastic boats. And don't drink the rum punch until afterwards. Rum punch? At 9 a.m.?
So we floundered over the rail and with at least 100 other eager cruisers, splashed into the cool aquamarine. Some wiser souls, including a couple of college girls in spaghetti straps, however, said NO WAY and got a head start on the punch. More on that later.
I didn't mind the cold too much as I possess adequate natural insulation—fat. My ectomorph husband, however, quickly became, uh, chilled, a condition that would soon spread from his body to his mood. Especially his mood toward his wife.
The pleasures of snorkeling with the masses in an intimate area is not to be downplayed. You will come into contact, fin or face, with at least 75 of them, one for each dollar paid for the experience. We were allowed an hour to snorkel, but most people couldn't hold out that long. PK and I soldiered on for maybe 30 minutes before I got sick of seeing way more people than fish, and PK got sick of shivering.
I took the above photo when we were back on the boat and all but the most persistent had called it quits. PK was wrapped in a damp towel and quaking like a hairless dog. Determined to cut my losses, I sought out the plastic barrel dispensing rum punch, the only free alcohol on the cruise where even a simple lite beer costs $6. It was maybe 10 a.m.
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| College girls (?) on spring break cavort under an imagined sun. |
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| A Scottish lad celebrates the not-so-fair morn. |
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| And his fair lass goes along for the fair ride. |
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| A lubricated couple prepares to smooch. |
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| Rumless PK was not amused. |
The cold was forgotten. The dance tunes were cranked up and whoo hoo! I believe the crew had dumped an extra load of rum into the barrel out of sympathy for people who had paid too much for too little. I think I can safely say that no one who signed up for the snorkeling on the world's second largest reef expected to be snockered before noon.
Later PK and I took a tender (a boat transporting cruise passengers into ports without proper depth to accommodate behemoth ships) into Belize City. Judgment clouded by the punch, I ordered a daiquiri on shore when PK got a beer. I couldn't drink the daiquiri, however, and handed it off to this receptive individual who was crafting trinkets near a bridge in Belize City. I believe his expression captures the spirit of the day.
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| I don't know this man's name, and I can't identify any of the people pictured above—except for that one unsmiling and annoyed person. If you were along for the ride this March 2010 day and happen to be pictured above and don't like it, please respond and I will remove your photo. Until then, thanks for a good time and bottom's up! |
