TOWEL ART

One of the fun things on a cruise is coming back to your cabin every night to find an adorable creature sitting on your bed that your cabin steward has created from a bath towel.

Here are the ones from my most recent cruises:

A seal...

An eskimo...

I'm still questioning what this is...

A floppy-earred dog??

A frog...

Goose...swan?

Another cute dog...

And then a wonderful surprise at the pool deck one morning...every deck chair had a towel animal on it!

Aren't these just adorable!!!

All photos were taken by me during my cruise in 2011 and 2013.

THE AMAZING STINGRAY CITY

Can you guess what was the last port of call on our cruise?  This was exciting for me.  Even though the main reason for this cruise was to visit Belize, I was still excited to visit the Cayman Islands.  I've always seen pictures and television commercials for "The Cayman Islands"...unfortunately I can't replicate in words the famous tune on the commercial of someone singing "The Cayman Islands".

As in Belize, our ship and the Carnival Glory were tendered just offshore.

Our shore excursion was in two parts: Snorkeling and then a visit to the world-famous Stingray City.  We were not the only excursion boat there!

There were over a dozen other excursion boats all parked around the sandbar that is Stingray City.  As you can see, the sandbar allows you to get off the boat and stand waist-deep in the water.

While you stand in the water the stingrays swim right past you. 

Some are big and some are much smaller.  The females are the larger-sized stingrays.  You go girls!

Some people were afraid to stand in the water, fearful of being stung by the tail barb.  However, the stingrays are so used to human presence and contact, so there is nothing to fear.  The stingrays will swim right past you.  We still had our snorkeling masks on, so we stuck our faces under the water to watch the stingrays swim right past us.

You had the opportunity to "pet" the stingrays.  A member of crew would hold the stingray and you could touch it.  They just feel like squishy rubber.  We did not have the opportunity to feed them.

Some people had "personal" encounters with the stingrays...

The stingrays are so gentle and used to human contact that you can actually have one lay on top of you. If it really likes you, it will give you a big kiss!

NEXT PORT: PIRATES, BIRDS AND MONKEYS

Sunrise the next day brought us to Isla Roatan which is an island about 80 miles off the mainland of Honduras.

At this port the ship would be docked...what you can't tell from the photo below is that the ship is coming into port...backwards!  How would you like to steer a 963-foot ship in reverse!

As in the previous ports the Carnival Glory would be joining us.  In this series of photos you can see how the Glory turned 180 degrees in order to reverse into the dock in front of us.

Our excursion on Isla Roatan was "Pirates, Birds and Monkeys of the Caribbean".  We traveled by bus to Gumbalimba Nature Park.  This was the only time we went past the main tourist area and saw where the locals lived.  Such poverty!  The average person living on this island makes $3,000 a year.  Their livelihoods depend entirely on the cruise ship tourist trade.  Our young tour guide was very knowledgeable about her island...

For the "Pirates" portion of the tour we explored Coxen's Cave and learned about the infamous pirate, Captain John Coxen...

Saw examples of his stolen treasures...

And saw an actual barnacle-covered cannon from his ship...

For the "Birds" portion of the tour we saw beautiful macaws just sitting freely in the trees...

But the fun was having one sitting on your shoulder...

For the "Monkeys" portion of the tour we saw where the Capuchin monkeys are free to roam...

Such a cute face!

But the personal encounters were so cool!

Gumbalimba Park is a beautiful botanical park with waterfalls...

Over 200 types of tropical plants...

Beautiful tropical flowers...

And the only home to the rare Black Iguana...

We really enjoyed our day at Mahogany Bay on Isla Roatan...

But when the ships sail away, it becomes a ghost town...

Gumbalimba Park is named after one of the native tree species in Honduras, the Gumbalimba Tree. This tree has a bright red, peeling, smooth bark and dark green leaves. For more information about Gumbalimba Park, visit http://www.gumbalimbapark.com/.

We only had a few hours on Isla Roatan, but we really enjoyed our visit to Gumbalimba Park. Our next port is Grand Cayman Island. Stay tuned for our snorkeling adventures with the stingrays.