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At Tonto Natural Bridge, a genuine "Arizona Waterfall"
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Some places in the canyon were like a rain forest
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Travertine deposits make up the rocks around here
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Check the people down there to get a sense of the scale of the natural bridge
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In some places, the travertine looks almost like a cave turned inside out
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We didn't climb down there . . .
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Another Arizona waterfall at one end of the bridge
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In New Orleans as the cruise ship sideslips away from the pier
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On board, you can't really appreciate a ship this size doing a 180-turn in the river to head downstream
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Once we were out of the way, the Canal Street ferry was able to cross back to New Orleans
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The atrium of any cruise ship is pretty impressive
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This ship was originally built for the Oriental market, and the decor hasn't changed much
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Lots of intricate ship models scattered about
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The forward lounge, right above the bridge, is a great place to relax
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We like our nightly towel sculptures. This one's an elephant.
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First port was Costa Maya, a non-town on the Yucatan Pennsula
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The water was already starting to get rough from the offshore hurricane
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Our tour took us to a spectacular archeological site
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We first thought these were date palms . . .
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But they're clusters of really small coconuts (Al's shoe for scale)
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Speaking of scale, these ruins are pretty spectacular
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Most of them are about 40ft high, and reportedly were residential structures
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There's been very little restoration, just preservation - keeping the vegitation under control
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Since the Mayans left, lots of trees have grown up
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Al contemplates a climb - those steps are each over a foot high
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At one point, there was thought of developing the site as a resort
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Kind of glad that didn't happen
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Some of the trees had to do contortions to get a foothold on the ruins
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The lintels over these doorways are modern, but the stones are all old
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It's fascinating to climb around and explore . . .
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Proving Al was up there . . .
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We didn't recognize a lot of the plants growing about
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There are over 600 structures in this complex - we visited just a half-dozen
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Yes, that's an upside down tree, left over from the nascent "resort" days
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Rather steep walls rise from the ceremonial ball court - no seating, as it wasn't a spectator sport
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It's a workout to climb those steps. How the Mayans (who averaged about 5ft) did it is a puzzle
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That ball court is a nice open space
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This temple mound has a roof to protect these rare stucco sculptures
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There were originally many more images, but artifact hunters looted many of them a hundred years ago
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That's Judy near the top of the largest structure
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There are just 5 remaining stucco masks in the temple, the others having been looted
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Some of these steps have been modernized to make the climb easier
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These were built by hand, with stone-age tools. Almost unfathomable
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Tropical blooms are always special
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It must be a continuing challenge to keep the jungle at bay
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Back at Costa Maya, clouds and our ship
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Cruise ships are rather other-worldly, and Norwegian's are often decorated more-so
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The Mayans discovered chocolate, which may be why he's smiling
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The Spirit is the oldest ship in the Norwegian fleet, dating to 1998 - positively ancient as cruise ships go
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At the island of Roatan Honduras, we were serenaded between showers by a local group
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The pier's shopping village is quite compact
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Several cruise lines cooperated to build this port so they'd have more places to stop
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It's pretty much a one-ship-at-a-time port, with the tiedowns located on lttle "islands"
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They run the line handlers around in that launch
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Probably pretty good pay for flipping a line or two into the water
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We anchored well off-shore at Belize City, joined by the Norwegian Star which sailed from Tampa FL
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On board our tour boat, we started our adventure
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The water was a little rough from the hurricane, but not bad
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We saw several crocodiles - much more aggressive than our American aligators
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The tidal portions of the river are lined with mangrove trees, which tolerate salt water
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That black blob is an ant hill built in the tree - the ground's too soggy
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You almost expect something from Jurassic Park to poke its head out
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Another croc . . .
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The iguanas caught us by surprise. There were lots of them
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The males are the flashy ones
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The big ones were about 4-5 ft long, and most impressive
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More tropical blooms
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A not-so-flashy female iguana
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A very pretty heron
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In many places, people have riverside residences
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Our guide said many are owned by folks from Canada and the US
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That's certainly not a native artifact
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They're fascinating animals
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We could hear the black howler monkeys long before we could see them
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We were told they were howling at us, for invading their territory
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Their prehensile tail is like a fifth hand
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Oooh - that's a well-fed one
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Would you swing out over a croc filled river?
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Those are Brazilian long-nosed bats. One male, the rest his harem
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These bats are the primary polinators of the Blue Agave, from which tequila is made
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The sack is the nest of the Orependola - a yellow blackbird, not to be confused with a yellow bird
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Some trees are loaded with these nests
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We stopped for lunch and a little shopping at the riverside taern
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This place exists to serve the tours - theres not even a sign on the highway
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That's the whole place
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Melissa, our Belize tour guide, explains how this site was excavated after first being discovered in 1961
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This pyramid was left largely un-excavated, so we could see how it was covered by foliage
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And then . . .WOW!
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This site was almost exclusively a temple site, with several temple structures
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As it was quite warm (around 100f) some of us gravitated to the shade
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The Sun God Temple is spectacular
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There's Judy at the top!
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She said it was quite a climb
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The masks at this site are not as well preserved as the ones we saw earlier
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The guide said that other than removing foliage and overburden, not much else has been done to these ruins
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It's actually called the Sun God's Tomb, and dates to around 900BC. It was the tomb of a very important person
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There's no estimate of how long it took to buld these
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Judy's view from the top of the temple
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Must have been a REALLY important person . . .
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Even if the thought had occurred to us, for some of us it's a physical impossibility
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Back in Belize City, we board the Ocean Runner for a ride back to the ship
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We were greeted by a towel bulldog
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But our favorite towel sculpture was our monkey
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As we navigated around Hurricane Irene, there was actually surf in the swimming pool
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We were largely blocked from going on deck
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But there were things to do - a towel sculpture demonstration was fun
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Judy (being a Leo) noticed the Leo lights and painting on a lounge ceiling - a leftover from whe the ship was named Super Star Leo
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Last night out, a chocolate fantasy
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The ice sculpture dragon didn't fare too well
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But we suspect they reuse these chocolate sculptures
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The jazz band was a nice touch
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Another reminder of the ship's Oriental heritage . . .
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And then (sob) it's time to leave the ship and head for home. The End.