A view from the plane.
...watching "Manufactured Landscapes" on my own private t.v. screen.
Tom. The plane was sparsely filled on the way out, so we basically had a row each. Sweet!
On the Level 9 tour at the Houston Space Center. The practice pool where astronauts go through simulations of being weightless. The divers are there for support. There were two astronauts diving that day, but they are harder to spot.
At the Houston Space Center--one of the rooms where the magic happens!
Mission control. We are in the viewing room, and from here can see the activity (people at computers) in the actual room. The screen behind Tom is the view from the cockpit of the mission that is currently in orbit around Earth.
At old mission control. We got to sit at the actual desks where the magic happened and the early missions took place.
Flight control.
Susan working hard. So hard that I'm a blur of motion.
The Canada Arm, aka the Canadarm
One of the mockups where the spacemen (and women) practice the logistics of getting used to their living space.
A very large exhaust. This was a version of the original rocket that was sent out into space with the first successful lunar mission.
A mystery woman in front of the Rothko Chapel in Houston.
A squirrel that Tom managed photograph. Bravo!
A series of interesting architectures: the left building has holes in it, the middle one is also funky--the museum of fine arts, IIRC, and then the final structure is a monument.
A really cool structure--we weren't sure whether it was a private home or an institute of some sort.
The Jung Center.
Sam Houston and Tom Nagy.
The park.
Sunset Boulevard--at sunset!!
Just where I'd think to buy some art...
A lot of Houston seemed to consist of this: roads with mounds of construction stuff. It gave the impression of a city half-disassembled.
Skyline and construction.
Fat, sassy and salty. What more could you want?
An "interesting" poster we saw both on the highway and here in Galveston. Outrageous. BUT, check out the next photo for a better perspective...
Heh heh heh. Well done, folk. Love the flag. It's just so pretty and colourful and all. ;-)
"E...a...O's"
Setting off from Galveston.
A somewhat rainy "castoff party" on the deck, complete with the big screen t.v.
The first night...
My up-do on the first formal night...
...with the Maya princess profile.
Surrounded by divine radiance! At last! The sun!
At Costa Maya
It still pretty much looks like a tiny enclave of tourism plopped in the middle of a dense jungle...
From the bus...
Roadside vendors seemed a standard phenomenon in every town we drove through.
An orange-painted bus stop
Vetrinarian (unless I'm misreading) and bathrooms
A novel use for a bus.
No doubt, one of the more reputable holdings of the Best Western franchise... ;-)
And here we are at last...
Tom snaps a photo
The sleeping city and...
...the sleeping dog. He followed us to each spot, then found a bit of shade, plopped down and went to sleep.
The intrepid explorer.
Susan in the Artisans' House
The smaller pyramid.
The view from on top, around the back.
The masks--friezes that somehow survived all the weathering of the centuries...
Tom at the top--"Kali-ma shakti de"
The view from the top.
Children examining the pond...
The Maya ball court
More of the city...
A close up of how many of the ruins looked after excavation but prior to restoration.
A corbel arch at Costa Maya, with the cruise ship visible beyond. The corbel style of arch was commonly used in Maya architecture as a way of distributing the weight of the structure.
A chok mol on the pier.
Sunset at Costa Maya.
Roatan, Honduras. Clearly the place to be.
I loved these two girls, hanging out under the funky sign, advertising the salon that sells "hair produts" and "accesoris."
A lovely little dog. He raised his head for me to take the photo, then went back to sleep once I was done.
A colourful streetside restaurant.
The policeman looks very important in this one.
No parkin.
Cravin's Fast food and restaurant: "The food you desire and more..."! I was really intrigued by the "and more" part.
Carrying veggies to the restaurant.
The doctor's office.
This playground really touched me...the next photo provides a view.
It was the hole in the back wall that really got to me.
Street side vendor.
Roatan street scene.
A side street.
Between fence-posts.
Carrion!
The Elizebethan Inn, with a unique "take" on the tudor styling...
"A clean city is not a swept city, but a less littered city" AND "Prohibited for ladies to enter with pants and men with short pants."
Hitching a ride.
A fascinating procession of possibly unrelated pedestrians, but there was almost a ceremonial quality to them--with the lady in green, carrying the umbrella, at the centre.
The procession from the back--her vanguard and rear guard, including a food bearer.
One of the high-end Hilton Plaza outlets.
Girl and chicken (the chicken seems to have dug itself a little hangout in the yard there, towards the corner).
Another world...
Roatan--the view from our balcony of the streets we had just walked through.
We also had a view of the bridge from our balcony.
Roatan.
In contrast to Roatan... the opulence of the ship... These are the elevators.
Some of the paintings in the area leading to the main theatre.
Another painting in the Princess Theatre area.
A quick view of the Princess Theatre with the bandstand set up for the act that evening. There are shows every night. In total: four lounges, a casino, a full-scale theatre and a nightclub.
On the way to the main, three-storey foyer of the ship.
Three-storey opulence. It's not a great photo--but I was trying to get all three storeys into the shot.
The Explorers' Lounge.
Sabatini's, one of the dining rooms on the ship--this one with an Italian trattoria theme. There were also three "regular" formal dining rooms--Bottecelli, Michelangelo and Da Vinci, a 24-hour buffet, a pizza place and a burger/hot dog etc. grill. And ordering from the room service menu is free. Starvation on a cruise ship is rare.
The Vista lounge--an alternate location for shows as well as film screenings, etc.
Anchors aweigh!
The following photos are of food sculptures--just ingenious and beautifully done. These are the Samurai.
Animals!
Viking!
A ship made mostly of watermelon rinds.
Flowers, also made of fruits and the like.
Belize--the outskirts of Belize City.
The swan motif seemed a popular decoration there.
A wealthier-looking residence.
The mountains look like a reclining figure.
A street in rural Belize--one of the small towns we passed through.
I have to admit, I'd hesitate to get my hair cut here....
The swan motif once more.
A different attitude to horses, here and in the next photo. They seemed to be allowed to wander at will...
The Circus has come to town!
Crossing the Styx... just kidding. But water crossings always have a ritual or symbolic feel for me, so I liked that to get to the ruins, we had to cross a river.
The ferry had ropes and pulleys on both sides...
...and a crank on one side. Turn the crank, cross the river.
The main square.
Il Castillo. The main pyramid.
Halfway up.
The view...
Tom is on the stairs, way up there in the Corbel arch near the top right of the pyramid.
Friezes--these are reproductions--the real ones are behind those--this is often done, in order to protect the originals and prevent further weathering.
Tom scales the heights. I hadn't eaten breakfast (astonishing, I know, given all the dining options on the ship--but it was an early excursion and I actually just ran out of time) and was feeling a bit off, so I didn't want to climb the steep steps up.
A corbel arch in action.
Looks a little ominious in this photo...
A different concept of a super store to what we're used to.
Our guide was telling us that the population of Belize is very diverse. I guess the "Super Store" biz is often the purview of people of Chinese background. In addition, there are folks from all over--including a thriving population of new- and old order Menonites. Who would have thought that this would be one of the commonalities between Belize and Waterloo? The population of the country, meanwhile, is also comparable to that of Waterloo region. The language is English and the units of measure, perhaps surprisingly, are Imperial.
Mayan Temple beer...
Insurance...
And Errol's watch repair.
This was one of my favourite signs: "Exit 66 1/2." The first few directions are fairly self-explanatory, but as you get further down, they become more and more complex--the last couple, I'm not sure how you're supposed to absorb in the time it takes to drive by. You'll probably have to magnify to get a proper look at it.
I wasn't sure what the "blackman Eddy" reference was about.
Dallas...?
The town of Ontario, Belize.
We never did find out who Ralph was.
This person seemed passionate about sattelites.
Too bad this photo is blurred--and I just missed fitting in the girls carrying the umbrellas at the front of the procession. I loved the purple of their uniforms--and Nefertiti eatery in the background.
This image disturbed me... the two girls, backs to us, and the sign: "Don't let AIDS sneak up on you."
Loved the coloured beads in their hair!
The school.
A nice example of the fan palm tree.
"Dano Super Instant Milk Powder: Probably the best milk powder in the world."
Cancun.
Drugs & Deli.
One of the many shopping streets.
The flag waves bravely.
A block in from the shopping/tourist streets, and it's a different world...
Church of the Seventh Day Adventists
A rainbow on our last day in port.
That's me, waving from our balcony. The couple in the balcony beside ours was, it turned out, from our sister city of Centerville in Ohio. He was with the city council there, and so had actually been to K-W and participated in one of the Oktoberfest parades and everything!
Our last evening--I was just impressed that the camera managed to make anything of this at all--let alone pick up the little evening star that was visible between the clouds.
Just where I'd think to buy some art... and so we did. ;-)
Horizon Court.
Back in Houston. Sussan...
Interesting parallel between this, and the sign in Belize.
