Thursday, January 17th, 2013:  Today we stopped adjacent to Belize - couldn`t get close enough to dock, because of the coral reef.  Instead, we dropped anchor quite a ways out and climbed into `tenders`or small boats which transported us into Belize.  I booked an excursion on a glass-bottomed boat, to go over the coral reef and check it out.  My group was picked up by a tender and taken to the glass-bottomed boat, where we were able to look at the coral, fish, plants, etc. - absolutely fascinating!  The coral was disappointingly khaki-coloured - no colour variation at all - our guide told us that a lot of the coral is dying due to human interaction and pollution.  After our reef watching, we were taken to a tiny island to swim, eat hamburgers, and drink coconut milk (literally - a guy chopped the top off a coconut and put a straw in the resulting hole).  Then we were taken back to the ship.  I hopped another tender and went into town - well, actually, just to the dock area - not enough time to see how the real people lived.

Tenders coming alongside the ship to take passengers off to Belize

Tenders away!

On board the tender

Away from the ship

Reef watching

Two tenders waiting for us to finish reef-watching

Gorgeous colour variations caused by the little world beneath the surface

Note the coral sticking up above the surface

The tiny island

At this point, it was pouring rain in Belize - we missed it, though.

Belize tourist trap

Lorna toured the actual area and took photos

                                     

Again with the dichotomy - the University of Belize

                               

. . . and locals selling wares

                                     

. . . and a local house

                                     

. . . and downtown

                                       

Cool palms!

                                       

And the tender brought us back to the ship