The Blue Hole - Jamaica

UPDATE: Now includes awesome waterfall diving video at the end of the post!

In today’s post I’m going to take you to a beautiful location just outside of Ocho Rios, Jamaica. The Blue Hole is a well-kept secret amongst crew members and a location rarely frequented by tourists. A series of waterfalls and deep pools surrounded by lush jungle awaits visitors with local guides present to show you the routes and the best places to jump!


Above: Some of the waterfalls higher up the path. The blurred water effect is achieved with a longer exposure and a tripod to ensure everything else is sharp.

The first area you come to features a number of waterfalls flowing into a deep pool.


Above: The first location

The guides have created a rope swing and in the pictures below you can see Gregg - the solo guitarist from the Ryndam - swinging into action!


Above: The rope swing modelled by Gregg


Above: Gregg jumping in

After a short trek further up the path, you reach another area, featuring the largest waterfall at the Blue Hole.


Above: The largest waterfall at the Blue Hole

A number of brave souls jumped off this waterfall but the tricky part was having to edge down the waterfall until there was enough clearance to avoid hitting the sloping rocks at the bottom.


Above: One of the guides at the top of the waterfall


Above: Tom, the Neptunes bass player takes a dive

Above this waterfall, you can walk up the river to a number of other small waterfalls and deep pools.


Above: Waterfalls higher up the river

The journey up the river concludes at this final waterfall which is not climbable. All the pools you see in the pictures are very deep as the falling water carves out the rocks at the bottom of the falls.


Above: The guide at the top waterfall

Finally, we all returned to ‘base camp’ (the first location) where the guides had prepared food and drink for us. The tiny hut you see in this picture is the only building at the site; there are no facilities whatsoever which is part of the charm of the place.


Above: Some of the crew

I hope you enjoyed this post. Updates will be appearing a little more regularly now as I only have seven weeks left and still lots to blog about! Speak soon.

Honduras and Guatemala - one week only!

Welcome back! In this post, I’ll give you a brief tour of two ports, not on our regular itineraries, which we visited over the Christmas week: Puerto Cortés, Honduras and Santo Tomás de Castilla, Guatemala.

Founded as the Villa de Puerto Caballos in 1524, Puerto Cortés has become the most important port in Central America thanks to its outstanding seaport infrastructure and proximity to U.S. seaports in the Gulf of Mexico and on the East Coast.


Above: The port of Puerto Cortés

Because it was vulnerable to pirates until the building of the Spanish fort at Omoa in the 18th century, Puerto Cortés had few permanent residents in the 16th and 17th centuries. People preferred to come out to the coast from San Pedro when a ship came into port.


Above: A ship docked in Puerto Cortés

The original name Puerto de Caballos (‘Port of Horses’) came about because when Hernán Cortés arrived on Honduras' coast in 1524 from Mexico and started unloading horses and cargo from the ships, several horses were drowned. In 1869 Puerto Caballos changed its name to Puerto Cortés in honour of Hernán Cortés.


Above: Cranes in Puerto Cortés

The second new destination we visited was the port of Santo Tomás de Castilla in Guatemala. It lies at Amatique Bay off the Gulf of Honduras and was settled originally by Belgians in the 19th century.


Above: A panoramic view of Santo Tomás de Castilla port (click for bigger picture)

The seaport of the city was built in 1976, after an earthquake had severely damaged the port of Puerto Barrios. Today it is among the busiest in Central America and expanding; the port currently employs 2,100 workers and in 2004, 4.56 million tons of trading goods went through the port from 1,372 ships.


Above: Cargo containers at the port

In 2004, Santo Tomás de Castilla started receiving cruise ships. The cruise ship terminal was a tremendous boost for the Guatemalan tourism industry with four cruise ships a month making stops here. Cruise ship passengers visit Guatemala mostly for its Maya culture, spread throughout the country. Nearby attractions include Rio Dulce, Lake Izabal, the towns of Puerto Barrios, Livingston and San Felipe Castle, and the Mayan ruins of Quirigua.

I decided to visit the local town (not a tourist attraction!) which gave a real insight into the normal lives of Guatemala’s population.


Above: The main street through the town


Above: A local resident

The town was very poor but everybody was friendly. There was a market taking place, selling all manner of goods including toys, fireworks and fruit!


Above: A busy street with the market on both sides


Above: Toys being sold at the market


Above: Fruit ready to sell in the market

After exploring the town, a group of us decided to visit a local waterfall which involved a very bumpy taxi ride! The Cerro San Gil springs reserve is a place where the rainforest is protected and preserved with care and enthusiasm. After paying an entry fee a local guide showed us around.


Above: People climbing the waterfall


Above: The view in the opposite direction

Whilst at Cerro San Gil, we saw a bat cave (there are 45 species of bat here), banana trees, lizards and butterflies (Guatemala has over 1000 species of butterfly where Europe only has 321 species).


Above: Vines!

The trees in this rainforest have tall and straight trunks to try and reach sunlight. Their roots do not penetrate far into the ground, spread on the surface of the earth to absorb the nutrients in the leaves and rotting branches on the forest floor.

I’ll leave you with a rare shot of me (!) at Cerro San Gil. I hope you enjoyed this post about Puerto Cortés, Honduras and Santo Tomás de Castilla, Guatemala. Speak soon!

Kohunlich Mayan Ruins - Mexico

Welcome back! In today’s post, I’ll be showing you around Kohunlich – an ancient Mayan site. As a crew member, we are given the opportunity to accompany passenger excursions for free as ‘Crew Escorts’ in exchange for providing feedback about the trip. So far, I have been on two passenger excursions, one of which was a trip to the Kohunlich Mayan Ruins in Mexico, which I went on in Costa Maya, last week.


Above: One of the temples (Temple of the King) near the entrance of the site

Kohunlich is a large archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located on the Yucatán Peninsula. The Spanish name does not actually derive from Mayan but from the English Cohune Ridge where cohune palm grew. The site covers about 21 acres, surrounded by dense sub-tropical rainforest, and it contains almost 200 mounds, many of which remain largely unexcavated. The city was elaborately planned and engineered, with raised platforms and pyramids, citadels, courtyards and plazas surrounded with palace platforms, all laid out to channel drainage into a system of cisterns and an enormous reservoir to collect rainwater.


Above: A raised acropolis (or citadel) with the Temple of the King behind

The site was settled by 200 BC, but most of the structures were built in the Early Classic period from about 250 to 600 AD. The city appears to have functioned as a regional centre and stop along the trade routes through the southern Yucatán from Campeche and Rio Bec area to the west, and the cities along the east-coast and to the south, in the el Petén region of Guatemala and neighbouring Belize.


Above: Temple of the King (a palace complex)


Above: Root and stone intertwine in the wall of the acropolis

The road approaches the site from the north and leads into an enormous central plaza ringed by pyramids and temple platforms. To the north there is a massive, raised acropolis, or citadel, with a palace complex (Temple of the King) around a courtyard to the north-west. Further east there is the Temple of the Masks, built in honour of the Sun God.


Above: Temple of the Masks. The thatched roofs are to protect the pigment on the masks themselves.

Kohunlich is best known for its Temple of the Masks, an Early Classic pyramid whose central stairway is flanked by large stucco masks. The temple was built around 500 A.D.. After about 700 A.D., the temple was covered over with a Terminal Classic construction, which protected the masks and accounts for their excellent preservation today.


Above: Masks representing the Sun God Kinich Ahau


Above: A close up of one of the masks showing the red pigment

Originally there were eight carved masks flanking its central staircase; only five remain, three having been looted. The giant masks represent the Sun God Kinich Ahau however they differ in appearance so it is thought that they also represent the various rulers of Kohunlich.


Above: The view from atop the Temple of the Masks

The picture below shows a ball court – the location of a game where two teams aim to hit a target on a wall with a rubber ball using pads on their bodies. After the match, the captain of the winning team would be sacrificed as part of a religious ceremony!


Above: The Ball Court

I had a great time at the Kohunlich Mayan site despite having to get up very early and travel in a coach for 2 hours. We even saw some howler monkeys high up in the trees.


Above: A different view of the Temple of the King

I’ll leave you with another HDR (high dynamic range) photo which I created from three photos of different exposures of the Temple of the King. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. I still have three more ports to tell you about plus lots more coming soon.


Above: Temple of the King HDR

Cozumel - Mexico

Cozumel is one of Mexico’s largest islands at 29 miles long, and is located 22 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula. A modern beach playground, it is also one of Mexico’s most popular destinations among chilly northern residents seeking a brief escape from winter weather. Most of the hotels, shops, and restaurants are centred around San Miguel on the western shore, which is also where cruise ships dock at one of two terminals separated by about two miles.


Above: The coastal road that runs through San Miguel

The Mayans first settled the island in 300AD and it quickly became an important Mayan trading and ceremonial centre. Cozumel’s first visitor was the Spanish explorer Iuan de Grijalva who arrived in 1518 on a slave hunting expedition. A year later the conqueror Hernan Cortes arrived and attempted to convert the island to Christianity by destroying one of the 32 Mayan temples. Following the visit of Cortes, the island was mostly deserted and became a refuge for notorious pirates such as Jean Lafitte and Henry Morgan. In 1848 Indians fleeing the War of the Castes found their way to Cozumel and by the 20th century the island population grew, thanks in part to the emerging industry of chewing gum.


Above: The shore is dotted with many boats. You can just see the Ryndam behind the Norwegian Spirit.

During our cruises we come across many other ships of various different sizes but the biggest cruise ships tend to be the Royal Caribbean ones. I took this shot a few weeks ago and although the angle slightly favours the Allure of the Seas, the Ryndam really did look like a luxury yacht compared to this monster!


Above: Size matters not

The San Miguel beachfront is lined with shops, restaurants and boat jetties and it is a popular port with crew members particularly as we stay docked there until 7.30pm (we leave most other ports by about 5pm). This has given me the chance to take some night shots, one of which you saw in my last post (Ryndam at night). I also took a few pictures of the Cozumel coastline from the ship.


Above: Cozumel at night

Here are some more pictures I took on my travels around San Miguel:


Above: A ‘town square’. Concerts take place here in the evenings.


Above: Horse-drawn carriages are popular with tourists


Above: Behind the glossy shop-fronts many of Cozumel’s residents are quite poor


Above: Sepia sidestreet

I’ll leave you with this final shot of a pelican which was flying around the beach. I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of Cozumel. Speak soon!


Above: Pelican