Mexican Medley Cruise on Thomson Dream, 10-17 February 2015

A series of articles covering a week's Caribbean cruise called Mexican Medley which we took on the Thomson Dream cruise ship in February 2015.

Click each picture below for the associated article and join us!

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Mahogany Beach, Roatan

Saturday 14 February 2015. We are on Roatan, an island some 30 miles off Honduras in the Caribbean. As previously described we have looked round a small shopping village and are now about to sample the delights of Mahogany Beach which lies on a very small island reached by a bridge over a tiny strait.

We had a look at a chair lift that took passengers to and from the beach, but decided that a walk would be pleasant and we decided to walk there and then catch the chair lift to come back. Crossing the bridge we get a good view of the Thomson Dream, moored at the pier. The chair lift crosses the strait at the side of the footbridge.

Looking back at the bridge once we are across. There is no access to the island for vehicles and if there were, there is nowhere for them to go - it is beaches and forest and that's about it!

We approach the beach which looks like a typical tropical beach of the sort you drool over in holiday brochures!

Palm trees, white sand and sun loungers all set in rows, inviting those with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to spend a couple of hours walking round nudging them into perfect position... I did wonder whether if you tipped one up, could you make them all go over like dominoes...?

Sign posts pointed the way to various amenities. Bar: lots of choice in fact, there were lots of bars! Pool Tables: that's the cue for a game... Free A/C: for those in need of a charge. Cold Coconut Water, Massages, Fresh Fish and Ping Pong: well it all makes for an interesting massage I'm sure... Not so hard with that ping pong bat, you mean thing!

Meanwhile, back on the beach - that's going to be sore in the morning...! The sun-lovers are baking in the heat. Some are covering themselves in oil and are frying in the heat...

Miss Franny finds a viewpoint that ensures we won't forget where we were!

Floating sunbeds were available for hire. For an extra charge they would tether you to the beach. We picked up some of the more miserly cruise passengers 60 miles out to sea during the night...

Agh, the chair lift cannot be paid for at this end, so can only be joined by those who had already paid and jumped off at the beach! Not really a problem, the walk wasn't a long one so we were happy to walk back and then after a drink at one of the bars we decided to have a go on the chair lift anyway. It was $14 each, but for that you could hop on and off all day if you wanted.

Like a ski lift you stand in the way of the approaching seat and then sit on it as it hits the back of your legs!

We saw more of the raptors that we had noticed, rising in spirals on the air currents from Mahogany Bay shopping village earlier. They were now coming closer.

In fact we were starting to think it might be disastrous to look round and find one sitting on the back of the chair lift, eyeing you up for dinner...!

But this is as close as we came. I'm no expert in birds of prey - they are a bit like flowers are to me... Someone said they were ospreys, but I put it down to a spot of rain... ewww....

We passed over a group of women who had been singing as part of a group on the beach. I got caught taking the photo and gave a cheery wave which was instantly returned with a smile.

Ooh... now that is going to be sore tomorrow morning... My legs, usually encased in material to protect the sensibilities of the world's population, get an uncommon dose of solar radiation and change colour overnight...

Ok, time to return to the ship, get some lunch - which consists of a pile of mixed pineapple, melon and watermelon and get through a few more pages of my book!

Mexican Medley Cruise Index

Roatan, Honduras

Saturday 14 February 2015. We sail into port on the island of Roatan, about 30 miles off Honduras. There's a small village and a beach area right by the ship and we will spend the day there, lazing, looking around the shops and enjoying the walk from the shopping village to the beach which is on another tiny island joined to the main one by a footbridge and also crossed by a chair lift.

We were up early to watch the ship come into dock and there were a few wrecks in rather poor condition in the water. Subsequent investigation has showed that some of these were sunk deliberately to form reefs for tourists to dive.

This one though appeared during a storm in 1984 and has been slowly disintegrating ever since. I haven't been able to find out what it was or what it was carrying, though a few sites seem to think it was involved in smuggling. And of course I am thoroughly ashamed of my first thought that it might have belonged to a not-to-be-identified cruise line...

We tied up at one of two jetties and were to have the place to ourselves for the day. This was taken just after breakfast, whilst we were in search of an early morning coffee which we took on the open deck whilst we watched a few specks circling over the mountains. Some sort of raptor, but we would get a much better look at them later in the day - which we'll come to in the next article.

In this first article about Roatan we'll have a look at the shopping village of Mahogany Bay. This was specifically developed to cater for cruise ships and so has been planned as a whole and as such is very pleasing to the eye.

The immediate area around the jetties has been landscaped and planted with some suitably exotic blooms. Regular readers will know that apart from appreciating the colour and shape, plant life is wasted on me. I know enough to say if it's green it's a plant and any other colour and I'll call it a flower...

Set some of these colours against a vivid blue sky and it makes for a very pleasant environment.

There is a small shopping village with touristy bits and pieces and some bars and other more specialised shops. Again you will be invited but not coerced into the shops.

We had a wander around a few of the shops and came away with the inevitable magnets. I made a note to buy another fridge to hold them all...

We approached the bottom end of the shopping village and found a chair lift - one of those that comes up behind and sweeps you off your feet. I didn't notice anyone with skis on but it was that sort of ride... We decided to walk to the beach and get a ride on the chair lift to come back. Wrong decision in the end but not that it mattered too much. We'll see why in the next entry!

Mexican Medley Cruise Index