Nature excursions on Roatan,Cozemel, Belieze and Grand Cayman

[nature person]

Hi all...We are going on the Valor in April to Cozemel, Grand Cayman, Roatan, and Belieze. I really am a person whom enjoys seeing the local birds ,reptiles and monkeys etc. in the wild. We had great tour with Cosol on Grenada that took us into the rain forest and saw the mona monkeys. Another great tour on St.Lucia( can not remember the tour right now) that toured the island. Both were not ship booked. Anyone have ideas? do you see birds etc on any of the ruins tours?

[firefly333]

I would use victor bodden in Roatan. He is the best and not expensive. You just pay for the fee to do things you pick out. He took 5 of us all day for $25 pp. $35 for 2 people.

 

He has monkeys at his house and other animals. You can go into the cage with the parrots and the small monkeys. Feed the monkeys cookies to get them to come to you. Questionable diet .. but they come and hop on you.

 

I mentioned we also did the ignuanna farm which is a santuary with more animals. I enjoyed the drive back there off the main roads.

 

I would ask him what he suggests.

 

Belize you need to pick a tour too, its very poor and I am more hesitant there. Have you considered cave tubing to see the caves. You hike about a mile in the jungle.

 

Cozumel and Grand Cayman are islands and not jungle like the other two. Turtle Farm with Captain Marvin in Grand Cayman? Of course you can also hold the sting rays with him, which is what most do at this port.. he is just cheaper.

[Tree Hugger]

We did a kayaking/snorkeling excursion in GC through CCL. Our guide was very informative about the mangrove restoration going on and conservation efforts in the area we were in, pretty cool.

[new2mecruisin]

Went on the same cruise a couple of years ago.

 

In Roatan, we too went with Victor Bodden and loved it. Our guide, Leo, asked us what we wanted to see, we told him to show us his beautiful island. We went all over - stopping wherever we wanted for as long as we wanted. We intended on snorkeling at a couple of spots but the water was too rough. We went to Victor's house and have great pictures of the monkeys on my daughters shoulder and my mom's head!! It's a beautiful island. He also took us to the high point and we were standing in the road and able to see the ocean on both sides of the island. This became my favorite destination.

 

In Grand Cayman, we swam with the stingrays. We were nervous, it was shortly after Steve Irwin had been killed. But they talked us through it and it was a fantastic experience!! A beautiful ride out to the spot and the stingrays are truly like puppy dogs. We all loved that experience - went with Moby Dick Tours....they're great and informative.

 

In Cozumel the boys had a fishing trip planned and us girls were renting a vehicle and exploring the many offshore snorkel sights that we had mapped out and planned. Unfortunately the fishing trip was cancelled for the boys and we were not able to snorkel anywhere due to the winds and choppy water. We ended up at paradise beach which on a good day would be incredible for the kids. Google it. But due to the weather, none of the floats were in the water. We toured around on our own with the car....dessert island, beautiful beaches and great shopping (lots of shopping if you like that sort of thing - we don't). But the weather robbed us of what we had hoped to be an excellent snorkel experience.

 

In Belize we went cave tubing. Go to www . cave - tubing . com They were fantastic. We were nervous about even getting off the ship in Belize City, but we were picked up right there outside the port and taken by bus up into the mountains. We then hiked through their rainforest jungle with our tubes until we reached our destination. You throw your tubes in, hook up in a line and float down a beautiful river, going through a few caves here and there. My parents, DH and DD's loved it! The walk through the jungle is stunning - looks like Disney except that it's REAL!!! Since we've been there I hear (from my Mom, she went back again) that the port is even bigger now. We were torn between swimming with the sharks :eek:(nurse sharks) and cave-tubing and were very pleased with our choice. I hear that the diving there is spectacular!!

 

Hope this helped! Enjoy!!

[gacat93]

We just returned from the same ports on the Legend on Sunday. I think my favorite excursion was the Altun Ha and River Wallace we booked thru Carnival. We went by small boat (30 people or so) along the coast to the mouth of the river and stopped for a bit. Saw manatees, crocodile, birds. Went up the river and saw tons of iguanas in the trees, lots of monkeys, a crocodile sunning itself on someone's dock, and more birds. The second part was the Altun Ha ruins and they were really neat. We were able to climb the Temple of the Sun God and the view from the top was really neat. I'd do this one again!