Curve contributor Jenny Block shares her adventures from Olivia’s 20th Anniversary Western Caribbean cruise.
I am writing to you today from Honduras, where I sit at the cutest little sno cone and gelato stand called Crazy Ice just steps from our ship. Interestingly, it’s the one place with Wi-Fi (which is happily free as long as you have an overpriced smoothie while you’re there.)
It’s cool and overcast, so it looks like the beach is no longer part of our plan. But that’s OK because apparently there are lots of other things to do here. But more on that tomorrow!
Yesterday we were in Belize. It was kind of a strange day. We had a snorkel excursion planned and we were anchored just off of Belize as opposed to being docked there, which meant we had to take a tender boat to the port.
We lined up for our tickets but still ended up waiting an hour or so to get to the shore of Belize City. There were a few shops at the terminal port and we tried venturing past the gates, but there didn’t seem like there was much to see close by and even though a million people offered us rides and tours, we knew there wasn’t time for that big of a to-do before we had to board our snorkel catamaran.
We decided to do a little shopping instead and my girl treated me to some beautiful Tanzanite earrings. Then we had lunch at the Wet Lizard, a local restaurant owned by a lesbian couple that boasts a great second story view of the ocean.
I had the most delicious coconut shrimp and rice and Jemma had a fabulous grilled snapper. We finished just in time to head out into sea in search of snorkeling that we heard was to die for.
Unfortunately, it was really cool out and the water was freezing. The boat was fun but there wasn’t much to see at the reef where they took us and although the second stop at a local beach would have been ideal on a sunny day, it was kind of a wash with the clouds in the sky and our clothes damp from our swimsuits. Still, as the saying goes, a “bad” day in the Caribbean is better than a bad day nearly anywhere else.
After our snorkel trip, we had a near debacle. The boat took us back to our ship instead of ashore where we still needed to pick up our jewelry purchase that we didn’t want to take with us on our snorkel trip.
So we waited what seemed like forever for everyone to get off the snorkel boat so we could get on a tender, go back to shore—a good twenty minutes away—get the jewelry and dash back on board since the ship was leaving in forty minutes.
Yikes. Long story short, we made it. But it was nuts. Just like us too to get ourselves involved in such a mess. Sigh.
We quickly got ourselves ready and then went to hear Meg Christian, Oliva’s first recording artist. (Olivia Records founded in the early ’70s came before the Olivia we now know, of course.) It was really sweet.
Lots of people knew the words and though it all seemed a bit dated now, it was really incredible to think about the roads Meg and Olivia Records paved for all of the many female musicians and women in general that came after her. The feminist movement owes a great deal to Olivia and Meg and all of the women who made our lives today possible in so many ways.
Dinner followed after the show, although we stole a few minutes to catch a very cool singer in the ship’s lounge. He does the craziest singer-songwriter versions of 50 Cent and Justin Timberlake songs. It was a hoot.
We had the honor of joining the iconic Carol Queen and her colleague Jamie for dinner. My friend Denny joined us as well and we had a blast talking till the dining room closed.
Jamie and Carol and I moved to the bar when they kicked us out and continued into the wee hours to discuss all things feminism and porn and the like. I finally dragged myself back to the cabin and passed out to the rhythm of the waves, rocking me through the night.
Hope you have a sunny day, whatever the weather,
Jenny Block