The Rain Forest and Pirates

 Our Viking Star stopped at the island of Roatan, Honduras.  If you are not much into geography, Honduras is another small country in Central America.  The island is made up of a beautiful coastline and a rainforest.  Some passengers complained about rain today, but, we took it in stride.  You can't call something a rain forest if it doesn't rain fairly frequently.  When we got off the tender that took us to shore, this was the first view - the clouds seemed to promise rain.

We didn't have to go far to be in the rain forest and on a guided walk through what some would call a jungle. 

 

I would have loved the jungle sounds you hear in Tarzan movies but was thankful there were no large snakes or crocodiles.  Instead, we saw only the flora of the rain forest like the walking palm trees.

Those tan appendages coming off at an angle from the palm tree are roots, not branches, and that black mass adjacent to the base of the tree is a termite nest. 

What caught my attention was all the beautiful flowers in their native habitat instead of a nursery.  The Bird of Paradise seems more spectacular in the wild.

Lots of edibles and things we drink or add to food come from the rain forest:  coffee, cacao (that makes chocolate), cinnamon, bananas, and cashews to name a few that we saw close up.

There were termite nests in a lot of different trees.   BTW, termites are not parasites that attack their live host. They are only harmful to dead wood, like in peoples' houses. 

Most of our land tours take place over the course of a morning, sometimes a bit longer.  Viking ship activities do not include bingo, gambling, water slides, roller coasters, or formal dress up nights.  What they have instead are talks about things unique and interesting about the places you are visiting.  One of my favorites was about Caribbean pirates.  

The Caribbean wasn't the only place pirates were known.  But, it was the most infamous, and it just so happens I love pirate movies.  It turns out, I knew little about the reality which is more interesting than some of the myths.  For instance, I didn't know they (of all people) had a Code of Conduct.

Skip over the first and read from the next seven particulars.  #2 is all about true democracy - for men.  And there are a lot of good Christian values in some of the others.  #5 seems to be very wise - all fights are to take place ashore.  There is no mention of rum, however.  Then there is the unique medical insurance they had:

I think Long John Silver lost his right leg, so with his compensation got a decent peg-leg to help him continue in his work.  Our learned historian talked of how countries protected their own pirates and amazingly in our U.S. Constitution there is provision to do so too.  I looked it up after the talk and found the citation.

We love these talks, and our cruises seem to have mostly exceptional speakers who know how to make you interested in history, geology, and many other things that expand your interest in where you are going and what you are seeing.

While we love the desert where we live, we are happy on the ocean.  Last evening after the rain and thunder, we were sitting in our cabin and watched the sun go down from our veranda.  Somehow the sun on the right affected the clouds in a way we would not have expected.

'Shiver Me Timbers'