St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Just back from a tour of this island.  Oh my goodness, it is a beautiful part of the world.  Similar to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, it is green and mountainous. The steep green hills are all covered with nice homes and good, although narrow, roads.  Our tour took us to what they call "Mountain Top View Point" from which we could see for miles and miles.  Down below us was the famous Megan's Bay -- a long white beach at the end of a huge horseshoe shaped bay, all lined with palm trees.  In some respects, it's not unlike Pinney's Beach in Nevis, although that favourite beach is along a straight coast rather than at the curve of a bay.  In the foreground were numerous small islands -- some inhabited; some not.  We could see cruise ships, including the Noordam.  There is a cruise ship terminal about a couple of miles at each side of the city of Charlotte Amalie.  From the viewpoint, in the distance, we could see anothe.r US Virgin island -- St John -- as well as Tortola of the BVI.  It was a perfectly stunning sight, and not one that could be easily captured with my little iPhone camera, or even a pretty good camera.  Pictures are just not the same as what one can see through one's eyes.

We're about to head up to the Lido Deck for lunch.  We may head ashore again this afternoon and prowl around the shops here in the terminal.  It's a $4 taxi ride (each) to go back to town, and the shops there are mostly out of our reach finanace-wise.  For that matter, so are the ones here at the terminal.  All these duty free shops carry very expensive items -- mostly jewellry and their "good prices" are in the hundreds of dollars.

Good bye St Thomas.  We are now experiencing our last "sea day" on our way to the Bahamas and our last stop before debarking in Ft Lauderdale.  The sky is basically blue wih just  a few fluffly white clouds.  The sea is rippled only, and looking out, I'm sure the world is flat!  We're off to breakfast now.

Roseau, Dominica

The beautiful, nature island of Dominica was more than it has been described.  The youngest of the volcanic islands, its mountains rise lush and green saeeply from the sea.  We were glad that we took a tour of at least part of the island, because otherwise we wouldn't have seen anything but the little city of Roseau -- nice as it is.  The minivan driver skillfully negotiated  turn after hairpin turn up their main road to the interior of the south end of the island.  We passed all kinds of waterfalls, large and small as we made our way up the mountain in the rain.  Yes, more rain!  We were told that it was the end of the rainy season in Dominica and that it had been raining for over 3 days.  Slides and washouts are common problems, as you might guess.  The road we took was pretty good, except for a couple of construction areas.  Concrete drains were installed all along.  Once we left that highway, we were on a little, broken road that made the old summits to Christina Lake look pretty good.  We weren't long on that road, however, before we came to our main destination -- Jacko Falls.  This is a gorgeous waterfalls with a pretty good viewing platform.  We went down the stairs only a bit because with the rain, they were slippery and really offered no more of a view of the falls than we had.  We were treated to wonderful fresh pineapple slices and either the ever-present rum punch or fresh grapefruit juice.  The grapefruit juice was fresh and sweet and left me wanting more.

We drove back down the mountain and past their cricket stadium (seats 12 thousand, I think) and into their central city botanical garden.  We saw four parrots in captivity there.  The parrot is the national bird of Dominica.  It was interesting to learn that these birds mate for life, live up to 70 years, and lay VERY few eggs -- I think she said only one egg every two or three years.  If one of the pair dies, the other usually dies very soon after.

Our last stop on the tour was at a viewpoint where we could see the entire town of Roseau and the harbour with our ship docked.  The town itself has almost all red roofs.  It seems there are some contrasts here.  Along our tour, we saw some beautiful homes and some very nice middle class type houses.  Yet the town seems a bit poor -- broken pavement, old, crumbling buildings in spots and simple, unattractive booths for the market.  The vendors and taxi drivers were much more respectful than in other ports.  If we refused a taxi offer, the driver smiled and told us to have a nice day.  The vendors asked if they could help, and when we suggested that we just wanted to look, they sat back and said that we were welcome.  This is in contrast to most places where we are basically harrassed by vendors and taxi drivers.

We are about to dock on the island of St Thomas where we have a brief tour  then will prowl the town of Charlotte Amalie -- apparently one of the best duty free shopping ports.  St Thomas is one of the US Virgin Islands, so I expect services will be excellent.  I'm going to run down and send this before the internet connections get busy.

Next stop after today is Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

Sunday in Martinique

Here we are in the very French island of Martinique.  The wet weather continues and we became totally soaked in our shoretime this morning.  The temperature is reasonable, but certainly not hot, and the rain is the kind that just oozes out of the sky in a steady drip, eventually rendering us as wet as if we had been in the shower.  It was a necessary condition to getting out and seeing something of Fort de France.

Nita and Janet spent a wad and went of a 4-wheel tour of the countryside.  They had a wonderful time -- probably didn't get as wet as we did since they at least had a roof over their heads! Mary Ann and I strolled along the pier and into the city.  We were struck immediately by the ease in which we could travel along -- sidewalks, crosswalks and traffic lights, all of which seemed to be acknowledged by drivers who drove at reasonable speeds and without leaning on the horn.  The buildings are somewhat larger than those on the other islands and their style and condition made them stand out as being part of a more successful economy.  Apparently, the first industry here is banana production.  Tourism is second, and rum is third.  Less dependence on tourism may be the reason for the lack of warmth we experienced in other islands.  People were certainly not rude, but we saw little of the joy and fun we saw in St Lucia or Barbados.  Since it is Sunday, almost all the businesses and stores are closed up tight.  We enjoyed the opportunity to see the style of various buildings and to try to read the signs which are, of course, entirely in French.  It certainly stretched our high school French vocabulary.  I was looking for a book or something that I could take back to our French Immersion kids, but the only book I saw was so shop worn and expensive that I couldn't bring myself to buy it!  We did wander into a local farmers' market and saw great bunches of bananas of various types -- big, little, fat, yellow, brown and green.  It would have been fun to have someone explain banana culture, but, alas, another language barrier.  On top of that, I neglected to get some Euros, and thus was unable to even buy a couple of bananas to taste.  I guess some stores might take US dollars, but in one little shop that was open, the proprietor very politely told me that he would prefer I use VISA or MC.  I did buy something in that shop and used his up-to-date  reading technology.

We passed the famous cathedral in the city and stood in the doorway to listen in on a service in progress.  The music was lovely and there was an air of worship.  Nevertheless, I had a distinct impression that many were Noordam passengers ducking into church to get out of the unrelenting rain!

When we came back on board, we noticed a police car and ambulance parked at the foot of the gangway.  Too bad if crew or passenger were ill or injured enough to require that kind of assistance.  However, the infrastructure here or in Barbados would probably serve better than in a place like Nevis!

It's formal dress in the dining room tonight.  Next time I come on a cruise, I would take more dress-up clothes, more capris or slacks, and fewer t-shirts.  The other necessity is to have more than one sweater or jacket!  Air conditioning makes many areas on board far too chilly to accommodate short sleeves.

We've spent the afternoon once again lazing around reading and doing very little, but after all, isn't that what cruising is all about?

Dominica tomorrow -- we have a tour booked but will have time to browse through the town of Roseau as well.

Saturday, November 26

We spent yesterday on and around the beautiful island of St. Lucia.  We first docked at Castries, the capital city.  This is a busy, bustling city with the sounds of cars, sirens, laughter, and loud voices.  It so reminds me of the sounds of Nevis, although Nevis is a much smaller version -- without quite so many cars.  The streets are narrow in Castries -- obviously from a time before the need to accommodate modern traffic.  The pavement is broken in many spots, and what's there is often rough and patched.  They drive on the left -- or the right, or down the middle.  The drivers squeeze their vehicles through spaces much too small to fit and pedestrians, for the most part, "go when and if they can."  We found that the best technique was to wait till a local wanted to cross and then to stick close to that person.  All in all, it was a happy adventure.  We went to a local market where we were called "darling" by all the shopkeepers.  We marvelled at their cooperation.  For example, we were looking for a second dish towel with the same design as one we were buying.  The shop lady went down several aisles looking for the right towel among all her competitors.  For the most part, their wares are simple and not very attractive, and it seemed that they would make very little in terms of a profit.  Still, they had all kinds of positive sayings posted in their stalls, and they were cheerful and friendly.

We boarded a catamaran in Castries and sailed down the west coast of the island and were thus able to get a different perspective of the beauty of the land.  It is mountainous by Caribbean standards and green as can be.  Along the shore were numerous beaches nestled in at the bottom of the steep sides of the rising land.  Our catamaran pulled into a tight little intlet called Marigot Bay.   Sandy beaches, palm trees, other tropical vegetation and the brightly coloured beach chairs and umbrellas of an exclusive resort greeted us as we cruised by.  Later, we stopped at another beach were we scrambled down the steps of the catamaran into the warm, clear Caribbean waters for a swim before leaving again along the west coast of St Lucia to a little town, Soufriere.  This town is dominated by the Pitons -- two pyramid-shaped peaks that rise above the other land -- right up from the coast.  Beautiful. 

We visited a working plantation -- cocoa, coconuts, and some spices.  It's an old plantation high in the hills which is still working today.  The drive up the winding mountain road in little vans was an adventure in itself!  Once we arrived at our destination, we had a walk through the heavily planted tropical plantation.  It was unfortunate that they took such a large group, because it was difficult to hear the explanations of the various trees and flowers.  Still, it was fun and interesting.  The trip back to Soufriere was another wild drive but we arrived safely in  to meet the ship which had cruised down from Castries.  We all agreed that St Lucia is special.  How we would love to spend time exploring this island, particularly the little down of Soufriere at the foot of the well known Pitons.

Sunday morning -- Martinique

We are docked now in the French island of Martinique.  The seas were a bit rough last night, so we were rocked to sleep after indulging in a late tea and toast snack in our room.  We decided not to take one of the expensive shore excursions in Martinique in spite of the warning that it is very French with people not always totally fluent (or willing) in English.  We didn't see a tour we liked and we think that if we could manage in France, we should be able to deal with Martinique language-wise.  We will likely just walk around the town since it's Sunday and many places will be closed.  So, we'll see how it goes.  Actually, it should be fun.

More to come next day.

Saturday morning - Barbados

Saturday, November 26

Just about to leave for an exploration of Barbados

We spent yesterday on and around the beautiful island of St. Lucia.  We first docked at Castries, the capital city.  This is a busy, bustling city with the sounds of cars, sirens, laughter, and loud voices.  It so reminds me of the sounds of Nevis, although Nevis is a much smaller version -- without quite so many cars.  The streets are narrow in Castries -- obviously from a time before the need to accommodate modern traffic.  The pavement is broken in many spots, and what's there is often rough and patched.  They drive on the left -- or the right, or down the middle.  The drivers squeeze their vehicles through spaces much too small to fit and pedestrians, for the most part, "go when and if they can."  We found that the best technique was to wait till a local wanted to cross and then to stick close to that person.  All in all, it was a happy adventure.  We went to a local market where we were called "darling" by all the shopkeepers.  We marvelled at their cooperation.  For example, we were looking for a second dish towel with the same design as one we were buying.  The shop lady went down several aisles looking for the right towel among all her competitors.  For the most part, their wares are simple and not very attractive, and it seemed that they would make very little in terms of a profit.  Still, they had all kinds of positive sayings posted in their stalls, and they were cheerful and friendly.

We boarded at catamaran in Castries and sailed down the west coast of the island and were thus able to get a perspective of the beauty of the land.  It is mountainous by Caribbean standards and green as can be.  Along the shore were numerous beaches nestled in at the bottom of the steep sides of the rising land.  Our catamaran pulled into a tight little intlet called Marigot Bay.   Sandy beaches, palm trees, other tropical vegetation and the brightly coloured beach chairs and umbrellas of an exclusive resort greeted us as we cruised by.  Later, we stopped at another beach were we scrambled down the steps of the catamaran into the warm, clear Caribbean waters for a swim before leaving again along the west coast of St Lucia to a little town, Soufriere.  This town is dominated by the Pitons -- two pyramid-shaped peaks that rise above the other land -- right up from the coast.  Beautiful. 

We visited a working plantation -- cocoa, coconuts, and some spices.  It's an old plantation high in the hills which is still working today.  The drive up the winding mountain road in little vans was an adventure in itself!  Once we arrived at our destination, we had a walk through the heavily planted tropical plantation.  It was unfortunate that they took such a large group, because it was difficult to hear the explanations of the various trees and flowers.  Still, it was fun and interesting.  The trip back to Soufriere was another wild drive but we arrived safely in time to meet the ship which had cruised down from Castries.  We all agreed that St Lucia is special.  How we would love to spend time exploring this island, particularly the little down of Soufriere at the foot of the well known Pitons.

St Lucia - Friday

Well, here's a bit of an update.  I think I can get this up on the blog now, although it still seems too slow to upload any pictures.  It's a pity, because we've seen some beautiful sights both on and off the ship. 

Once we got back on the ship in Samana, we cruised along the coast of the Dominican Republic.  This island of Hispaniola is quite different from the flat little islets of the Turks and Caicos and of Half Moon Cay of the Bahamas.  Hispaniola is volcanic and thus has far more altitude and much more lush vegitation.  It was interesting to see palm trees all among other deciduous-looking vegetation -- kind of like a  forest with a liberal sprinkling of palm trees.

Next we sailed on down to the first of three islands of the Dutch islands -- Curacao, Bonaire, and Aruba.  Curacao is the largest of the three and also seems to be "in between" the other two in style.  It's more developed than Bonaire but less so than Aruba.  It's independent, but still very Dutch.  It uses its own currency, but like most Caribean Islands, is quite open to the use of the US dollar. We went to Blue Bay Beach on Curacao. We had a bit of a tour on the way to the beach -- nice area.  The beach itself was great  -- the  water was warm and calm and the sun was bright  I managed to get some pretty good bug bites and a bit of a sunburn in spite of having slathered on lots of #70 sunscreen.  Actually, I think the redness and tenderness was as much a reaction to the sunscreen as it was to the sun.  No harm done, but I think I will take along a t-shirt on our next beach expedition.

Lots of shopping on all three islands.  We took a tour on Bonaire.  It is small, much less developed, and more laid back.  The people seems much more concerned for their environment -- their entire shoreline is protected, and while they welcome divers, they insist on the most careful regulations about touching and taking.  We saw lots of wild donkeys -- cute little creatures and very friendly.  There is a large donkey preserve on the island as well.  Aruba is more cosmopolitan and had plenty of shopping -- some very touristy but some lovely shops as well.  We had wished we had sprung for a tour, because we are about sated with tourist shops!

We're now nearing the end of several sea days as we sailed back up to Fort Lauderdale and now on down to Philipsburg, St. Maarten.  We have a tour planned for that island tomorrow.  Half the island is Dutch and the other half is French -- two separate countries in a tiny island -- have been coexisting happily for a number of years.  I've been to the Dutch side, but not the French city of Marigot, so I'm looking forward to it.

As anyone who has been on a cruise knows, it is a long series of wonderful meals -- FOOD, FOOD, FOOD.  It will be the "diet from hell" for me when I get back.

I'm going to try to send this early in the morning when I can get on with my netbook during a time when few people want to use the internet connection.  Hopefully it will be just a bit faster.

Great dinner again tonight.  The desserts , especially, are so good and so pretty.  I took pictures tonight, but probably won't be able to upload them till I get home!

Well. I couldn't get this sent again this morning, but the tech guy said he would open the cabinet in the morning so I can use my usb key to copy this document into the blog.  I also may have to download java (I thought I had it on this netbook already) so I can get logged on with  this netbook rather than having to use their computers -- which are all locked up with no usb slot available.  There is a new techie on board and he is much more helpful.

It's the US Thanksgiving today, so we will be having a traditional turkey dinner in the dining room tonight.  All the Kentucky kids are at Mary Ann's, but, unfortunately, without Mary Ann.  Too bad she has to miss this important family holiday, but we'll try to celebrate here as well.

We spent today on both sides of the island of St Martin -- Dutch on one side and French on the other.  We even went on an undersea boat (I think we were aout 6-8 feet below the surface) to see the various kinds of coral and brightly coloured fish.  It was a fun day, for sure.  We couldn't believe the crazy traffic jams though.  The roads are very narrow and winding as they traverse the fairly steep hills.  Traffic is supposedly controlled with round-abouts (only 1 traffic light on the island, apparently) but even so we waited often and then inched our way along.  Good thing we had an air conditioned bus.  It's plenty warm and sunny.

I surely felt some nostalgia when we could see St Kitts and Nevis off in the distance from one viewpoint today.  We will be sailing by  this "home away from home for me" later this evening.  I hope it's not too dark to catch sight of familiar scenes.

We will also be passing Montserrat this evening.  The captain warned us that we might smell a burning odor as we do so since the volcano is still active.  It was just before I spent time on Nevis that the volcano erupted and almost everyone was evacuated.  I'm not sure whether it has been repopulated now or not, but apparently the volcano is still very much an issue. 

I guess I'll try to get this sent in the morning.

Nov 14

Just back from a day at Half Moon Cay -- an island in the Bahamas owned by Holland America.  We had a lovely time -- most of which was spent sitting in a clamshell sunshade we rented for we$15.  Each clamshell accommodates two people on lounge chairs.  We just pick up a big towel as we leave the ship -- this time in large tenders, carrying 300 or 150, depending on which one we rode in.

The sand on this little island is like white powder -- just as soft and fine as can be.  It was lovely to walk in the warm soft beach down to the water from our clamshell.  There was a bit of a surf, but not too much.  The water itself was a bit cool -- Mary Ann was slow to get wet --  but it was clear and really not all that chilly once we were submerged.  The wind blew, and there were clouds, so it wasn't all that hot -- just nice.

There was a great barbeque on shore for lunch. . . all kinds of salads, beef sausages, hamburgers, mahi- mahi, and wonderful ribs.  We washed that all down with iced tea and then looked around the little straw market.  We saw nothing at all that interested us, so we decided to come on back to the ship. As we waited for the tender, we were offered cool washcloths to use on our faces and little drinks of ice cold lemondade.  A pretty good wind made the trip back to the ship fun and making our way to the gang plank a bit treacherous.  We survived and got counted back on board ship.  Now we're in our room, showered and relaxing in the housecoats provided by Holland America.

Tonight is the first formal night in the dining room.  Last night we all had the special prime rib dinner.  It will be interestng to see what they have on the menu tonight.  We plan to go to the show after dinner and then get ready to go ashore at Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos tomorrow where we have a beach/snorkel excursion booked.  I'll try to report tomorrow.  I'm not sure I can send pictures because I don't think I have the correct cable to connect my iPhone to my computer or from Mary Ann's camera to this little computer.  Let the investigation begin!  It may have to wait till I can buy a card reader or something.

GRANK TURK ISLAND IN TURKS AND CAICOS

The main item on this island was that Mary Ann and I went snorkeling.  We weren't much good at all but it was fun.  We saw some interesting tropical fish.  The funny part was Mary Ann's technique for breathing through the mouthpiece.  She couldn't manage at first, so I told her to try making a noise as she exhaled through her mouth.  it worked, so after that, you could hear her through the water saying "Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo"!  What a lark!  Nita and Janet watched us, but didn't swim there because the shelf at the edge was a bit steep and the waves were a bit much.  They went to a pool and then to another beach where conditions were better .  The water was wonderfully warm and clear.

Today, we are in the Dominican Republic in the town of St. Margaret de Samana.  It is quite different from Grand Turk, for sure.  It is less flat, more lush vegetation, Spanish, and very touristy.  There were lots of little children hawking shells that they clearly did not get from the beach -- more likely from a local dollar store!  It's hot and getting back on the ship is welcome respite from the humidity.  Still, it's a fun experience.  I'll try to get on line now and try to send this all -- with some photos maybe.  I'm finding this little netbook VERY difficult to use:  the keyboard is cramped and if I'm not very careful, I hit the page up key rather than the shift key.   All of a sudden the cursor is up in the middle of the document or at the beginning of the line or somewhere invisible!  Ctrl-Z is my best friend.

Thursday

We leave on our cruise tomorrow, but it feels as if we've had a wonderful holiday already. Today was so fun. Sandra took us to the Loggerhead Marine Museum which is a rescue and research centre for loggerhead and green sea turtles. We had a private tour where we got to see a half dozen or more turtles in various stages of rehabilitation as well as a large number of hatchlings. They are fascinating animals -- quite a bit more appealing than land tortoises. It was interesting to see the difference between the newly-rescued and still-sick turtles and the recovered ones almost ready to be returned to their natural habitat. Did you know that it is not possible to tell the sex of a sea turtle until it is fully-adult -- and that isn't until they are about 25 years old?
After out turtle visit we had a picnic lunch on Juno Beach. The surf was up as a result of a tropical storm that passed by some distance away. It was great to feel the warm sand and the fresh sea breeze. We had supper at home with Tom and Sandra. Nita did all our laundry for us and we are pretty much packed and ready to launch the next part of our adventure. It starts with breakfast out at the almond French toast restaurant.

November 9 -- Jupiter, Florida

We've fully recovered from a very LONG trip on Monday and Tuesday.  We left Nita's place about 12:30 pm on Monday and finally were in Sandra's car at 12:30 pm (well, 9:30 am PST) on Tuesday.  The plane rides were fine, but the waiting in airports left something to be desired.
We did have one calamity, however.  After carefully carrying some special cookies for Sandra and Tom (made to order by Aly and kept safe for hours and miles), I guess I left the package in the airport in Atlanta or on the plane between Atlanta and West Palm Beach.  Needless to say, I was choked.  So, I'll just have to order a similar package from Aly when I get home and ship them to Florida.
Sandra and Tom have an absolutely beautiful home -- so tastefully decorated -- and located in a quiet serene community which includes the airpark, a couple of golf communities and a horse park.  Not only is it a lovely home, it has an additional apartment in their airplane hangar.  Nita and Janet have enjoyed having a suite of their own.  Inside the hangar are two planes.  One is Tom's regular plane that he uses to commute to different jobs, (the next one in Louisville, KY).  The other, smaller plane is a little Cessna that Tom gave Sandra for an early Christmas present.  Tom is not only a radiologist, but is also a certified airplane mechanic, so he is refurbishing part of the new plane before Sandra takes it over completely.
Last night Tom and his five women went out for dinner -- ate the best coconut shrimp and sword fish with crab!  Yum.
Sandra and the four old ladies went out into the Florida sun and breeze this morning.  We walked through a little nature park and looked at palm trees, Florida-type pine trees, and live oaks -- also made the acquaintance with a few mosquitoes!
We shopped around a bit and are now back at the house getting ready for supper.  Nita and Janet are sitting out in the large screened-in pool area playing cards while Mary Ann and I are sort of  helping Sandra prepare the meal.
Tomorrow beckons but first we are planning a lazy evening in this best bed and breakfast inn imaginable!

My bags are packed, I'm ready to leave . . .

Sunday evening.  One more sleep! We leave tomorrow. I have packed and repacked and stuffed things in unbelievably small spaces. I'll have to get out my fold-up baggallini and expand to two suitcases once I get to Florida -- no one-suitcase limit on the ship.

November 7th is the day we leave. First, Nita and Janet and I are off to Bellingham. Donna will store my car and drive us to the shuttle. Next, we board Airporter shuttle for SeaTac. Our red-eye Delta flight stops in Atlanta where Mary Ann will join us, and then on to West Palm Beach, Florida. Looking forward to seeing Sandra and Tom!

More to come.