Last Blog

LAST BLOG FROM THIS CRUISE

The last leg of this journey involves stops at five islands in the Caribbean. Generally these are not particularly interesting after the amazing Amazon, but it is better than a straight sail to Miami.


GRENADA: We docked at St. George's Town on Sunday morning. Basically everything was closed so we were not long in returning to the ship.

BARBADOS: This turned out to be a lovely island. We found a taxi to take on a tour of the island and Clarence turned out to be great driver/guide. We first toured the city of Bridgetown (quite attractive) and then drove along the beaches until turning inland to reach the highest point on the island, from where we could see both the Atlantic and the Caribbean. On the way back we stopped for a swim but the water was too rough for Betty's liking so even though we were past the agreed upon time Clarence took us to calmer beach for a swim. He didn't even ask for more money, although his tip increased a considerable amount.

After the tour Betty discovered some interesting shops and ended up doing a lot of her Christmas gift buying.

DINNER COMPANIONS: One of the pleasures of cruising is meeting new people and having good dinner conversations. So we always ask to share a table at dinner. This trip has been no different and here are some very brief words to describe some of the people we have met:

Couple from Geneva--refused to believe Canada had an independent currency

Guy in a wheel chair with advancing MS--still owns and flies two planes

Mother and Daughter--Daughter manages family real estate and sold 14 acres of commercial space in San Francisco while on the ship (she really knows her wines)--Mother is 91 and hiked two kilometers uphill to the Devil's Island plateau in 95 degrees. Today they spent several hours snorkelling with turtles.

Woman from Texas--believes all of the world's problems are caused by the "liberal press"

Man from Luxembourg who used to raise turkeys and gave one a year to the President.

Couple from Madrid--didn't speak any English, not a lot of conversation

Retired female Indian medical doctor--fun to be with but hurries through dinner to get to the Blackjack table each night

"Newly Weds" celebrating their seventh--she is 84 and it is her second marriage--he is 86 and married for the first time at 79

GIN AND TONIC: We usually have a glass of wine on our balcony before going to dinner. Trying to restock today I discovered that I could buy a really bad bottle of wine for $ 12. or a bottle of good gin for $ 11. Switching our pre-dinner drinks seemed like a good idea but the ship doesn't allow hard liquour to be brought on board. Fortunately nobody noticed my sizable codpiece when we boarded after shopping.

TUESDAY, NOV. 24: We docked at the town of Roseau, the capital of the strange island of Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic). Dominica is an independent country of about 70,000 with no beaches of which to speak, no wild animals (except for a few snakes) and not a single golf course in the country. Along with a couple from Belgium we hired a taxi to take us on a tour of the island. Dominica is very mountainous and the interior is quite beautiful and covered by rain forest. We visited the Trafalgar waterfall, Wotten Waven sulpher springs, a botanical garden and Morne Bruce lookoff. We returned to the ship in time for a late lunch and then ventured out again to look at the town. Roseau has about 20,000 and is seemingly very impoverished. The economy is mainly agricultural with not a lot to offer tourists except a KFC. Nonetheless, there was a German cruise ship in town along with our smaller vessel.

TORTOLA, B.W.I.: As two large cruise ships took up all the dock space we anchored outside the town of Road Harbour and tendered in to shore. This island turned out to be the loveliest of the islands we have visited. Lots and lots of beautiful houses and a very prosperous looking town. We managed to find a local bus to take us across the island to a beautiful beach. The mountain we traversed was so sharp that the bus travelled all the way to the top in low gear. The vistas were spectacular and the beach was perfect. And since I was down to my last $4. I was very happy to find an ATM that spit out American dollars.

PUERTO RICO: San Juan was our last port prior to disembarkation at Miami (after another two-day sail). I don't know quite what I expected but this city (at least old San Juan) is much more beautiful than I would ever have guessed. The old walled city has wonderfully restored buildings and lots of high-end shops. Perhaps we only saw the nice part of the city and the poorer parts are somewhere else. In any event we walked for about 3 hours through the historical district and did yet a little more shopping.

CHRISTMAS: I guess the next big event is Christmas. If anyone wants to get me a gift then let me say that I could use some longer belts.