Mike and Sue...: January 2015

We have just returned from a seven day Caribbean cruise. We joined our friends Carl and Betty and Bruce and Renata on a Dan Navarro music cruise. After a day and a half of travel we met up in San Juan, Puerto Rico and had time to chill out on the bay and then walk around Old Town.

This wide bay separates the new part of town and its high rise hotels and the old town.

The beach was made up of all shells

The old town was charming but we were tired after a night of napping on the plane.

Then off to board our ship, the celebrity Summit and a day at sea

The ship was very pretty lighted at night and we had some good music and dancing on the pool deck

After a day at sea we arrived on Monday morning at Barbados. We traveled by a local van touring the Island and then to the Harrison's cave. The flora was lush and tropical and a tram took us deep into the centuries old chambers full of crystallized limestone, incredible stalactites and stalagmites, bubbling streams, plunging waterfalls and emerald pools. (Amazing but hard to photograph) We learned much about the history of Barbados including about their wonderful free education system, high literacy rate (98%)excellent health care, university and plants and wildlife. Like many of these Lesser Antilles islands, Barbados has independent status but is a British Commonwealth, which means that Britain would come to its aid if needed.The river running through the caves provides pure water for the island.

Limestone formation

The island is famous for its bearded fig tree

Every evening we set sail for another island, and Mike enjoyed watching the Pilot boat leave.

The maneuvers they do to turn these huge ships in the small bays are amazing.

The next port was Castries, St. Lucia and this was my favorite island. We joined Bruce and Renata on a scenic drive along the winding coast to Soufriere to visit the historical Diamond Estate with its botanical gardens, waterfalls and mineral baths.

A banana plantation along the way. The bananas are wrapped in bags so that the birds don't eat them.

A charming little beach and fishing village.

The local architecture is often very colorful and some of the house are only on stone foundations because the owner owns the house but the government own the land. The government cant evict a person from the land but often people move their houses. Also hurricanes go through this area often.

As we descended into this little village we saw these women sweeping the street. We were told that they are elected officials trusted to keep the streets clean and they take their job very seriously.

Women were washing their clothes in this river.

This red seed pod is nutmeg growing. They grate it onto rum punch to help digest the alcohol

The plants and flowers were amazing.

And then we soaked in the warm mineral water tubs. They say they make one look younger.
I don't know about that but we sure were relaxed.

The water in the stream was milky with the minerals but not smelly like some sulfur springs.

St Lucia is volcanic and in the bottom photo we could see the steam venting from the side of the mountain.

And then its goodbye to St Lucia and into the sunset and onto the island of Antigua

We were really pampered by the cabin staff and they were very creative folding the towels

The next day, harbor of St. Johns, Antigua comes into sight, as viewed along the side of the ship.

Then onto shore, serenaded by steel drums.

Often there was more than our ship in port at the same time so we always took a bus into the interior of the island away from the tourist stuff, although drinking fresh coconut water from a local street vendor was good.

As we were driving to the other side of the island we saw school children playing in the school yard. Most of these islands follow the British school model wearing school uniforms. Another interesting fact is that no one except authorized officials are allowed to wear camouflage on the islands, out of respect and for safety. One of our ship passengers was actually sent back to change his camo shorts before being allowed ashore. I actually think that I agree with this law.

Then it was off to join Antigua Paddles Sports, located on the grounds of a beautiful plantation on Mercer Bay. Here we boarded a motor boat to take us out into the mangrove islands where our kayaks were waiting.

We kayaked around the mangrove islands including Long Island where many celebs have multi million dollar homes. The water is so beautiful in color and clarity and we found sea stars, sea cucumbers, urchins and Jellies, birds and flying fish.

Sea cucumber

Up side down jelly fish

Then back on the boat to view "Hell's Gate" rock formation and then we landed on a small island

Our driver was a very happy man whose mom lived in England and his dad was south African and he was educated in England but came to Antigua to lead the good life. The islands were full of people who had similar stories and as always, travel opened our eyes to different life styles. He said "I am the happiest man on Earth because I get to do this every day"

We landed on a small beach and headed up the steep trail to the top of the hill for a spectacular view

There were hundreds of white butterflies on this bush but they didn't photograph well.

Off to snorkel on the reef. A squall came through and we were pounded with hard rain for five minutes then it cleared. Even though I am not that comfortable in the water I do snorkel and enjoyed drifting with the swell up to the coral edge and seeing all the fish come out to eat. Mike is much more at home in the water and stayed in longer than me. He spotted a large conch shell.

We had this beach all to ourselves and it reminded us of the mangrove island we camp on in Magdalena Bay, Baja a few years ago.

She asked to drive the boat .... and did.

I bought one of those T-shirts !!!

Back on shore we were offered rum punch while sitting in this beautiful garden overlooking the bay

The previous day in St Lucia had been a 5 rainbow day.
This was a double rainbow that lasted a long time on Antigua

Over the government building. Notice they drive on the British side of the road.

And back to the ship. I must say that cruising can be ridiculously opulent at times with 4 ships in port and each carrying thousands of people....the exact opposite of my backpacking trip in the sierras....but its all good to me, especially as we got to go off the beaten track a bit, do active things and talk with the locals. So off we sailed into the sunset once more, accompanied by the frigate birds and headed for St Maarten, a small wealthy island owned peacefully, half by the Dutch and half by the French.

Notice the helicopter on board this expensive private yacht, one of many in the harbor

This time we decided to just walk to the beach next to the ship. It was covered with beautiful small shells, and I must say we enjoyed the comfort of the lounges, the shade of the umbrellas and the locals offering foot massages. And the water was wonderful.

And again sailing at sunset, this time past the small island of Anguilla where I had spent a week with my family 6 years ago. (It was too dark to photo Anguilla)

There were wonderful shows and music and dancing every night aboard the ship but because we were part of a group with Dan Navarro, a very talented singer/songwriter from So Cal and we were invited to special concerts by Dan, and a Q and A session where he spoke of his life and the process and inspiration for his song writing, and his collaborations with his long time music partner Eric Lowen, who passed away after a long illness. We were also gathered in the library to "jam" at 11pm many nights and we often lasted til 1 or 2am. Mike, Bruce and Carl took guitars and this was a special time for us. Thank you to Dan (showing us some licks below) for sharing this time with us.

The next day we docked in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

Looking down on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Magens Bay and the most expensive real estate, but all of the beaches on all of the islands are public and accessible. We decided to continue on to Mountain Top for more wonderful views.

Mike and Carl chatting with our bus driver. We rode in this covered but open air converted truck.
Mike always enjoys talking to the local guides while I take the pictures.

We explored another nature preserve at St. Peters Great House, then another view of Magens Bay

What's a port without a Senior Frogs !!!Complete with swimming pool

After a day of exploring we headed for the double loungers. Here the entertainment was to watch the clock being fixed.

And who can forget those hamburgers served all afternoon on the pool deck...its what we headed for every day after being ashore. Bruce and Renata had the same idea. I do think that the amount of food served continuously on board seems over the top but we did enjoy it. I enjoyed water dancing in the pool to the live band to work off some calories. Renata also turned me on to the relaxing therapy pool where you sat on rollers and bubbles massaged you and a stream of water massaged the kinks out of ones neck and shoulders. (sorry...too relaxed to take pictures)

Our final sunset sail leaving St. Thomas and heading towards our final destination of Puerto Rico.

The next day we docked in Puerto Rico and disembarked to end our week aboard the Summit. Our flight back to San Luis Obispo didnt leave until 1am on Sunday so we took off to explore the island of Puerto Rico. This island is a territory of the US and its largest industry is pharmaceuticals...most drugs labeled made in the US are made here. Its also home to the El Yungue National Rain Forest.

Again, unreal plants and a very nice visitors center. This rain forest gets over 150 inches of rain a year. It held off raining til we left.

These snails were huge.

We enjoyed hearing the Coqui frogs singing "cookie, cookie, cookie" in the dark areas even in daylight. The frogs are small but some of the leaves are huge.