How can it be that 3 weeks have gone past? We are on our way to Ft Lauderdale from Santo Domingo Island or as it is now known Dominican Republic. We received many warnings of the dangers of this island. So we wondered why we came here to begin with? History is the answer. Christopher Columbus is almost revered here and they have his bones and are willing to go up against Italy with a DNA test to prove it. Aside from that it is a lovely island
The passenger port area is quite small so we had to wait for a ship to leave before we could dock but it was worth it so we did not have to tender or walk a high gangway.
Our tour today was to a cavern. The bus drove around the city to show us some of the homes and to their credit we saw the good, the bad and the ugly. 95% of the citizens are Catholic so they made sure we saw their pride and joy church. The market area was a really bad and ugly. I don’t think I want to buy food there!
We did not expect much of a cavern on an island but the limestone here was perfect for cavern formations. Unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos. There were many ancient cave drawings with some graffiti that was added before the country’s government took control and made the caves into a national treasure and National Treasure it is. The gardens going to the entrance must be glorious in the summer because they are very pretty now.
Something that we spoke of today is the newness of the independence of all these islands. Of the 9 ports 2 have no independence they are Territories; St Croix of the USA and St Barts of France. Three, Manaus and Santarem Of Brazil and the Dominican Republic have been independent since the 19th century. But, 4 have gained their independence within our lifetime. Trinidad in 1962 from UK, Barbados in 1966 from UK, Dominica 1978 and St Kitts in 1983. Independence seems such a natural thing for us and yet these people are really just experiencing it in the last 40 or so years. I find that remarkable!
Ok, now in 21 days we have sailed 7157 miles: a trip equal to going across the USA and returning. We have walked on the soil of 9 countries counting Nassau, where we started, and talked to numerous people who have all been very proud of their nation. We have seen innumerable skin colors and watched families who are only different from American families because of their location and language. We have watched people walk past the policeman on the corner who is carrying a very large weapon and people who have police totally unarmed. We have seen many more homes than we would like that have to keep bars on their windows. Our brains are full of new facts and our hearts are full of the love of the human race that can smile in spite of their living conditions. We have seen all the wonderful ways we humans worship and sort of experienced how their faith keeps them strong. We have made new friends onboard ship and a few who we may keep in touch with but many who will pass from our lives, when we reach Ft Lauderdale, but will not soon be forgotten.
And so as our trip comes to it’s end and so too does this blog. Tomorrow we must pack and prepare for entering the USA so I doubt there will more entries.
Thanks for coming along on our journey. We hope you enjoyed reading about our Amazon Adventure.
Sincerely,
Barbara & Jack
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
St Croix, Virgin Islands
The passing through immigration of this US territory went quite smoothly. We figure it was just meant to be an inconvenience, as the US citizens of St Croix must go through a similar immigration process when they come to the states. Oh well, tit for tat as we say. Everyone on board was so pleased and we got off the ship just a few minutes after the posted time. Then it took over half hour for the buses to show. Since we were just going to spend the day at the beach it was no issue with us but many were upset… there are very many type A people on board…We were greeted on the pier by a youth steel band from a local church and they were wonderful. Photo on webshots. This is truly a lovely island and nice to have English spoken and no exchange rate of the money. Strange to see American cars with left hand drive but yet the cars all drive the European way on the left side of the road so the driver is on the parked car side. This would take a lot of getting used to. US Citizens of St Croix do not have the right to vote for US politicians. The President is considered the Head of State but the Governor is their highest office. We could not find a Post Office but it is part of the US postal system. This lack of postage on board ship is quite a handicap and many are upset about it as we have post cards that we are mailing from other islands. The ones we have waiting now will probably be mailed from the mainland when we arrive home even though they are for St Kitts. The beach was so nice, small but with lots of shade. We were entitled to lounge chairs and a free drink but there were so few of us that the drink boy just kept filling our glasses with fruit juice or a very weak rum punch. Jack did his snorkeling and figures he saw at least 15 varieties of fish. I waded in quite cool water and then became a “sun bather” such hard work! Can you see the sign of the beach snack bar in back if us in the photo? Rose’s Road Kill! We all got a kick out of that. We had a hot dog with sauerkraut… now why am I telling you something so simple? Well, it tasted sooooooo good after all the “fancy” food on the ship LOL
3:00 was the bewitching hour to return to the ship and as I write this at 5:00 the ship is preparing to head to Dominican Republic, our last stop before the mainland and Ft Lauderdale. This had to be the fastest 3 weeks ever. I cannot even tell you how often we had no idea what day of the week it was. Good vacation!!!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
One Day in St. Kitts
Another beautiful morning and anticipation for a relaxing day. We headed off to board our catamaran around 9:30am. So far the field trip staff has been perfect…every excursion has been late. We were scheduled to start at 8:30! Anyway as we were lined up to leave the ship we passed the tender that we rode on yesterday in the 10 foot swells and there is a photo of some of the damage to the fiberglass.
We had about 2 hours cruise on the catamaran, that was so delightful and it felt so nice to just relax and not worry about anything. Today we are tourists. We had a wonderful quote the other day on our daily paper. “The traveler is active: he goes strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive: he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes sightseeing.” Up to today we have been travelers.
After the catamaran we went ashore and boarded a bus all 15 of us had a whole big bus to ourselves. We traveled around the island and headed to a fish farm.
We learned that tilapia is a fresh water fish. We always thought it was salt water. Well, Dr Brown wanted to raise tilapia on an island with no fresh water to spare so he decided to try to raise a strain that is slat water bred. As he said “we killed a lot of fish” before we same up with a way to infuse the salt water into their lives so they could accept it. Today he is successful with the breed of salt water tilapia but not yet commercial. This mild mannered man has had many ambassadors from Japan and other countries come to see what he is doing and even are trying to duplicate his success. He uses ocean water straight from the ocean pumped into his ponds using an old swimming pool pump that he found on the dump and repaired and has had for 7 years. As he says his budget is 0.00 so he has learned to make due. This man is quite remarkable in his devotion to his project and works alone many times unless he can get volunteers from the local college.
After this we headed back to the ship but we went on our own to a local restaurant for a yummy lunch of shark and calamari. We walked around Front Street just to see what was there. You know how every tee shirt shop in USA appears to be run by East Indians or Pakistanis? Guess what? Here too! It was a bit disappointing that the local people were not working the local shops.
Well, after boarding the ship we both fell asleep in our cabin for a short nap, totally unplanned but very welcome.
Tomorrow St Croix. A US Island but for the first time we are told that each person must present themselves and their passport to an immigration official. Just looking at the passports, which suited every other country is not good enough for a US island. This will surely make another day of late field trips. We plan a whole day at the beach so Jack can snorkel.
We had about 2 hours cruise on the catamaran, that was so delightful and it felt so nice to just relax and not worry about anything. Today we are tourists. We had a wonderful quote the other day on our daily paper. “The traveler is active: he goes strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive: he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes sightseeing.” Up to today we have been travelers.
After the catamaran we went ashore and boarded a bus all 15 of us had a whole big bus to ourselves. We traveled around the island and headed to a fish farm.
We learned that tilapia is a fresh water fish. We always thought it was salt water. Well, Dr Brown wanted to raise tilapia on an island with no fresh water to spare so he decided to try to raise a strain that is slat water bred. As he said “we killed a lot of fish” before we same up with a way to infuse the salt water into their lives so they could accept it. Today he is successful with the breed of salt water tilapia but not yet commercial. This mild mannered man has had many ambassadors from Japan and other countries come to see what he is doing and even are trying to duplicate his success. He uses ocean water straight from the ocean pumped into his ponds using an old swimming pool pump that he found on the dump and repaired and has had for 7 years. As he says his budget is 0.00 so he has learned to make due. This man is quite remarkable in his devotion to his project and works alone many times unless he can get volunteers from the local college.
After this we headed back to the ship but we went on our own to a local restaurant for a yummy lunch of shark and calamari. We walked around Front Street just to see what was there. You know how every tee shirt shop in USA appears to be run by East Indians or Pakistanis? Guess what? Here too! It was a bit disappointing that the local people were not working the local shops.
Well, after boarding the ship we both fell asleep in our cabin for a short nap, totally unplanned but very welcome.
Tomorrow St Croix. A US Island but for the first time we are told that each person must present themselves and their passport to an immigration official. Just looking at the passports, which suited every other country is not good enough for a US island. This will surely make another day of late field trips. We plan a whole day at the beach so Jack can snorkel.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
1 Day in Dominica
Well, today started out as any other day on board. We were up at 6:00 am. Yes, it is true Barbara was up at 6am and in the dining room for breakfast before 7:00. Don’t everyone faint please. Our tour was supposed to start at 7:40… The immigration people failed to show (it’s Saturday). We finally got into the tender boat and at 10:00 we were on the bus and got going. The roads are terrible, worse than Pa in the spring. We went up into the mountains and I swear the bus had no suspension. Then the air conditioner broke so we opened the windows. Luckily we were headed up the mountain and the sun was hidden in clouds. Jack took a lot of photos out the bus window and you will see what appears to be pre-wrapped bananas. We saw them on Bermuda for the first time a few years ago. They put the blue plastic over the fruit to protect it from insects. Dominica is a very agricultural island. The land is very fertile and there is green growing everywhere.
We toured the Carib Indian Reservation, well at least a little village of how it used to be.
The Carib People put on a drumming and dance show for us and were just really friendly. We had some light refreshment and returned back to the ship by way of a black sand beach. Back to the wharf and a tender was waiting so we hopped on. Well the trip should take about 15 minutes but after close to an hour Jack and I finally put feet on board the ship. We made two attempts to “dock” the tender to the ship and failed. At that time Jack pointed out the measurements on the side of the ship for showing the “draft” of the ship and we watched 10 foot swells from 68-78 and that is not an exaggeration. We experimented with the video on our camera and I uploaded them to You Tube so you could see what was going on. I only have a free account on webshots and the videos are too big a file for that so I am trying you tube. The connection on the ship is very slow so I had to sit and wait for it to load otherwise you view it in spits and spurts.
First video url is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyWJuu7q6R8
Second video url is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk1xwMAqMp8
This has been the most exciting event of the trip, thank goodness. We watched each person’s form and when it came to our turn we went like pros. When we got back to the cabin we had a little wine to celebrate our brush with danger!!
The rest of the photos are on webshots just like normal.
Tomorrow St Kitts. This one is a repeat for us but we liked it a lot last time so I think we will again.
We toured the Carib Indian Reservation, well at least a little village of how it used to be.
The Carib People put on a drumming and dance show for us and were just really friendly. We had some light refreshment and returned back to the ship by way of a black sand beach. Back to the wharf and a tender was waiting so we hopped on. Well the trip should take about 15 minutes but after close to an hour Jack and I finally put feet on board the ship. We made two attempts to “dock” the tender to the ship and failed. At that time Jack pointed out the measurements on the side of the ship for showing the “draft” of the ship and we watched 10 foot swells from 68-78 and that is not an exaggeration. We experimented with the video on our camera and I uploaded them to You Tube so you could see what was going on. I only have a free account on webshots and the videos are too big a file for that so I am trying you tube. The connection on the ship is very slow so I had to sit and wait for it to load otherwise you view it in spits and spurts.
First video url is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyWJuu7q6R8
Second video url is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk1xwMAqMp8
This has been the most exciting event of the trip, thank goodness. We watched each person’s form and when it came to our turn we went like pros. When we got back to the cabin we had a little wine to celebrate our brush with danger!!
The rest of the photos are on webshots just like normal.
Tomorrow St Kitts. This one is a repeat for us but we liked it a lot last time so I think we will again.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Trinidad, what do you think when you hear that? Beaches, rum, chocolate, oil, steel pan bands and the parang music. Me too. But now that we’ve spent just 2 days here I have a different picture. The people! All colors, shades of brown, all different religions but they are ONE. It doesn’t matter if you are East Indian, Muslim, Catholic or Protestant you are a person and they celebrate you. When any faith has a celebration or festival all participate and honor them. As our guides told us they come from all over the world and have blended to create the Trini. People. When you fall in-love it is no matter who or what lineage the other person is. You marry and live your lives together producing Trini children who will also honor each parents religion or heritage.
The day started with a beautiful sunrise and no rain so we are thankful for that. There are a few black clouds out there but hopefully they just go drifting by. Our tour today was called a Culture Collage
The countryside is beautiful. We were in the North end of the island with high mountains and we went 4 wheeling up some of the steepest and windy roads to the top of the 3rd highest peak on the island. We stopped at a lovely Catholic Church that opened their doors for us to use the facilities for part of our informational talks of the tour. It was a bit rough for some of our older folks and the tour leader admitted that he was told Semester at Sea was coming so he planned the day for the kids! We had fun laughing about it and informed him we are the kids, but just all seniors! What a great lesson to watch our 92-year-old lady struggle into the 4 wheel jeep with out a single complaint and to see the care given her by the guides with out a minute of impatience. While we were in the church the drivers found some wood and made an extra step to help us with getting in and out of the jeeps. The Trini people are truly caring. The photos are on webshots as usual. http://community.webshots.com/user/pins4 The new photos start on page 3. Next stop Dominica, another new island for us.
There is a photo of a farmer walking at the top of a field. The guides told us how they farm on these steep slopes. It takes 2 people, the farmer an his wife. A rope is around the farmer and he goes about his work. Tied to a tree! His wife will help pull him back up the hill at the end of the day, using the rope. Hopefully they do not have a disagreement before she pulls him to safety.
We had lunch in the home of a middle class Trinidadian family with great celebration. What they call a LIME, meaning a get together. We had great food; fun music and they opened their home to us. We went into the living room, dining area and into a wonderful, what we would call an old fashion kitchen. I did spot some Corning ware and T-fal pans but where we might have roosters or strawberries decorating the kitchen she had colorful fish. There were wonderful nick-knacks in the china cabinets and it just reminded me of Jack’s homestead in PA. As we ate our meal they provided a small band with local instruments and we had fun singing along. You cannot imagine the fun singing “Sweet Caroline” or “Downtown” to a Calypso beat!
On the way back to the ship our guide, Wendell, pulled a chocolate pod from a roadside tree and broke it open so we could see what it looks like raw. Of course Jack had to have a seed to suck on. It seems the seeds do not provide the chocolate but the “pulp” which surrounds the seed does. This one was not quite ripe so the “pulp” was more like custard and had a very sweet creamy taste. I tasted that part.
My only disappointment was that we ran out of time so that I could not get to a fabric center to explore the batik fabrics. Hopefully we can come across some on another island.
The day started with a beautiful sunrise and no rain so we are thankful for that. There are a few black clouds out there but hopefully they just go drifting by. Our tour today was called a Culture Collage
The countryside is beautiful. We were in the North end of the island with high mountains and we went 4 wheeling up some of the steepest and windy roads to the top of the 3rd highest peak on the island. We stopped at a lovely Catholic Church that opened their doors for us to use the facilities for part of our informational talks of the tour. It was a bit rough for some of our older folks and the tour leader admitted that he was told Semester at Sea was coming so he planned the day for the kids! We had fun laughing about it and informed him we are the kids, but just all seniors! What a great lesson to watch our 92-year-old lady struggle into the 4 wheel jeep with out a single complaint and to see the care given her by the guides with out a minute of impatience. While we were in the church the drivers found some wood and made an extra step to help us with getting in and out of the jeeps. The Trini people are truly caring. The photos are on webshots as usual. http://community.webshots.com/user/pins4 The new photos start on page 3. Next stop Dominica, another new island for us.
There is a photo of a farmer walking at the top of a field. The guides told us how they farm on these steep slopes. It takes 2 people, the farmer an his wife. A rope is around the farmer and he goes about his work. Tied to a tree! His wife will help pull him back up the hill at the end of the day, using the rope. Hopefully they do not have a disagreement before she pulls him to safety.
We had lunch in the home of a middle class Trinidadian family with great celebration. What they call a LIME, meaning a get together. We had great food; fun music and they opened their home to us. We went into the living room, dining area and into a wonderful, what we would call an old fashion kitchen. I did spot some Corning ware and T-fal pans but where we might have roosters or strawberries decorating the kitchen she had colorful fish. There were wonderful nick-knacks in the china cabinets and it just reminded me of Jack’s homestead in PA. As we ate our meal they provided a small band with local instruments and we had fun singing along. You cannot imagine the fun singing “Sweet Caroline” or “Downtown” to a Calypso beat!
On the way back to the ship our guide, Wendell, pulled a chocolate pod from a roadside tree and broke it open so we could see what it looks like raw. Of course Jack had to have a seed to suck on. It seems the seeds do not provide the chocolate but the “pulp” which surrounds the seed does. This one was not quite ripe so the “pulp” was more like custard and had a very sweet creamy taste. I tasted that part.
My only disappointment was that we ran out of time so that I could not get to a fabric center to explore the batik fabrics. Hopefully we can come across some on another island.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Trinidad
Can you believe it is 2009? We had quite a nice dinner and celebration on board ship last night. Today we got an update on our injured passengers. The lady with the broken hip was air lifted from Santarem today and on her way to USA. The gentleman that was air lifted actually went to French Guiana, he received a blood transfusion and is stable.
We arrived in Trinidad late because of the delays but no one was upset as we are all glad of the good outcome of the medical problems. It was pouring rain as we pulled in as you will see from the photos on webshots. We went on our bird tour anyway, to see the roosting of the scarlet ibis. The Scarlet ibis is the national bird of Trinidad and Tobago and as so is protected so it has flocks of hundreds of thousands. Each evening they come to roost in the mangrove swamp and we were there to watch it happen. The photos just cannot even hint at the majesty of the scene. The white herons arrive first and dot the trees and then the reds start coming. The white birds move into the inner tree branches so that eventually all you have are the reds. It looks, from a distance, like red bows all over the trees. Just watching them arrive in ones, two and big flocks is a wonder of nature. We could hear them from across the lake and I bet it is quite noisy up close. As we sat there watching the sun appeared and so too did a rainbow which went from shore to shore on the lake. Then it was time to leave before darkness caught us in the swamp. As we left the swamp we had sunset so Jack tried to capture it too. Back to the ship and a nice warm dinner. Tomorrow we need to get up at 6am as our tour starts at 7:45am. One week left and it will be hectic as we do an island a day. I wondered if I could last for 3 weeks on a cruise and now find that I cannot believe there are just 7 days left. We have been enjoying hearing of the adventures of our fellow passengers and feel like real newbies to traveling the world when we hear their stories. So many take 3-5 trips a year. Several are headed straight to another cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale when we get back. Must be nice to be able to travel like that, but I do wonder if you get tired of not going home occasionally? Maybe some day we will be able to try that too!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL A very busy day with classes on the Mayan Culture and Whales and
what to expect in Trinidad. We have a few minuted before going to dinner so I thought I would blog. We have had much excitement. We left Santaren late but did not think too much about it until we had a medical update today. Seems a lady fainted coming on board and broke her hip so she was left in Santaren. There are 11 hospitals there but none for this important procedure so Med-i-vac left the US today and will get her tomorrow, but in the meantime the government would not let her husband stay so he is with us. Then we had to change our route and come to a total stop for over 1 hour as we had a helicopter medical lift for a gentleman with a life threatening condition. So he and his wife were lifted and flown to British Guinea. I guess when you cruise for this long things will happen but the doctor said in all his years of cruising this is the first time for a helicopter rescue. Time for dinner.
See you in 2009
what to expect in Trinidad. We have a few minuted before going to dinner so I thought I would blog. We have had much excitement. We left Santaren late but did not think too much about it until we had a medical update today. Seems a lady fainted coming on board and broke her hip so she was left in Santaren. There are 11 hospitals there but none for this important procedure so Med-i-vac left the US today and will get her tomorrow, but in the meantime the government would not let her husband stay so he is with us. Then we had to change our route and come to a total stop for over 1 hour as we had a helicopter medical lift for a gentleman with a life threatening condition. So he and his wife were lifted and flown to British Guinea. I guess when you cruise for this long things will happen but the doctor said in all his years of cruising this is the first time for a helicopter rescue. Time for dinner.
See you in 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)