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.
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