One thing about cruise ships is that you always arrive for disembarkation quite early in the morning. It can take a little while to get off the ship and through customs, but you end up with pretty much a full day. By 10 am we were back at Da House stowing our bags and heading out into Old San Juan again.

Door to our room from the patio

Now THAT’S a hat!

Cool mural

We found a good lunch, which is never a challenge in San Juan, wrapped up a little Christmas shopping, and headed over to El Morro.

El Moro

El Morro is the other old fort that guards San Juan and is also now a National Park site. It is perched on the edge of the island overlooking the very narrow channel that leads into the harbor. The earliest bit was built in 1539 by the Spanish,and it was added onto over the centuries. Another cool old fort, this one with six levels and either long stone staircases or stone ramps (for dragging cannon up and down) to get to each level. At the second level, there is even part of a shell that was fired by the Americans during the Spanish American War stuck in the wall.

El Moro battlements

El Moro lookout

We were fascinated by the iguanas hanging out on the walls at El Morro. Their colors did seem to match the walls- pretty cool! There is also a very picturesque old cemetery just outside El Morro that overlooks the sea. What a beautiful place for one’s final resting place.

El Moro iguana

Cemetery near El Moro

A local Christmas tradition was also taking place in the courtyard of one of the large art galleries. There were a few food stalls but mostly there were rows and rows of tables with many artists selling their Three Kings statues. You see a lot of religious art around San Juan to start with, but the most prevalent image is the three kings. This was apparently an annual tradition for all these artists to sell their versions, and it was quite the showing.

At the organic market – appears to be squeezing cane juice for drinks

LOTS of hand carved religious figures, mostly the three kings, for sale at the market

After so much expended energy, we just had dinner at a tavern and grill next to our hotel that turned out to be a real gem. The atmosphere was great and the food even better. Following our starter of garlic shrimp, Mike had a seafood mofungo, and Tami had a grilled flank steak with mushroom risotto that was so good she couldn’t stop talking about it.

Our final full day in San Juan was to be a good lazy day of strolling the city one more time. We checked out the exhibits at the Museum of the Americas. It was interesting to see the history from the perspective of Puerto Rico and to see what they focused on. It included artwork by a local artist, which we really didn’t get. We think there was a lot of political and social statements in the work that just went over our heads.

Museum is on the second floor

Death at the museum

Illustration of the letter M – of course Tami picked out the one with soccer players

One interesting thing about the streets of the old town is the blue cobblestones. When the Spanish ships came over to bring home oodles of gold and silver, they needed ballast for the ride to the Americas, so they loaded up with slag from iron production, each one weighing around seventeen pounds. They have a lot of cobalt in them so they appear very blue. Many of the streets in Old Town are paved with these and they are quite beautiful.

Streets are paved with blue bricks

Since this was actually our anniversary (35 looong years!) we had reservations for dinner at Marmalade, supposed to be the best restaurant in San Juan. We actually both put on long pants and wore nice shirts (!!!). The restaurant was beautifully simple and elegant inside, so good thing we did!

Marmalade specializes in a tasting menu where you pick how many courses you want, and then choose the items from different categories. We went for six since that was the most, of course. We each chose something different and shared everything, so we essentially had twelve different dishes. Let the feasting begin!

And what a feast it was! We won’t bore with all the details, but every plate was absolutely delicious, and we also had the wine pairings that were the perfect complement to each dish. Standouts were the white bean with truffle soup that is their signature dish, truffle ice cream, and the pork cheeks. Service was incredibly attentive, and our waiter took the time to describe each dish and wine in detail.

It was a truly amazing meal, and we apologize for the lack of descriptors. All we can say is that it was a three hour meal and every single dish was a delight. We highly recommend it to anyone who visits here. What a wonderful finish to a fantastic trip.

Alley back to our hotel

St. Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands, was the one stop we had visited before, so we opted for an action filled day away from Charlotte Amalia, the main town on the island. We boarded our bus to take us to Virgin Islands Ecotours and headed across the island. Riding on the roads in St Thomas is one of the oddest things. They drive on the left side of the road, being a former British possession, but the cars ALL have the driver on the left side of the car, now being a United States territory. Even the police cars are set up with the drivers on the left. That would be so hard to get used to. The thing that really helps when driving in Britain is being seated on the side by the centerline of the road. We don’t think we will ever rent a car in St. Thomas.

Back in St. Thomas!

Our day trip included a kayak trip through the mangroves, a short hike out to a blowhole, then snorkeling in the lagoon before kayaking back to the starting point. It did sound a bit busy, but turned out to be a fantastic outing.

The kayaks were two-person kayaks, so Tami was naturally a little nervous about joining Mike in a small water vessel, but Mike behaved himself perfectly and we soon had a smooth rhythm going with the paddles. And then there were a few of our fellow tourists. Most were doing fine, but there were a few who just couldn’t get it. One pair of guys, we’ll call them Big Doofus and Little Doofus, could not paddle in a straight line if their life depended on it. Unfortunately, we had started out near them and were plagued by their continuous forty-five degree dashes across the water intersecting our course on a regular basis. Try as we might to get ahead or behind, we couldn’t shake them so it just became a part of our tour to avoid BD and LD.

Heading out on tour

The mangroves were beautiful and we had great guides who told us all about the vegetation, history, and ecology of the area. It was an ecotour, after all. It was interesting to learn that while the area is now a protected wildlife refuge, during hurricanes people are allowed and encouraged to bring their boats within the mangroves to ride out the storm. The root systems of the mangroves provide the perfect protection against the high winds and waters.

We were soon beaching the kayaks and heading out on our hike, but first we had a hermit crab race. The spot where we got out of the water was swarming with hermit crabs and one had to be careful not to step on them. We were each encouraged to choose our hermit crab (picking it up carefully to avoid those claws!), name it, and place it in the starting circle. Tami picked up the one that was trucking away from her feet the fastest, and named it Sparky. Unfortunately, Sparky decided to hunker down in his shell for the start of the race and, well, the entirety of the race. Oh well, we had a blowhole to go see!

Pulled up at our hike/snorkel stop

Cool beach graveled with lots of coral

Hermit crab

Lots of hermit crabs

It was a pleasant short hike out to where the rocky shore met the lagoon and there was some great wave action as the surf hit the rocks. The blowhole had some action going as well, so there was a lot to see. Our guides were also good at finding tide pool life.

Off on our hike

Brittle star

Guide taking pictures of couples in the blow hole

Back to the kayaks to put on our snorkel gear, which we had all brought with us in the boats. We were snorkeling within the protection of the lagoon, so there was no need for fins – just mask and snorkel. We swam over to the reef and at first it just seemed like we were seeing coral and just a couple of fish, but as we snorkeled longer and farther out, we were seeing more and more varieties of fish. At one point, a guide pointed out a barracuda near where Tami was swimming. She ducked her head down in time to see the barracuda saunter ( do fish saunter?) her way and she was able to swim right on top of him for quite a while. Very cool.

Fish

Baracuda!

More fish

Trying to take pictures of these fish is another matter. We have underwater cameras for both of us now, and they work quite well, but when you are floating around in the water, subject to the whims of the waves, you never know what will show up in the viewfinder when you actually hit the shutter, or if it will be in focus. We have a lot of shots of tail fins. Don’t know why those fish can’t just hold still. Tami did find one fish that did hold still. He seemed to like to sit behind a tall skinny piece of coral, like he was hiding or something. But the current kept dragging Tami away from the fish so she still couldn’t get a good picture!

Returned to the kayaks and we headed back to the starting point, although we took a little different route so we got to see more of the mangroves. Wonderfully beautiful. Back on the bus, then back to the ship for a quick shower before taking a jaunt into Charlotte Amalia. Between the salt water and the heat and humidity, we were extremely sticky!

We did venture into town, mostly to see if we could find an art gallery from our previous visit. We couldn’t remember exactly where it was, so we did some fruitless walking and when we finally found it, they were closed for the day. Oh well, in our wandering we did come across a couple of nice shops, including one where the owner, after hearing where we were from, said “oh, I was just there! I’m in a band and we were playing in the old seafaring part of town.” We said “Ballard?” And he said yes! He had been playing at the Lief Erickson Hall in a contra dance band. Small world!

The rest of Charlotte Amalie was pretty much as we remembered it. They have converted several blocks of old warehouses into shops and they look very appealing and beautiful from the outside. Unfortunately, probably ninety percent of them are filled with jewelry shops, and we’re talking multiple stores of International Diamonds and the ilk. Blah. But there are a few nice boutiques and galleries sprinkled within so we weren’t completely without things to look at.

It was soon time to make it back to the ship, though, so we caught a “taxi”. The taxis are more a cross between a bus and a taxi and everyone uses them, locals and tourists. We saw them throughout our drive across the island. They consist of the front of a big pick up truck, then the back has three to five open rows of seats that each hold about five people each. They drive along the main routes and people just hop on and off, sometimes at designated stops, sometimes they just seem to stop. We got on ours when it was stopped at a light and the driver called “Taxi?” And we hopped on because we were looking for one. You seem to pay according to how far you’re going. They are everywhere and often quite colorful. They seem to make a pretty efficient transit system.

St. Thomas taxi

This was our last stop on the cruise so we had to have a final piña colada and daiquiri to toast the end of a wonderful cruise. We have another couple of days in San Juan and then we will be back to the rain of the Pacific Northwest. But to be honest, it sounds kind of good right now!

Our next stop included two countries within one small island. St. Maarten (Sint Maarten is the Dutch version of the name of the Island) is half Dutch, half French. The usual story of change of possession between the Dutch, English, French, and Spanish. But a twist on the usual ending in that the Dutch and French briefly came to their senses and decided that it made more sense to divvy it up than continue wasting time, money, and resources on fighting over it. The nice thing is that they have a 350 year old treaty that allows residents and anyone else to move freely back and forth between the two sides. So to this day the island is divided in half, with all services, such as power plants, schools, and utilities duplicated on each half. The Dutch side, with its capitol in Phillipsburg, uses the Netherlands Antilles Guilder for currency. Yeah, no one else has ever heard of it, either. What they really use is the US dollar. All prices have the US dollar price conspicuously posted.

Nuff said

But then there’s those French. The French part of the island is considered a full part of France (most other countries treat the islands as territories, if they have not become fully independent nations – only France seems to treat them as full citizens). They would not use the US dollar of course, so the currency du jour is the Euro. They will take US dollars, but still charge the exchange rate, which is perfectly fair.

We started our day by taking the short walk into town from the cruise terminal, which was about a one mile walk along a busy highway. Not exciting, but seemed like less hassle than the water taxi that charged money and had a big line. The walk seemed quite short and a good opportunity to wear off some of yesterday’s indulgences. When we hit town, it was fun to see that the water side of town overlooked a beautiful sandy beach lined with chairs and umbrellas. Yes, there were hawkers out there selling time in their chairs for a few bucks, but it was a gorgeous scene and refreshing after some of the more industrial town fronts we had seen. It was also lined with restaurants, bars, and cafes. Again, a change from what we had seen previously. There were also a lot of shops with the usual multitudes of jewelry, actually no, bazillions of big jewelry stores, cheap souvenirs, the same T-shirts we had seen everywhere, and guys with taxis just waiting for us.

Sitting really wasn’t what we wanted to do

Line em up and move em out

Now this is what a beach front cafe should look like in the Caribbean!

Main street

An appropriate Xmas tree

Dutch like their orange

That’s a courthouse I would enjoy working in

We did find some better quality shops off the main drag, also as usual, including a nice art gallery. Soon, though, we had to head back to catch the tour we had signed up for. Our original plan was to rent bicycles at a shop we had identified, but after a few days in the islands we realized that a) it was WAY too humid and hot to spend a day cycling and b) the roads and traffic looked far too frightening. Our walk along the highway into town only reinforced that notion as it was already quite steamy at 10 am, and there was no shoulder on the busy roads and plentiful crazy drivers.

So we joined our afternoon tour, which consisted of a ride by boat across the lagoon (open bar and live music) followed by time in the main town on the French side of the island, then a bus through the countryside back to our origin. You never know how these tours are going to work out, especially as we joined the very long line of ticket holders, but it turned out quite delightful.

Getting into the spirit

St. Maarten turns out to be the winter home of the rich, famous, and obscenely rich. We went by many overly large yachts, including Steve Jobs’ former boat. Don’t know who owns it now, but it sure looked like an Apple computer on the water. Hearing about how the uber rich don’t even travel on their mega yachts was more than disgusting, but it does keep the local economy going.

Formerly belonged to Steve Jobs – looks kinda Apple

When we reached Marigot, the French capitol, we immediately spied a café selling croissants. Tami had her usual chocolat, Mike had plain. Yum. Honestly, almost as good as Café Besalu. There were a lot of high end fashion shops that we peered in but skipped. Tami just doesn’t quite go for those sequiny form fitting dresses. Or any dresses, for that matter.

Marigot

How far did they have to go to get that?

Cemetary

We enjoyed the French feel of Marigot so much that we indulged in a second round of croissants before the tour back to Phillipsburg. We did need to help support the local economy. Back in town, we decided that we really needed to go back to the art gallery where we had seen some artwork that could not be passed up. So we got a lot of miles in and were some of the last ones back on the ship, but it was a fine, fine day.

We enjoyed the lobster dinner tonight and worked our way back to our cabin down the 9th deck hallway. We can always find our cabin by the post-it notes on the doors of our neighbors. There are three couples who are traveling together and they all put different colored post-its on their doors saying whose cabin it is. So we just go past the three post-its and there we are. One day someone had put one of the post-its on our door. We righted the situation, of course.

Pulling out of town

Wednesday morning found us pulling into the dock at St John’s, Antigua, which was directly next to one of the main streets of the town. Antigua is a somewhat hilly island and has lots of inlets, leading to its total of 365 beaches.

Shipwrecks in the back yard

Steel drum band welcoming us

We had scheduled a morning of snorkeling so as soon as we left the ship, we headed to the catamaran that was to take us out to the reef. We joined a group of about 30 people on the catamaran, which sounds like a lot, but the boat was quite large and spacious so it did not feel crowded.

We powered out to the reef, which was not far off shore, and the crew quickly distributed the gear to everyone. One women soon made a pest of herself by insisting that she did not need the life preserver that she was supposed to wear. The crewman said yes, you will wear it. It is required by law. After a little more arguing she acquiesced. Next came the flippers. The guys were really good at looking at your feet and picking the right size for you. Practice makes perfect? But this same woman decided that she didn’t want the style of flipper she was given; she wanted the other style that some people were given. The crewman said no, you have to wear what I gave you because your size only comes in that style. She continued to argue quite vehemently until finally the crew member got quite testy and said that was the only choice. Wow!

Everyone else was quite happy with their gear and we were soon plopping ourselves into the water from the back of the boat. As soon as we hit the water and put our heads underwater, we saw a multitude of beautiful yellow fish. As we swam away from the boat and explored the reef, we saw a nice variety of fish, including some cool slender fish with a long spear out of the nose, like a mini-narwhale. They were silver and yellow and about a foot long and favored swimming near the surface in schools.
Looking deeper we saw striped fish, a few blue fish, and quite a variety of other beautiful fish. We obviously did not catch the name of any of them, but some were long and skinny, some were round and fat, some were small, some were big, some were speckled. Some liked the surface, some liked the bottom, some stayed solo, and others went around in packs. With such a sophisticated description, we’re sure you can tell what we saw!

In the deep end of the pool

Needle nose fish

Yellow stripe fish

Working hard to get the shot

We were swimming along a reef that extended for a total of around five miles. The reef was quite close to the surface in places so it was very interesting to get a closer look at it and the fish who hang out within the reef. There was also a good variety of coral, although there was less variety in color of the coral. We had a good long time to swim as we liked all around the reef.

Coral

While swimming, at one point Mike found himself being repeatedly swam into by, you guessed it, Ms. Annoying. There were enough of us out there in the water that you would occasionally bump into someone else, but she continued to swim directly into him even as he tried to move away. And she wasn’t even an American!

There was a good swell that far out from shore so our 45 minutes in the water was actually plenty. After we all climbed back on board they broke out the rum punch, of course, turned on the reggae, and raised the sail. Which was kind of funny, because while they did raise the small jib, they continued to motor along so it may have looked pretty, but really wasn’t doing anything. With such nice breezes blowing it would be fun to do a real sail in the area. We saw one very small cruise ship in Barbados that was a sailing ship. Now that would be the way to see the Caribbean! But we had places to get to before out time was up.

We stopped next at a beach where we had another nice break to swim or walk the beach. Tami made a beeline for the water and had a couple of nice swims. The water temperature was perfect for the warm weather, and the beach was quite protected with very little surf. Mike took a turn to cool off in the water as well.

The beautiful tropical beach we stopped at for a swim

Woman selling things on the beach

Back in town, it is set up as a small village with a lot of shops along a cute main street, but most of the shops are very touristy, as expected. But a block or two off the main drag we found some nicer shops with higher quality items, including one guy who was doing some very nice original art. He also recommended a good lunch spot called Hemingway’s, and we headed there for a relaxing lunch. It was on the second floor of the building with an open deck overlooking the street. Tami had conch fritters, which were very tasty, and Mike had conch curry, which was especially fine. A couple of Wadadli beers, the local brew, made a complete and satisfying meal.

Main tourist shopping street – same old imported crap you see at every stop – we did find some local art, etc. on a nearby street

Eating at Hemingways

Local beer!

We wandered around a bit more, but the lure of our cool room was enough to get us on board a little early, where we could enjoy the views of the island from our balcony and sip the chilled fruit tea they provide us in our room every day. Mike was also happy to finish the day with a blackberry gelato sandwich, which he had been lusting after all trip. It was a nice finish to the day.

Fishing boat

Next stop, St. Lucia. The ship docked in Castries and we stepped directly into town from the ship terminal accompanied by the usual calls of “Want taxi? Want taxi?” Nope, not yet. We had a destination in mind for St. Lucia but wanted to check out the town first.

Castries harbor

For several blocks around the terminal, the town was filled with blocks of covered market areas. They were warrens of little booths of more knick knacks, clothing, spices, items made from coconuts, and all sorts of other stuff. In Castries, though, all the vendors call you “My love” or “Darling”. Kind of sweet at first but even that gets old quickly. If you pause to look at something for a nanosecond, you are pounced upon to see if you want to buy. But it’s all good-natured and it is clearly a big part of the economy. We still had fun wandering through all of the stalls.

Market in Castries, St. Lucia

Just liked this notice

Cute little guys, but what is that on their heads?

But our main goal in St. Lucia was to find our way to Caribelle Batik, which we had learned about before the trip and were supposed to make some lovely local batiks. It is located several miles up in the hills overlooking town, so we finally said “Yes!” to a “Want taxi?” and found Cornelius. For an agreed price he took us up into the hills to Caribelle Batik, driving along crazy, steep, windy roads that offer incredible views of the harbor and rest of the island. Saint Lucia is very hilly, unlike Barbados, and houses are built all the way up the hills, often on tall concrete pillars to protect against landslides in the rainy season.

View from up near the batik shop

St. Lucia is certainly NOT a place we would ever want to drive ourselves. Not only are the roads steep and windy, but they are very narrow with no shoulder. Getting past oncoming cars can be a tight fit. Cornelius would “beep, beep” his horn whenever he can to a sharp corner.

Contrasts

We finally arrived at Caribelle and we both had a great time looking at all the lovely clothing. We tried on several items each and those changing rooms had the best view I’ve ever had in a changing room. But it is so humid that you feel as if the clothes might just stay stuck to your body. We walked out happy people though, and Cornelius was waiting to take us back. But then we asked him if he could recommend a place for lunch and he had the perfect spot just a few miles out of town, quiet and on the beach.

Cornelius seemed to know half the people we passed, and it could be a cousin who runs the restaurant, but it was perfect as it was calm and quiet with waves lapping the beach right in front of the open doors where our table was situated. It was just a little run down, the perfect picture of a Caribbean beach shack. The menu had kingfish, a local fish, that we both had and it was delicious (Mike particularly enjoyed the very spicy jerk fish).

Deck at our lunch restaurant/beach shack

Beach stud

We had arranged that Cornelius would come back and pick us up at 2:30, and we knew he would come since we hadn’t paid him anything yet. Right at 2:30 he came for us, but he was quite upset, sweaty, limping, and saying something about a problem, then an accident. We were afraid that HE had been in an accident, but it turned out that there was an accident on the road to the restaurant, and when there is an accident no one can go anywhere until the police arrive. So traffic comes to a complete halt. Cornelius had fortunately been able to pull off the road and park, then hoofed it to the restaurant in time to meet us so we wouldn’t think he had abandoned us. Good guy.

We walked back down the road to where he had pulled off and walked past the accident site. A simple fender bender involving three cars, and the police had finally arrived, but they had many people lined up on the sidewalk, all with their papers out, and traffic was completely blocked. We were soon at his car and back on the road but what an interesting adventure! Cornelius took very good care of us but he did say that he was done for the day after he dropped us off at the terminal.

We were done with the heat and crowds as well and thought that a couple of frosty drinks on the ship’s deck would be the perfect way to contemplate the day. It had been quite a fun day but it did feel good to unwind on deck as the ship steamed away from Saint Lucia. On to Antigua.

Writer at work

Hauling supplies to the writer

Scene while sailing out

Yoga pose – “seeing the whole picture”

Our first stop on the cruise, Barbados! We awoke to a typical Caribbean day with broken clouds in the blue sky, temperatures in the eighties and high humidity but also that beautiful tropical breeze. Barbados is one of the few islands that did not change hands over its history after the arrival of the British. Tami has ancestors on the Higginbotham side who spent a few generations in Barbados way back in the 1500’s or so, but we didn’t recognize anyone.

We had signed up for the Atlantis submarine cruise for the first thing in the morning and were not quite sure what to expect. It is a submarine that can hold up to 48 people and dives to 150 feet. We were not sure what it would be like in the sub, or how crowded, or how well we might be able to see anything. It turned out to be quite the fun adventure.
The company takes you on a small ferry boat out about a mile to where the submarine is located. We arrived before the previous group on the sub had surfaced so they told us to look for a bright blue patch in the water which is where the sub would be coming up. Sure enough, after just a couple of minutes, a small, bright blue patch appeared in the water about 100 feet away and as we watched, the patch got larger and bluer and brighter, and soon the white sub surfaced. The ferry went over and tied up with the sub and a gangplank was attached between the boats. It was fun watching the crew unscrew the hatches and let the previous group off the sub and onto the ferry. There was one woman who was very green around the gills, sweating profusely, and clearly not a natural mariner. It did make us wonder what the ride might be like.

Take ‘er up Cap’n!

The great white, uh, sub

Batten down the hatches

We transferred from the ferry to the submarine down the ladders and found that the sub consisted of a double-sided row of seats the length of the sub, with each seat facing out a porthole. The seats were quite close together but since we had far fewer than a full load, we were able to spread out and even lean across and look out the other side if we wanted. If it had been a full load, it would have been cozy but we were quite comfortable and had a great view.

Mike at his porthole

Once we were all seated, the captain of the sub said “Dive! Dive! Dive!”, then he did his best klaxon impression of “Ah OOGAH! Ah OOGAH! Ah OOGAH!” It was quite funny. We were soon descending and running just above the coral where we saw tons of fish of all sizes, colors, and shapes, some in schools, some solitary. We were amazed by the variety and the beautiful colors. We also saw all types of coral and even a sea turtle who was lounging with his (or her) tail nudged between some coral. We snapped a lot of pictures, but the colors really don’t show up well through the portholes. We will include a couple of pictures anyway. The sub also went by a sunken barge that had been there for about 45 years. Even though it was just a barge, it was very eerie to see it on the bottom with fish swimming around it. On the trip, we reached a depth of 140 feet and spent nearly an hour underwater. It was really quite impressive and fun and then on the ferry ride back to shore, we were all served a glass of rum punch. That never hurts!

Coral reef

A shipwreck!

Back in town, we headed into the streets of Bridgetown and found ourselves in a very busy city full of locals out doing what locals do. As soon as we hit the street we were bombarded with guys asking “Want taxi? Want taxi?” You learn quickly to ignore them. We walked along Swan Street which was full of street vendors and small five and dime type shops. We stood out very clearly as non-locals, so as soon as we are spotted every vendor hails us and wants to show us their goods.

Downtown Bridgetown, Barbados

Caribbean Christmas trees

But Tami was successful in finding a Barbados flag (very pretty – yay!) and we also found some local spices. There was also a “craft” center that was mostly empty but we chanced upon a shop where a woman was making hand-dyed fabric, which is one thing Tami is specifically looking for on this trip. We found two gorgeous pieces and the biggest problem is going to be if Tami can bear to cut into them!

Tami’s gorgeous fabric

We also stepped into a local department store and found both some great looking hot sauce and even better, a local cookbook with a recipe for yellow sauce, something Mike is very excited to try making.

The local currency is the Barbados dollar, which is worth about a half dollar. Most items show the price in both US dollars and Barbados dollars, and shops take US dollars as easily as Barbados. The only thing is that they usually want to give you change in Barbados dollars. So we’re bringing home a few Barbados dollar coins. They do have sailing ships on them!

Local beer at lunch

At lunch, watching the deckhand of the boat moored in front of us

After arising Saturday morning we climbed up to the roof of our building to see if we could spot our ship. We did, and unfortunately it was not down at the docks below Old Town where we could have walked, but rather across the water over by the municipal airport, which meant a taxi ride. Since we couldn’t board until 1:00, we wandered a bit, had a tapas lunch at a Spanish restaurant, lugged our bags back down the four flights of stairs, and then caught said taxi over to the terminal.

It was fun exploring a ship we were NOT familiar with (we’ve been on several Princess ships, and they all seemed to be laid out exactly the same), and then we settled into our room for a bit. It was not long before Tami noticed a party boat sailing by. The La Rumba was blasting a salsa version of Santa is Coming to Town, flashing Christmas lights, and full of dancing, singing partyers. Soon it had turned around at the head of the small cove we were in and came back out leading a Christmas parade of boats that went on for the next hour or so. Looking right and left, we realized everyone from all our neighboring cabins were all out enjoying the parade just like us. There were some great light displays, and some good music as well.

Salsa Christmas party!

Rowing Santas

Returning from the parade

After the standard but boring life jacket drill down in one of the lounges (which we got to listen to in both English and German, but NOT Spanish), we headed up for dinner just as the ship was preparing to pull out. We had decided to try out one of the premium, i.e. upcharged, restaurants for our first dinner. It was called Qzine, and was much more adventuresome than anything we have seen on a ship before. It was solidly aimed at foodies, with creative small plates based on a number of different cultures. To push the “modern and trendy” concept further, the food was all ordered on iPads (you could even watch short videos of some offerings to get a better idea of what they were).

We started out with a trio of ceviches, of which the salmon was our favorite. That was followed by Vietnamese spring rolls. The best was the pork spring roll served with BBQ sauce. Next came the soup and soufflé pairing. There were small tastes of three different soups in test tubes with straws, alongside three different tiny soufflés. This time our favorite was the sweet corn soup with the cheddar cheese soufflé. This was followed by a “lava crab cake” – basically a soft crab cake center wrapped up in a crunchy coating of something that seemed like very fine noodles, with the whole thing rolled in a wonderful sauce. That was probably the best of all the items we had. However, we were not done yet – we next were served with very small filet mignon steaks, served with large thimble-fulls of five accompaniments – mushrooms, red wine sauce, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and creamed garlicy spinach. The next course arrived and we both inwardly groaned as it was much larger than the others had been. It was a visit to India and included samples of chicken tikka, lamb curry, vindaloo shrimp, spinach and chickpea dishes, with basmati rice and pappadoms just in case we were still hungry.

For dessert we were brought some little folding box puzzles that we had to play with a bit to find the descriptions of the different dessert options. Mike had berries with fruit and coconut gelato, while Tami had a cake with chocolate and nutella mousse layered between a crispy hazelnut layer and a ganache topping, with a sugar and butter “Q” tombstone (the dessert was called the “chocolate tombstone”). The also brought us some small dessert amuse bouches (sp?) of a chocolate and sprinkle covered strawberry and a very small strawberry mouse served in a porcelain egg shell. Both were presented from a platter of grass with the egg shells nestled down in the grass.

Sunday we slept in as the day would be spent at sea, sailing south to Barbados. It was a quiet day, with really not very much to write about. We attended a talk on the upcoming ports, had lunch, and did a little shopping. Mike was nerdily pleased to find a USB power cord in the onboard Apple store that very cleverly will work with both our apple devices and many of our other devices as well (we normally have to carry two separate cords to handle all of those).

Tami was very amused with some of the artwork in the shopping area, which I will have to let her tell you about: Sprinkled on the walls amongst all of the fancy shops with watches, jewelry, and handbags and such, there were photo portraits of some very elegant people. All of the women had the same name, which was Barbie. And in one photo, Barbie had a gentleman accompanying her, Ken. They were great photos of old classic Barbies dressed in elegant evening wear and I had a great time checking them all out. There was one with my bubble-haired Barbie, and another with Deb’s pony-tailed Barbie. I must say, she hasn’t aged a bit.

From our balcony

Rainbow from our balcony

Today we decided to escape from the boundaries of Old Town and rented bikes for some exploration. These weren’t just any bikes. They were bright yellow, heavy duty single speed cruisers, with emphasis on the heavy. Since we were biking away from Old Town, it was mostly flat so the single speed was adequate, but as we tortured our way up the few hills we had very strong empathy for Keenan and his Swedish bike adventure.

Happy Mike!

We set off through the traffic and managed not to fall over as we got used to using coaster brakes again for probably the first time in forty years. It was a little disconcerting to be riding in narrow streets with lots of hurried drivers, but they were amazingly respectful of us and usually would not pass unless they had a completely clear lane going the other direction. Or maybe the sight of us on those yellow bikes was just too intimidating.

A first priority was to find lunch, of course. We tootled along the road until we found a small bar/cafe in the big hotel district. While the main road was lined with large resort-like hotels, there was really very little else along the road. We had expected a lot of shops and interesting restaurants, but it was actually quite dull. So we were pleasantly surprised by the quality and variety of the chef’s special tapas plate. It included several different grilled meats, making Tami happy, fried queso, and very interesting birds nests of shredded plantains, all served with a trio of tasty sauces.

Now well fueled, we managed to continue on and explore a couple of different beaches along the coast and see some of the local neighborhoods. A rest break in a park under the palm trees was particularly picturesque, although we did wonder if we should keep our helmets on, judging by the number of coconuts on the ground around us. It was yet another warm tropical day, so we were not entirely ambitious, but who needs to be when on vacation?

We were told this is called “the lady’s beach” because it is protected and doesn’t have any waves.

A girl and her bike

More fortifications

It gets breezy

Beach scene

Returning to Old Town, we turned in the bikes and surprised the rental guy with how far we’d gone, but he probably says that to everybody! We walked along the waterfront and enjoyed the sight of a reproduction Spanish Galleon that had recently docked and appears to opening to the public this weekend. It certainly makes one think of when this port was teeming with such ships at the height of the Spanish period in the Caribbean. This was the first stop for ships arriving from Europe.

Our ship arrived today

Our cabin has a deck

We might raid a few ports

Another walk along the city walls is always a very pleasant thing to do here. Various vendors were setting up, preparing for the coming weekend. We also saw many pelicans flying over the bay and lots of locals enjoying a Friday afternoon. We passed through the wall and into the town proper at the old gate where important people used to arrive directly from their ships. There are ramps leading from the shore through the gate, and it’s not hard to imagine some pomp and circumstance surrounding an arrival through that gate. We, however, received none of it. Well, maybe in our minds we were!

After brief respite in our room to cool down and rest our feet, as well as recover from climbing those three flights of stairs again, we headed out for yet another excellent meal. This time it started with two kinds of ceviche. One was shrimp with lime and coconut that was very different and a most wonderful combination (put de lime in de coconut…) the other was an octopus ceviche that was also very nice. We followed with coconut shrimp and a crab and lobster gnocchi dish that was uber yummy. And a big ol’ pile of sautéed spinach because, well, we just haven’t found many veggies here!

Returning to Da House we saw that they were having an All the Mojitos You Can Drink party on the roof for $10. It was mighty tempting, but after that dinner and some wine with dinner, we just couldn’t do it. So after another trudge up the stairs to gather the blogging materials, we sit here doing our technology thing in hopes of entertaining all of our dear friends. But it’s not so rough as we listen to various strains of music filtering in through the doorway. We just have to make it up those stairs one. More. Time. Tonight.

Thursday we did not rise bright and early, due to the extremely long slumber that felt oh, so good. That meant that we could just start with lunch for our first meal, and a fine lunch it was. We did not have to walk far to find a wonderful café serving some Puerto Rican classics. Tami had a wonderfully garlicky chicken dish with plantains, and Mike had a shredded pork stew. Both dishes were excellent.

Just around the corner from the restaurant, Castillo San Cristobal guards the walls of San Juan and overlooks the Atlantic all the way to Europe. We visited the fort last time but it was a definite must-see again. It is overseen by the National Parks Service, and is a fascinating place to visit. The original fort was built by the Spanish back in the 1500’s and they kept adding on over the years and those pesky British kept trying to take it away. It’s pretty darn sturdy and fortified and it held its own. Until the annoying Americans went for it during the Spanish American war, however, and we’ve had it ever since (and added on some bits during WWII). It’s a very cool old fort with an amazing view and we spent a lot of time there. The other main fort of the island is El Morro, and is a short walk away along the city walls. We headed up that way but the sun and heat zapped our energy for another fort and we decided to save that for another day.

Looking out from Castillo San Cristobal

Flags over Castillo San Cristobal – would love to find one with the red X to take home!

Instead we decided to take it easy with some shaded shopping instead. Mike splurged on a shirt featuring his all-time favorite airplane, a Pan Am Clipper flying boat (Mike’s always been an airplane nerd, having grown up in a Boeing family). We also had a big order of our favorite hot sauce, known in our house simply as “yellow sauce”, shipped back to Seattle. We discovered the Spicy Caribbee company the first time we were in San Juan and now can’t cook without them.

Lots of colors

Street scene

Perpetual pigeon feeding area

Finally, we headed back to one of our favorite restaurants from the last trip for an outdoor dinner in the cooling breezes of San Juan. Sangria just seems like the thing to drink here – it is refreshing, everyone has it, and it doesn’t put you on your lips the way a pitcher of mojitos would. Needless to say we had some there too. Dinner was again mostly tapas (the cheese and ham croquettes and the fish fritters were especially good) followed by a wonderful seafood paella. Once again we retired to our room with bulging stomachs.

Paella – delish!

As the rain poured in sheets down on the soggy city, Mike and Tami once again braved the D bus to downtown and then the light rail with wheeled bags in tow. Heading off for a midnight flight to warmer climes, it was vaguely familiar to be riding the bus, waiting in the bus tunnel, and catching the light rail to the airport in the dark and rain. We got there early, as is our usual practice, being the perpetual early arrivers that we are.

With our TSA precheck status and the late hour, we were very soon at the gate. Or so we thought. No sooner had we arrived and settled into seats but it was announced that the actual departure gate was not D7, but truly D8. So we shuffled over one gate. And sat. And read. And watched the arrival of a lot of very tall young men wearing matching purple sports shoes and jackets with TCU all over them. A basketball team! We were flying to Dallas on the first leg so Mike guessed it was Texas Christian University. With hindsight we can say that he was correct, and in fact, they are called the Horned Frogs. They apparently lost to the Huskies and were headed home. GO DAWGS!

Ah, but there was also to be yet another gate change. Back to D7. Shuffle back we did. With all the rain in the PNW, planes to Portland were apparently being diverted to Seattle, something about flooding, perhaps at the airport? Many flights were being shuffled around, so we left late, but not very late, and after a change in Dallas we were soon landing in sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The colors of San Juan.

We were here 5 years ago for our 30th anniversary and a cruise to the Caribbean to celebrate. We had such a wonderful time that when our 35th anniversary rolled around, we could think of nothing better to do than to revisit both San Juan and the Caribbean. We are trying a different cruise line because frankly, when you step on a ship and already know where everything is, a little of the mystique has dissipated. So we are trying Celebrity this time just to add a tiny bit of mystery. And we will be stopping at a bunch of new islands for us.

Last time we arrived at Da House, our hotel, in the dark. This time it was mid-afternoon and we knew the drill at Da House, which is a very funky hotel self-described as “Bohemian”. It doubles as an art gallery, overlooks a street with very loud salsa band parties every night, and has no elevator. So of course we stay on the top floor because that is where you can get a room overlooking a private patio and removed from the VERY loud music that arrives from the street at all hours of the night. But the atmosphere is very fun and atmospheric and you can step from the hotel room to the vibrant activity of Old Town, which includes funky shops, wonderful restaurants, old churches, constant salsa music, old cars cruising, oodles of feral cats, old forts, surf crashing, and palms, sun and warmth.

First staircase to the fourth floor.

We were seriously sleep deprived after the midnight departure from Seattle and the afternoon arrival in San Juan, but we had to step out to see if San Juan was as wonderful as we remembered. Yes, it was. It definitely was. The cobbled streets lined with beautiful old colonial-type buildings in a colorful palette had not changed. Some of the shops were different and we noted several new restaurants, and it was encouraging to see how many of the old run-down buildings were being renovated.

Feliz navidad.

Cool hat, dude!

We made sure we ended up back at El Convento, an old convent that has been converted into a hotel and bar, and where we enjoyed a delicious pitcher of sangria on our last visit. We can attest that the sangria is just as good as it used to be.

Sangria… good!

Yes, sangria still good!

It was ridiculously early but we were ridiculously tired, so we ordered a dinner of tapas and made that our final meal of the day. Unfortunately we are having trouble remembering to take our food pictures BEFORE we dive in. It is only after we have slowed down on the eating that we recall our blog duties!

Tapas at the convent.

We lounged on our outdoor patio as long as we could stay upright, then climbed in bed to read. That did not last long, and we embarked on a nearly 12 hour slumber. Phew! What a day.

San Juan at sunset.