Cruising the Caribbean

I: Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Maarten, and Half Moon Cay

Sat, 1 Nov 2014 22:05:32 -0700

I: The “Westerdam”

Holland-America Line had a sale going. There is a lot of competition for the Caribbean market and when we boarded the ship in Fort Lauderdale, there were six other cruise ships in port, including the behemoth “Oasis of the Seas”. We ended up paying $547 for a balcony stateroom on the 5th deck for this 7-day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean with four ports of call. Taxes and port fees were $125.75 additional. The Government always wants their pound of flesh.

Taxis were busily shuttling passengers from their hotels to the various cruise ships in port. The people working for the cruise industry looked harried but happy, because now is the beginning of the tourist season and mucho money is to be earned.

The “Westerdam” accommodated 1848 guests on this trip, (she can carry 2125 guests) about one third of how many passengers can be crammed in the “Oasis of the Seas”. She had a crew of 800, a gross tonnage of 82,000, a length of 935 feet, a beam of 106 feet, and a draft of 26 feet. It was built in 2004 and renovated a few years ago.

The vessel has the trappings of an European ship, with muted colors and imaginative layouts of the public areas, which meant that you needed more days than usual to become familiar with the topography. There are meandering passageways, cozy nooks, and nice pictures, drawings, and artifacts on the walls, on stands, or in vitrines, most of them celebrating the rich maritime heritage of the Netherlands. They must have had a good interior decorator for the interior of the vessel, who liked Art Deco. Layouts are unusual, such as the main pathway going through an expensive jewelry store. It doesn’t hurt to be exposed to jewels and emeralds, you might be tempted sooner or later to purchase a bangle or two. And many of the passengers are rich anyway.

And since most the passengers are also older, they were well-dressed and they observed the dress codes in the formal dining rooms. That doesn’t always happen in some of the other cruise lines.

The dining room staff consisted mostly of Indonesians, people where courtesy and hospitality are inbred through generations. And since we speak Indonesian, they were most attentive to our needs and desires. You would expect that in a vessel from the Holland-America Line the lingua franco would be Dutch. It is English because the crew is a hodgepodge of many nationalities. It seemed that the only officers who spoke Dutch was the captain, who was Dutch, and the Cruise Director, the guy who coordinates the passenger activities on the ship. And he was actually Belgian.

left: A place to relax and have a drink in the Art Deco style surroundings of the ms “Westerdam”

As for the entertainment, a small ship obviously cannot afford lavish shows, and the occasional comedians can vary from hilarious to insufferably bad. An effort for classy touch was the duo of Ukrainian piano and violin playing classical music in the evenings in one of the venues. But they were regretfully not very good because their pay was definitely not stellar. Or vv. I just can imagine these two women getting together one day trying to eke a decent living and then deciding to work as a duo with their average musical skills. They try.

What was nice was that the waiters do not seem to have to meet a quota of drinks sold. In the Princess Lines, e.g, you could sit down anywhere in a public area and a waiter is immediately there to inquire whether he can get you a drink. In the “Westerdam” the waiters go their own way. There is of course the inconvenience of having to flag down a waiter if your partner’s mouth is parched and just gasping for that Margarita. But that is minor. You save money by ordering fewer drinks this way.

The food was quite good, especially in the buffet on the top floor, the Lido, which is open almost all the time. One afternoon we just happened to amble by and picked up a nice cheese plate and a bowl of steamed clams, washed down with a glass of Australian beer.

II: Restaurant La Cirque

One evening we signed up for a special dinner catered by La Cirque, the uppity restaurant from New York and Las Vegas, at surcharge of $49/pp for the food, and an additional $20/pp for the wines, paired with the dishes served. We had been in the Las Vegas La Cirque once before, enjoyed the very good food and wine, especially because we were the guests of friends who insisted on picking up the tab. The food here in the ship was also very good. But the tab appeared on our final statement when we left the ship.

top: An illuminated painting in the dining room.

I had a steamed lobster tail with special dressing and Norma had a Trio of smoked salmon, paté de foie gras, and caviar, the latter very good and expensive stuff but not very imaginative. Interestingly, the next day we had lobster tails too with our regular evening meal, and we had to return the plate, because the lobster was inedibly soggy. It appeared that the ship had received a batch of lobster tails of inferior quality from Cosco, the large food purveyor, and many people in the dining room returned their lobster because of this. The maitre d’ was beside himself with this debacle. I suppose the La Cirque crew must have gone through the whole shipment to choose the very best for us the day before. .

left: The steamed lobster tail appetizer.

Soup was butternut squash with cream, wonderfully tasteful and definitely fattening. For the main course I had the Chateaubriand; Norma had a completely defatted rack of lamb, which was a lot of work, but I would have preferred some fat for the pungent taste. There was a fluffy poached egg with no yolk. They had carefully removed the yolk prior to poaching the egg, resulting in a fluffy white egg.

All in all very enjoyable. And extremely courteous and efficient service.

III: Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands.

This small island in the Turks and Caicos Islands would still be in an extended state of somnolent tranquility, if the cruise ships had not come to them. Enterprisingly enough, they built a deepwater pier, allowing two huge cruise ships to dock there to present the passengers the opportunity to stream into town to disburse their money in a variety of possibilities. During these few hours, everybody’s pulse on the island goes up and everybody gets going. But as soon as all the cruise ships have departed, they go back to their much more comfortable lethargic style they are accustomed to. .

But the weather was beautiful, 78 ℉, slight breeze, and cloudy skies. Perfect, because the sun burns strongly. Next to us was the “Freedom of the Seas”, a ship of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, about the same size as the “Westerdam”. The island has a population of around 4500, ruled by a governor appointed by the Queen of England. Below him running the daily chores is the locally elected prime minister.

right: The usual Caribbean scene awaits the visitor

Immediately adjacent to the cruise ship pier there are beaches at the blue waters with inviting free beach chairs on the white sand, some of them in the protective shades of the trees. You can step out of your ship and be in the water in less than 10 minutes. The water is shallow and you can walk quite a distance on the sandy bottom of the cove.

Or you can walk a few hundred yards further and you will enter the inescapable shopping complex packed with stores selling tourist mementoes and other dust catchers. But then there is also the Margaritaville restaurant, with a free swimming pool, live music, entertainment, and drinks galore at prices competitive to what you pay for drinks on the ship. A lot of passengers come here to enjoy the atmosphere.

left: Welcoming sign for Margaritaville: “Trespassers will be offered a shot”

What most of these ports don’t have nowadays are internet cafes where you can rent a computer to check your mail and a zillion other things. The rapid rise of the computer tablets and smart phones have wiped them out. The cafes are still there, where you can get Wi-Fi access for a fee. But for this you need your tablet or portable computer. At speeds well surpassing the speed of the system on board.

below: The fun area of Margaritaville.

Stepping out of the shopping complex we took a bus to Cockburn Town, a small hamlet of a few hundred inhabitants, but which was also happens to be the capital of
the Turks and Caicos Islands. But in the car, the driver mentioned that 4 of the passengers would go on for an island trip, which we decided to join at the spur of the moment for a fee of $25/pp.

left: The lighthouse at the end of the island.

Swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving are the prime activities on the island. The world’s third largest barrier reef is here. Outside the very hot summer months, people come here for a relaxing vacation with little else to do. The tour took us past salt ponds, which are not being operated anymore, but which used to be a main industry of the island. Drove through Palm Grove, a little hamlet of vacation rentals, passed the Community College, and finally ended at the lighthouse.

On our way back we stopped at a thatched hut fast food kiosk in Cockburn Town for a tray of 7 breaded and deep-fried conch fritters for $2 and a bottle of good local beer for $3. The museum looked interesting, with collections of artifacts from various shipwrecks, but we didn’t have enough time to justify the $8 entrance fee. So we missed the “Message in a Bottle Project”, recording nearly 40 years’ worth of messages which have washed on the shores of Grand Turk.

right: As in many areas in the Caribbean, there are large herds of wild donkeys around. They have been imported to work in the salt mines, but when the mines became mechanized and/or uneconomical, the donkeys were left to their own devices.

IV: San Juan, Puerto Rico

It was raining when we entered San Juan harbor, passing the 6-level high El Morro fortress on our left. The harbor has two piers parallel to each other, so four cruise ships can comfortably tie up there. But two is not enough; they were building a new pier between the two existing ones to increase their docking capacity another 50 %, and making the behemoths harder to dock because of the confined space.

After disembarking the people wanting to go on a city tour were herded into a line, where 24-passenger buses pick them up for a city tour at $20/pp. Very well organized here.

Puerto Rico is about 110 miles wide from East to West, and about 35 miles from North to South. Some 9 miles away is a deep trench on the bottom of the sea, 27,000 feet deep. The name of the town was coined by Ponce de Leon, who garnered so much gold here, and named the town the rich port. The population of the country is around 300,000, but they still manage to garner 5 Miss World titles over the years, placing them third behind the USA (8 titles) and Venezuela (6 titles). The main sources of income are: (1) manufacture of pharmaceuticals, (2) tourism, (3) agriculture.

left: The cupola of the Capitol Building.

We drove around the new city, nothing extraordinary, but stopped at the Capitol Building, a grand structure constructed almost entirely of marble from different sources in the world. Tours stop here to allow the visitors access into the halls to gawk at all that marble.

right: A marble stairway and column inside the Capitol Building.

The old town is pretty compact, narrow streets and commercial buildings, old. It is surrounded by 6 miles of walls. Walked inside the town and stopped at a store carrying butterflies mounted in artistic patterns. Mounted in oxygen-free plastic cases they go from $100 to several thousand $ each. Not cheap, but beautiful looking stuff.

left: The Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazziz cemetery and the Castillo San Felipe El Morro fort in the background.

Puerto Rico also has a free trolley system for the benefit of the tourists. We waited for 30 minutes in the rain and no trolley showed up. So we don’t have a picture of the trolley. Maybe they don’t like wet weather. But it is a good way to get around the town.

right: The interior of Señor Frog in San Juan harbor. The ceiling shows an “underwater” view of a group of people floating in rubber inner tubes on the water.

V: St Maarten

The island of St Maarten is only 37 square miles large, 16 square miles of which are Dutch and the balance is French. The official count shows 36 beaches and just as many casinos. Some 50,000 people live in the smaller Dutch section, but only some 35,000 call French St Martin home. Only a few people in Dutch St. Maarten speak Dutch. The upper crust yes, but the general public speaks English and Papiamento. Somewhat the same for the French section, but the French are proud of their language, so it is spoken more.

top: The demarcation line between the two parts of the is shown as the black line 2/3 down the island, marked C.

The unofficial version of the division is that, to determine who gets what, a Frenchman and a Dutchman walked in opposite directions along the coastline and where they would meet would determine where the demarcation line would be drawn. So off they went, the Frenchman with a bottle of wine, and the Dutchman with a bottle of Jenever (a Dutch schnapps) for fortification of soul and body. Since the wine only had one/third the alcohol concentration of the Jenever, the Dutchman had more trouble walking along the prescribed route. That is why, when they met again, the Dutch only had 16 and the French had 21 square miles.

Close to this island you can see not far away the island of St. Bart, or St. Bartholomew, a haven for the rich and famous and where everything is very expensive. A simple hamburger there costing $20 is quite common

Taxi tours of St Maarten are very well organized and you can get one as soon as you exit the cruise terminal building. Maria Langlois, our driver, driving her own 10 passenger air-conditioned van, was very informative as well as being very conscientious, stopping at every prescribed stop and not taking any shortcuts. While other taxis do the tour in two hours, she gave us three hours at no extra cost. If you need taxi services, you can call her at 599 587-9639 or 599 522-9639. Her e-mail address is taxi122@gmail.com and taxi122 is also the license plate on her van. She can give you a lot of tips on what to do on the island.

The island is a tourist hub. There were 5 cruise ships in port when we were there, so the roads were busy.

left: The Baie Orientale, shown as No. 3 on the map at north-east side of the island.

The ship terminal is on the south side of the island, marked f.

The tour took us along East Coast the to Baie Orientale, a clothing-optional beach in French St. Martin. The water is shallow and you can walk far into the sea. As usual, most of the nudes were men, women walked around topless. The sun was blazing hot and the colors were bright. The beach was packed and all the rental sun umbrellas were taken. Maria observed that today there were only American cruise ships in port (our ship was an exception). With more European ships in port, there would be more nudity on the beaches.

Our tour took us to Marigot, the capital of French St Martin, a cute little town, where we had lunch in one of the seaside restaurants. It was a stew of conch, surprisingly tender, with tasty rice. Creole food is good, if well prepared.

right: A tasty dish of stewed conch and accoutrements for around $10.

We also drove through Grand Case, a very long, narrow, one-way street parallel to the beach, where all the houses we saw were commercial, i.e., lodgings, bars, restaurants. shops, etc.

Most of the population is Catholic, but we saw a mosque where during the last hurricane the wind took one of the balls from their spire.

left: Maho Beach. The end of the runway is to the right of the yellow beach umbrellas.

We made a stop at Maho Beach, close to the end of the runway of the Prinses Juliana International airport, in the lower southwest corner of the island. Planes would stop here at the end of the runway to rev up their engines before taking off. The blast is sometimes so hard that it will blow people on the beach into the water.

So now there are cafes on the beach just away from the windy area, where people sit, drink, chat, and look at the list of airline departures. Then everybody stands up and watch the plane take off, but most probably also to see whether the jet engines blowing into into the beach would catch someone unaware and blow him/her into the sea.

Tourism is obviously the #1 industry. It used to be salt from the sea, but this industry is here not operational anymore similar to many other salt ponds in the Caribbean.

The capital of Dutch St. Maarten is Philipsburg, a narrow strip of land a few blocks wide, a shopping paradise with narrow streets, where you can buy stuff at about half the price of what you pay in Marigot. etc.

It is bordered on the north by the defunct salt ponds and by the Caribbean Sea on the south.

VI: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

The “Statendam” anchored in the bay and tendered the passengers to this “private island”, only accessible to Holland-America Line passengers that day. I presume the cruise line rents the facilities for private use for this day.

left: On the island close to where the passengers were dropped off, there is a wooden boat acting as shelter and as a café.

The weather was gorgeous, just round 77℉. The local tender could ferry some 200 passengers at a time from ship to shore and vv. The island seems to be sparsely inhabited, but at the terminal on the island you can book tours for snorkeling, go swimming with stingrays, go on a catamaran or do some windsurfing, etc. The beach just close to the disembarkation terminal was just as beautiful.

The kitchen staff from the ship took all the stuff along to provide us with an elaborate BBQ lunch with lots of fruits in a large hall. And in one of about a dozen small open-air pavilions we could have our lunch and enjoy the environment. It was a very relaxing and pleasant day. Next time we should take our swimming trunks along.

right: The Caribbean in a nutshell. Sun, turquoise water, swimming in the shallow beach, a lady with an orange umbrella, and the cruise ship in the background.

< II: Costa Maya, Belize, and Cozumel

II: Costa Maya, Belize, and Cozumel

Tue, 4 Feb 2014 15:28:13 -0800

(a) Costa Maya

This time we were on the “Caribbean Princess”, a sister ship “Emerald Princess” for a 7-day cruise from Houston, TX. The omens at departure time were not very good. The Caribbean Princess had just returned from their earlier cruise two days early because of a severe outbreak of norovirus on the ship. Some 600 passengers as well as some 100 crew members were affected, and Princess Lines allocated two days to scrub and disinfect the whole ship. When we finally boarded the vessel, we did so gingerly, looking everywhere for the norovirus to pop out suddenly from behind curtains and from under our beds. Of course we didn’t know how the virus would have looked like with the naked eye. To add insult on injury the Houston Channel, which we had to traverse to get to the open sea, was closed down because of of a heavy fog. When we finally left, it was some 20 hours past the scheduled departure time.

Costa Maya is a small tourist enclave on the East coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Things would have stayed that way until a large pier sticking out in the ocean was recently completed. Now large cruise ships can berth here to allow the area enjoy the bounty of the tourists’ purses. Thousands of tourists now have the opportunity to descend here, so the region is growing rapidly to accommodate the necessary tourist kiosks and other appurtenances typical of a cruise port.

After you disembark the ship and walk to the cruise port, you will find there a lot of touristy things there already. There are shops, a swimming/wading pool connected to the sea, a swim-up bar, and beachfront palapas on the soft sands.

We decided on the spur of the moment to get a tour to the Chacchoben Mayan ruins. But we were too late; most of the tours had left, and the others were already fully booked. That is the problem if you go with a huge ship; too many passengers. We were not too sorry, because compared to many other Mayan ruins in the country we have visited, the Chacchoben ruins were not unusual, imposing, or prettier. So we went outside the cruise terminal to look around and then decided to rent a golf cart for $60 for the day.

left: The beach at Mahahual, with the “Caribbean Princess” in the background.

There is a little town around where the pier is located and there is also the fishing village of Mahahual, about 3 kms away. Mahahual has soft sand beaches, grass-thatched palapas, and several bars and restaurants lining the main drag facing the beach and the ocean. Things are still quite laid back here. You can sit on one of the chairs on the beach as long as you like, as long as you buy your lunch and drinks from the restaurant there.

right: A walk-up bar where the chairs are swings attached to the ceiling. A different concept than the regular barstool

The road to Mahahual was good and pretty soon we were there. The main drag was closed to motorized traffic, including golf carts, so we parked the cart somewhere and walked around the village.

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left: And this house on the main drag looks like a community lodge, well-equipped with Wi-Fi. Items for sale are the usual tourist trinkets, but also included a lot of locally produced dresses.

Mahahual is a small, unpretentious village with really not much to do. So, after walking around a bit, we just sat down somewhere, and took a dip in the water. The water is shallow for a long distance of the beach.

(b) Belize

Belize, a country on the northeastern coast of Central America, used to be known as British Honduras. But in 1981 it became an independent nation in the British Commonwealth. It has an area of around 8,800 sq miles with a population of 350,000. On the north the country abuts the Quintana Roo province of Mexico, on its south and west is Guatemala, and on its East is the Caribbean Sea. It is the only country in Central America where English is the official language. Belize has a tropical climate, with a wet and dry season distinctly different from each other.

left: Map of Belize.

Belize has an abundance of terrestrial and marine species and a wide diversity of ecosystems, making it a popular place for people interested in these issues.

Belize is also home to the Belize Barrier Reef, which makes Belize a top tourist destination for people interested in snorkeling and scuba-diving. Many tourists don’t bother about the country. They just land at the airport and take a shuttle to San Pedro on the Cayes. It is a beautiful place. We were in Belize a few years earlier and our guide was Nathan, a bit portly and an Unbeliezable Patriotic Belize citizen. He is positive that when good people die, their souls would would go to a place very similar to Belize.

Our ship had to anchor at some distance from the port, and we had to be tendered in. There was a lot of hurrying involved because we had purchased a combo tour for the X-stream Cave Tubing and Zip Line excursion and we did not want to late at the meeting place on shore. And there were three other cruise ships in port, all disgorging their passengers at the same time. So we hurried.

We were in time at the meeting place in town, but then we found out we were the first and that we had to wait for another hour for the other passengers from the other cruise ships. Well, we should have known; this is Belize and the time in effect is Belize time. Everything looked discombobulated to the naked eye, but things ran quite smoothly after all. I guess the organizers were used to late arrivals to their tours. We soon piled into our buses and drove out of town and then another 30-40 miles to get to the place of action. For safety reasons they had allocated one guide for every 8 tourists.

It was still a long drive from Belize City, maybe some 40-45 miles direction inland, passing Belmopan close by. The venue is quite close to the border with Guatemala.

And it was busy there. They had ten poles and therefore 9 ziplines between these poles. But on this day, they were using only 7 poles and 6 ziplines, including one over the river. Maybe they had reduced the number of zips, because of the very large number of customers waiting in line.

left: Getting connected to the zip line.

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right: Swooping down the zip line over the river.

left: And in the verdant jungle.

The start of the Zip lines was close to the parking lot and the bathrooms, but after our zips we had to walk about a mile to get to the beginning of the stream for the Cave Tubing. Each of us had to carry our 4” diameter tube, which was very awkward but our guides offered to carry ours after some time. There is an advantage in being older and less mobile, sometimes

It did feel like a long walk, because of the awkwardness in carrying the tube.

right: Carrying our tubes from the stream back to camp.

We finally came to the stream, which was about 6’ wide and about 3-4’ deep. We then sat in our tubes and eight tubes are chained together.

As tourist all you do is to sit in the tubes, getting your buttocks wet. The guides get in the water and pull the tubes downstream. They do all the work.

The river goes into a natural tunnel in the mountain, coming out at the other end. We were floating and enjoying nature in the dark. In the dark of the tunnel were stalactites and stalagmites which we can discern using the provided headlamps.

When we finally stepped out of our tubes, we were a 10 minute walk to our bus and the bathrooms.

left: Tourists floating on the tubes in the underground river. The tube are chained together and the guide steers the tubes while swimming or walking on the floor of the river. The water here is only some 3’ deep.

Lunch was waiting for us. It was a Belize lunch, consisting of rice, plantain, a small leg of deep-fried chicken, cole slaw, fruits, and drinks, some of them hospitably spiked with rum. It was another drive of over an hour to get back to port, giving everybody a chance to take a nap before getting back.

Tourism in Belize is their # 1 industry. So, everybody has no compunction of asking you for tips. Maybe I should have done the same.

(c) Cozumel

Cozumel is an island along the Eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula. With a total area of 185 sq miles, it is Mexico’s largest Caribbean island. The main town on the island is San Miguel de Cozumel. It is classified as having a tropical savanna climate. There is a lot of rain, even during the “dry months of February to April. The average temperature is fairly stable all year, about 75 - 80 ℉. But humidity is usually high, in the 80-85 %.
top: Map of Cozumel. There is only one large road going around the island

We decided to book a private tour from Safetourscozumel.com for 5 hours for $240 for 4 passengers. After that there would be a charge of $30/hour. Our driver/guide had a minivan with which he drove us around. We took our swimming trunks along, anyway.

From the harbor we drove south along the coast where most of the beach resorts are located. We stopped at Paradise Beach to see how these resorts looked like. The water is shallow so there is a huge expanse of water where the visitors can play and swim quite safely. The picture on the top show the boardwalk of the resort. The huge water playground is on the right of it.

right: The ruins of El Cedral are quite small.

From there we drove to El Cedral, one of the first areas to be inhabited by the Mayans. There were the ruins of a small Mayan temple.

left: A huge multipurpose hall in El Cedral.

Adjacent to it was a huge covered area for festivities, with a statue of the benefactors, Don Casimiro Cardenas and his wife Doña Victoriana Tapia. The annual feast is on the 3rd of May (not the fifth).

right: Here the paved road turns to the left. To get to the most northern point of the island is still a long drive over an unpaved road.

Close to the junction at Meczalitos we stopped at the Punta Sur for a coconut drink. Then we drove inland to the City of San Miguel, where we stopped at a tequila “factory”.

The tour was free and we could sample their many grades and variations, from silver, their lowest grade to their higher purified grades, which tasted similar to a good cognac. The prices were not cheap. And their factory, the Destileria Los Tres Tonos was not here but in Amatitan, Yacinto, the only area where they can use the name tequila.

left: Tasting the different tequilas available.

We had lunch at the Casa Mission restaurant, on the same premises as the tequila factory. They served very tasty Mexican food with very good and attentive service.

We drove back to the cruise terminal but on the way our guide offered to show a private, secluded place to swim free. It was actually just outside the boundary of a resort, but it was a nice place for a dip. And there were a lot of beautiful fishes just a few yards from shore. But I don’t know whether I would be able to find it back on my own.

right: Lunch at the Casa Mission Restaurant

left: There were lots of beautiful fish just a few yards from shore.

III: St. Thomas, Dominica, Grenada, Bonaire, and Aruba

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 23:16:17 -0800

(a) Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas.

Charlotte Amalie is the capital of the US Virgin Islands, and it probably has the dubious distinction of having largest number of cruise ships visiting the port. There are days when there would be as many as 10 cruise ships disgorging their passengers. National Geographic once rated St. Thomas the “worst” destination out of 111 islands reviewed. Charlotte Amalie is described as “one big, ugly jewelry store”.

right: Open-air busses take you with military precision for a fixed fee of US$4/per person to the downtown shopping complex.

These are rows and rows of shops on parallel streets selling expensive watches, cameras, jewelry, watches, and other high-priced trinkets at “an extra discount today, especially for you: just come in and look”.

below: Map of St Thomas.

But if you discount garish downtown and go inland, there are some other nicer things to see. At the bus stops at the exit of the cruise terminal taxis and buses are waiting to take you to the different destinations at fixed prices. We took a taxi to Coral Bay, at the other side of the island for US$ 10/ per person. It was still quite a distance away, about half an hour of driving through hilly landscape.

left: The Coral Park in St. Thomas.

Entrance fees to Coral Park, the no 1 attraction of the island, was $19/per person. That includes entrance to a huge underwater complex out in the ocean connected with a bridge, where you can view coral and fish in their natural habitat. There were turtles, sharks, stingrays, lobsters etc in the pool..

right: Some of the denizens in the large underwater exhibit

And on the site itself, there were lots of iguanas scooting around for dropped food

left: Iguanas are everywhere scouting for dropped food.

We stayed there and then Ernestine, our taxi driver who promised to pick us up, drove us over the mountains to downtown.

right: It gets pretty boring to be the attendant at the public toilets across the street from her. This is in downtown.

At the Gladys’ Cafe in the downtown area, we had conch fritters, very good ginger beer, as passion fruit juice, before catching on the many buses prowling around trying to pick up passengers to go back to their cruise ships.

(b) Dominica

Officially called the Commonwealth of Dominica, it is an independent island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea. It should not be confused with the much larger Dominican republic, some 500 miles to the West.

left: Map of Dominica.

Dominica is about 290 sq miles in area, and has a population of around 72,000. Christopher Columbus named it after the day of the week they spotted the island, which was on a Sunday.

It is often called the “Garden Island” or “Natural Island of the Caribbean”, because of the spectacular and lush vegetation on the island. The flora and fauna are protected in an extensive natural park system, and its wilderness is the most pristine in all of the Caribbean. The capital is Roseau, located on the leeward side of the island.

right: The bow of the “Emerald Princess” of the Princess Lines. The vessel is attached to the pier sticking out into the ocean. (not visible in picture)

We were on the “Emerald Princess” this time, and the ship was moored to a wharf, which is also the entrance to the city built parallel to the wharf. Very practical because there is the source of the money coming into the country, the cruise ships, and if you have shop or something else, you want it to be as close as possible to the wharf.

The ship, launched in 2007, is one of the largest cruise ships in the Princess fleet. It has a gross tonnage of 113,000, a length of 951 feet and a beam of 118 ft. Passenger capacity is 3,080 with a crew of 1200.

The local currency is the EC$, or Eastern Caribbean dollar, worth about US$ 0.35. Prices are often shown in $, so you never know whether it is EC$ or US$. But screw the tourist, because if you ask whether it is EC or US, they will always say US. Unless they owe you money, in which case it would be EC$

left: On the quay between the ship and the entrance to Dominica. Welcome tourist !!

As soon as you exit the wharf station, you are besieged by taxi drivers, touts, and everybody in their families trying to sell you a tour. There are 10-20 seat mini-buses as well as taxis and the competition is fierce. You can, of course, also go with a Princess organized tour, where you will be certain you will be overcharged, stay in a group like ducklings, hassled to be on time, and have limited interaction with the guide.

right: A gazebo and the bamboo “house” in the Botanical Garden.

About a mile away from the wharf is the Botanical Garden, a small 14 hectare enclave with well-maintained lawns and the public bathrooms where the entry was $1. I am sure it was EC$1, but foreigners are charged US$1.

left: This African Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) was blown down on a bus during Hurricane David on August 29, 1979. The winds were blowing up to 150 mph at that time. The tree has kept growing in the meantime, further squishing the bus down.

right: And this is the cannonball tree, where the hanging fruits look like medieval cannonballs. The orange umbrella was placed there for color and because there was nobody to hold it.

In the afternoon we found a taxi to drive us to Emerald Pool, way in the middle of the island. It was quite a distance, we found out, but it was a beautiful drive through the mountains and the lush vegetation. From the parking lot of the Emerald Pool it was still a 15 minute walk downhill (and later back uphill) before we reached the waterfall.

There was just the two of us and the taxi fare was $25/person. I also gave him a $10 tip which really surprised him because, I suppose, people on a cruise usually don’t tip.

left: The waterfall at Emerald Pool.

Colaire Kim Hogan is a good driver, personable, and quite knowledgeable on a wide variety of subjects and issues as they pertain to Dominica. If you need a taxi or minibus for island travel, contact him. He will do a good job for you.

Colaire Kim Hogan, 1231 Lower Belfast, Mahaut, Commonwealth of Dominica, and you can reach him on hogantours@gmail.com

There is a lot of rain on the island, so water is no problem. Some 45% of the power requirement for the island is generated by hydroelectric stations. The balance come from diesel generators.

There is another interesting item on Dominica. Cricket is a popular sport here, and Dominica competes in the Test Matches as part of the West Indies team. Talk about cricket to a local, and his eyes will light up. The Chinese Government, well aware of the PR it can generate, has donated US$17 million to construct the 8000-seat Windsor Park stadium, close to Roseau, which is now used mostly as a venue for cricket. This stadium was opened in 2007.

(c) Grenada.

Grenada, also known as the “Spice Island”, is the leading producer of a number of spices, such as cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, orange/citrus peel and especially of mace and nutmeg, of which they are very large producers.

It is a small island, with a surface area of only 133 square miles, with an estimated population of 110,000.

The capital of the country is St. George. Even an older version of the flag of the nation shows the nutmeg. Grenada is the second largest (after Indonesia) producer of nutmeg.

left: An older version of the flag of Grenada showing the nutmeg in the middle. If the current version is going to be retired, the newer version will probably show a tourist in the middle.

In 1983, a strongly pro-communist group overthrew the government in power, which led to street demonstrations in support of the earlier Government. The new regime dug in, and executed 8 persons of the previous Government, including the popular prime minister, Maurice Bishop. The Army then formed a military government.

The US was concerned about the turn of events. The island was strategically located as a possible stepping stone of the Soviet Union into South America. And so, in 1983, the US invaded the island, drawing harsh criticism from the United Nations, but apparently well received by the bulk of the population. Even now, 30 years after the invasion, there are still signs on buildings thanking the US for invading and liberating the island. After all, it is not common to see a sign outside the USA thanking this country. You don’t see this even in the USA. The opposite, often laced with opprobrious comments, is much more common, both inside and outside the USA..

Elections were held in 1984 and since then there is a democratically elected government running the island.

right: Spices for sale on a roadside stand. The peach-sized round fruit sliced partly open is the nutmeg fruit. Inside it is the nutmeg.

Although spices still form an important contributor to the island’s economy, tourism has become the no. 1 money generator. A large cruise ship pier has been built, which can berth as many as four ships at one time.

Our ship docked at 8 a.m. and was scheduled to leave at 11:30 p.m.. So there was not much time for sightseeing. Outside the terminal there was the usual touts selling tours for the island. All of them had similar maps showing where the tours would go, including the lake in Grand Etang National Park. The tours would be 2 ½ hours and we would be back by 12:30 p.m.

If you accepted the offer, the tout will bring you to one of the many waiting minibuses, where he gets credit for bringing in a passenger or two. But then you have to wait until the bus is full, before it will depart for the tour. Our driver, was Michael Bartholomew, license no HAC 313. Theoretically it would make no difference who you would get because the tours would cover the same tourist itinerary

Michael started the journey with a long PR presentation about himself and how he would give us the very best. He then suggested that instead of following the standard tour route, he would drive on a route specially designed for us, intimating that he would be able to show us special sights not otherwise available. We thought that it was very nice of him, and so we all unwittingly agreed.

left: The Annandale Falls

Our first stop was at the Annandale Falls. As can be expected, there was a major traffic jam there as everybody was jockeying for a parking place close to the Falls.

right: Necklaces of beads of spices are the most prevalent local tourist item for sale. The large nut on the bottom is mace; going up you have clove, saffron, bay leaf, chocolate, cinnamon, ginger, and beads for decoration. Every six months you have to immerse the beads in water for 5 minutes.

From there we drove by Fort George, the historical 300 year old cannons and battlements still overlooking the town. There were tour buses parked there, but we didn’t stop. Michael then drove what seemed to me to be the wrong direction. I looked at my map and told Michael that we were in the wrong direction for the Grand Etang National Park. He looked at my map and said he didn’t understand the map.

Our next stop was the beautiful Grand Anse Beach, a long, lovely sweep of white sand and turquoise blue waters, one of the top beaches in the world presumably. We walked on the sandy beach for some 20 minutes. You can see a picture of the beach on the top of this section.

We then went back to the cruise terminal where he dropped us off, after only a 1 ½ hour tour. I complained that we were supposed to see the lake at Grand Etang, but he said the lake was too far away and that we had agreed on his itinerary, which we of course did not know was an abbreviated version of what he was supposed to show us. So watch out for Michael Bartholomew.

left: In the market adjacent to the cruise terminal we saw these crabs for sale. There are several species of crab in this pile.

Even though it is a small country, it has competed in every Summer Olympics since 1984, and Kirani James won the first Olympic Gold Medal for Granada in the men’s 400 meters at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the Caribbean basin, and definitely also in Grenada. Similarly like in the previous note on Dominica, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) donated $40 million dollars towards a new stadium in Grenada, where cricket will obviously be played as the major sport. Think of the PR it will generate. But during the opening ceremonies of the new stadium, the anthem of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan) was accidentally played instead that of the PRC. Heads rolled and top officials got fired.

(d) Bonaire

Together with Aruba and Curaçao, Bonaire forms the group known as the ABC Islands, located of the north coast of Venezuela. It is part of the Netherlands, where it enjoys the status of special municipality. Which means that the Dutch Government supports the country, and Bonaire is sufficiently practical not to opt for independence and close the financial spigot from the Mother country. Dutch is the official language on the island, but it is spoken by only the top 10 % of the island’s population, mostly members of High Society.

The main sources of income of Bonaire are (a) tourism, (b) salt production, © Dutch Government. A host of Dutch ambtenaren (civil servants) work in Bonaire to dole out the funds from the Dutch Government. Because tourism is important, for practical purposes the local currency is the US$. The food specialties of the island are iguana stew (tastes a bit like chicken), fried cactus, and funchi, a decidedly Bonaire derived corn-meal mush, looking very much like polenta, usually eaten as a carbohydrate source at lunch and dinner.

left: Map of Bonaire.

Bonaire has a land area of 111 square miles and a population of 17,000. Then there is the island of Klein Bonaire (‘Little Bonaire”) which only has an area of around 2.3 sq miles.

Bonaire is ringed by a coral reef and the entire coastline of the island has been declared a marine sanctuary to preserve local fish life. It is considered the best place in the world to scuba dive. Many of their car license plates show “Divers Paradise” at the bottom.

The most touted wildlife on the island are the pink flamingos and the wild donkeys. There were not too many pink flamingos when we were there. And donkeys are donkeys, be it wild or otherwise. We did see quite a number of them, minding their own business.

We had made reservations with Voyager Private Tours, because of their excellent ratings in Tripadvisor. The tour was $30/per person, discounted from $40/person to take more passengers in the car. Our driver/guide, J.P. Richau, was from Las Vegas and so did not speak any Dutch. He was given a small Toyota bus to take 6 passengers on the tour. It was a bit tight and maybe that was the reason for the discount.

right: Mountains of salt in the Salt works.

We started out with the South Island, which is more arid, and which is home to huge evaporation ponds to mine salt from seawater. You can see “Salt Works” on the map above. As the water evaporates (there is a lot of sunshine here) , salt is deposited and the color of the water becomes purple because of algae. In the old days, slaves were used to hack out the crystallized salt and place them in buckets. These were carried by women on their head to the waiting ships.

A woman would kneel down on one knee while two men would “give a hand” by getting the basket full of salt on her head and then help her stand up straight so she could walk away with her heavy load. She would hitch up her skirt, balance the basket full of salt on her head and walk to the boat at the end of the pier to drop the salt. Four strong men standing in this small boat would then haul the salt to the large container ship, moored outside the reef, by pulling in a long rope stretched between the ship and the pier.

right: Modern conveyor belts to transport the salt into the waiting ships.

Nowadays, the sun is still used to evaporate the water, but modern mechanical means and conveyor belts are used to transfer the product in the hulls of the cargo ships.

The slaves have a very hard life. During the week, they were quartered in small houses, so small it was not possible to stand straight in it. On the weekends, they had to walk 20 miles to the town of Rincon, to be with their families.

right: Slaves in the salt mines slept in these huts during the week.

From there we went to the East Coast, with high waves because of the prevailing winds from the East. Driftwood is not protected, but coral is.

We stopped at Sorobon Beach, where people swim, sun, windsurf and have a good time at the bars and restaurant.

left: Relax at Sorobon Beach. Just simple cottages, but you can do lots of water sports here.

Our itinerary took us north along the coast. The vegetation becomes more lush and wild. There is no agriculture in this area. Cactus plants are everywhere. We stopped at the “1000 steps” turnout. Here are the steps to go into the water for one of the best places to scuba dive. Our journey took us to Rincon, now a simple town, clean but not very prosperous. The descendants of the slaves still live here.

right: a hedge of cactus on the outskirts of Rincon.

Interestingly, almost all supermarkets are privately owned and operated by Chinese. There does not seem to be any of the large chains we see in the US and in Europe. Most of the restaurants are also owned by the hardworking Chinese. We were told that in neighboring Belize that international fast food outlets cannot compete against the Chinese, who would open a similar restaurant next to the KFC or whatever outlet, and undercut them.

left: And here are some of the wild donkeys of the island. They were used as pack animals in the past, but modern mechanical conveyances made them obsolete, and they were just let go.

right: Main street of Kralendijk, capital of Bonaire.

(e) Aruba

Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba, is being touted as the best shopping capital in the Caribbean. Diamond International, a huge “discount” diamond emporium is building a shopping emporium covering one square kilometer. And of course, when we were there, they had set up a special promotion with “free” prizes and drawings galore and “unbeatable” deals in diamonds, specially priced for the passengers of our cruise ship. Aren’t we lucky?

left: Map of Aruba.

Aruba is part of the Dutch ABC islands, together with Bonaire and Curaçao. The climate is dry and warm and sunny weather can be expected to be there most of the time. The average temperature year round stays in a narrow band between 87 and 90℉

The land area is only 70 sq miles, but it is a densely populated island, with over 100,000 inhabitants. There has been talk of independence, but for the moment Aruba is still part of the Netherlands. The official languages on the island are Dutch and Papamiento. Although the official currency is the florin, for practical purposes and because there are so many tourists, the US$ is quite acceptable.

Aruba has one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean and the Americas. The five main industries are tourism, gold mining, phosphate mining, aloe export and petroleum refining. Tourism is important; some one million passengers arrive on cruise ships each year. How many of these are going to buy diamonds? Maybe only a relatively small number, but the totals are huge.

right: The Casibari rock formation. This is a park with huge boulders around. There are stairs to allow you to climb on some of these boulders.

We left the ship in the morning and walked a seemingly very long distance to the terminal gate to look for local tours. Most day tours charged $20 - $25 for the tour but this 30 passenger bus we took charged only $15. It luckily had good air-conditioning, and the passengers were mostly Colombians, packed in the bus to the gills, even on the fold-out seats. Gladys, the driver, was an unmarried woman with a throaty sexy voice, and her comments were in English and in Spanish.

Our first stop happened to be at the Casibari rock formation, where we climbed out of the bus for a walk, some pictures, and a snack.

left: The “Hooiberg”, or hay mountain, a huge hill in the middle of nowhere.

We drove by the Hooiberg, a huge hill standing all by itself in a fairly flat landscape, with 561 steps to get to the top. No, there were no elevators and there is also no cafe with cold beer on the top.

right: The California lighthouse at the northernmost point of the island..

From there we went north to visit the Alta Vista Chapel, but it was closed because of a funeral in progress. Going further north we came to the California lighthouse, where the local shop was doing a roaring trade in fresh juice from coconuts.

Going back we drove back down to Oranjestad along the West Coast, passing a development where the houses go for >US$500K and which has an 18-hole golf-course on the premises.

left: Luxurious condos and hotels in Palm Beach.

We passed Palm Beach, Eagle Beach and other smaller beaches, all of them replete with large expensive condominium complexes and hotels.

right: Large shopping arcades in the main street of Oranjestad.

right: The yacht harbor of Oranjestad. This is a wealthy community.

IV: Tortola, St. Kitts, Barbados and St Lucia.

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:10:00 -0800

(a) Tortola

Tortola is a the largest and also the most populated island of the British Virgin Islands, east of Puerto Rico. It is a small, but very hilly island with an area of only 24 sq miles. Local tradition claims that island was first named by Christopher Columbus as Tortola, the Turtle Dove. Population of the island is around 24,000. Financial services and tourism are the main sources of income to the islands. This is the place where you can create illusionary partnerships and shadow corporations to establish a roadblock for those who want to know more about your finances.

above: map of Tortola.

The draft of the QM 2 was too much for the harbor, so we had to anchor at some distance from shore and then tendered in. Tortola is quite popular with cruise ships, so nowadays thousands of passenger descend on what was at one time a very sleepy island. For tourists the de facto currency is the US $. The local currency is also denominated in dollars and is worth about half the US $. This makes it convenient for the shopkeepers, because they can put up a sign for so many dollars for a particular item. If a tourist comes by, the price is US $. For a local, he/she pays the amount in local dollars. The fact that these shenanigans make some items expensive is of no concern; the tourists will pay anyway.

We rented a 2-door Suzuki sport from International Car Rental for US$ 55/day. By the time they added insurance, tax, and gas, the total was $91. We probably should have just joined a commercial tour of the island.

left: the ferry house at West End. Ferries go from here to the adjacent islands.

We drove in the direction of West End, but the road was bad, so we crossed the island to the north and then drove along the shore, passing Long Beach Bay, Apple Bay, Carrot Beach Bay, and finally, the big one, Cane Garden Beach.

Traffic was on the left, but driving was not difficult, because the road deck was not conducive to racers. Cane Garden Beach was just a piece of sandy shore with picnic tables in the shade alongside. A lady was selling food from a small stand, and we purchased a plate of conch stew and “dirty” rice in a curry sauce for US$ 15. There was no other place nearby to get food. She wanted $5 for a coconut. These prices may well be in local currency, but since we looked like tourists, we were charged in US$. And with us, most of the other visitors to the beach. Locals don’t go to this beach; they know better.

right: Cane Garden Beach.

Sugar cane used be a major commercial crop here. But growing cane is not economical any more and so the fields are neglected and the cane grows like weed. There are some smaller areas where the plant is still cultivated, specifically for the production of rum.

left; And this is the plate of conch stew and “dirty” rice, priced at US$15 for the tourist.

(b) Basseterre, St. Kitts.

Our ship had arrived here at 7:00 a.m., after leisurely steaming the 170 nautical miles from Tortola. The harbor is very deep, so the QM 2 was able to moor at the dock at Basseterre and the passengers could debark on land.

The spiffy-looking 27-acre cruise-ship terminal and adjacent marina have been reclaimed from the sea. We had moored at Basseterre, the capital of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

As the name implies, Basseterre used to be French. But in 1727 or so, the British came and expelled the French.

The country has a tropical rainforest climate, where the temperature remains more or less constant throughout the year. It does not have a dry season; it can rain anytime. On the average, the rainfall in Basseterre is about 70”/year.

St Kitts has an area of around 68 sq miles, 40,000 inhabitants, and 70,000 green velvet monkeys, weighing 5 - 10 lbs each, descendants from some imported pets some time ago. Some of these monkeys are still kept as pets, but the majority living in the mountains are considered to be pests instead.

left: The spiffy-looking cruise terminal of St. Kitts.

After disembarkation, we walked to Independence square, originally called Pall Mall square, and looked inside the cathedral.

right: Independence square and the Cathedral in the background.

On our way back we were accosted by Veronica, who was driving a minibus, and who offered us a tour of the island for US$16. But first she had to get more passengers to fill her van and she tirelessly approached everybody who looked like a good prospect. When we had ten passengers she started the tour. And she was still soliciting people on the street to join us. I guess she expected to fill two passengers to each seat of the van.

Traffic in Basseterre was heavy, but as soon as we were outside the city limit, there was much less traffic. Veronica was actually a pretty good guide, giving a lot of information and able to answer most questions about the area. She took us around the island in counterclockwise fashion.

There are 240 active churches on the island, and the main religious denominations are catholics and anglicans. The national bird is the pelican. The only industry is tourism. At one time sugar cane was a major commodity, but now the canes are rotting in the field, because it was not economical anymore to produce sugar from cane. An enterprising American managed to purchase 500 acres of fields covered with sugarcane on the North Coast at a very low price with the promise of creating employment. But no jobs materialized and he is just sitting on the property waiting for it to increase in value. A fence now surrounds the property.

left: The “Black Rocks” of St. Kitts.

Our first stop was at the “Black Rocks” on the wild North Coast. For location see the map above. This portion of the wild coastline is covered with large black volcanic rocks from an eruption from nearby mount Liamuiga (known locally as Mt Misery) only 40,000 years ago.

The surf pounding on the shore is due to the prevailing trade winds. Huge volcanic rocks are seen all over the place in this area. From there we drove through the wet rainforest, which is also the source of water for the island. The area of St. Kitts is around 176 sq kms, but a quarter of it is rainforest.

The next stop was the Botanical Garden with many interesting and colorful plants. The Garden is in Romney Manor, once owned by the grandfather of Thomas Jefferson. It used to be the main building of a sugar estate, but nowadays it is home to Caribelle Batik. Here, artisans demonstrate the process of creating batik cloth, which are also available for sale. Their design are modern and very colorful.

In the Garden we were intrigued by the “lipstick” tree, where the fruit looks like the Indonesian rambutan. But if you split this oval fruit in two, you will find lots of seeds in it, which is used to color lips red.

right: One of the many “Petroglyphs” on the island. The white color has not been added recently, but seems to be the original color still intact over the intervening centuries.

On the island one will also see quite a number of rock carvings or “petroglyphs”, as they are called there. They have been created by the original inhabitants prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 17th century, and it appears that we still don’t quite know what they represent. Because of lack of time, we did not take the “Petroglyph trail”, which is very interesting. Well, maybe there is a next time.

We did drive by the Brimstone Hill Fortress, perched high above the sea level, but did not visit it, because it was too far away. Another attraction we missed is the St. Kitts Scenic Railway, the tourist double-decker Sugar Train, which trundles around the coastline.

The island did not look very prosperous at all; they actually looked on the poor side. An exception is Frigate Bay, close to Friar’s Bay Beach, a huge enclave of houses of rich Americans, anchored by a Marriott Hotel with a golf course. Frigate Bay is on the narrowest part of the island and from the hills you can see both the wild and cold Atlantic Ocean on the North shore and the placid Caribbean Sea on the South Shore. Frigate Bay is on the Caribbean Sea, obviously.

(c) Barbados

Barbados is a sovereign island in the British Commonwealth. It is part of the Lesser Antilles and it is about 34 kms in length and up to 23 kms in width. Barbados was claimed for the Spanish crown in the late 15th century, but later it became a British colony. In comparison to its neighbors the land is quite flat.

The country is considered to have a tropical monsoon climate, consisting of a “wet season”, from June to November, and a “dry season” from December to May.

left: map of Barbados

The sun can be intensely hot, and cloudy days are nice, also because there is usually a gentle breeze.

The capital of Barbados is Bridgetown. The QE II could moor at the pier, but buses are provided to take the passengers to the cruise terminal in Bridgetown. They want to be sure you walk through the shopping center in the cruise terminal coming and going from the cruise ship.

right: The gauntlet of tourist shops in the Barbados cruise terminal.

We rented a Jimmy car (looks like an old-style Jeep) from Stoutes Car Rental, which seems to be the only car rental agency on the island. Car rental is expensive, around US$ 100/day. They said this because taxes are a substantial portion of the rental. I suspect that having a monopoly also added to the rental they can charge you.

We drove North; the roads were OK but there are very few signs, and a lot of times we had to ask where we were. People are nice but drivers are not overly courteous, especially if they are driving the buses. Just like in the other Caribbean islands close by, the population was not very prosperous, but occasionally there is an enclave where super-rich people, mostly foreigners, live. On most of the roads it was difficult to overtake, and only a few drivers did we see do this rather recklessly.

We drove north through the Parish of St. Thomas, then past those of St. James, and then St Peter, the best for the last. We then crossed the island to get to the Atlantic Coast of the island. There the coast is rocky and inhospitable and the swells are large. We drove by the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, Farley Hill National Park, and Orchid World. But we did not enter any of these, because they did not look too attractive.

left: View of the wild north coast at Batsheba.

Finally, we drove past sand dunes, and then along the shore to Bathsheba, where we had lunch at the Round House Inn. There is nice view of the ocean from the dining room. In the surf you can see the big black rocks, which may be volcanic in origin. Lunch was a shared flying fish paté and a grilled flying fish entree. Yes, there are many flying fish there. The tab was 70 Barbados dollars which is about $35.

(d) St Lucia

St Lucia is a sovereign island country in the British Commonwealth of Nations, with Queen Elizabeth II as the titular Head of State represented on the island by the Governor-General. But executive power is in the hands of the locally elected prime minister and his cabinet.

The country is located in the Eastern Caribbean Sea and considered to be one of the Windward Islands. It has a land area of around 240 sq miles and population of the island is around 174,000. The capital is Castries.

right: Map of St. Lucia.

St Lucia is quite mountainous, with the highest point being Mount Gimie, 3,120 feet above the sea level.

But their most famous mountains are the two Pitons, located between Soufrière and Choiseul. The Grande and the Petite Pitons are the landmark of the island. In 2008 Frommers listed this island as one of the top 14 vacation destination in the world.

The QM 2 had to moor some 1.5 miles out to sea from the port of Castries because of the shallow draft around the pier area. And the water in between these two points were very choppy that day. I had purchased a tour from ShoreTrips.com for $174 for two passengers. It was expensive and I could have done better getting a tour in the cruise terminal. But for this price Dave, the driver/guide did his best to show me as much as possible of the island. Norma was not feeling well and stayed on the boat that day and I was the only passenger in the 8-passenger van.

The island is mostly catholic, but Dave is unmarried but has a partner of 7 years with who he has a 5-year old daughter. She works in a hotel.

First we drove up the Morne Fortuné. The history of the island has a lot of fighting between the French and the British in the 18th and 19th century for control of the island. In this period the Morne Fortuné, the hillside redoubt controlling the capital Castries, has changed hands fourteen times in fierce fighting between these two adversaries.

left: Big rats are seen gamboling on the grass.

Now the barracks have been converted to a junior college with some 3,000 students, but the site is still a National Trust Historic Area. A few cannons are still on the premises, but as befitting a British site, the grass was well-tended and green. What was interesting was that we saw a number of huge rats walking on the lawns.

right: Beautiful Marigot Bay.

Shimmering in the distance was beautiful Marigot Bay . The villas on the far side of the Bay can only be accessed by water. There are no roads in the hills.

Admiral Rodney used to camouflage his warships with palm fronds and hide in the adjacent mangrove forest, to pounce on unsuspecting French frigates as they sailed by.

We passed a lot of banana plantations. Bananas are a major export item of the island. Yes, we have lots of bananas.

Our next stop was the picturesque fishing village of Anse La Raye.

left: Main street of Anse La Raye.

On this street is a long covered corridor with open-air stalls where, on Friday evenings, vendors with BBQ’d seafood, fish, mussels, lobsters, etc. set up shop. There is a band playing to enliven the scene and everyone has a good time.

right: And this is Anse La Raye from the top of the adjacent hill.

The next fishing village we drove by was Canaries, cute and picturesque. Only locals live here; no foreigners. The landscape is hilly with high mountains and deep gorges covered by lush vegetation.

We finally made it to Soufrière. The road through the mountains is curvy but is in pretty good condition. There are a few potholes, but the road is sometimes narrow in places, so driving takes a lot of time. You cannot go very fast.

left: The Grande and the Petite Pitons, landmark of the island.

Soufrière is an old French town on the Atlantic side of the island, and it used to be the capital of the island. Close by are the twin towers, the landmark of the island, the Grande and the Petite Piton.

And a bit further away is the “drive-in” volcano, a most unusual place. Some 40,000 years ago a huge cauldron, some 7 miles in diameter was formed because of a volcanic eruption. But then the East wall of this volcano fell away in the sea, and so now you can drive into the volcanic area with a car, certainly less strenuous than having to walk up the walls and going down again into the volcano.

right: Bubbling pots of mud and steam-expelling vents in the drive-in volcano.

In a number of place are bubbling mud pots and steam-expelling vents in the rocky walls. There is a slight smell of hydrogen sulfide, but the vegetation around was still verdant and healthy, showing that they were not affected by this gas.

left :Public bathing pool in the volcano area.

Downstream there is actually a public mud-bath, but time constraints did not permit me to enjoy this boon.

From there we raced to the Botanical Gardens, created in memory of their parents by the Devaux siblings more than a century ago. It is also called the Diamond Botanical Gardens. The Devaux are still the preeminent family on the island. In the Garden are many local flowers, as well as educational displays.

right: A red bridge in the lush Diamond Botanical Gardens

The hot springs in the volcano are also present in the garden and these are used for the mineral baths on the property. They were originally built in 1784 for the soldiers of Louis XVI of France for their therapeutic properties. The empress Josephine was also said to have used these baths when she was a young girl, because she was a cousin to the Devaux kids.

left: The beautiful colored Diamond Waterfall in the Botanical Garden.

There is also the Diamond Waterfall, some 100’ high, and looking as if it is spilling colored water, because the rocks behind the fall are colored red (iron oxide), black, white (sulphur), making the water slightly milky looking, because of the suspended mineral particles.

We caught the last tender leaving Castries to get back to the QM 2.