Sea Day

Today, April 17, was a day at sea, sailing past the Dominican Republic/Haiti on our way to Miami.  The big event today was the "Country Fair" held on deck this morning.  Each department of the ship's staff had to organize a goofy game for people to play.  You got draw tickets for participating and more tickets for winning.  

Here is Peggy trying her hand at the device constructed by the Electrical Department.  You had to snake the loop around a twisted wire without making contact.  

Here you had to try to bounce a coin off the table into a glass.  Very difficult.  I never saw anyone do it. However, I bet Charlie could do it.

And here you had to smell six different body creams and identify the scent.  Peggy did pretty well, 4 out of 6.

Despite collecting lots of draw tickets, we did not win anything.  Oh well, at least it was fun.  Tomorrow is another day at sea on our way to Miami and then home.  See you all soon.

P&G 

San Juan, Puerto Rico

April 16, our last port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island now owned by the United States.  San Juan is the capital, and the city is over 500 years old.  The city was established by Spain when the island was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492.  Here is Peggy standing in front of a monument dedicated in 1992 to celebrate the 500 year anniversary of his discovery.

We spent the day wandering around the picturesque old city, with its colourful old colonial Spanish buildings.

As you can see, they have renovated the entire old town, and now it is very pleasant for strolling and shopping.  Of course, there is method in their madness, tourism is very important here.

For hundreds of years Spain owned pretty much all of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.  Puerto Rico was "the gateway" to this whole region.  Because of the ocean currents and the trade winds, the sailing ships of that time that wanted to go to this New World all had to go past Puerto Rico.  So, whoever controlled Puerto Rico, controlled the region.  As a result, Spain built large forts here and for hundreds of years successfully fought off the other countries that tried to take over, including England and the Dutch.  The forts are impressive.

Old San Juan was a walled city.  Here is part of the wall and one of the gates.

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant called "Patio".  I loved the warm plantain chips.  The food here is icy (that is a good thing).  Just look at the choice of condiments on the table.

OK, now on to Miami and then to home sweet home.

P&G.

St. Bart's

April 15, we visited St. Barts, a Caribbean Island that is a French colony.  The island is actually considered part of France.  It is a very high-end island that is a favourite for the wealthy and famous people and their yachts.  Sting has a house here, but we did not see him.  

Here is the island as seen from our ship.

The harbour is beautiful, and busy, as you can see.

We explored the island by ATV.  Good fun.

St. Barts is famous for its fashion shopping.  All the big name stores are here.  Here is a shopper checking it all out.  Despite the temptations, she resisted successfully and only bought one item, a flashy top.

They were having a sailing race while we were here, so the there were lots of boats.

One of the attractions is to go on the Yellow Submarine to view the underwater sights.  We declined, but here is the sub.

Now, off to dinner with our Welsh friends, whom we have met on the trip.

Barbados addendum

This picture is from Peggy's camera.  I can't seem to get it into the main blog, so here it is as an addendum.  I have no more time.  we are heading off to dinner.  Technology can be frustrating.  

Barbados

Today, April 14, we docked at Bridgetown, Barbados.  Barbados is now an independent country, but it was an English colony, so the language is English.  It has beautiful beaches, perfect weather, and is a very pleasant island to visit.  We toured the island in the back of a 4-wheel drive Toyota truck seated out like a Land Rover.  

The tourist beaches are all on the West (leeward) side of the island where the water is calm and the sand is perfect.  All the big resorts and the big homes are on this side.  Rihanna, who comes from Barbados, has a large new condo on the beach.  We visited the rocky beaches on the East side of the island which are much more picturesque although not so good for swimming.

We also toured off-road in the jungle.

Sea Day

Apr 13, we are having a day at sea.  Not much happens on a sea day.  We do the laundry, lounge by the pool, and read a lot.  Today they had the sea trials of the boat building contest.  Teams have been working away for a week building toy boats out of scrap they can scrounge on the ship.  The boat has to be able to float in the pool while loaded with 6 full cans of coke.  We were not on a team, but we attended the event.  

Here are the boats before launch.

The event took place on the pool deck.

These are all the boats, at least those that stayed afloat, in the pool together.  The pool on this ship is quite small, as you can see.  It's more like an extra large hot tub.

Devil's Island, French Guiana, April 12, 2014

This afternoon we anchored off Devil's Island, French Guiana.  This a famous prison island used by France until 1946.  They sent their worst prisoners here.  It was a nasty place, and considered impossible to escape from.  Oner prisoner claims to have escaped, and a famous movie (Papillon) was made of it starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.  They showed the movie here on the ship yesterday to get us ready.

 Now Devil's Island is a pleasant place where tourists wander around the ruins.

Here is the island as seen from the ship.

Here are a couple of the most famous prisoners from Devil's Island.

The prisoner above is peeking through the head hole in the door of a solitary confinement cell.  The worst offenders were kept in solitary which means a tiny cell where you stayed, often in complete darkness, all the time.  You never got out for anything.  Many prisoners went mad with such treatment.

Here is the inside of a solitary confinement cell.

Many of the buildings are now in ruins.

But, the island itself is very pleasant.

The animals are obviously used to tourists.

Now the ship is heading off to Barbados, and we are heading off to dinner.  Life is tough out here.

Amazon River, rain forest

Thursday, April 10, we docked at Santarem on the Amazon River.  Santarem is a city of 250,000 people.  At one time it was wealthy because of rubber, but that has gone bust.  Now they grow soy beans, but that requires clear cutting the rain forest, and, therefore, is quite controversial.  To minimize the damage caused by clear cutting, the government will only allow the farmers to plant 20% of their land with soy beans.

We rode an old bus (shown here) partly on dirt roads to get to the rain forest.

Then we hiked through the jungle on primitive trails and occasional boardwalks.

This is a rubber tree.  Rubber is made from the sap.  They cut the bark to get the sap.  Our guide has made some cuts on this tree to show us.

The rubber tree is very tall.

The largest and strongest tree in the rain forest is the Brazil Nut tree, shown here.  Our guide told us an interesting story about the Brazil nut tree.  Some years ago the local bush pilots all used Cessnas, same as in Canada.  They were in the habit of overloading them, which would use up their gas more quickly and cause them sometimes to run out of gas before reaching their destination.  Where do you land a plane in a dense rain forest jungle if you run out of gas?  The answer is you land on the top of a Brazil Nut tree.  This was actually written in the pilot's training manual.  The reason is that the Brazil Nut tree is the tallest tree in the jungle, and is also one of the strongest, so it would not break and would support the weight of the plane.  Moreover, when the plane is sitting on top of a Brazil Nut tree, it would be visible to other planes and thus easy to find.  Much better than being away down on the jungle floor.

Tomorrow is a day at sea as we leave the Amazon River and sail up the coast to French Guiana and Devil's Island.  Stii hot and muggy, but no rain.