Caribbean Cruise

Our holiday in the sunshine, nearly didn't happen.......Our flight from Ottawa was cancelled due to the snow. With a phone call to air Canada it took about 1 hour to sort it out. We would have to miss 1 night in San Juan and our posh hotel "The Hilton", but hopefully we would make the cruise ship in time.Our new flights went Ottawa to Chicago, then the next day Chicago to San Juan. It was a short flight to Chicago, and after finding a cheap hotel close to the airport, we decided to make the most of our unexpected detour and have a look at Chicago. We got the blue line train into the city, and started walking, it was really cold but not snowing (not really the start to the holiday we wanted). Millennium park in down town Chicago was beautiful, with lots happening. We watched Ice staking on the outside rink but my favourite was the cloud gate, or more commonly known as the bean. Its a big stainless steel bean that mirrors the sky line above the people below. we also walked up Michigan Ave which is Chicago's 5Th Ave, all the designer shops and people everywhere. On this street is the Wrigley building where the chewing gum factory was,it is now the head office. The John Hancock Observatory was one of the best I have been too. It have self guided tour with little hand held computers and head phones telling you all about the history of the city as you went around. We them walked back to the train station, well we tried if a few wrong turns we did finally make it. The wrong turns did however take us past where the famous show Chicago was made and we saw the theatre.

We managed to escape from Chicago, even with a 45 minute delay, 3 inches of snow, and lots of plane deicing.
The weather was so nice when we got off the plane in Porto Rico, we managed to hook up with two other people also on the cruise ship so we all shared a taxi to the cruise ship terminal.
After a quick check in we boarded the boat found our room and began to explore the ship.
We left port at 8.30pm and headed for our first stop of many, Tortola British virgin Island.

BVI, The boat arrived early in the morning, but we managed to get off about 9.30, first we headed into town and looked around and then headed back to the ship to where all the different tours left from, it turned out all the tours of the island cost the same and went the same place, so we picked a nice looking taxi truck and got on and explored the island, For $20 each the tour was quite good, with every one Happy to have a short time at the beach and look at the rest of the island instead.
We looked in the markets before heading back to the boat.

St Maarten,
New day and another new island, we got off the boat early and took the ferry into town and had a look around, not that much to look at, we decided to sit down and watch the day go by, then headed back to the ship for lunch as it was so close, then back into town and a sit on the beach and a cheap beer before walking back to the boat, We decided not to do a tour here as they did not look the good.
Some of the other people headed up to oriental beach which was on the french side of the island but the taxi ride was $20 each one way.

St Lucia,
We arrived in St Lucia in early in the morning, got organised and headed ashore and looked at doing a tour of some of the island. The tour was alright but did not go very far from town, but did take us to a native bush area to walk and look at plants and animals, and also try different fruits from the island.
We also drove through some poor areas of the city. Although this island looked nice it was my least favourite of the whole trip.

Barbados.
We got of the boat in Barbados to amazing hot weather and were told we needed to catch a taxi into town, turned out to be only 5 minute walk, we looked around town for a bit and then headed in the direction of a beach we saw. We cut down a back street and on the the beach and walked along the beach to the other end to the Hilton hotel and an old fort. We had to stop half way down the beach because of the heat and again on our way back along the beach. We then looked at some of the old buildings in town before getting a fruit smoothie and walking back to the boat.
We stopped just before the entry to the dock and talked to a couple from the US before getting back on the boat, the beach was amazing the water looked so nice and it felt warm. Foot note we later found out must of the other people we talked to had to pay to get on the beach, what's with that!!!!!!

Grenada.
We were starting to get tired of just looking a islands by now but decided to at least have a quick look around, but ended up walking to the top of the fort near the boat and also around a bit of the inner harbour, where we saw a boat from home.
We were amazed at the amount of people that would hassle you for a taxi or to take you on a walking tour or do a tour, it got a bit much sometimes.
But in saying that we did find a different tour that took our interest, it was a self drive boat tour, so we decided to do that, it was really good there was 6 couples and we each got a 3 metre inflatable and snorkeling gear and headed out of the harbour and up the coast to a spot where we got the go snorkeling, or just lay about. The water was warm and so nice that Sarah and I where the first ones in and the last ones out of the water. We then headed down the coast back to a nice beach for a swim before heading back into the harbour.
we both thought this was the best tour we had done.

Sea Day, Today we got our first sea day so got to sleep in, thank god.
So far we where having a really good time on the ship the people at the table we sat with where really nice, a couple from England Mel and Shirlee, Mel also took the calligraphy course on the cruise ship, also Arlene and Les from Las Vegas they had met Mel and Shirlee on an earlier cruise. Also the two we shared a taxi with in Porto Rico, Ann and Carolyn sisters from Illinois. On the first night we also had an Irish couple but they sat with other people for the rest of the cruise.

Willemstad, Curacao
Willemstad is a UNESCO world heritage city, it is full of pastel coloured buildings. The pastel colours are said to have originated because an early mayor of the city suffered from migraines due to the then prevalent glaring white of most of the buildings, therefore he orded that all the structures in Willemstad be painted in pleasing pastels. We found a book and did a self guided walking tour of all the buildings around the city, this tour took us through some interesting places that we would not normally go. The town is in two parts separated by the harbour, a pontoon pedestrain bridge connects the two parts of town. This bridge swings open to let boats past. On our way through town we looked around at the local markets, they had pigs noses and ears for sale, also the local DVD shop sells burned DVD's and CD's with just the name hand written on it.


Aruba
It was another hot day in the sun, so we did another island tour, in an air conditioned van. Aruba is like a desert, with lots of sand and catcuses. Our tour took us to a pile of rocks to look at this small island and all you can see is catcuses and the sea. We then went to the other end of the island to a lighthouse, before spending the rest of the day sitting in the sun on a beach and swimming the the very warm water.

San Juan, Puerto Rico
We got off the boat and headed to The Hilton. We dropped our stuff off and headed into town via the local bus. We did not have the right change so the bus driver let us on for free. Once getting to old San Juan the buses stop and you have to get on an old trolley bus that goes around the old city and this is free. The roads are very narrow and are made of cobble stones. Our first stop was the El Morro Fort area. We looked around the grounds and found an old cemetry which over looked the sea. Then we headed inside the El Morro fort. The fort is alt bigger than I expected with lots of empty rooms. After exploring the fort we where at the very bottom of the fort and we had seem it all and we decided to climb the wall and walk back along the waterfront walkway as it was really hot. The walk way took us around the outside of the fort to the old enterance to the old city. We then walked through the old streets exploring before going to another fort, Fort San Cristobal, this fort was built in the 18th century and is alot smallar than El Morro. We then walked back to the hilton as it was getting really hot. San Juan was a nice place but their was alot of rubbish. Our night in the hilton was worth the wait. We stayed in a room that is normally $600 USD per night but we didn't pay that. The place was really nice with beautiful gardens, and a man made beach. Then we haeded to the airport to return to the freezing temperatures, - 20 degrees

Xmas and New Years

For our first winter xmas we headed off to the Tom Quinns for lunch, We had lots of food with the turkey being the main thing for xmas dinner. We had a good time and enjoyed having lunch with the Quinns.

For Boxing day we headed off to Catherine's place(Mikes mums)for lunch, although not as many people we had a very good time and again managed to eat lots of food.

Both nights were cut short because of the fact I was working night shifts in the city. No real excitement there although I did end up with what every one here called a stomach flu, all I know is that I spent three days on or near the toilet.

New Years we were invited to spend with Rosa and Danni Falcone, so we thought a Italian family new years would be a different experience for us. We ate lots and food and met most of rosa and danni's families and had a really good time and a very late night to boot.