South Caribbean Cruise Day 5: St. Martin / St. Maarten

Somehow, we seemed to get our excursions mixed up.  On this last island of our South Caribbean cruise, we found ourselves on another full-day catamaran cruise. This was a cruise excursion, and we SUSPECT that our desired excursion was booked up and they just kind of pushed us into the most similar excursion they still had room on, because we both KNEW we wouldn't be able to handle two sailing tours in two days and so we wouldn't have booked it. I was still banged up and bruised from the day before! At any rate, I noticed what was on our agenda the night before and mom sent me to the excursions desk to change it. We really wanted to see both sides of the island, not for any particular sites, but because St. Martin is a French province, and St. Maarten is a Dutch province (officially known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands).  For those not familiar with geocaching, if we find at least one geocache on each side, that gives us credit for two more countries. It's actually nothing more than impressive statistics on our geocaching.com profiles and bragging rights at geocache events to come, but we all try to do it anyway!

(I really didn't dress to match the welcome sign!)

Not surprisingly, there weren't very many options left to change to at the last minute. However, there was one half-day, "Best Of  Both Sides" tour (oh, how I loathe those!) with a stop at a butterfly farm, so we figured that was fine. Surprisingly though, when we got our final ship bill, they did refund the difference between the tours. We figured since we only gave about 12 hours notice of the change, we would have to forfeit the difference. Kudos and thank you Norwegian Cruise Line!

In our worldwide travels, both of us have been to countless 'butterfly farms' (including Tinkerbell's Butterfly Farm at EPCOT during their flower festival last year...unimpressive) and usually you see a few butterflies fluttering about and you're basically left looking at the pretty flowers. So when our huge tour bus (also a "Best Of" pet peeve!) pulled up to this little tiny building and unloaded, I figured I could at least get a stretch and see some St. Martin flora. Man, were we wrong! This Butterfly Farm was awesome! I've never seen so many butterflies in such as small area. And apparently the farm was completely destroyed when Hurricane Luis hit in 1995 and had to be rebuilt from scratch. Starting with a moth bigger than my hand and so many different colors and shapes of butterflies, it was awesome. The farm itself is not huge so the only problem I had was that we couldn't always get close enough to see what our guide was showing us, and with mom being almost deaf, she didn't get to hear any of it. So, I would take her by when the group moved along and try to remember the cool details. Two train wrecks - one can barely hear, the other has short-term memory loss! What a team!

 

(Left: a male moth the size of my hand. Females are bigger!  Rt: a Monarch stopped long enough for a photo)

Before boarding our tour bus again (BTW...our tour group was with Diamonds International), the now expected, complementary rum punch was indeed flowing!  LOL  I think we came home as alcoholics. There really wasn't any other stops before crossing the border into French territory. Our tour guide on the bus was knowledgeable and gave us steady chatter as we stared out the bus window. There were a couple of scenic views and the water was beautiful. I was beginning to regret not taking that sail excursion so I could get in the water, and other than the butterfly farm and scenic overlook (on the fly, there wasn't a stop at any), it was a pretty boring ride.

(An abandoned tanker destroyed near shore during the 1995 Hurricane Luis)

When we reached the small town of Marigot, we were given a half-hour to walk around. Of course, the guide took us to his favorite shop and told us to check that one out for a little discount. This irritates me because the tour guides get kick-backs for bringing their buses close to these stores and sending business to them. The prices are no better, and are sometimes higher. We went off in search of a couple of close-by geocaches, and then walked through garment market areas and mom got a cute swimsuit cover-up. And then we were back on the bus and headed back to the cruise port in Phillipsburg.

(At a smoothie break in Marigot after finding our geocaches. Mom and the parrot are making the same face!)

The ONE thing that I would have absolutely loved to have seen, we didn't go anywhere near. SO bummed! Maho Beach is home to one of the most famous airports in the world: Princess Juliana International Airport. If you don't know why it's famous, watch the short video at the link above. Basically, the airplanes fly extremely low over the beach adjacent to the airport. I REALLY wanted to lay on the beach and get a photo of one of the planes coming in above. Some people will also hold onto the fence and "fly" when the planes take off. For whatever reason (because she's probably right), mom just knew I'd try to do that so she was glad to NOT go there.

(a plan lands at the famous Princess Juliana International Airport just a few feet above Maho Beach)

Back in Phillipsburg on the Dutch side, we had several hours to kill before our ship left, so we walked into town. It was a bit further from port than we thought, but the stretch was good after the bus. But hot and muggy. Really the worst so far of all the islands. We were after those geocaches for the Dutch credit and saw a couple of cool, older buildings, like the courthouse. I was also looking for a couple of pirate-related souvenirs for some friends, although there were very few considering the area is well-known for It's pirate days.

   

(Left: mom gets the geocache at the old courthouse. Rt: a direction sign (I love these!) But where's the bird?)

On the main road, hawkers were trying to get us into their shops and of course taxi drivers were lined up as well.  This is one of our biggest hates when traveling by cruise line. Every activity on board revolves around jewelry and art auctions and high-end fashion and at every single port they're selling the same damn things! Who is buying all this crap and what are they doing with it?!  I can barely imagine much of that keeping the shops on the ship in business, let alone all the ones in every port.

After finding a little shop with a few goodies, we were really hot and tired and ready to go back to the ship, and would you believe for the first time on five islands, there's wasn't a freakin' taxi driver ANYWHERE!  Where did they all go?!  By the time we found one, we were half-way back to the ship so we just kept going. St. Martin is definitely pulling up the rear on the five islands. But overall, we really enjoyed this vacation.  Not the sea days...I nearly died of boredom on the two days out and two days back, although after five islands in five days, at least the two back was good for recuperation!

(Our departing view as we leave the last island of our Southern Caribbean cruise)

South Caribbean Cruise Day 4: Soufriere, St. Lucia

     We kind of had a rough start on Day 4. Firstly, the only part of Castries that we saw, was the welcome building on the pier. Taxi drivers down in the islands are pushy at best and downright aggressive at worst. By far, Castries has the others beat. We actually had to push our way through the throng of them at the doors to leave the shops. They're not allowed in the building but they will get as close as possible. I could barely get the door open, there were so many! Then we had to push our way back through when we figured out we needed to go back the way we came. 

We didn't realize our guide was waiting by the ship (dressed like all the other excursion people) since the excursion instructions said to meet a blue and white boat at the other end of the pier, and we thought we had a few minutes to grab some coffee and jump on the Internet in a cafe just above the meeting place. Apparently, they were early. When we saw them boarding, we panicked and ran downstairs but no one was there. Poof!  People and boat vanished!  Like, Twilight Zone kind of vanished. The instructions said they weren't allowed to tie up to the pier so I guess everyone just jumped and they were off. So, the catamaran left without us, and after asking several dock workers, we finally found our tour guide who was looking for us back down by our ship. Nice. But, once we met up with our guide, Dee Dee, things started to fall into place. She called the boat back and actually said they were changing to a bigger boat anyway, so no worries.  This was another ShoreExcursionsGroup.com tour (The Soufriere Sail Excursion), and I believe our tour company was CelebrityTours in conjunction with Carnival Sailing Cruises (no affiliation with either cruise line). By far on this vacation, and other than the mandatory surcharge on the ship, this was the highest 'tip' day of the cruise. What I mean is, if you follow the rules of etiquette regarding tipping (and we Las Vegas folk are the biggest tippers in the world because most jobs in Vegas rely on tips...remember that the next time you go!), we tipped the tour guide at the botanical gardens, we tipped the girls at lunch, we tipped the van driver, I refused to tip the guide at the volcano...it was one flight of stairs, smelly and a plaque would have covered it; and a big tip for the crew on our boat. 

(our catamaran from the snorkel viewpoint)

      I've always been curious as to what St. Lucia would look like. Back when I was working for Club Med, St. Lucia was one of the few resorts they had which had horses. I was raised on horses, but a contract just didn't open up for me there. Frankly, I wasn't that impressed.

      Back to the trip, now. When we finally got on the catamaran, I was impressed because it was a pretty good size boat for the fairly small group on the tour (about 40). It reminded me of our dive boats when I lived in the Bahamas, although those were not sailing boats. It's kind of like a modified pontoon boat.       This was a full day excursion, and about the first hour or hour-and-a-half was going along the western coastline of the island. Once we got out to a good spot, our captain killed the engines and hoisted the sails. There was an area inside the boat with benches, walls and the bar (for later!). Out on the front of the boat was where I sat on a bench trying not to get knocked over when the ship tacked. The front of the boat for the most part was the "trampoline", which is where the sunbathers staked their claim (it's actually brilliant because they have the breeze above the boat and the breeze under the tramp to keep them cool). It was really awesome when a school of about 7 dolphins came up on us and a couple went right under our boat while the others passed on the sides. If the girls on the tramp were paying attention, they could have reached down to touch them. After that, the Pitons came into view and one of the tour guides was taking pictures of us in front of them. Of course, that would be when we hit a really big wave. The boat went up!  I went up a half-second later but we seemed to crash back down at the same time. Ouch. That literally did leave a mark. Quite a few actually. So there it was! The minimum one fall per vacation was out of the way! I could have broken something or I could have fallen the other way and gone right into the water, so there are the positives to that.

(Welcome to Soufriere)

     Our cruise went to the small village of Soufriere. It was a large group of people so we had to contend with several vans and buses. Our first stop was the Diamond Falls Botanical Gardens.  Not the biggest or best botanical gardens I've been through, but our tour guide was a walking encyclopedia on every plant there! I actually mistook him as a homeless person until he introduced himself. The group division did not work, however. There were probably 25 people being herded like cattle on a little tiny path and it was difficult to see or hear what he's describing, particularly with his accent. The big claim to fame for this little garden is the small waterfall in the back. It was featured in "Romancing the Stone". 

     After the gardens, we were taken to the Fond Doux Holiday Plantation (cheesy spelling, I know) for a buffet lunch. It was not bad but not great. We were told it was local creole food, but I always thought creole was spicier. This was just bland and blah. But I thought the bathroom was cool!

                                                            (Inside the volcano crater. )

    Right after lunch (and this was ill-timed), we went to the Soufriere Sulphur volcano which is touted as "The world's only drive-thru volcano". The smell of it is overwhelming, and right after lunch it's positively nauseating. The only reason I got as close as I did is because there was a virtual geocache there which would give us credit for the island. The excursion allows you to take the 'tour' of the crater or visit the mud-baths. It wasn't suppose to be both, however some rude people did it anyway. The volcano tour was up some stairs and there was yet another tour guide and it took about 10 minutes. The problem is, these people go to the mud baths and fart around and then have to get cleaned off and it's a minimum of 20 minutes. It irritated the hell out of me because looking at my watch, they were cutting into what was beginning to look like a short snorkel before we had to get back to our ship for departure.

(Dory!  If that's you, JUST KEEP SWIMMING!!)

    And that's exactly what happened.  We wound up with only 1/2 hour to snorkel and we barely left the immediate area of of the town to do so. Not to mention, the snorkeling was in choppy water and a bit too close to the cliffs. It reminded me of the snorkeling in Maui... Lots of rocks and lots of silt. Nothing too exciting. But I was so proud of Train Wreck 2!  While she didn't actually go snorkeling, mom did actually get off the boat and in the water!  That was a new experience for her! But because of the chop in the water, she was feeling a little anxious, not wanting to get too far from the boat, but not wanting to get a concussion being knocked into the boat.  Baby steps, but we're getting there!

(Leaving Soufriere behind)

    But what happened next made the entire excursion and brought St. Lucia into the number two island position behind Dominica, and I think we can lay that entirely on our excursion crew. Once everyone was back on the boat from snorkeling and we began the 1.5 hour cruise back to port, the music got started and the rum punch started flowing. One of our guys (aka: "Energy Man") was insane!  He was trying so hard to get people up to dance. While I was enjoying my rum punch, my mom was trying to find a quieter place on the boat. I got her settled into a corner with some punch. And then a little more punch. And then I lost track of the punch either of us had. I went above deck for a few minutes, and when I came back down, my jaw dropped and I was just gaping. Dee Dee serving punch said my face was just classic.  My mom was out there shaking it up with Energy Man on the 'dance' floor. You really need to understand the historical relevance of this. I have NEVER seen my mother dance. Oh, she's told stories of how crazy she was in her youth, but I never witnessed it! She's usually the one in the back of the library trying not to be seen or heard. I fortunately whipped out my cell phone and started recording. I figured I got video of dad doing a hula dance in grass skirt and coconuts in Hawaii for blackmail, now I've got mom, too. Muwah, ha, ha.  Then when she turned around and saw me filming, and HER face was classic!  But she broke the ice, which means my social skills do come from some repressed gene in her, only to be witnessed with rum!

(The Train Wrecks and the Energy Man - doesn't that sound like a 70's band gone wrong?)

    Pretty soon, classics like "The Electric Slide" brought almost everyone else down to dance as well. I did that one, but risked no further injury afterwards. Then Energy Man (we discovered how he earned his name...I was exhausted just watching him!) was leading folks in fun 'copy me' kinds of dances and by the time we got back to our ships, everyone was tipsy and laughing and agreed that we had an awesome time. Celebrity Excursions...Great job! 

(Everyone up and dancing!)

South Caribbean Cruise Day 3 - Barbados

 First, about my underwater camera... it works again!  It's amazing what you can do when you fix operator stupidity (i.e. you can't charge regular batteries with a computer...I thought they were recharable, they were not, so they went dead.). So, now that I'm past the prettiest island so far (Dominica), the damn thing works great!  Back in business, nothing to photograph!

So. Let's talk about Barbados. Sorry to say, unimpressed. I'm not quite sure why I know this particular island better than the others in this chain. I'm quite sure it's more than just because singer Rhianna is from there. We covered a lot of area, but I just didn't feel like I walked away satisfied. Once again, mom and I did a "Best Of" tour (have I mentioned by now that I'm starting to HATE "Best Of" tours?), but not through the ship's excursions. This was another done with http://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/, and our tour was a small van of people (I think about 8 of us) and we were with Glory Excursions.  The tour guide was knowledgeable, although I wouldn't describe her as particularly friendly.

(Morgan Lewis Windmill)

Our tour was scheduled to be 4 or 5 hours long. As usual on a "Best Of" tour, almost everything was seen out the window of the tour van. We did have 4 brief, 5-minute stops, one on Cherry Tree Hill top with an amazing view (like Mexico and some other countries, no matter where you stop, people will be trying to sell you stuff). The second was at the oldest windmill on the island, the Morgan Lewis Windmill.  Then we went to Bathsheba, which is the east coast of Barbados. We had about 15 minutes there, and there was a park on the beach, which would have nice for a picnic if you don't go with a tour. We were there long enough to take some pictures, get rained on, and use the nearby bathroom facilities (Hell no! Not me! I'm a camel! The other train wreck, however, is not.) just before the bigger tour buses got there. It wasn't really enough time to go down on the actual beach for long. Lastly, we went to St. John's church. While there were other Gothic style churches we almost saw along the way (almost!), this was the only one we stopped at. Mom and I were looking forward to this stop because firstly, we loved the Gothic chapels in the UK. Second, there was a geocache there and we wanted to get our one credit for the island.  Unfortunately, the larger tour buses beat us to it, so there were a lot of people milling about. It was a very brief stop, so it was either look in the church or go find the geocache. Regretfully, we didn't really have sufficient time to accomplish either.  

(cute hut across from Bathsheba Beach)

Now, this tour took approximately two hours.  Doesn't quite add up, does it? This is where I felt a bit cheated. We returned to Bridgetown, drove quickly through the historic district and we stopped at a little beach bar called Casablanca. Here we were given the now very well known complimentary rum punch. We liked it. BUT, our tour guide takes us there and says that the two remaining hours of the tour, we will be left here to enjoy the bar and sand beach. If we wanted to stay, she would be back at 1:30 to get us. If we didn't want to stay, we would have to find our own way back to the ship. Um...excuse me?  Wasn't that included with the tour?  So, sit around wasting an afternoon waiting for the tour guide to come back, or find something else to do. Fine, as the stalwart train wrecks that we are, it didn't take us too long to decide.

After the underwater camera fiasco the day before on Dominca, I was clearly only going to get one chance at snorkeling on Barbados and that was at the Casablanca. So, mom went and found a chair and umbrella and I hit the water with my gear. However, when the tour guide said "sand beach", she was not kidding!  There was nothing!  Exception, there was a star fish. ONE. I swam around for about 15 minutes in the small area roped off for swimmers, desperately looking for something interesting in the water (I had been told there were some pretty cool ship wreck diving areas around the island, but apparently, we weren't near any). I gave up and went back to the beach. Mom was hot and tired and going into full-on "Betty White" mode (low sugar makes us both grumpy like the Betty White Snickers commercials...we use the term frequently between the two of us), and said she wanted to go back to the ship. I wanted to see more of the historic Barbados district that we had driven through so quickly earlier.  After a brief argument, we got a taxi driver (he was wonderful!) who took mom to the dock and then took me back to the historic area. 

On route, I asked him for a quick stop at the great Baobab tree.  Since I didn't have time to get my geocache credit at St. John's church, this was a back-up plan and I didn't need to have access to Wi-Fi to find it. You have to understand how difficult it is to geocache on islands with crappy satellite and Wi-Fi connections. When I asked my driver to take me there, he knew exactly why I wanted to go.  He was so sweet!  He even got out of the taxi and helped me look for it. Mission accomplished!

(Baobab tree, aka: Boabab Tree)

I really wanted to see George Washington's house, so he then dropped me off in front of it. I told him I would walk the rather large circle of historic buildings and he offered to return for me at a predetermined time and location. Thankfully, and for whatever reason I don't remember, I had my tennis shoes in my tote bag. Between my train wreck of a body, the flat sandals I was wearing and the underestimated time and distance around the loop, I was hurting about half-way along and changed to my tennies. Relief! Unfortunately, several thing were working against me. Firstly, it was Saturday. George's house was closed. Secondly, the historic loop circles a large horse-racing track and that day just happened to be the inter-island race, which is apparently one of the most anticipated events of the years and so there was all that extra people and traffic setting up for that. Ugh. I stopped by the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, which was open, but I wasn't going to pay the outrageous entrance fee. I continued on and mostly just walked past the other historic buildings, many of which have either been updated to new service buildings or are now private residences. 

Like mom, I was hot and tired and the horse race traffic was getting out of control so I decided to just walk back to the ship.  Isn't it amazing how close the ship looks in the distance but is really so, SO much further in reality! I figured if I walked along the main road, my taxi driver would see me and stop for me. That is, in fact, exactly what happened. He picked me up and took me to the ship, but only after I'd walked 3.5 miles (according to my pedometer). By the way, if you are ever in Barbados and need a cab, call Lucas at (246)264-8046. He'll take good care of you!

All and all, I have to say that I was unimpressed with Barbados. And to top it off, the stupid ship was finally having a program I would have liked to have gone to.  It was a history of the Bajan people (indigenous people of Barbados). As a history lover and a sociology major, that would have been very interesting. But the idiots on the ship scheduled it WHILE everyone was on shore! Seriously!  3pm?  Are you stupid?!  Oh, maybe it would have interfered with Bingo or ballroom dancing or some such ship-shit after we left port.  Grrrrr.  Summary - Barbados is currently on the bottom of the first 3 islands.

South Caribbean Cruise Day 2 - Dominica! Champagne Reef, Titou Gorge & Trafalgar Falls

     Mom and I had an awesome day on Dominica! It really made up for yesterday (St. Thomas USVI). We booked our day-long excursion through ShipExcursionsgroup.com, who put us with a tour group called "Bumpiing Tours" and our awesome guide, Gary. We started our day snorkeling at Champagne Reef, which is rated really high on the scale for really good snorkeling and I could see why! Finally, some Caribbean waters that could stand up to the fabulous scuba and snorkeling we had on San Salvador when I lived there (San Salvador is a tiny and little-known island in the Bahamas. I lived there with Club Med for 6 months and was in the water every possible minute, so I got to be a bit of a scuba/snorkeling snob).

The name "Champagne Reef" is completely earned and appropriate! There are dozens of tiny volcanic vents on the bottom blowing up little bubbles and at one point, you swim right through a whole wall of them. It is literally like swimming through a glass of champagne! I was thrilled, but it came with a bit of a price. First off, my mom (Train Wreck #2) is not a snorkeler, or even much of a swimmer. I bought her her own mask and snorkel and she used flippers provided by our guide. I had all of my own gear to use. We have cootie-phobia, so we don't do shared snorkels. (TRAVELER WARNING! People have been known to get gum infections and such from snorkels that other people have used!). Secondly, the way you get to Champagne Reef is from a beach that is very rocky and extremely slick, not to mention you're fighting with the tide. It can actually be amusing to just watch people try to get in and out. All the snorkeling I've done has been in a river or spring, off a sand beach or in the ocean via a dive boat. Mom has only been a couple of times and just off a gentle, sand beach. Like everyone else, we were both struggling to get in and out, but of course since it's US, it's twice as challenging because we are CLUTZ's and we'll have the bruises to prove it tomorrow! She began to have some equipment issues after she'd been in for 20 minutes or so, so she didn't make it as far as the wall of bubbles, but I was so proud of her! My mom has serious anxiety issues, especially in places she's not comfortable and familiar with. But, I've mentioned it before...she is willing to try just about anything once when we travel! She gets it from her kid. LOL. She was out long enough and far enough from shore that she got to see more than she'd ever seen in the ocean before, especially because it is a reef. She really enjoyed all the colorful fish and different vegetation and can see now why I've always loved diving so much.

Big annoying cluster-f**k of the day... NEW UNDERWATER CAMERA FAILED!!! It seemed to be fine yesterday, but when I went to take my first picture at the reef, nothing! And today, of all days on the cruise, was THE day to have a water-proof camera! Grrrrrrr!!!

     We didn't make it to all of the places we were thinking we were going to get to, because, while apparently drivers are slightly less insane here than on St. Thomas, the combination of construction and 'political' road closures was playing havoc with our sight-seeing plans and we had to keep turning back to try different routes out of Roseau. We did make it up to Morne Trois Pitons National Park, which is where the Emerald Pools are (our geocache target for island credit), but we had lost too much time to see that. However, we went to other, way more interesting sites that I'm really glad we got to see.

     We went swimming at Titou Falls Gorge in the National Park. OMFG...amazing! The favorite highlight of the day for me. In the desert, we would have called this gorge a "slot canyon" with water in it. First of all, adrenaline-junkie that I still try to be in my broke-down, train wreck of a body, I was the only one of our group of 8 willing to jump the approx. 30 feet into the gorge below. Let me say, you have to jump in a VERY specific place because of the close proximity of the walls of the gorge (like 8 feet?), and the small area where it's deep enough to land safely from that height without hitting big rocks under the water. ONE other guy from our group decided to jump AFTER I told him how cool it was. Our guide didn't do it, and clearly he didn't think I was going to do it, 'til I did!  What a rush, too!  I would have preferred someone would have warned me for how much cooler it was after swimming in the ocean, but that made the heart beat even faster! It is possible to wade in gradually from the shallow pool and hot spring nearby... if you're chicken!

(Falls in Titou Gorge)

     Our guide, myself and one other headed back into the gorge, away from all the people (there were a couple of small tour groups at that spot). As you swim along, you look up and at the top of the 50 foot canyon walls above you is the rain forest stretching up even higher. Those we left behind will never know what an amazing sight they missed! Unless, of course, they watch the second "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, that is. Part of it was filmed back there, so I got to hang out in the Johnny Depp zone for a bit. Once you get back in a ways, you come to two small, stacked waterfalls. I had my water-socks on, which do have tread, but it wasn't quite good enough to get me over the first set of falls to the second in the strong current, so they went ahead and I took pictures for the other group member coming back down. I could see the second set of falls just around the corner and above the first, and it wasn't big or anything, but there was just enough of a gap in cloud cover that the only ray of sunshine making it's way into the gorge was shining right on the falls! Awesome! The guy that I was taking pictures for felt bad about my stupid camera and promised to send his snorkel and gorge pics by email, so I'm really hoping he does. The following video is not mine, but does a great job showing this whole experience as I've explained it. Coincidentally, Levi, the tour guide in the video, was another of our Bumping Tours guides. (Thanks to "lereddick" on YouTube for giving me something to show my friends in lieu of my own pictures!)

Continuing on, we did get a little bit rained on, but really? It's a RAIN forest so I wasn't whining! It was a short duration and we were already wet anyway, so who cared? Our next stop, also in the National Park, was Trafalgar Falls. It was a bit of a hike (Yeah! Made up for the disappointment of yesterday's so-called hike!), up a nice trail to a beautiful spot with two, large waterfalls. Our thoughtful guide even produced a hiking staff for mom, who was missing her own at home. I thought these falls were actually way better than any I saw on all the Hawaiian islands. I DID get pics there with the trusty Smart-Phone, so at least there was that. The two falls are nicknamed "The Father" and "The Mother", the father being the highest. A little further down the path from the photo platform were the hot springs, which were tempting, but it was a bit of a steamy bottle-neck of people there and that meant negotiating more slippery rocks than my poor feet could handle. Mom wasn't interested in that either! She's pretty sure I gave her stress fractures on the beach earlier.

Speaking of the beach at Champagne Reef again, me being my usual self, I almost fell twice and thought the required injury for the vacation was over (to quote my friends and family, vacation's not over until I've fallen or broken something. Sad, right?). Said fall was not on the beach (I fell for landscaping issues there! Namely big, slippery ROCKS!), but getting back on the boardwalk FROM the beach. The guide said, "Watch out for the top step. It's tricky.", because there was a bit of a gap between the boards at the top. Now, had he not said anything to make me actually think about the steps, I would have been fine. But, as usual, as soon as I started concentrating on the putting of one foot in front of the other, I got confused and almost went down. Our guide caught me once, and then when I got to the top step, I nearly fell through the same hole he was warning me about in the first place! He caught me again before I broke an ankle with a, "Ooh, la, la!" in the local Creole-French, and I chuckled and told him this was how I walked all the time. He may not have believed me at that point, but by the end of the day, he knew I was a danger to myself. I jump off, perfectly good canyon walls, you know!

Back on the ship, mom and I got showered and dressed in girl-clothes and headed to one of the sit-down restaurants for a change. After four days of dealing with the ship's buffet, we were both sore and tired and just didn't want to be pushed around by passengers fighting the line for crappy food. Good choice. We went in right after it opened, before the majority of loud people and children were back from shore and made ready. We got a quiet table at a window and ordered an excellent bottle of Muscato and discussed the adventures of the day. We really loved the whole day on Dominica. Gary, our tour guide, will be getting rave reviews from both of us. He was very knowledgeable about the island and helpful, and genuinely NICE. We couldn't have done better. So, after just two islands, Dominica is leading by a landslide as our favorite for this trip. Tomorrow we are on to Barbados. It is scheduled to be another long day so hopefully mom and I can hold out. Somehow, neither of us wrote down the specifics of our tour tomorrow, so basically it will all be a surprise! And hopefully, we'll have another day like today...and find a fix for the stupid underwater camera!

Southern Caribbean Cruise Day 1 - St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Day 1 - St. Thomas, USVI

Mom and I decided to take 2 different excursions here because I wanted to do one that was a little more physical than she was ready to tackle. This was our first stop and we were so excited...especially after two, very long, boring days at sea (I am NOT a happy sea-day person!). Both excursions were booked through our cruise line (Norwegian Cruise Line), and were quite pricey for what they delivered. First off, I had a 9:30 departure so I jumped off the ship and down to the first store to buy totes for mom and I, because we were idiots and forgot to pack them. I practically ran back to the ship to be where I was suppose to be for my group. The cruise people holding excursion signs didn't have mine on it. I asked, and was told to just wait and they would let me know. Yeah, after I stood in the sun baking, they came BACK for me because everyone else was already on the crappy "bus" waiting to go, and they noticed I had my own snorkel-gear on my back. "Bus", in this case, is a very loose term. Every taxi and bus on St. Thomas is actually the front of a Ford or Chevy pick-up with open sided safari kind of contraptions built on the back. Insane traffic and construction everywhere on top of it made for a terrifying ride. There are no road rules apparently, and I literally almost fell out the open side twice. Everything seems to be communicated between drivers by different horn signals and just playing "Chicken".

(One of our guides helps a kayak get free of the mangrove trees)
I chose the "Hike, Kayak and Snorkel" excursion. Problem number one - There were THREE cruise ships in port at the same day and time. Something like 7,000 people all swarming into this little, tiny village at the same time. So while I was happy thinking that my excursion group was not huge (16) and there were no kids, that didn't guarantee an enjoyable trip. The two other cruise ships in port (a different NCL ship and a Celebrity) apparently book through the same excursion group. Specifically, the only group that takes people out into the mangrove lagoon. We all arrived at the same time and spent the next 3 hours tripping over each other. One would go on the "hike", which was basically a path through the mangrove to another part of the beach, where you looked for some signs of life...sea urchins, conch, etc. As a hiker, it was an insult to even call it that! Then the other group would hit the kayaks, the third would snorkel, and then we all changed, but that wasn't well-organized either, because not each group was spending the same amount of time at each part. 

(Our guides (left) show urchins and conchs to the group)

As one of the few single people on the cruise ship, I got partnered with the other only single person from our group, Roger, (I know this because I met him on sea-day-two, at the singles gathering...I was the youngest and he was 54 and the only male. The other four single women were around my mom's age. A grand total of six of us). This wasn't necessarily a problem, but they wanted everyone kayaking in tandem. I asked our guide if I could have a single because I've never done a tandem kayak. She said the company was fully booked so they didn't have any left by the time our bus (the third, of course) got to the hut and was able to get to the boats. Roger asked if there was a difference and our guide said, no. Uh, I beg to differ! Roger thought he would do better in the back doing the steering. He clearly didn't do that very much, because I kept having to corrective-paddle against the current over and over. I can also tell you that when you've had 3 lower back surgeries, you sure as hell notice the additional 250 lbs. sitting in the back of the boat when you're doing the majority of the paddling!  No difference, my ass!  Literally!

Our guides were informative and showed us some interesting things, but the teaser-ads on the ship and website for that particular excursion were completely deceptive. We didn't kayak through the mangrove forest with crystal clear turquoise water. We were on the very edge of the forest, in a lagoon. And with the snorkeling, I ran into the same problem I had with the Hawaiian snorkeling...too many people in a shallow area all bumping into each other and kicking up sand until the visibility is cloudy at best. I did manage to get a few pics on the new waterproof camera, but that was short-lived (see Day 2!). This excursion cost me $89. It was suppose to come with a snack. Apparently, THAT consists of water out of big coolers, so probably tap water, and a 2" mini-Snickers bar. I hadn't really eaten anything for breakfast knowing I'd be in and out of the water. So at 4 o'clock when I got back to the ship, I was ready to chew my own arm off. Poor mom practically got dragged upstairs and then the buffet was closed, so we had to make due with the outside buffet on the back of the ship, which is what we consider the very last resort. Everything is basically cold and tasteless. Mom's hamburger doubled as a hockey put.

(some of the few varieties of fish we saw near the mangroves)

      Mom didn't fare any better than I did with her excursion. I had actually looked to go with her on that excursion first, but when I saw the hiking, kayaking and snorkeling one, mom said it would be okay to go separate ways. She had the "Best of St. Thomas" tour, also through NCL. She paid $49 for hers and was gone just about 3 hours. Same kind of ride and driver as we had, however instead of showing her the Famous 99 Steps, Blackbeard's Castle, the funicular to the top of the mountain, or several other sites that are well-known on the island, she got bussed from one shopping area to another. Why do all the cruise lines just assume that everyone that comes on a cruise just wants to buy over-priced jewelry and artwork? The shit they sell on shore is the same as what they constantly bombard you with on the ship. She never even got into Charlotte Amalie! I made it back in time to get a taxi to Charlotte (our bus driver is actually a taxi, but he didn't want to go that far), because I wanted to see Blackbeard's Castle and the Rum Factory. 

My taxi-driver didn't even take me to the 99 steps. He took me to the 30 steps and a right turn you have to walk to GET TO the 99 Steps. I passed them once and these two local ladies corrected me and showed me where the steps were. I was contemplating whether I had enough time to get up them, look around and get back to the boat before we were due to shove off, but my legs were wobbly from the excursion and no food. Just as I was preparing to assend, an American couple were coming down and I asked them if they thought it was worth it. They said it was closed! No rope at the bottom of the stairs warning people, just CLOSED! There was some kind of a bar up there, but they said they couldn't even get into the Rum Factory because you have to pay the Blackbeard's Castle tour price to get in. Had I actually made it up that distance for nothing, I just don't believe you can imagine how pissed off I would be! As it is, mom and I will be making complaints to NCL and posting on the shore excursion "Trip Advisor" type site, when we get home. 

We have 3 excursions over the next 3 days that are not booked through the ship but through ShipExcursions.com. Then our last tour is with the ship again. It's suppose to be a "Best of St. Maartin" tour, and we're wondering if it will just be more shopping centers or if we actually will get to some points of interest! Overall, quite disappointed with St. Thomas. But tomorrow is Dominica!

I lied. Update...

      So, I know I said I was going to do better at keeping my blog updated. Yeah, I said that in September and in the six months since then, I have spent several weeks in Florida, took a cruise to Hawaii (future blogging on that), geocaching/camping trip on Route 66 in Arizona, a trip to SoCal to see my friends one more time before I moved 2,700 miles across the country (unfortunately, this meant a divorce between my mom and step-dad, but we're all still friends, so that's good at least!). Oh, and we drove that distance for the move and tried to get in some site seeing in the process. I think it's fair to cut me some slack, cause I've been BUSY!

      Additionally, the two Train Wrecks are going on a 10-day cruise to the South Caribbean in two weeks. There will be 6 ports and I've never been to any of them, so I'm excited.  My theory is that we have two 'at-sea' days at the beginning of the cruise, and two at the end. 'Sea-days' make me crazy because I am bored to tears.  I just moved AWAY from Vegas, so I have no desire to gamble. Cruise ship Bingo is expensive, as is the spa, etc. etc. And one can endure only so much trivia. So, the intention is that I will spend those sea days parked on a deck chair catching up on some blogging, and maybe even get a little ahead.  We'll see.

     Mom and I decided to move back to my small hometown of Ocala, because unlike Las Vegas, you don't have to drive 5 hours in any direction to get anywhere. Ocala is right in the heart of Florida... literally you're an hour from the Atlantic and an hour from the gulf coast. We can set out in any direction in the morning and find all kinds of trouble to get in to!  Also, with three major cruise ports within reasonable driving distance, the money we no longer need to use on airfare can be applied on more trips and cruises!  Bonus!  

Updates - Alaska, Arizona and Florida

It's been a very busy couple of months and of course, the blog is way behind on what we've been up to. I am currently in Florida with my mom and staying with my grandma for an undetermined amount of time to help her out. My mom is actually considering moving back to Florida, and back to OCALA, of all places since she constantly says how much she hates Florida and Ocala.  It's a small town, but it's where I was raised and will probably always think of it as "home". 

So, in July, mom and I went on a one-week cruise to Alaska.  She's been several times, but it was my first trip and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  Now that I'm in Ocala and seem to have time on my hands, I'm hoping to get more blogs posted to include the ports the cruise stopped at and my favorite areas.

Last month (August), mom and I went camping at our favorite get-away-from-the-Vegas-heat spot, the KOA at Circle Pines near Williams, AZ (also known as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon). My parents have often gone to Williams when they used to have their RV. But now that mom and I discovered the KOA Kabins, we LOVE it.  On this visit we actually got the cabin we wanted that faced away from the camp and towards the forest.  

We did a little hiking, and a lot of geocaching. Once again, we train-wrecks managed to both sustain injuries while geocaching. I got tripped on a branch and managed to hit it right on the last geocaching scar (my shin), so I guess it will just blend in when it is healed. Not to be outdone, Mom, on the other hand, had a nasty interaction with a barbed wire fence.  She cut her hand open (I said she needed stitches but she wouldn't do it), fell and cut the back of her leg as well. For the first time, we didn't have the first aid kit with us, so we did a makeshift bandage until we could get to the store for bandages and butterflies.  What a trooper...I had set the goal for 11 caches that day to give me an even 700 finds, and she was determined to get me there.  So we actually went and got the last two before she would let me go for bandages.  Our geocaching catchphrase:  WE BLEED FOR GEOCACHES!

But overall, we had a good time. The weather was beautiful and perfect for camping and hiking and even mom discovered a few new places even after going to Williams numerous times over the years. We got off the Interstate and followed historic Route 66 a good distance and found some cool places. If you're headed down to Arizona, try the back road. It's pretty, has interesting stops and in some spots, is actually in better condition than the Interstate!

Alaska will need it's own post.  Maybe more than one.  My goal is to get that done while at my grandma's house with bad cable and no Internet.  So stay tuned for that.  I'm on borrowed time, at the moment, since we're at the library using WiFi and my battery is quickly dying. More to come!