St. Kitts, Snorkeling.

Dec 8-9

Yesterday we were on St. Kitts.  We had boat drill in the morning which means that we had to report to our emergency stations around 10am when the announcement and emergency signal came over the ship’s public address system.  Then we had to go out to our lifeboat/raft station and be counted.  It’s pretty straightforward and boring, but it takes about an hour and keeps us on the ship later than we would have to be otherwise.  So after boat drill all the glassblowers headed out and caught a taxi down to Shipwreck.  So named because the beach there has a bar on it named Shipwreck.  So clever. 

There's the shipwreck.

So we hung out there for most of the day.  Eric and I rented snorkel gear.  I had a lot of fun snorkeling.  The reef was very close to the shore and fairly shallow.   We saw some schools of fish and Eric saw a sea turtle, which I’m very jealous of.  He also saw a good sized ray.  But I saw an OCTOPUS!  That is very exciting for me.  I love octopi.  I’d never seen one not in captivity before, and I got a really good picture.  Coming out of the water from the first time in, I somehow lost my mask and snorkel.  When I told them, they said it would be $15 to replace and they gave me another to use for the rest of the day.  So reasonable.  My underwater camera is performing pretty well.  I’m still learning about its focusing and such.  It’s pretty difficult to aim and figure out when it’s going to take a picture when you’re underwater.  I also saw squid later on.  Also very exciting.  There were 2, each about half as big as my forearm and they were sort of muted rainbow colors.  They hovered below me for a couple minutes like they were checking me out, and then when I looked away for a second and then back they were gone.  I can’t help thinking that they are pretty smart.

This little fish was eating stuff off the bigger fish.  They would come hang around and the little guy would peck at them.

Speaking of smart animals, we also saw monkeys!  Eric calls them booze monkeys because apparently they were introduced to the island a while ago by some colonist who brought them to work!?  And somewhere along the way acquired a taste for rum.  Who knows?  It could happen.  So apparently now they’re very happy to accept rum or beer if it is offered.  However, the ones that were hanging around the beach parking lot were very well behaved.  No attacking the bar or flinging crap or anything, just very mild mannered hanging out and little monkeys play wrestling.  Very cute.

Today we are at sea and had a couple shows.  The first piece I made was rather large and nice and went very smoothly.  On the second I learned things.  Oh well.  Good day.  Yesterday I made a really nice twisty cane vase at the show after St. Kitts only to have the annealer crash because the door wasn’t quite closed, so it exploded.  Bummer.

Pop.  Bummer.

Last night was probably the craziest rain we've had.  We gave people blankets to huddle under.  Surprisingly few left.  They even stayed for a raffle at the end.

Tonight is Megan’s last formal night.  So hopefully we’ll be going out somewhere to eat.   That means on the ship somewhere but not the buffet.  Our friend Andrew the environmental officer is eating with the staff captain but will hopefully join US for dinner as well.  It’s sad to have her go.  And after Megan I’ll be the next one leaving!  Crazy.

Bye Megan.

Dec 7, St. Martin. Ziplining.

Dec 7

Only 18 more shopping days till Christmas.  That is the most weird foreign thing that I can imagine right now, though everyone on the ship is sort of shopping crazy.  Not because it’s Christmas, they just are.  It feels pretty much the opposite of Christmas here in the Caribbean.   That isn’t to say that some folks here aren’t trying.  I saw a Santa today, and  there was a rotating Christmas tree in the window of the bar I ate at last night in San Juan, so it’s not like it doesn’t happen here.  It just feels different.

Today we’re in St. Martin.  Megan spearheaded a mission to go ziplining.  Eric bailed out due to his having to watch the Patriots game late last night, but Megan and I hit the gangplank as soon as it opened and jumped on a taxi to Loterie Farm where there are various outdoorsy activites that include the aforementioned ziplining.  So we got harnessed up and hopped on an overloaded truck and headed up the hill.  The staff guys that were going to ride in the cab, hopped on the roof and offered us the inside seats which we happily accepted.

At the top we were briefed about how to hook into the lines which gave me the impression liability law is not as rigid here as in the states.  Not that they weren’t thorough, they just didn’t treat us as if we were going to walk off a cliff at any moment as they generally do in the states.  The zipping was pretty great.  There were some long lines where the pulleys are really screaming by the time you get up to speed and there were places where the valley floor was a good hundred feet down from the lines.  Probably the trickiest part (we were on what was billed, the “extreme” course) was between the zips where you were walking down cable walkways with just a few crossbeams.  Mostly you could see right down to the forest floor.  There was one traverse where you held on to two cables and walked on a third.  I should note that there was always a safety line that you were clipped into because the danger of falling was very real.  Did I mention the rain was making the footing slippery?  It was.  But the rain was nice and cool, so very pleasant.  However, the other feature of the rain was the creation of mud generally and rust on one of the zips in specific (but only one, they didn’t know why)  so as we got off one on the lines we both laughed hysterically at each other because we were completely covered in mud and rust which we believe was responsible for us being ignored at an eating establishment later on.  (or maybe it was that I wasn’t wearing my wet dirty shirt.  I couldn’t decide whether that would be better or worse)  All in all a most excellent adventure.

Looking so fresh...

and so clean clean.

After zipping we caught a taxi back to Philipsburg which is on the Dutch side of St Martin (Loterie Farm is on the French side) and walking distance to the ship and did a bit of wandering through the tourist markets and ended up grabbing food and drink at an Oceanside bar that we’d been at before.   Megan pointed out the Ohio State flag and OSU Buckeyes sign out front.  I think that’s the real reason we ended up there.  She’s sad this is her last cruise, but I think she’s a bit homesick too.

I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print.   I should get this update onto the interwebs while I have a free connection and head back to the ship. 

San Juan, 2nd time.

Dec 6    

Good day today in Puerto Rico.  Had I been paying attention I would probably have tried to get to the rainforest, but I’ll try to make that happen the next time.  Instead I wandered around the old city of San Juan.  First I found that down by the ship terminal, there is free internet just in the air everywhere.  Pretty slick.  Then I wandered for a while and eventually found myself outside an old fort called Castillo San Cristobal, which happens to be a national historic site.  I went in, but I only had 45 minutes to explore.  It was fantastic!  Being a fort, it had great views of the ocean and of the city.  The sun set in spectacular fashion while I was there.  There was a dungeon and long secret passages where it felt like there was just enough oxygen in the air to breathe.

When I left the fort the sun was setting and the streets were all lighting up.  Something about the narrowness or just the way it was lit gave the city a very friendly cozy feel.  I asked a group of arty looking young folks if they knew a good place to grab a bite to eat and they invited me to join them because they were just headed out to a place.  They described it as somewhere that might not even have a sign on it.  I was very excited until the group sort of fell apart in the face of other logistics that needed to be dealt with that were more important that getting food, but they were in fact art people and they had a design space and program called betalocal.  Very clean on the inside.  White.  Design magazines.  Lots of apple products.  I wish I’d gotten to hang out a bit more, but I needed to find my way back to the ship, and food.

 

I looked a little more.  I went into a bar that turned out to be completely terrible.  No Presidente beer, which is a local (Dominican Repub.) that is pretty good.  The bartender said, “Well I’ve got just one more Miller,” in a tone that indicated that I was receiving a secret that I was going to be very excited about.  I asked what else he had.  There was one other local beer that I didn’t know that I was going to try, but just as he was about to open it I saw it said “Light.”  So I stopped him.  And left. 

Found a  place down the street with Presidente and Mofongo, which I had seen on the menus of several places that I’d passed and had no idea what it was.  At this place I gleaned from the menu that it had mashed up plantains in it.  You could order it with meat and stuff in it, or plain.  I got it plain because I could get that in a small portion.  It came in three little almost bite size piles.  Seemed like mostly mashed plaintain, but not whipped or anything, it still had some good texture to it.  It was pretty great.  I’ll try it as a meal sometime if I get the chance instead of just a snack.

And here's the underwater photos from Roatan I promised.

Mmmm.   Brains.

Last couple days. Dec 2-4

First I need to apologize for being completely undisciplined about updating the blog, but recently it has seemed like such a big job catching up that I’ve been avoiding it, so, to fix that problem I’m going to just start off a couple days ago when I had a really awesome day in Roatan, Honduras and fill in the gaps later.

Dec 2

Annette had said that she really liked Roatan and she could actually see herself going there for a vacation sometime, and I couldn’t agree more.  There is something there that the other Caribbean ports lack.  First the landscape is lush.  Trees grow densely all over the island.   A lot of the ports here are very sandy and about the only trees that grow are palms.  Roatan seems close to jungle and the locals have the sense not to cut all the trees down around their houses.  That is another thing, there are lots of real locals and obvious local economy.  Even in the heavily touristed spots people are not too aggressive in selling things.  In Costa Maya the cruise ship was the only game in town and it felt that way.  Everyone on the boardwalk was a tourist and everyone was clamoring to sell something. 

So we arrived in West End, Roatan by taxi which was a bit expensive, but our fare included round trip service to the ship.  We told our cabbie that we wanted to go snorkeling and eventually after a couple stops we found the office of the Marine Park.  They rent snorkel gear for $5 a day and Half Moon Bay which has very easily accessible reefs is just steps from their front door.  So we donned our snorkel gear and plunged in.  I got to try out my new underwater camera, which was really fun.  I think I got a couple of good pictures, but I still have to figure out how to get them onto my computer.  The water clarity also left something to be desired.  We were told there was a storm blowing in later in the afternoon which was kicking up waves and churning up the sand in the bay.  Underwater pics later.  I'm having trouble getting photos off my camera.

Coconut water man.

Eric on main street West End.

After snorkeling we went to a bar to get some food and drink.  The food selections were very American, but that was the theme of this particular bar.  It was pretty much full of expats.   I’d say is was about a 50/50 split between tourists and people that had moved there.  It was a nice place right on the beach and I got Daniella the bartender to give us a bunch of returnable bottles that we’ll open up into glasses and bring one back for Daniella.  The Sprite returanables are great.  They’re green and have little dimples all over them.  I haven’t seen them since I was growing up in Virginia I don’t think.  We might make them a tip jar too.  It’s good to make friends.

The Bar.

After that we just wandered up and down the road a bit checking out the local businesses and observing the street scene.  People were just hanging out and enjoying the warm weather and generally paid us no mind.  We found our cab driver waiting for us around 2:30.   Our pick up time that we set with him was 3:00, so we were happy to see that he was there and we wouldn’t have to worry about getting a ride back, but we wandered around some more and found him napping when we got back.  He was a nice guy.   Didn’t speak much English, but I tried to ask him which Honduran beer was the best.  I think I understood Sala Vida to be the choice.  I’ll have to give it a try the next time around.

Roatan definitely has the best feel of any port we’ve been to in the Caribbean.  It’s more like the European ports in that you feel like you’re visiting a place, whereas in the other ports we were in it felt like the tourist industry, and sometimes just cruise ships themselves, had actually created a place.  I guess that’s fine if you’re just looking for that product, but for me, I’d much rather see different places that have real people with their own lives very independent of mine.  When I travel I’m more interested in seeing how other people live, rather than trying to bring my own life along with me.

I know what you're thinking.  In our country these signs usually have a red circle and a slash.

There were other Super Minis too.  Super mini Diane, etc.  I've yet to meet these women, but I can't wait.

Reef.

 

Dec 4

Yesterday we had a fairly uneventful sea day.  It was rather a long day for us having a morning of cleanup and maintenance and then a morning show followed by the art auction that we donate a few pieces to, to raise money for a scholarship fund at the CMOG, then lunch at Bistro which is very good but heavy sandwiches and then more cleaning in the shop.  Then we had dinner in the main dining room which is always a treat, but that meant 2 big meals in a row, but I don’t think I overdid it.  I did get to the gym for a bit before dinner.

Today we had a great visit from Steve Gibbs, the director of the Glass at Sea program.  He arrived at around 11am and we walked around and looked at the shop and the glass we were making.  He was very complimentary about the work we were doing and the way the shop looked which was nice. 

After the tour he took us out to lunch at an amazing little restaurant called Michael’s.  They had an AMAZING beer list!  This assessment is colored by the lack of color in the beer on the ship as a rule.  Eric tells me it was much worse on Solstice, and to be fair there is one Belgian that you can get on the ship (very light though) and maybe 2 English ales, but they are very filtered and smooth.  Ok but not a lot of character.   But I digress.  There were a couple IPA’s on the list and a german dark lager as well as Magic Hat #9 which has special nostalgia for me, being a Vermont beer, and about a dozen others.  Anheuser Bush was not represented.  So I ordered an IPA which I haven’t had since leaving Seattle, and it made  me very happy, but when it came it turned out to be in a Belgian bottle which is basically a wine bottle.  A LOT of beer.  Oops.  I’d thought I was getting 22oz, which is plenty, but it wasn’t a big problem.  Everyone pitched in.  Then there was the Fresh Mozzarella which wasn’t technically Mozz. But I can’t remember what they called it.  It was awesome and served with fat slices of obscenely fresh, ripe heirloom tomatoes.  Then I had more tomatoes in my beet salad which had real blue cheese  and fresh green beans (the kind that turn a bit purple) and the beets were golden beets and cooked to perfection.  I do not think that I can imagine a better meal.  Transcendent.

So back on the ship I went to the gym again because we’re going to Tuscan again for supper.  Another 2 big meal day.  I’m definitely taking in extra calories this week.   Lots.  But had a good workout.   Ran a few miles and lifted some weights, then to Tuscan where they stuffed us.  Prosciutto,  Cioppino, Ribeye steak, mac and cheese (which I had to mostly skip over due to space issues) and gelato.  Woah.  Serious.

Oh here’s a thing.  They are replacing the lawn.  They are changing from rye grass to some other type of grass that is a warm weather grass.  They tore two sections up last night.  Just rolled them right up, and today in port they were rolling down the new grass, BUT, apparently they were a couple square yards SHORT.  AND Eric said that this same thing happened on the Solstice.  I think someone may be in trouble.  I’m glad I’m not that guy.  Our friend Andrew, the Environmental Officer, is in charge of the grass on the ship, so he was late getting to dinner with us.  The shortness of grass was NOT his fault, but he had to make it work the best he could.  So, major operation, and this was not the main area of the lawn which I believe will get done the next Miami day.  I’m curious to see what it looks like.  I’m betting you won’t even be able to tell.  Our greenskeepers, Rod and Eugene, are amazing.

So seriously.  More updates in the coming days.  And some catch up on what’s happened in the last few weeks too.  So stay tuned.