Sunday 4th February - Barbados

Beaching it in Barbados

So today we are in Bridgetown Barbados. We had already told the shorex team that we didn't want to escort any tours today so we've got the day off. As an added bonus, it's a long day ashore and we won't leave until 10 o'clock tonight. What are we going to do with all this sun? Sadly Peter has to work and catch up with his online students so we decided to spend the morning using the free Wi-Fi in the terminal, and after an early lunch, we , and Chris, the creative writing instructor, would spend the afternoon on a beach.

Now if you look at TripAdvisor the best abeach in Bridgetown is the Boathouse which has very much a party atmosphere and the booze flows freely. But it's a bit expensive if you're not really a partyloving drinker, so last year Peter and I found the Pirate Cove right next door.  (I should point out that the Boathouse is cheap for cruise ship crew). Using the beach itself is free, but if you want to use a lounger and parasol then you'll need to pay a few dollars for the rental of, which is exactly what we did.

OK, so I'm not really a beach person. But I do like swimming and particularly snorkeling, and where better to snorkel than in the Caribbean. It wasn't the best of days in Caribbean terms, in fact it was a bit cloudy and overcast and it even rained a few times. But the sea was warm and I had my contact lenses in, and my snorkel, and my goggles, and I was as happy as the proverbial pig in ... Last year Peter bought me an underwater camera and I was able to use it to film the fish as I swam.

I still haven't worked out how to use the camera though, and didn't film the couple of more exciting fish that I managed to see, but I did get an excellent short clip of a large shoal, which I totally bored Peter and Chris with later.

After a few hours, we headed back about 5 o'clock, mostly because Chris hasn't brought any cigarettes with her, but also because the rain was becoming more persistent and the air was getting cooler too. (So what happened to the fabled Caribbean weather?)

And the reason that I mentioned crew rates for The Boathouse?  Well, on return to the ship, I bumped into one of the staff that had taken advantage of those rates. Absolutely hammered and hysterically funny trying to maintain a professional image. Just class!

So that was Bridgetown Barbados. Tomorrow we are visiting the port of Castries, on the island of St Lucia and escorting an all day tour. Let's hope it's a good one.

Saturday 3rd February - St George's Grenada

One of the beaches on Grenada's coastline.  Very pretty

Another hot sunny day on another hot sunny Caribbean Island.  This is the life isn't it.  We were supposed to be parked on the pier in Grenada, 'cept some hulking great Yank ship has taken our space.  The captain told us a couple of days ago that CMV booked the slot and has confirmation of the booking, but apparently money talks.  The Royal Caribbean ship is much bigger, with more passengers, so the Grenada authorities decided to allow them the berth and make the little Magellan anchor out in the bay, so everyone has to tender across.

We're escorting again - Discover Grenada - a tour of 4 1/2 hours.  It's mostly scenic driving, firstly around the coast, then through the the spice and banana plantations in the middle of the island, along the edges of the rainforest and back out to the coast and Fort Frederick.  There are a few stops thrown in of course.

The buses are quite small, only 20 seaters.  It was chaos loading them - I ended up on bus number 11, but my CMV paddle said number 8.  We were late getting to the buses anyway, and then we had to wait for about 20 mins for the final passengers to turn up because they had missed the tender boat that the rest of us were on. We were easily half an hour late starting

Our first stop was at the Dougaldston Spice Estate, where we were first shown how cocoa beans are turned into chocolate, and then given a brief show and tell re the various spices that are produced in Grenada.  I was that impressed with what I'd learnt, I ended up buying some of the pure chocolate that is produced in the area to use to make drinking chocolate.  Apparently I have to dissolve it into boiling water, simmer for 5 mins, strain, and then add milk and sugar.  I'm told that I'll know that it's the real thing due to the oil of the chocolate on surface of the cup.  I can't wait to try it.

This is how the cocoa bean looks when the pod is first cut.  A bit ugh! actually.  The farmers can tell when the pod is ready, because it starts to heat up as the beans start to ferment.  So there you go. 

Then the beans are fermented for a bit longer - 8 days they told us.  After the fermenting bit, they are dried on tables like this.  When the beans are dry and you bite into them, they really taste of chocolate, not quite Lindt or Cadbury's, but chocolate nevertheless. 

Driving through the countryside was pleasant.

And Annadale waterfall was nice.  The island has had an unexpected amount of rain in the last month, so the falls were full, and young men took it upon themselves to leap into the plunge pool in the interests of photography and making themselves a few bucks.  I missed the picture though.

Annandale Waterfall

We finished at Fort Frederick, with these excellent views.  As usual, I managed to find an lizard of some sort.

Our excellent view included being able to watch the Royal Caribbean block of flats sail off.  Unfortunately, logistics prevented the Magellan from being able to move in and take up the berth.

Another lizard.  I have no idea what type though. 

As I said, the tour was supposed to last about 4 and a half hours.  We set off late, and then we had the easy, relaxed, no worries attitude of the Caribbean driver to contend with, add a return tender journey, and we didn't get back to the ship until nearly 3 o'clock.  Everybody was starving and ready for afternoon tea. We worked out that it wasn't worth trying to get back to the island for the remaining time that we had, because the tenders would add an hour in travelling time.

So that was our day in Grenada.  Tomorrow we are in Barbados.  

Friday 2nd February - Scarborough, Tobago.

So yesterday was a seaday.  Peter did his art classes as usual, he's still under the weather, and he was exhausted at the end of it. I helped set up and clear away as usual.  Nothing particularly different, except one of the younger passengers who we chat to regularly has been unexpectedly propositioned by another.  I say unexpectedly because we both thought the guy was gay!  He's also a good 20 years or so older than her, and although she has politely told him she is not interested, he doesn't seem to have understood the statement.  The fact that she has a partner at home hasn't deterred him either.  He's started to appear in the places she normally hangs out, so she has had to take on a bodyguard.  I say bodyguard, I mean a very lovely and very polite gentleman who stays with her and ensures no unwanted advances.

To be honest, her admirer seems harmless enough and no doubt he'll come across someone else to turn his attentions to sooner or later. For now  Peter and I find it amusing that she's got herself into this predicament. That'll teach her not to listen to serenading guitar players.

And today we woke to find ourselves on sunny island of Tobago.  The weather is a little cooler than it's been in Brazil, but then, we are a few more degrees north of the equator.  It's still hot and sunny though.  Just what you'd expect of the Caribbean. Tobago is billed as an "Eco Destination", with rainforests, beaches and coral reefs. There are over 6000 species of plants and animals on the little island, which is only 26 miles long and 7 miles wide.  Oh, and they race goats! (Yes really.) Just the sort of place I should love.

Peter and I are escorting today - "The Panoramic South", basically an on the bus off the bus tour.  In a way we quite like doing them, because they are relatively short and relatively easy.  On the other hand, they are not tours we would normally want to do ourselves, because they are mostly a series of photo stops and visits, with a tour guide to explain.  Peter and I both prefer to be able to wander off into the "wilds" of wherever we are, at our own pace, investigating whatever we find interesting.  (I say "wilds", I mean any street, path, lane or bit of waste ground that we've not wandered across before).

The excursion was OK.  Not one of our favourites, but we did get to see some excellent views from Fort King George and Fort James. As usual the guides explained things as we went along.  What I found interesting was that they reported an increase in tourist trade since the last hurricane which caused a fair amount of damage to many of the surrounding Caribbean islands.  Tobago escaped unscathed, and as a result can recieved the cruise ships, for which they are grateful as they need to boost their economy.  At the moment they have a 40% unemployment rate, and one of their main sources of income, banana's, has been decimated due to desease.

We were back to the ship in time for lunch, and then it was time for us to go out and have a look around for ourselves.  Peter, as always, needed to find wi-fi.  There was free wi-fi at the terminal, which I used to successfully upload a couple of blog posts, but it didn't suit Peter, so he went and find a bar with a good router and settled down for a few hours. I decided to take a walk through the town, past the various stores and offices, noisy bars and busy streets, and find the Botanical gardens, which are only 5 minutes away from the cruise terminal.

I liked this fruit and veg shop, it all looks delicious.

The birds thought so too, and blue grey tanagers hopped around the upper sections, stealing bits of banana where they could.  This birds are a bit blurry in this picture, but you can see where they've been helping themselves.

At the gardens I had plenty to keep me occupied. I really need to find out a lot more about lizards and ghecko's, I have seen so many different types on this cruise.  Here's another, although I think this might be a skink.

And this spectacled thrush just looks weird.

Having spent a little while in the gardens, I made my way back to Peter, expecting him to be ready to leave, since all aboard was at 17.30. On the way, I passed a couple of bars that seemed to be in competition with each other in terms of which could make the most noise.  Both blared out dance music so loud that damage to ear drums was very likely if you stayed in the vicinity for more than an few minutes.  People inside and out were laughing and drinking and dancing, a party atmosphere building up.  The middle of the road between the two bars was like a crash zone, with the different music tracks coming at you from each site.  The noise was almost intolerable.

I got back to Peter, and it turned out we still had another hour, so our return walk was leisurely, taking in the colours and the bustle of the streets.  We got to the music bars, and couldn't resist.  The dance music was so loud, the beat took control and I dragged Peter into the grotty bar area to dance.

Sadly it was time to get back to the ship, but we left thinking that we liked Tobago.  The people are freindly, the island felt safe, and we left it in a happy mood. Maybe we'll go back for  a holiday?

We ended a brilliant day with a brilliant moonrise.  It appeared amazingly large and beautifully bright orange on the horizon, looking more like the sun than the moon.   Tomorrow we will be in St Georges', Grenada.  Peter and I are escorting again, "Discover Grenada", but we should have the afternoon to ourselves.  I'm looking forward to it. 

Thursday 2nd February - Bridgetown, Barbados

We had one plan today.  No tours and we were going to the beach we'd visited when we came out this way in April last year. Barbara, one of the other craft lecturers joined us, and we headed for "The Boatyard".

The Boatyard is a bar on the beach just outside the town centre.  It's walkable from the cruise terminal and takes about 20-30 minutes.  Once there, there's a charge which includes a taxi back to the ship, your first drink, and use of the sunbeds, parasols, showers and loos etc.  We got there in the afternoon last year, and I think the charge was about $10 each, which we thought was acceptable. Today we arrived at about 10am and they wanted $20 each.  We'd said we didn't want a taxi back, but that didn't change anything so we turned around and left, and made our way to a beach entrance we'd seen earlier.

The Pirate Cove charged us $8 each.  Admittedly, there was no free drink or taxi, but then, we didn't want them. We just wanted a lazy, lazy day on the beach and I need the parasol. That is exactly what we got. No photo's today, but I can tell you that the sand was white and the sea was blue and clear.  We spent our day swimming, snorkelling and drying off on the loungers between swimming and snorkelling.  We enjoyed a buffet style caribbean lunch of brown rice, beans, breadfruit and beef stew. The mashed breadfruit tasted like mashed potato, it was really nice. And we finished it all off with icecream.  Idyllic. When it reached the time for us to go back, both Peter and I had turned a little pink, but not enough to be painful.

So now were nice and relaxed ready for the 5 sea days ahead before we get to the Azores.  Keep your fingers crossed that the weather is going to be good for us.

Wednesday 1st February - Castries St Lucia

Another hot day in the Caribbean and another town we've visited before.  Except this time I don't think we've ever had a chance to look round.  I know I've missed Castries in the past because of flying back to the UK, and I've missed it because I've been locked in the cabin with Peter when I picked up the dreaded norovirus.  I think we've escorted garden tours from here too. So, as I said, never had a chance to look around the town.

We've managed to get out of tour escorting duties again so today is the day we get to look around.  Like most Caribbean towns, there wasn't a lot for us to see.  We wandered the streets, looked at a couple of parks and toured the craft markets.  Actually, I'm being a bit mean about the craft markets - there is so much in there to buy, all of it brilliantly colourful and typically caribbean.

We completed the town walk in the morning, and so decide that the afternoon should be spent at the beach.  We'd had such a good time yesterday with the snorkels at Bequai, we were hoping to repeat the experience.  So we walked out again and took the long way, uphill, to get to Viggi beach.  It's a little unusual in that there is a cemetary and airfield right alongside.  We didn't hear any funerals, but every so often we could hear small, single engined aircraft race up the tarmac alongside us.

Sadly the water around this beach wasn't clear enough to see anything whilst snorkelling.  But we enjoyed the swim and relaxation time anyway.  Walking back, we got to see this Little Blue Heron, which I thought was brilliant. (Well, I would wouldn't I?)






We completed another lazy day in the Caribbean in a bar next to the ship, using the wi-fi.  Tomorrow we are in Barbados where we get to do it all again. It's a hard life this, innit?

Tuesday 31st January - Bequia, Grenadines

So we sailed here this afternoon from Kingstown.  The ship dropped anchor a little after 2 o'clock and the tenders had started taking people across to the island a little before 3.

Peter and I thought we knew where we were going.  "We've been here before", we thought, "we'll be off the ship and straight onto a beac.  Excellent!".  But we'd got Bequia mixed up with Mayreau, so it was a bit of the shock to see a load of fishing boats and yachts as well as the houses and such around the pier.

We were determined we'd find a beach anyway, albeit after a bit of disagreement how that should be obtained.  We ended up getting a taxi when we could of walked, which irked Peter's Scrooge tendencies.  But we got the beach we wanted, and had a good hour and half to enjoy it.  Not that we are into sunbathing.  Nope.  The real reason we were there was to snorkel and try out the underwater camera Peter had bought me, and we had an excellent time. There were massive schools of fish, thousands of them I should think, close to the beach and we managed to get loads of film, this is a screenshot taken from it.

And it got better.  The deal with the taxi driver was that he took us to the beach and would collect us at 5.45pm.  Taxi drivers in the Caribbean don't ask for payment until they've completed the return journey.  Cos our taxi driver didn't turn up to take us back to the pier, we couldn't pay him for getting us to the beach in the first place. We'd waited 25 minutes before a woman with a jeep took us back dirt cheap, we only paid 5 euros instead of $20 the taxi driver had quoted.  Peter's Scrooge tendencies were soothed and I was forgiven the fact that walking would have been free.

So after a little time at a bar near the pier, we were back on board ship.  Next stop Castries.

Tuesday 31st January - Kingstown St Vincent

The ship is visiting two ports today, the first is Kingstown this morning, 0700 until 1230.  Peter and I are not tour escorting again, (Yippee), and we've been before but it's always nice to look around.

St Vincent is the largest island in the Grenadines, which are part of the Windward Islands, which are part ot the Lesser Antilles, and about a third of the island is taken up by the volcano La Soufriere.  Apparently the Grenadines are one of the most popular destinations in the world for snorkelling and diving.  We've visited one of the beaches before, (see previous blog posts), and with the traditional hot blue sky and white sand, it was fantastic afternoon.

The island didn't let us down for todays visit, we were greeted with a rainbow.

As we got ashore, we were joined by Robin (the Whale and Dolphin lecturer)and his wife Chris, so we took them to see St George's Anglican Cathedral, famous for the stained glass windows.

The angel window was commisioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her grandson, but she rejected it because the angel was dressed in red, so that's how it ended up here.

Opposite the relatively plain wooden cathedral is the Roman Catholic church, a mad collection of architectural styles.

It's a quirky place to look around, filled with plants and flowers, nooks and crannies.  We really like it.

One of the things about the Caribbean is that wherever we look, the insects, birds and animals are different to what we're used to.  Amongst other things, we saw Smooth Billed Annis, unusual butterflies, blue and green lizards, egrets and cowbirds. And this Green Heron which was good enough to hang around for while so that we could take a decent picture

It wasn't long before it was time to go back, a couple of pictures to give the feel of the streets of the city.

So that was Kingstown.  We're sailing on this afternoon and should arrive at Bequai at around 3pm.

Monday 30th January. St George's Grenada

The nation of Grenada is made up of three islands.  Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Grenada is the largest of the three, and St George's is the capital of Grenada.  Famous for the production of spices, particularly nutmeg, the island is described as "One of the most beautiful and scenically varied islands in the Caribbean where mountains, crater lakes and rainforests give way to mangroves, stunning beaches with vibrant coral reefs and brilliant blue seas."  Well, we didn't get to see a beach today, but we did get to go a little way up a mountain to visit Sunnyside Gardens, cos we were escorting.

So the ship docked at about 1pm, and we were straight off to find our buses.  They don't use coaches in Grenada, only minivan type buses, which seat up to 19 people, although I don't think I would like to be in one that was full.

It was very hot, with the stunningly bright blue sky and white sun that you see in all the brochures (it's the Caribbean innit?). The drive up to the gardens was a little scary, as every time we passed a car going the other way, it felt like we were going to be forced off the road.  I breathed in a lot.

The gardens were nice enough, made all the more interesting by our guide.  He was the son of the owner and very knowledgable about the plants and the history of each one.  He was also quite a character, he was so laid back we weren't sure if he was overflowing with the Caribbean relaxed attitude or Caribbean rum.

After the garden tour, we had time to ourselves so we went for a  wander around the old bay.

We know of a german restaurant and bar there, which is upstairs and has a balcony overlooking the sea.  We sat and enjoyed the view, watching the goings on of the public for some time.  Very relaxing.

Tomorrow we get to visit two Caribbean islands, St Vincent in the morning and Bequai in the afternoon. Class eh?

Sunday 24th April, Bridgetown - Barbados

We had asked the Shorex team not to book us for escorting duties at Barbados. It was a close shave, but we ended up with a free day. Actually, it was a free afternoon, because we didn't arrive at Bridgetown until 13.30. After a quick lunch, we set off to find something we'd promised ourselves - a beach and a swim, so we set off through the gauntlet of taxi drivers at the entrance to the port.

As usual it was hot, and as we walked on, we met passengers coming back with the message, "It's Sunday, everywhere is closed". Fortunately, we weren't shopping.

We walked for a good half hour before we got to "The Boatyard", a beach bar with control of a small stretch of glorious white sand. For $15 dollars each we could enjoy the facilities, get a free drink, and a taxi ride back to the ship. The only drawback was that the last shuttle taxi was at 4pm. We took advantage anyway and enjoyed a very pleasant hour and a half. The water was warm and I was able to snorkel, although there weren't many fish about, except around pier legs. We'll remember this place for future Barbados visits.

We caught the last shuttle taxi back to the ship which we shared with a few Americans on a Royal Caribbean cruise (their ship was berthed next to ours). They were mouthy, rude and completely disrespectful. Surely not all Americans are like that. Are they?

Back on board, it was a quick cup of tea, a shower and then time to start on the packing. Packing for going home is so much easier than when you start a journey or a holiday. It's just a case of throwing everything in - except although we've used stuff up and thrown stuff out - we still struggled to get our suitcases within the 23Kg weight limit.  Explain that then?

We had a farewell drink invitation with the Entertainments Manager and the other lecturers/crafters/dancers at 7pm, which ended up a bit of a giggle as everyone swapped stories. I'm sure we will bump into them again. Finally it was dinner in the Veranda Restaurant, then a couple of episodes of Star Trek in the cabin. (We know how to live don't we?) 

Tomorrow is disembarkation day when everyone just hangs around. We've decided to stay on the ship and in the cool, not wanting to get hot and bothered before we even start our journey. England is 6 hours ahead. Our plane is due to take off at 5.10pm Barbados time, and after 7 hours(ish), we arrive at London Gatwick at 6.20am. (I think). Then after the drive home, it will be our shower, our bed, our favourite takeaway, and a cup of tea made in our kitchen. Awesome!

I'm not looking forward to going back to work though. 

So that's it until next time. Peter will be going onto CMV's Magellan in October, but I can't make that one. My next cruise will be back on the Voyager in November, when we head for Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Indonesia. As you can imagine, I will be very excited to start on that one. (I just need a couple of weeks at home first).

Saturday 23 April - Fort-de-France, Martinique

Our tour today is billed as a superb botanical garden set in an old sugar plantation, which now accommodates a zoo. An hour's bus ride across Martinique got us to the site of Capitaine Latouche where we were told by our guide, that this place is not a Botanical Garden - it is a zoo. Many people were confused, as this is not what they thought they'd signed up for.

One of the birds in the tropical aviary of the zoo.  So colourful

Anyway, I can say that the grounds are full of the ruined buildings and workings of the old sugar plantation, which were interesting. It did use to be a botanical garden and there were loads of plants and cacti about that would have been part of that. It is also the Zoo de Martinique. It's not a very big zoo, but it is a zoo nonetheless. The combination of all three made for an appealing hour's walk around. Our guide was knowledgeable about the plants and plantation history, which also helped.

The waterwheel providing some of the the power to process sugar cane.  I love these old pieces of history.

For me, the highlight was this bird. I didn't catch it's name, but our guide told us it was rare in this part of Martinique, and I only managed to get one photo. Something I have to look up when we get home.  (Apparently it's a village weaver bird and an immigrant from Africa.  So there you go).

Our return trip took us on a twisting road through the mountains and the rain forest and past the active volcano, Mount Pelee. The scenery was quite awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures through the bus window, but I did get a picture of this hawk moth caterpillar. Apparently the Martiniquians (?) call them the Rasta caterpillars, because of their colours and they like Frangipan leaves I'm told. Apparently they turn into the Frangipan Hawk Moth.   I've seen them in Brazil, (I think).

Back at the ship, we took a leisurely lunch and decided it was time to take a look at Fort-de-France. As we went ashore, people coming back from the town were complaining that everywhere was closed. The further we walked, the more people we spoke to with the same grumble. We had decided to look for a beach and with map in hand, headed for Plage de la Francaise. There were loads of the local children swimming there, but it wasn't really much of a beach and didn't make us want to dive in.

So we to have a look at the ferry prices to get across the bay where apparently the beaches are much better. For €7 each we could get a return trip, but sadly, at was 15.30 and the last ferry from most of the beaches was at 16.30. In other words, we'd have to come back as soon as we got there. Something to remember if we ever visit this way again.

Instead, we kept on walking. Sticking mainly to the coastline we followed all sorts of paths and run down roads. We didn't really find anything worth mentioning except a "plague of crabs" (as Peter described them), in a sewage outflow. As we approached, they obviously heard us and all headed back to the sea - quite a sight.  It turns out that they are young Sally Lightfoot Crabs.  They start out black or olive in colour, and get really colourful as they get older.  So the big red one is older. 

The other thing we came across was this egret. The colouring is not something I've come across before, Something else to look up when we get home.  (I've since found out it's a Cattle Egret).

After a certain amount of exploring we turned to go back. Approaching the town centre, it was obvious the town was still closed - something we were surprised about for a Saturday afternoon - so we headed back to the ship.

The ship wasn't due to leave until 10pm - so we took advantage of the free port wifi in the evening. I managed to Skype my son in South Korea (it was morning for him). Good eh? Tomorrow afternoon we'll arrive in Barbados - our last stop before going home. No tours this time, and we are gonna make another attempt to find a beach.

Friday 22nd April - Pointe-a-Pitre - Guadeloupe

This morning we woke up in Pointe-a-Pitre, (which I want to keep calling Paint a Peter) and we are not on a tour. I repeat, no tour escorting duties today. Yippee.

Not that we mind going on the tours really, because we do get to see parts of the islands that we wouldn't otherwise. But we do like being able to spend time in with just ourselves too, and today we would be able to do just that.

Goudeloupe is a French Caribbean Island. I didn't know that. It means they use the euro, and they are part of Europe, sort of. Bizarre eh? It also means that Point-a-Pitre is very much like all the Caribbean towns we've visited, except everyone speaks French. In a way it's sort of comforting and not so strange. Anyway, we set of for a good ole wander around town.

Stunning art on these old walls.  You can't call it graffitti, it's far too good. 

A lot of the buildings were almost colonial in style, built of wood.  If you look at the one middle right, with all the balconies, you'll notice it has corrugated iron sides?

Really colourful markets, and this spice market smelt divine.

The vegetable market

I can't resist the birds, and this big brown pelican was hanging around outside the fish market.  Extraordinary bird. 

To be honest, apart from the markets and the street stalls, there was not much for us to see - but we enjoyed the stroll and an ice-cream in the local park.

We've seen most of the shows of an evening, and choose most nights not to watch them again. Instead, we often settle down in the cabin to watch a couple of episodes of Star Trek - broken up with a cup of tea on the back veranda looking out into the night sky. Very relaxing.

Tomorrow we are in Fort-de-France, Martinique. It's another French Caribbean Island, and yes, we are on tour in the morning, but the ship is in port until 10 at night, so we have all afternoon and evening to explore. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Day 31 - Tuesday 4th February - Bridgetown, Barbados. Time to go home.

I spent the last two days in our cabin.  Peter was confined too, and we spent our time living through a zombie apocalypse.......... That is, we watched two complete series of "The Walking Dead"........... Stuff to give you nightmares.

But now we are here in Barbados.  The good news is that we are out of our cabin and able to wander the streets of Bridgetown.  The bad news is that I am booked on a flight at 5.10pm and my holiday is over.

We've made the most of it though, wandering the city, buying presents for the grandkids and enjoying the gloriously hot sunshine.

Loads of expensive looking yachts along the river into town

Zenaida Dove

Nelson's column

But it wasn't long before I had to return to the ship, collect my travel bag and kiss Peter goodbye. There were eight other people who had decided to fly home for various reasons.  As I result I was able to share a minibus, (organised by the very organised Sheena), which meant that first of all the costs were reduced, but also that getting through customs etc was all sorted out for us.  Fantastic.  I have to admit that my heart was pumping when I got to the airport.  I remember the farce and panic I'd gone through two years ago when I was leaving Antigua, and I didn't want to repeat that experience!

So, I set off another journey of planes, trains and automobiles to get me home.  This time I experienced the automated monorail that gets you from one side of Gatwick Airport to another, which looked and felt very futuristic!  Then there was the tube strike in London, which meant I had to get a bus across the city to Kings Cross.  This took ages cos the bus didn't stop where it was supposed to, and of course it was freezing at 6 o'clock in the morning.  But it wasn't a bad journey all in, and then all of a sudden, I'm back at home and getting myself ready for work in the morning, almost like I'd never been away.

So that's it for a while.  The end of another wonderful Amazon Cruise.  I have loads of photographs and this blog is my diary, all of which will remind of the fantastic places, people and wildlife I've seen.  I am looking forward to the next cruise already.

Last look at Marco Polo, berthed in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Bridgetown, Barbados 2011

Day 28 - Saturday 1st Feb - St Georges, Grenada

We've had a day at sea, and now we are here, in the Caribbean, hot sun, blue skies, white beaches and all day to enjoy it.
The first island of our four days here is Grenada.  Peter and I have been here before, and since we don't have any tours to escort, we get to do what we like.  And what we wanted to do was have an afternoon on the beach, swimming and generally chilling out.

That's our beach ahead.

So directly off the ship, through the terminal and turn right to where the water taxi is ready and waiting to take you to the .  It's only a few dollars each and a 15 min ride around the corner.

Once we were there, we hired a couple of loungers, got a couple of drinks from the bar, and then just had a brilliant afternoon.  We swam, sunbathed and snorkelled.  I loved the snorkelling part, especially has I found a shoal of silver white fish near the pier.  They just kept swimming around me.  Seeing the crabs and the spiny sea urchins, and so many different types and colours of fish amongst the seaweed on the sea floor was my idea of heaven.   I could have stayed for days.

But eventually it was time to go back, so we caught the water taxi back and got caught up in the dismay of four of the crew.  They were late for their shift, but the water taxi wasn't going to go any faster.  They were off the little boat before it even docked, running as fast as they could to get back to the ship.  I hope they didn't get into too much bother.

Our plan now was to go back to the ship for a quick shower and a change, and then go back into town and find a nice restaurant for our evening meal.  We had one in mind, Sails.  Sadly, everyone else had the same mind, and when we got there it was fully booked for the evening.

So we tried a place called Nutmeg, encouraged in by a few of the Marco Polo staff who were already sitting at a table.  What a disaster!  1 person had about 90 mins between starter and main course, another got her starter and main course at the same time, (but at different times to the first person), and everyone was made to wait.  Not recommended.

After the meal, we returned to the ship, and shortly after that I began to feel very unwell.  Unfortunately, I'd caught the bug that's being going around the ship.  We had to notify the medical centre, and were subsequently confined to the cabin for the next 48 hrs.  We were going to miss the next two Caribbean islands, which I had really been looking forward to.  Peter was absolutely fine, and I learnt although the bug could be considered highly contagious, not everyone gets it, probably due to their immune system.  I also learnt that the incubation period is up to 48 hrs.  I could have caught it two days ago!

So, disappointingly, we had two days in the cabin when everyone else was enjoying the sun, beach and rum punch.  Then we'll be in Bridgetown, Barbados, which will be my last day with the Marco Polo.  Sadly, I have to fly home and go back to work.  I'm not looking forward to that.

St Geroges, Grenada 2012
St Georges, Grenada 2013