Airport, Part Three

The Airport, Part Two

The Airport, Part I

St. Maarten

No Damage to St. Maarten!

Today made up for everything that yesterday was not, and that included ambience, interest, safety, dry knickers and a small, 20 person tour on an air-conditioned bus carefully guided by "Oscar the Friendly Grouch."  Not only was Oscar funny, he was also careful, personable, and extremely generous with the large cooler full of soft drinks, beer and rum punch.   In his lilting Caribbean accent he explained that he was contractually obligated to return with the cooler on empty so of course we all did our best to ensure he didn't get fired.

St. Maarten is both beautiful and fascinating, with half being owned by the Dutch and the other by the French.   With the exception of different passports and tax systems, they two halves of the island enjoy a solid friendship and thanks to the cultural blend, you can hear the music of Dutch, French, Spanish, English or Papiamento all around you.  We dined on coconut shrimp/garlic shrimp/curried goat at "Sandy's", on the French side, a wonderful lunch made even merrier by the mojitos that were jammed with island lime and mint.

Have you ever Googled "Airport, St. Maarten"?   Give it a whirl and have a look at the beach we stopped at - the huge jets arrive screamingly low, just barely clearing the beach and then literally touching down just across the road.   This thrilling event is repeated frequently throughout the day and attracts thousands to the beach (especially the beach bar).   It was stomach-dropping.

Best of all though were the butterflies.   We noted them flitting around the second we landed on the Island, and they were ever-present no matter where we were.  Oscar said there is a particular pink flower that attracts them, and as it was in bloom there were literally thousands and thousands of butterflies everywhere.  Iguanas perched from treetops and on fence posts looking seriously regal in every color - green, orange, firey red.   And meandering along the roadways were herds of goats, looking for all the world like a bunch of bearded schoolkids out for a regimented walk.  

Shopping is great - and duty free.  I've stocked up my perfume and managed to find whole nutmeg and cinnamon, no doubt imported from Grenada but who cares, it's all Caribbean.

We are literally sailing into the sunset right now, leaving the beautiful harbour behind us.   Now there are two days at sea before returning to Ft. Lauderdale and a few more days in Florida.   We all agreed that we definitely saved the best until the last with beautiful St. Maarten's.  

St. Thomas Pictures

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Some days just start off on the wrong side of the bed - you know - like when you inadvertently put your underwear on inside out and don't notice until noon.  We knew that we would be arriving late to St. Thomas and I had sent three separate emails to let the tour company know about the delay (thanks to the gomer in Nassau).  Their replies were typically Rastafarian:  Don't worry!  Someone will be there!  Just come, mon!"  So we did.

We hustled our way down the gangway with the other four thousand people (from our ship) and three thousand (from the Holland ship) plus another twenty thousand (from the other three ships).   Peter spotted our guide "Aaron" tours, and a darkly sweating fellow named Joe, who growled "We have been waiting a really LONG time for you!"   Huh, we thought, welcome to St. Thomas yourself.  Rick reminded him that he wasn't exactly driving the boat.

Climbed onto an open air taxi all the while being glared at by some disgruntled tourists who had waited far too long for our ship to arrive.   Our fault, of course.   After a great deal of confusion, money appearing, hands flying about, we discovered that our originally-booked tour had left without us but No Worries!   He hired his friend, Joe!  And Joe would take us on a great tour!   In his open air, crammed-to-the-hilt "taxi."  Somehow our six hour tour got reduced to two hours, the first 45 minutes of which were dedicated to shopping.

Shopping.   Shopping in a cruise town consists of closing your eyes, jutting out your elbows and making a dead run for the air conditioned shops.   Nine times out of ten, you'll land in a Diamonds International.   How on earth can so many diamond shops survive on a tiny island?  The one civilized thing was that free champagne and beer was offered to most shoppers, and it was commonplace to carry that drink with you throughout all the shops.  That part was fun.

After some time we realized that we needed to turn back to the more domestic shops, tee shirts, trinkets, local faire.   We wandered through the little kiosks, ramshackle buildings covered by tarps and corrigated metal, all selling the same awful junk, most of which made in China.   We sauntered lazily past the displays, basically just putting in time until our "taxi" returned.   And that's when it happened.   I leaned forward to deposit my empty drink container into a garbage and my foot inadvertently caught up in the voluminous tarp that was used to cover the table that was laiden with drinks for sale.   Pop, beer, wine.....  I felt the tug, tried valiantly to disentangle myself, and immediately pulled a large section of tarp, containing drinks, off the table.   Several pop cans immediately exploded and the ginger ale cans were spinning around like fireworks, spraying ice cold pop directly up my crotch.   The beer bottles shattered and fuzzed and foamed and everywere, people stopped short to watch.   Several comments like "Man!  Can you ever smell beer!" were heard, and I stood there acutely aware that most of it had seeped directly into my sandals.   Rick, ever the gallant gentleman, stomped firmly on the spinning pop cans to stop his wife from being totally drenched, and was immediately rewarded by a shower of sticky pop straight up his leg and from there, over to my glasses.  I was so stunned that I just stood there gibbering.  Both guys pulled out a few bills to placate the lady behind the counter, who was probably thinking a big fat lawsuit was in her future (and should have been, by the way!).  

Fortunately we had some beach towels on us which were used to mop up, then some "Wet Ones" towelettes to get rid of most of the syrup.  Despite all that we still felt sticky, hot and somewhat depressed, not to mention embarrassed. 

Once Joe returned we climbed back on to the open air taxi with all the others and were taken to the top of the mountain for some spectacular views, hairpin turns on crumbling roads and nailbiting moments.  We fell for the "World Famous Banana Daquerie" at the top of the mountain, sipped it all the way down to the 10 minute beach stop (where the washrooms were locked), and finally were returned to the ship at day's end.  We were all mightily relieved to step back on board the Allure, especially the stickier members of our party.

Tomorrow is St. Maarten's and let's hope I don't break anything.   Almost time for me to wear a harness.

Lunch

It was amazing!

Trying not to scream outside of the bat caves

Nassau - Second Try

Greetings.   Spent an hour crafting a witty description of our day yesterday but it apparently launched into cyberspace because it sure isn't where it is supposed to be.  Arrghhh.

Nassau was wonderful!  We were met by our charming Bahamian guide, Taylor, and before we even left the dock she had placed into our hands a frosty "Bahama Mama", a delicious rum punch (without the punch).    Taylor guided us easily from the rum cake factory to ancient old forts to beautiful beaches and through a chocolate, rum and cigar factory.   We even went into the caves filled with bats (and yes, they were flying around but the guide assured me that they would not come close due to body heat.... first time I've been grateful for hot flashes) - caves that the Spanish hid their treasure in after evicting the indiginous Indians.   Later on the British turfed the Spanish out and spent the booty on pork pies and Guinness (right, Jenny?).   Somehow there were no line ups anywhere, in fact we were mostly the only people there!   The morning ended with a delicious lunch at a local spot - conch fritters and conch salad that was created right in front of our eyes - dressed with freshly squeezed lime and orange juice.

Sailaway was a bit different.   After only 40 minutes out Rick observed we appeared to be going in a giant circle and indeed, a few minutes later came the announcement we were returning to Nassau for a medical emergency.   Rick offered up that perhaps they would just wheel the patient out on the dock and leave him there but that turned out to be wishful thinking and the entire ship sat there for almost two hours waiting for the Bahamians EMTs to finish their tea or beer or whatever before casually appearing and picking up the victim.   One wonders at the cost of delaying this floating palace for that long!

We finally got underway a few hours later, which will mean a late arrival in St. Thomas.  How late is anyone's guess, we're on Bahama time.   In the meantime there is much to do on this ship - the entertainment has been world-class!

Better post this, this connection is glitchy.   Adios.

Hola!

We have just arrived in Nassau and the palm trees are swaying, the sun is bright and warm, and it is only 7 a.m.!  The trip has been amazing thus far and the ship is everything that was promised - bright, clean, full of adventures around every corner.   Our feet are already tired from trying to take it all in and our stomachs are already groaning with the effects of unrestricted goodies that seem to call from every corner.

The flights over were pretty good, after a hiccup in Victoria that involved a computer failure and left us all sitting in the tarmac in complete darkness, a rather disquieting feeling.  The four of us sat there with visions of the Allure sailing away without us and frantically checking alternate airlines with our IPhones. Someone in the back helpfully hollered out "Did you try Control, Alt, Delete?" and in the end, that's precisely what they did!  The plane rebooted properly and we hit the skies just 15 minutes late and you can guarantee that more than one of us was wondering what would happen if the computer crashed midflight.   Gulp.

In the end we landed in Ft. Lauderdale a good half hour early and lost no time in exploring this huge city.   Boarding the Allure yesterday was flawless despite massive crowds - 25 minutes until we stepped aboard and headed to the pool and the bar to have a celebratory champagne.

This shot was taken on the water taxi in Ft. Lauderdale - a great tour and a pleasant wander around Hollywood Beach with a shot for a fabulous kale smoothie (who are we kidding... we all knew that a beer was right around the corner!).

Time to fly - our tour guide will be waiting for us to show us some Bahamian hospitality.  

One More Sleep!

Kidney stones have been banned from this trip!  We are off tomorrow to the beautiful Caribbean.  Farewell icy cold fog, hello blue water, palm treees and sunshine!