We made it home safely

Just wanted to close the blog out by saying we are home trying to get used to the time, the weather and the altitude.  

What always happens is we feel really tired when we get back to 6,000 feet elevation.  But it is now December 27th and we are getting our normal energy back.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah and will have a great New Year.

No trips planned right now, so hope you enjoyed our trip 1/3 as much as we did.

Excitement tonight

 

 

Just as we sat down with our dinner, the captain announced that someone was critically ill.  We thought he was going to tell us that we were diverting somewhere.  But, instead, he asked for volunteers with O neg or O pos blood to come down to the clinic.  So we left our meal right were it was and headed down.  He also said that the volunteer needed their donor card showing their blood type.  Well since Duane has O neg, the universal donor, we thought that they might want his blood even without his card.

 

Well, when we got to deck 4, via elevator, and the door opened, I almost lost my breathe.  You almost couldn’t get out of the elevator due to the number of people already on deck 4.  Several were lining up at the sign up station, because they had their donor card.  One lady in our elevator was O neg and had her card.  So I knew of at least 5 people who were able, and willing, to donate.

 

So we went back up to the Lido deck and started dinner all over again.  There has been no word about the condition of the patient.  I hope they will let us know if the blood helped.  But here, in the middle of the Caribbean, on a ship with only 800 passengers, they got a floor full of volunteers in about 2 minutes.  Aren’t people great…..

Santo Domingo part 5 the last, I think

 

just a few odds and ends

 

   cute little houses on the outside, but

 

  this is what it looks like inside (someone left their door open, so I took the pic)

 

  this is what your balcony could look like if you lived here

 

 

   this may be the smartest dog in the Caribbean.  It is very hot and humid out.  We walked by this bank and almost went in because of the air conditioning.  It felt great just walking by when someone entered or left.  This genius dog had it all figured out.  He just laid there and got cool everytime that door opened.  Smart puppy.

 

 

   OK, a red Christmas tree is strange enough, but look at the Santa on the bottom holding a Diet Coke.  I know it is diet, because the sign says “sin azucar”  without sugar.  (the extent of my Spanish)

 

     I don’t know who this lady is, but I tried to ask where she got her Santas, but wasn’t able to.  Great, aren’t they…..

Santo Domingo part 4

 

  this was a convent where the nuns took care of mentally ill patients. 

 

 

    When a patient died they were buried under the floor of the convent.  That was true of the hospital, also.

 

 

   this was a hospital put up by the Spanish for all the people.

 

          And, FINALLY, we got to see wild parrots.  There were lots of these cute green, loud, parrots in the walls of the hospital.  I couldn’t get one to come to me.  I would have stayed all day trying, but I wasn’t allowed to.

Santo Domingo part 3

 

Since I love ruins, I hope you will like the pictures I have taken inside the city.  I’ll tell you what I know about them.

 

   this is where Christopher lived for a little while.  His son, Diego, lived here with his family until his wife wanted to go back to Spain.

 

   there are several buildings where they have saved the facade of the old and built or refurbished the old to make a new useable space.

 

             this building used to be a church and been turned into a space where honored people are buried.  It is guarded but open to the public.  Beautiful inside

 

   

 

there are more if you are up for it.

Santo Domingo part 2

First some pictures of the wall of the city

 

 

 

   nice greeting to a cruise ship, having cannons pointed at us.  But note, there is a lot of traffic between the guns and our ship.  Actually there is a lot of traffic everywhere.  The police stopped traffic for us tourists, so we could cross the very congested street.  They are not stupid….the know which side their bread is buttered on.  (tried that expression on our guide and he had no idea what I was talking about, even tho he said he is a US resident..)

 

   this is an entry to the city with Spanish plaques above

December 4 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic part 1

 

This is the last port before we disembark in Fort Lauderdale.  It has a lot to offer.

 

Some history.  When Columbus “discovered” the new world, he actually landed on this island.  So he named it Little Spain.  He thought, because the inhabitants had brown skin that he landed in India..  His brother founded this city.  It, therefore, is the oldest city in the new world.  Now it has 3 million people.  The Dominican Republic has over 12 million.  So we were told by our “guide”.  More about him in a bit.  It is the second largest city in the Caribbean, after Havana.

The people are not happy about Columbus.  He enslaved the local population, he stole all the gold, and there was a lot I am told, and the Spanish imported slaves from Africa and when they left they took everything of value.  Emptied all the churches.  You get the idea.

 

 

He was originally buried in the Cathedral

 

 

but they moved him to a new place, we did not go there

 

 

So usually we do not like cities.  But this one as a Zona Colonial, old town.  Right outside where we docked.  The city was a walled city.  So…off we went.  In case you don’t know, I love castles and ruins.  The city wasn’t a castle, but because of the wall, it came close enough.

 

Our ship was met by dancers and drummers welcoming us to Santo Domingo.  (about time someone did.  Usually we are met with greetings and get a goodby sendoff, but this trip this s the first time)

 

 

We asked a gentleman how to get to the other side of the wall, so we could walk around the old town.  So he showed us, and took us and showed us the entire old town.  We walked for 2 hours, we tasted local punch, chocolate from local cocao beans (even tasted a cocoa bean) and tea made out of cocao and back to the ship.  He is a lovely man and we enjoyed our tour, even tho it was a surprise.

 

Only 3 days left that count.

We will stop in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic tomorrow.  That is our last foreign port.

I am both sad and glad this trip is coming to a close.  Sad because it is 30 degrees at home and 85 degrees here.  And we are just settling in to the new routine on the ship and we have to get off.

I am glad because our internet at home is much better, we can't watch the Broncos here.  And it is kind of boring.  Strange to say that.  There are tons of things listed each day to do.  But usually they are the same.  I was excited to see a Windows 10 class, but it is terrible and it is offered, in one form or another, 5 times a sea day.  I'm also looking forward to our bathroom at home.  OK, our whole house at home.

Anyway we are looking forward to being home, not to getting there.  We have that port tomorrow and then 2 sea days.  Enough time to get ready to disembark at 8 am.  Then we find a taxi or Uber to take us to our hotel, find a place to eat and go to the airport the next day and fly home.

Walk for a cure

Like most of our cruises, they had a 5k walk around the ship for cancer research.  Duane and I participated, which of course included a donation. 

Before my surgery I did a 5k walk after 6 days of exercise.  I did all of it.  I finished last, even tho it was not a race, but I finished.  Today, 4 1/2 years after my surgery, I walked 2 miles or 3k and Duane walked 2.5 miles or 3.75k. 

Not bad for almost 5 years older and after 5 years of treatments.  We feel good about that.

Happy Hanukkah

Last night we had a Hanukkah service for the first night.  We actually have a Rabbi on board.  We had terrible potato pancakes and wine.  We took the wine to dinner.  That was nice.

There is also an interdenominational service on Sundays.  Duane went to that one.  He also went to the Hanukkah service.  Busy religious day.

We light the second candle tonight.  OK, so light is not correct.  Actually all they do is turn the bulb to light the bulb.  Not like we do it home, with real fire.  Definitely safer this way on a ship.

Another sunset I just couldn’t resist

  

This is when we were leaving port from Saint George’s 

 

 

Charottesville part 3

 

 

 

                

 

since we didn’t go to Scarborough, we missed out on folkloric show.  So they brought a metal drum band on board.

 

 

I tried to upload a video, but can’t do it from here.  So just imagine it.  Sounded just like a Jamacan band.  And they played for an hour, about 45 minutes too long….

 

chickens everywhere

 

Charlotteville part 2

  

Like I said the island is like a jungle.  Vines on trees.  Very old and huge trees.  Bananas  

                    

 

    

 

And here you can fish for kids.  (can you see it in orange) I’m not sure what “kids” taste like.  OK a joke

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 1 Charlotteville, Tobago part 1

  

OK, last post I said we would be in Scarborough.  Well we were supposed to be there this morning.  The winds made it impossible to dock.  So we were told we were going around to the other side of the island.  And so we did.  We rounded the norther end of Tobago and went ito a bay that is sheiled some from the wind.  We had to anchor off shore and tender in.  We are back to using the ship’s tenders.

 

I am really glad that we are here instead of Scarborough.  Scarborough is the capital of Tobago and therefore the largest city.  OK it is not large, but Charlotteville is tiny.

We walked around and took pictures of what a jungle should look like.  It looks more like it than the Amazon did.  Very strange.  It rained right before we went ashore, but, sadly, not when we were ashore.  Rain takes the humidity out of the air and cools everything down.  I don’t do well with heat and humidity.  I get very tired, I get rashes and I get very sleepy.  I fell asleep several times during a lecture about Granada, our next port.

 

                     

 

St. George’s part 3

   

more pictures:

   when is the last time you saw telephone booths?  Especially pink ones.

 

       Beautiful lushness around a lovely waterfall

  this is the waterfall and the surrounding foliage.  There are kids there that will jump off the cliff into the pool on the bottom, for money.  None did it while we were there.

 

Then we traveled all the way up to the top of the “mountain”  .   1910 feet.  Sorry the picture looks a lot better on my computer.

 

 

 

        there are some lovely homes here.  Not the regular folk’s homes.  They live in those concrete houses.  They stand up to hurricanes better.

St George’s part 2

   

More pictures

 

    as seen from the road

 

Some flowers:                

 

  this is a poinsettia tree, like our Christmas plants.  wow.

 

    looj at the size of those leaves

 

 

   and these

 

  the roots of the trees stay right on the surface.  I guess they get enough water that way.

December 2 Saint George’s, Granada part 1

 

We are now at our next to last port, not counting going back to Fort Lauderdale.  Remember Granada?  We invaded it in the 1980’s.  And they are very grateful.  There is a big sign on the side of a building saying God Bless the USA.  It looks like Cuban forces took over the island, and we, with the help of others, took it back for them.  We did not stay. 

 

Granada is a funny combination of French and English influences.  First the French, so there are lots of metalwork on buildings, like New Orleans.  Then the British, so they drive on the left.  But they use miles and dollars. 

 

 

Strange.  We docked, yeah.  No tenders.  But, boy was it beautiful when we got off the ship (not).

 

 

We took a taxi with another couple and saw some of this part of the island.  It is a paradise for anything that grows.  Bamboo, papaya, bananas, cocoa beans, vanilla, nutmeg (their major export), sweet potato, cinnamon and lots of other stuff.  It is very lush and beautiful.  Glad we got a chance to see it. 

 

 

Today is Sunday, so not much in the way of shopping was open until the 2 BIG cruise ships came in, after us.  By then we were done for the day.  It is hard to shop here for clothes because there is no season that we could wear the clothes at home.  There are beaches here, like Great Anse Beach.  Like most of the others, we didn’t go there.  Beaches are not our thing.  Even after this whole trip, we are still searching for “our thing”.

 

It is nice to be someplace where English is spoken, but the accents make it difficult.  We really enjoyed our stay.  We have found that after being out in even 90 degree weather we are really drained.  It must be the humidity (I think I have said that before).

 

There is a fort here, or there was.  We decided to miss this one, but here is a picture.  Notice the hill we would have had to climb.

 

 

          Some of the town near the “old” port.  The big ships went to the new port, right next to the shopping.  Lucky them….