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….

The Equator

 

I finally got a picture of the equator (yellow line).  It wasn’t easy.  That line is very hard to see and even harder to photograph.  But I did it.

 

 

So, look closely.  Notice the water on the south side is a lighter blue than on the north side of the equator.  No one knows the reason for this phenomenom. 

 

Now you have an actual picture of the equator.  Next cruise I will get you pictures of the Tropics, you know, Capricorn and the other one.

 

   Really, the water is two colors and I don’t know why.

November 27 Icoaraci and Belem, Brazil

 

This is our last port in Brazil.  The last 2 days we have been going across the equator over and over.  We are circling until the tides and the port are ready for us.  So today we anchored off of Icoaraci.  This town is the port we go to in order to get to Belem.  Belem is a city of over 2 million. 

 

  this is Belem

 

So, needless to say, we were not very interested in going for a one hour bus trip to see the city.  Instead we took the local boat, not the ship’s tender for a 25 minute ride to the “port”.

 

  

 

 

We walked a little, took some pictures, and had enough of the about 100 degree weather with 99 % humidity.  So we took the boat back to the ship.  Good thing, too.  It rained like crazy right after we got on board.

    I think this is a restaurant

 

   People come shopping here.  These people brought their own boat, while others took a commercial boat home with their purchases.

 

 

Now we have 3 sea days before we arrive in Scarborough, Tobago.  On the first day out we had an Indonesian luncheon and the staff dressed up.