Below is my blog post for our first five days cruising the Caribbean on board the ‘Freedom of the Seas’. I will start each part with where we were, and put the photos below each corresponding day. Tomorrow we are at sea.
DAY ONE (Sunday 5th January) – San Juan, Puerto Rico
Below are my photos from my previous post, when I couldn’t put them up on the first day. These are of some of the facilities on the ship as well as our room! I’ve included all the photos of the towel animals our stateroom attendant made us too!
DAY TWO (Monday 6th January) – Philipsburg, St Maarten
After a great night’s sleep, we had breakfast and then met our first shore excursion at 10am. We were docked in St Maarten and our excursion took us to Maho Beach. St Maarten gets its name from Christopher Colombus, who named it in honour of St Martin of Tours, whose feast day it was on 11th November 1493 when he first arrived here. St Maarten is an island that is only 37 square miles in area, 21 of which are under French control and 16 of which are under Dutch and has been since 1648 when they signed a partition treaty. From what we could tell (and the way our guide spoke) it is its own country though. All very bizarre! Over the last 140 years, ownership of the island has apparently changed a huge 16 times, mainly due to its valued natural salt lakes which have produced a lot of salt to export to Europe over the years.
Our bus guide’s name was Vilma, and she was hilarious. She told us about her childhood here on the island, and my favourite anecdote of hers was that when she grew up there was a huge shipwreck in the bay in Philipsburg (the capital) and she used to play on it all the time like a playground. She also pointed out lots of really posed, hilarious election billboards as apparently the election is coming up soon here.
As we drove past Philipsburg, Vilma told us that Hurricane Omar caused a lot of devastation here in 2017, and just 12 out of the 40 hotels from that time are currently operating. As we approached Maho Beach, we could still see many sunken yachts that have just been left in the bay from that time.
Maho Beach is famous because directly behind the strip of sand and beautiful turquoise water lies Princess Juliana International Airport. The airport was built by US marines in 1942, and today sees many planes fly in directly above the beach while tourists take photos!! We enjoyed a great three hours him swimming in the beautiful clean water while watching lots of planes come in. We saw some small private ones as well as some huge planes (Copa Airlines, American Airlines, Delta and Jetblue). We had a good laugh when planes would take off in the other direction and people who hadn’t done their research had all their stuff blow away off the beach because they had put their belongings in line with the exhaust!!
We headed back into the town and Vilma fed some local chickens on the way, before dropping us in Philipsburg. We wandered around, I bought my magnet (it had a plane flying over the beach on it!) and then we boarded the boat again. Tonight we plan on going to a show after dinner. It’s “formal night”, the most formal item I have brought with me is a sun dress, haha! I’m enjoying the cruise so far.
DAY THREE (Tuesday 7th January) – Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis
Today we docked in my 75th country - St Kitts and Nevis. Woohoo! My mission is to get to 100 countries one day, so today I was officially ¾ of the way!! As we docked, there was a sudden rain downpour that then disappeared as quickly as it arrived. We exited the boat and met our 4x4 shore excursion.
Our guide’s name was Greg, and he was a 5th generation St Kitts and Nevis citizen who had descended from Portuguese traders. We lucked out – there were three vehicles all together and he was the owner and the best of the three guides by far. He was really knowledgeable and easy to understand, so we learned a lot in our few hours with him. St Kitts and Nevis is made up of two islands with those two names. In the 1600s, the French and English both colonised this area, but the island got its name St Kitts due to ‘Kitt’ being a bit of a pet name for the actual name ‘St Christopher’ back in those times. SKN as the locals abbreviate it to has been referred to as the ‘Cradle of the Caribbean’, as from here the French and English based themselves and colonised many other surrounding islands. The population on St Kitts is about 45000, whereas on Nevis it is about 15000.
We started our drive towards a mountain peak through the town of Basseterre, named by the French. On our way we saw lots of houses with hurricane shutters, some in the old wooden style. We also saw a cemetery and church and the Queen’s residence for when she visits. The second we started driving we had noticed that people here drove on the left, so we were excited to learn that like Australia, SKN is a constitutional monarchy. They became an independent country in 1983.
We continued on our way, and Greg pointed out lots of different interesting trees, fruits and plants. We went through a village called St Peters, and then another called Stapleton. Lots of local people waved to us as we passed in our modified Landrover.
The villages usually got their names from the sugar cane plantation around which they were based. From 1640 up until 2005, St Kitts was known for its sugarcane, which in turn became crystallised sugar, molasses and rum. The island was exporting about 50,000 tonnes of sugar per year, and like many neighbouring islands, slavery was rife. There were 82 sugar mills on the island, a huge railway system to move the supplies around (which today half of only exists, and is used as a tourist railway) and many plantation homes - we even saw some of the ruins of these as they’ve been abandoned. Back then, a tonne of sugar would go for about $3000 US per tonne, but over time the value of it decreased hugely. Due to the huge production of sugar, there were many landless/homeless people on the island as there was no land spare for them to live on, it was all taken up with plantations. Pair this with the fact that in the 1970s the industry was losing a lot of money and that nobody wanted to complete the backbreaking work that was hacking away at the plants, and you have the reason why the industry began to fall apart. The government tried to rectify this by bringing in overseas workers to complete the work, but this meant that at one stage the national debt was 200% of its GDP, the second highest in the world. The government began telling those that owned the sugarcane plantations that in the coming years they would need to sell them to the government. The government purchased them off these people at market value, and the industry officially came to a close in 2005. Since then, most of the houses we saw today have cropped up, and the government have put many programs in place to try and create housing for those without. Rob and I both commented today that it would have been interesting to see what the island looked like back in that time, before tourism became the main source of income for the country instead.
Greg drove us through the rainforest and we saw a monkey. Apparently the French brought them here as pets in the 1600s and they ran off and have been breeding here ever since. For the most part they seemed pretty shy, which is good because it means they don’t depend on people like some of the vicious ones we’ve seen in Africa and Asia.
We reached the top of a mountain and were treated to a beautiful view at a private estate that Greg said only his tours are allowed to go to. We even got to have a drink of rum and juice, and the rum was delicious locally produced SKN rum. Yum! Jack Sparrow would definitely have approved.
We then descended the mountain and headed to Frigate Beach. Unlike St Maarten yesterday, the sand in SKN is not white, but rather a grey colour. This is because the two islands were created by a volcanic eruption of ash etc. millions of years ago. There were signs everywhere warning about earthquakes and tsunamis, and Greg told us that today and yesterday there had been an earthquake in Puerto Rico. A man even died in the one today which was 6.4 on the Richter scale. I am having a bad run in the last year – bad things always seem to happen right before I go somewhere, or right after I leave. I suppose as long as it stays that way and not while I am there, I am OK!
Rob and I enjoyed a swim for an hour as the beach was not crowded at all, and then Greg drove us all back. We then walked around town ourselves for a while but we got very hot very quickly. We saw the main intersection (it had traffic lights!), the main street, the local cricket ground where the West Indian team play sometimes, and Independence Square. Then we had a cool drink at the cruise terminal before boarding the boat once again.
Once on the boat, we had a snack and then spent most of the afternoon by the pool. Unfortunately I can’t swim at the moment due to an infection still clearing up, but I dipped my legs in and then laid on a sun lounge with a fruity drink in hand. I’m usually not this type of person, but I am enjoying the good mix of history, sun and relaxation! Tonight we plan on again going to the show after dinner, we enjoyed it last night.
DAY FOUR (Wednesday 8th January) – St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda
Today’s adventure took place in Antigua and Barbuda, like yesterday, a country made up of two islands. We docked in St John’s, on the island of Antigua (pronounced An-tee-ga). Our driver’s name was Junior and he was hilarious, he drove us to the snorkelling/kayaking jetty. On the way, we learned that cricket great Viv Richards was born in Antigua, and we drove past the stadium that was built in 2005 in his name and held the ICC in 2007. Junior also told us that it is so consistently warm here that when it rains, school is cancelled. Can you imagine?!
Antigua and Barbuda is also a commonwealth country, and has a population of 85000. It’s yet another place that was named by Christopher Colombus – ‘Antigua’ comes from a shrine in a cathedral in Seville, Spain for Santa Maria la Antigua that he liked. Today it’s a very popular tourist destination, with 150 ships visiting on average per month in the busy season between October and May. We were one of two ships today, and apparently four visited yesterday! The cost of living is quite high here so the locals working in the tourism industry work a lot during this time of the year.
We arrived at the jetty for snorkelling and set off on our short boat journey. The water was such a beautiful colour. Our first stop was Great Bird Island, where we did a short walk to get a nice view. Here we were told there was a certain type of snake on the island that was so harmless, the rats eat it instead of it eating the rats. From here we had a view of Long Island which is a very selective resort for celebrities. People such as Oprah Winfrey and Lionel Messi visit regularly.
Next, we snorkelled for half an hour or so. It was no Great Barrier Reef, but we still saw lots of colourful and interesting fish – my favourite was a long fish that was very thin and probably about 20cm in length. It looked like a ruler! Rob and I both swam off very quickly when we saw a pink jellyfish, however!!
The second activity on our excursion today was some kayaking. We were surprisingly fast and kept up towards the front with our guide. I can’t remember her name, but she completed a kayaking trip from the Canary Islands (Spain) to Antigua across the Atlantic Ocean which took 47 days. Wow!! She showed us a huge starfish, some mangroves, and also told us about the Hawksbill turtles that come to lay their eggs here. After mine and Mum’s turtle experience in Borneo, I always love hearing about conservation efforts with turtles. Apparently there is a huge facility on Long Island here.
After kayaking, we were taken back by boat to the jetty and then spent some time at a private property before our bus took us back. Here we enjoyed a cool drink while sitting in the shade.
Once back in town, Rob and I decided to walk around ourselves. We first went to the museum, which was housed in the old court building that was constructed in 1750 and built on a former slave market site. It was pretty small and slapped together pretty haphazardly, but it was interesting. The “workers” there weren’t doing much work, but rather talking and laughing so loudly that at some points we couldn’t even hear ourselves think!! Nonetheless, we gleaned some interesting information. The first part of the exhibition was about the Arawak people that lived on this and many other Caribbean islands hundreds of years before the English, French etc. settled out here. We found out that Antigua was first colonised by English settlers in 1632 when the Governor of St Kitts at the time sent his son across to start a colony. Like so many other islands in this area, slavery was then introduced in 1640 and wasn’t abolished in the Caribbean until 1834. Antiguan slaves were the first to be emancipated in the British West Indies. The slave owners were given compensation, but the slaves were not. Slaves here were used for sugar production, but were also sailors, blacksmiths and many other trades.
The last little part of the exhibition was about Viv Richards, and contained a bat and a ball that he was using in April 1986 against England here when he scored the fastest ever test century in terms of the number of balls faced, which was 56. When he retired in 1991, he had scored 8540 runs in 121 matches for the West Indies.
We then went and looked at the beautiful but dilapidated exterior of the Cathedral of St John the Divine, before walking some of the back streets to arrive at the VC Bird Monument. Vere Cornwall Bird was Antigua and Barbuda’s first Prime Minister in 1967, and is referred to as the ‘father of the nation’. He was a member of various unions and groups throughout the years that in the end resulted in Antigua and Barbuda’s independence in 1981. The memorial was a huge sculpture of him.
After this, we headed back onto the ship and had some pizza before heading up to the pool again. Tonight we had another delicious dinner in the dining room. We’ve really lucked out with our wait staff. Our waiter each night is Godwin, and he’s so friendly. He’s Indian so we’ve been talking cricket with him, and he likes us so much that after we told him how amazing the chocolate cake/cookie we had for dessert last night was, he snuck us the same dessert tonight even though it wasn’t on the menu! Our assistant waiter, Inengah, is really nice too, as is our stateroom attendant Ronnie. I am so impressed with how friendly the staff are and the quality of the food. Last night we went to a music show by an Argentinian group which was great, and after I finish writing this we are going to the ice skating show followed by a marriage/couples game show.
DAY FIVE (Thursday 9th January) – Castries, St Lucia
The ice skating show last night was AMAZING! Then the couples game show was really funny. We had a great night.
Today we docked in Castries, St Lucia where we hopped on our last shore excursion. Initially, we were meant to be doing a trip to the drive in active volcano, but after the tragedy in New Zealand a month or so ago, Royal Caribbean cancelled all trips to active volcanoes worldwide. To be honest, the trip we did today was fantastic and I think it was better than what we originally booked anyway!
I had been looking forward to St Lucia the most, and I could see why once we arrived. Immediately after driving out of the capital Castries, we were up in the lush green mountains surrounded by cute, colourful villages and beautiful rainforest. It was hilly, lush and beautiful. Its name therefore makes sense, as St Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse, the patron saint of beauty. This name makes it the first country to be named after a woman! It has also been nicknamed the ‘Helen of the West Indies’, after Helen of Troy who had many fights fought over her. St Lucia has changed hands between the French and English 14 times over the years. Since 1979 it has been an independent country, but again like us and some of the other islands we visited it is part of the commonwealth. When we stopped at a lookout just after starting the tour, we saw the governor general’s house where the Queen stays when she visits. Apparently Prince Charles was here last year.
The island is 238 square miles and has a population of about 185000, and 80% of the population are Catholic. Aside from the Faroe Islands, Saint Lucia has the highest rate of Nobel Prize winners as a percentage of its population – Derek Walcott won it for Literature, and Arthur Lewis won it for Economics.
Our next stop was to look down on Marigot Bay, a beautiful bay that is where some famous movies such as the first ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ were filmed. We then got back in our van and next stopped to look at some bananas, which St Lucia is famous for growing. They make everything using bananas here, from wine to ketchup, from smoothies to hot sauce.
Then we stopped in a small fishing village called Anse la Raye, where Rob and I bought and tried some delicious bananas and had a quick walk down the pier. After this we were on our way to the Pitons, the UNESCO site of St Lucia which is its twin mountains. On the way, Laurna told us that one of the two lighthouses on the island is a happy accident. Apparently it was intended to be sent to Santa Lucia in Africa, but was sent here by mistake so they got to keep it!
We got our first glimpse of the Pitons as we rounded a corner, and they looked very beautiful next to each other. Petit Piton is about 800m tall, and Gros Piton about 950m. They are a few kilometres apart even though from a distance they appear very close together. Our next stop was at the Tet Paul Nature Trail, which is a trail between the two mountains that allows great views of both of them. We have found the whole time on all these shore excursions that the people running them want to warn you of any potential dangers about 100 times, and this “hike” was no exception. It wasn’t a hike, we aren’t sure why it was described as one. It was an easy walk up a well-made path with some steps. Some of the people on our tour acted like it was a marathon, and the guide taking us up there warned us to “watch our step” about 30 times, which got a bit wearing. Nonetheless, we enjoyed seeing beautiful flowers and some giant caterpillars along the way, and then the views we saw were amazing. We were so lucky, as our captain had said this morning it would rain at some point today. The grey clouds cleared right as we were at the top, and then descended again once we headed back down the path!! Then we enjoyed some fruit and cod fish fritters at the bottom which were nice.
Then we had a quick stop at Toraille Waterfall (very busy!) before heading to the beach in Soufrieres. While everyone else sat and used the wifi at the beach park, Rob and I went for a quick walk into the town. It was so cute as it had beautiful coloured buildings and a gorgeous church in the main square as well as a freedom monument in tribute to the freed slaves here in the past. We enjoyed our quick walk and then headed back to the van. As soon as we set off back to Castries it poured with rain for five minutes, so we had been very lucky.
Once back, we relaxed for a while before dinner as the windy, hilly roads had made us a little carsick. We watched BBC World News tonight and even though we knew of all the fires at home, we were shocked and saddened when confronted by the reality of the devastation when watching the news.
DAY SIX (Friday 10th January) – Bridgetown, Barbados
Today, we docked in our final destination on our cruise – Barbados. When we exited the ship, we were hit by a strong wind that continued for the entire day. We were also struck by the magnificent aquamarine coloured water next to the ship. It was stunning!!
Barbados is also a British colony, and is famous for the singer Rhianna. In 1625, the British colonised Barbados and in 1966 Barbados became independent. During the time of British control, Barbados was never successfully invaded by a foreign power.
Rob and I had not booked a shore excursion today as none of them stood out to us, so we instead decided to walk around ourselves. When I had internet a few days ago I loaded a map on my phone of Bridgetown, and I looked up the best things to do there. So using my phone (even though we had no internet) we could see where we were and where we needed to walk. We first headed for a quick look at the ‘Cricket Legends of Barbados’ Museum. We had a quick look around and decided not to visit the paid part of the exhibition, but rather head to the stadium next and do a tour. So we walked instead to nearby Kensington Oval and did a 45 minute tour there.
There were no other people from our ship, it was just us, an Indian family and a mother and daughter from Canada, originally from Guyana, whose husband had played for the West Indies under 19s years ago and scored back to back centuries on this ground. How cool!! The stadium was built on the site of the former Kensington Plantation pastures in 1882. It was the first ground ever to be used by an English touring team, and underwent extensive renovations in 2005 to prepare for the cricket world cup held in the West Indies in 2007. Bridgetown hosted the final for this world cup, and was the smallest ever city to do so.
First, the tour consisted of us watching a video about the stadium. During the video we learned that in 1957 the first prime minister of Barbados implemented lots of anti-discrimination laws which meant that whites and blacks could play together here for the first time. We also learned about a man named King Dyal who attends the cricket here in different coloured suits and always supports the visiting team. It reminded me of how Pa always supports whoever is playing against Australia!!
Our tour then took us upstairs to the dining room type area, and then down onto the ground where we had a great view of the different stands. We saw the Garfield Sobers stand, named after a player for the West Indies who scored 365 not out once, and we also saw the ‘Three Ws’ stand named after Worrell, Walcott and Weekes. The scoreboard at the ground had an electronic and a manual portion, and our guide told us that both are used during matches in case the electronic one fails. Apparently the West Indies played Ireland here yesterday, but she told us that even if we had been here it was a sellout. We ended in the gift shop where I found it funny that they had seat cushions just like our MCG ones that we sit on every week!
Once we finished at the stadium, we headed to the Cheapside Market where we saw lots of locals buying fruit and vegetables. Then we walked past the Nidhe Israel Synagogue and Museum. It was expensive to go in so we had a look and kept going! We walked through a shopping street called Swan Street which was bustling full of people. Unfortunately here I tripped on a loose stone on the pavement, but luckily caught myself quickly and wasn’t hurt.
We rounded the corner and saw the beautiful Parliament buildings and St Michael’s Church. We also saw the National Heroes’ Square, formerly known as Trafalgar Square. This Trafalgar Square has a statue of Lord Nelson just like the one in London, but is apparently older! Then we crossed the Chamberlain Bridge through the wharf area and enjoyed a drink at a bar on a second level balcony. The bar had signs up everywhere that it’s where the Barmy Army go when visiting to watch England play!
Our final stop in Bridgetown was Brownes Beach. Though it was right in town, the beach was absolutely beautiful. It had the best colour water and the nicest sand of any beaches we have swum at so far. I really enjoyed swimming here and floated around for quite a while taking in the beautiful colours. Unfortunately the wind here was quite strong, but it meant I didn’t even need my towel to dry off once I got out!
We walked the 30 minutes back to the boat and then had a dip in the pool and a drink before relaxing and then going to dinner. Tonight there is a street party near the pier and our ship doesn’t leave until 9pm, so we are heading to it to check it out!
I will post again tomorrow to summarise the cruise.
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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