Christmas 2015 Puerto Rico

I have gone home the last 2 Christmases and it has been really cold!  So this year I decided to go on a Caribbean Cruise and spend some time in Puerto Rico.

On the Sunday that the cruise left I explored San Juan on foot a bit.  I saw both forts - Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristobal.  I wandered around in the shops and found a great store that only sells items made in Puerto Rico.  I got some great art and some Christmas ornaments.  Puerto Rico Celebrate January 6th, the Epiphany, as much as Christmas.  I got a beautiful carving of the three kings and there were displays of the kings and the nativity everywhere.

The sunday I got back from the cruise, I went on an old San Juan walking food tour which was awesome.

mofongo!

I went to Fajardo and went Kayaking at night in bioluminescent bay .  It was still kinda light when we kayaked through the canal surrounded by mangroves.  We were in tandem kayaks and since I was alone, I got to kayak with one of the guides, Omar.  He looked a lot like Shemar Moore only younger.  He gave me a lot of info on the mangroves and the bay.  On the way back it was PITCH BLACK.  I got clotheslined by a few branches.  It was a little scary kayaking on the open bay at night and I would have been freaked if a guide wasn't with me.  It was New Year's Eve and we were worried the traffic would be a nightmare going back to San Juan, but it was surprisingly quiet.

I went to the El Yunque Forest one day and to Luquillo beach.   The forest was great.  I got to go on a 1.5 mile hike and saw some great plants.  Some friends came later in the week and I got to go to El Yunque Forest again and see a different part of it.

A lady asked if I wanted her to take my picture.  I told her it was the first picture with me in it on this whole trip and that I rarely get photos of myself.  She took the picture then said "you should take more picture with you in them, you have a beautiful smile"  so sweet!

These leaves were huge and they were white underneath.  They turn over when it is going to rain so the trees look white.

I stayed in the Hotel Plaza de Armas.  It was right in the middle of Old San Juan and there was always music playing or something going on in the Plaza de Armas.  It was in a good location and the people were helpful getting me tours.  but the place was really damp.  When you are in a tropical place, it is best to have central AC to keep the dampness out.  If you don't have central AC then fans are a must.  This place had neither.  There was a wall AC that did not work well and was SUPER loud so I rarely ran it.  All my clothes smelled.  On the second to last night, the ceiling in my bathroom started leaking so they moved me to a new room on the last night.  The AC was a bit quieter and it was a little less damp, but the damage was done.  I had a nasty cough and mucus in my lungs.  With my lupus it is going to take a month to get rid of it!  On January 1st, I moved to the Courtyard Marriott on Isla Verde.  It is a lovely beach resort on the nicest beach I saw Puerto Rico.  It is far from Old San Juan (a $25 cab ride) so I think it is nice to stay in the two different places like I did.  Stay in Old San Juan and do all your exploring, then stay at the beach and just relax.  My room was great, there was central AC and the view was beautiful.

I missed my girls!

For Christmas 2011, I went with my friend Gretchen to Israel.  There was a family from Indiana on the trip with us and I have kept in touch with them.  We have tried to catch up with each other on other trips, but it hasn't worked out.  for this Christmas, I was trying to figure out whether to go to Puerto Rico or Costa Rica.  Joyce messaged me one day and said they were going to Puerto Rico the first part of January.  That helped me make my decision!  It was fun to catch up with them.

Aaron, Joyce, me, Bill 

Christmas 2015 St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Sint Maarten

Thursday, Dec 24^th  Today we were in St. Lucia.  Country 36!

I did a land and sea tour to Soufriere.  We drove through the island and saw fishing villages, rain forests, banana plantations etc.  We saw coconuts, coffee, coco, papayas, breadfruits, cashews, almonds, castor beans, mangos, etc.   The drive was beautiful, as was the botanical gardens.  The drive was really steep and curvy.  We took a catamaran back to our ship and had a Creole lunch on board.  They pulled the catamaran over in a cove so people could swim.  People had to climb down a ladder to get to the water and we didn’t have access to the beach because it belongs to a resort.  I just stayed on board and relaxed in the shade.

I had Spareribs for dinner – it is Christmas Eve!  I am really enjoying having dinner with Angela and Anja.  Anja’s in her 20s and Angela is her mother.  They are from Kansas City, Mossouri.   We chat about traveling and religion – they are born again believers.  There are several black crew members who are always flirting with Anja (who is also black)  Our table gets really good service!!

Friday, Dec 25^th   St. Kitts and Nevis – country 37!

St. Kitts was originally called St. Christopher.  It currently has 40,000 residents.  I went on a bus tour and we drove through Basseterre where we saw churches and West Indian cottages.   Then we went to Romney Gardens and Caribelle Batik Studios.  Artists demonstrate how to make the Batik fabric and there were many things for sale with colorful patterns.  The gardens were beautiful and Samuel Jefferson, the Great Great Great Grandfather of Thomas Jeffesron , was the original owner of the estate.

 

We visited Brimstone Hill Fortess which is 300 years old and we got to wander around it.  It was spitting rain throughout the day.  The driver made one last stop so we could take a picture of where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.

The divide between Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean

Angela, Anja and I went to Christmas service on the ship then had dinner.  I had turkey and mashed potatoes.   Oh!  And they served eggnog at breakfast J  Many people on the island had Christmas hats on and were saying Merry Christmas all day.

Saturday Dec 26^th.  Sint Maarten – part of the Netherlands

This island is tiny.  I didn’t go on a tour, I just walked around a lot and looked at the beach and town.  It is really hot on all these islands.  It is no hotter than Mumbai, but the sun is very different.  The pollution in Mumbai keeps the sun from beating down relentlessly, but here, I have to constantly seek shade. 

Christmas 2015 St. Thomas and Barbados

St. Thomas and Barbados

I boarded the Carnival Liberty on Sunday in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

On Monday we docked on the US virgin island St. Thomas  I rode in an open air jeep to an eco tour place Everyone was put into tandem kayaks but me.  I was odd man out so the first time I ever kayaked was alone in the Caribbean Sea.  Half way to the island we were going to, we pulled over so the guides could tell us about mangroves.  How they are thousands of years old and practically impossible to uproot.  They use them as a hurricane shelter.  They tie boats to the mangroves before a hurricane comes and the boats survive.  The first part was ok, then we got to a really open area where it was really windy and I struggled to keep up.  I finished about 7 minutes behind the others.  Poor Mortimer hasn’t done much work in a year (I have had this frozen shoulder for a year!!! Hard to believe!)  but he was a champ and we made it.  We got out of the kayaks and snorkeled.  I have only snorkeled once before in the Maldives and enjoyed it.  I didn’t enjoy this much – I’m not sure if something was wrong with my snorkel but I kept getting water in my mouth and nose.  After snorkeling we went on a short hike.  There were sand crabs everywhere and we each chose one and had a crab race.  They said three times a year, the crabs all line up and get out of their shells and move into the next size shell!  Like getting new school clothes.  Very cool.  

A really poisonous tree, manchineel tree, in the world lives in the island we were hiking on.  Its sap causes 2^nd – 3^rd degree burns and the fruit – a “death apple”  causes death in 45 minutes.  Apparently half of Christopher Columbus’s crew died when they ate them.  We gave the two tees we saw a wide berth J We kayaked back and I kept up this time.  I went back on the ship to take a nap – still battling jet lag.

I ate dinner in the main dining room.  I liked the set up on this ship – that I’m supposed to eat at the same table every day so I can meet people.  I was there by myself for quite awhile – at a table for 10! And it was looking grim.  Then a mother, Angela, and her 20 something daughter Anja joined me.  They are from Kansas City and we had a nice conversation.

Tuesday – at sea.  I explored the ship a bit, took a nap, read, and watched movies.  I tried to walk around the deck which I enjoy doing, but they had it blocked off due to wind. 

Wednesday – Barbados

I was signed up to snorkel with turtles at a ship wreck.  But I am starting to develop a cough with whatever this illness is that I have.  I didn’t think that coughing would allow me to keep my snorkel in my mouth.  I opted to walk into the town and explore.  It wasn’t anything like St. Thomas.  It looked like a very poor, crime ridden area.  All the windows and doors to shops had bars on them.  The buildings all looked run down.  There were people everywhere since it is the 23^rd of December and many people took off work. 

They had all these trees decorated in the park - they were sponsored by different elementary schools and the kids made decorations. 

I paid for a taxi to drive me around the island for an hour and a half.  I picked a bum driver – he seemed chatty when I hired him, but then barely spoke and answered my questions with few words so I didn’t feel like a got a ton of info about the island.  He did take me to Gun Hill Signal Station.  It was beautiful and was one of the last working signal stations on the island that the British had.