Port of Spain, Trinidad

Friday, February 21, 2014 Port of Spain, Trinidad

 

 

Blue skies with lush green mountains and a dozen sky scrapers...the view of Port of Spain in Trinidad appeared to be very cosmopolitan...not the usual tropical island scene. Ships dotted the flat Atlantic Ocean waiting their turn for dockage in the southern most Antilles Island Chain and an oil rig or two appeared off the coast. In 1970 natural gas was discovered insuring a thriving economy. Columbus named Trinidad, the largest island of the Less Antilles...seven miles from Venezuela.

Interesting to know that this little country belonged to Britain from 1592-1814 and then it changed governments 31 times between the Dutch, French, and British until it gained its independence in 1962 from Britain. The population today is a mixture of Indians, Chinese, and Africans, and Europeans.

 

 

 

Steel Pan Drum music and Stilt Dancers....Amazing welcome at the dock! 

 

After a quick breakfast in our room, Larry and I headed out to explore the city. We were greeted with wonderful steel pan music (invented here) and dancing Carnival costume natives. Larry enjoyed these ladies tremendously....see that cute little smile!

 

Out of the dock area we discovered a modern city. Before crossing eight lanes of heavy traffic, we walked past the modern Parliament skyscraper that had guards with machine guns. The city was bustling with noise and business everywhere. This was not what we had expected of a caribbean island.

 

We passed a wonderful commemorative memorial for the past winners of the Olympics.

Crown Princess

Trinidad...a big city feel!

              

We wandered down through the towering buildings through Independence Square, a park that ran down the center part of town ending at the 1832 Cathedral of The Immaculate Conception (being restored)...blue limestone work of architectural delight. On we wandered into a local shopping market.What a lively area  of colorful clothing and vivid characters selling their wares. The street curbs were enormous here probably due the torrential rains that occur June through December.

 

 

 

On we walked through a modern mall like enclave and out to the Woodford Square (heart of the city) where we met a couple who went to Virginia Tech and had been born in Franklin County....yes, it is unbelievably a small world! We talked for a while and enjoyed the live Carnival Steel Pan music on the stage in the park with the costumed dancers and guys dancing on stilts.
 

Couldn't resist this guys wares...cute earrings!

 

 

When we departed we viewed the Red House or The house of Parliment(1844, 1904, 1906, and currently being renovated). It was painted Red for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and has continued to be the symbol of enduring democracy in Trinadad and Tobago. We also viewed the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (1823) with a mahogany beam roof modeled after Westminister Hall in London and the Old Fire Station Tower.

 

 

 On we walked about a mile up Abercromby to the University of Trinidad and Tobago and the National Academy for the Preforming Art Centre as well as the National Museum and Art Gallery...Why? The building looked similar to the world famous Sydney Opera House. Here we had a nice lunch and updated the blog and email. Larry made friends with several of the students enjoying their guitar playing. This University sits right on the edge of the Queen's Park Savannah where we had planned to see the " Magnificent Seven" Victorian mansions of the past and some more carnival entertainment...but the time was drawing near to boarding time on the ship (3:30) so we headed back toward the Crown Princess.

 

 

 

 

 

We wandered back through the city using a different route. The car drivers were so kind....stopping many times to let us cross the busy streets. We enjoyed walking through the neighborhoods of homes; passing by schools, churches, and businesses. We made it back in time to look for just a few minutes at the local crafts and listen to some more steel pan music.
We ran out of time to explore the north and eastern coast. Here we had wanted to view the waterfalls and the numerous birds of the island. Trinidad is the home of a beautiful red bird the size of a flamingo as well as 430 species of birds, 600 native butterflies, and 1000 species of orchids. We always seem to leave something to see for the next time that we may visit.

During the evening we listened to a concert under the stars of James Taylor and had a lovely dinner of sea scallops, lamb, eggplant, spinach lasagna, salad, and Larry's sampling of desserts....it was Italian Night. We watched our first live performance in the Princess Theatre , a duo of Gaucho Dancers. We found our way back to the cabin and watched the movie, "Picture Perfect", with Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Bacon. What a super duper day!!!!!  

 

 

                                       What a beautiful day and a beautiful ending sunset!

Bridgetown, Barbados

Thursday, February 20, 2014 Bridgetown, Barbados

The Crown Princess arrived in Barbados at 10:00 AM.

After a breakfast outside by the midship pool, we headed down the gangplank and walked past about a hundred taxicab drivers that wanted to take us on a mile ride into Bridgetown... we just smiled at them and enjoyed our walk in to town. A beautiful water view walk with tropical trees shading the path. It was a warm day if you stood in the sun, but in the shade with the gentle ocean breezes, it was very nice. The island of Barbados is very flat....nice for walking.

 

 

Just  a little snooze in this nice ocean breeze....Pleeeze!

Our walk took us into the center of town to find the old Parliament building that was getting ready to celebrate its 275 anniversary on February 28...Gosh, we are 8 days to early to help the Prince celebrate. What a unique stucture...castle like. England's prince is coming and they are buzzing around here to get things ship shape for the celebration.

                                                                       Parliament

                                                       Parliament looks like a castle!


We walked into the city park with a statue of Admiral Nelson... since we learned about him yesterday, we are finding that he really got around. Also spotted a World War I Commemorative Statue and the Arched Gate Entrance over the waterway of the chartered fishing vessels. A very nice area to stroll through and enjoy.

 

 

Admiral Nelson's Statue and Larry's new friend

We visited a local store that had 100% of everything ...so modern compared to what we visited in Antigua. We ate a spot of lunch on the waterfront while checking the sketchy internet and then wondered back toward the ship. Got a couple of phone calls made, emails sent, and worked on publishing the blog inside the lovely cruise terminal....with free wifi that was slooowwww but better than St. Thomas and Antigua.

Barbados is a highly developed community with lots of modern stores and industrialized waterfront area. Larry especially enjoyed the large seafood market wishing he could go fishing with these Barbadians who really caught some big ones.

 

 

Although we never made it to the rum factory, you should know that Barbados is "where de rum come from". Yes, rum was invented here and became the Caribbean traditional drink. We found out that the British Navy allocated 4 ounces daily to all its sailors for hundreds of years.

                                                                          WOW !!

St. John's, Antigua

Wednesday, February 19, 2014    St. John's, Antigua
The day began with a gorgeous sunrise coming up over the town of St. John's, Antigua. Rain could be seen on the south mountain ranges. Roosters were crowing and the boat just slipped into the harbor of this sleepy town.

We had a quick breakfast in our room...oatmeal, boiled eggs, raisin rolls, pears, and hot tea. After a shower we hustled down to the dock around 8:30 to find steel drums greeting us playing some fantastic music...so tropical!

We walked through the tourist part of the town, on to where the natives lived and worked. We decided to head to the bus station. We found it after getting a few instructions from a couple of locals.

                             Streets are lined with red flag streamers for the Carnival celebration.
                                  We passed several uniformed students were walking to school.
We boarded it, paying 3 dollars for a one way 30 minute ride. We waited about ten minutes...the bus slowly filled up before it headed out of the city. Larry and I enjoyed the sights along the roadway.

Fantastic views along the roadway!

Riding the local bus was jolly good fun!

They do drive on the opposite side of the road here too. We passed lots of businesses, homes, a couple churches while seeing lots of laid back living. Larry befriended a local....Radigam....quite a friendly Caribe.

                                                           My man and Radigam

Tree hugger....I just love these little palms.

We reached our destination...Nelson's Dockyard.... what a lovely place....now a restored National Park with a harbor full of fascinating sailboats. We met a gentleman from Maine who had sailed across the Atlantic along the coast of Europe on to Africa and back across to the Caribbean. This was his sixth crossing in his little 28 foot sailboat. AMAZING! What a bloak! He shared some interesting
stories.

 

Shortly, we spoke with three couples who flew from France to Guadalope taking a sailboat from there to Antigua. Another amazing adventure and fun group! Within the dockyard we enjoyed seeing the old Admiral's House, the shipyard, the blacksmith's, a Guard House, and various other buildings. The Caribbean was the scene of struggle for naval supremacy in which Britian, Spain, Protugal, and France were competitors.

Nelson's Dockyard Harbor

 

In a power contest of the 18th century, Britain's strength lay in her navy and the waters around the valued sugar and spice islands of the Caribbean. Nelson's Dockyard became the main naval base in the Eastern Caribbean for the British Navy. Named after Admiral Nelson, commander of the Leeward Island Station from 1784-1787. The harbor is a hurricane haven for ships dating back as far as 1671.



 

 



Admiral Nelson

My Admiral

We caught a cab from Nelson's Dockyard to Shirley's Height, a rough bumpy ride to the top of the mountain that backed up to the the entrance of the harbor. What a view! Spectacular!

 

 

The pictures do not capture the beauty of the scenery. We enjoyed the time on the mountain top before heading back to catch the Bus 17 back to St. John's.

Arriving back into town around 2 pm, we did some window shopping, caught up on the internet, and explored the town a bit....having just enough time to get back to the ship at the sailing time of 3:30. We had a very full day, but headed directly to the top of the ship...the 19th floor...to enjoy the ship's pulling anchor and the wonderful views of leaving the harbour of St. Johns. WHAT A DAY! We had five short rain downpours and a beautiful rainbow.

No worries, these showers provided us the opportunity to talk up close with the local folks. What fun! Generally, Antiguans are extremely happy folks who enjoyed talking with us. Even with the showers, the sun shone most of the day and the temps were perfect with the ocean breezes. Today was most enjoyable right up to the last waking minute!

                                        Each sunset continues to be unbelievably beautiful!

St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

Tuesday, February 18, 2014   Charlotte Amelia, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
This morning I was happy to get up and watch the ship arrive at Havensight Port on St. Thomas Island. It was cloudy and you could see the rain coming down in the distant horizon. Eventually the sun shot through the clouds shooting rays up and down the skyline. Great mounds of rolling hills appeared on the starboard side of the ship. The temps outside were fantastic. 70's.

I stopped by the Horizon Court Cafe to pick up breakfast...cereal, boiled eggs, baked apples, peaches, mango, and English Muffins & Banana Bread. There is no way I could eat all this...but my man is a big breakfast eater and he dove into it with the hunger of a starving bear.

We quickly showered and left the ship about 9:00am walking a two mile jaunt into the town, Charlotte Amelia. Our ship was docked in a beautiful area with lots of shops and also a well organized cab and bus depot. The road into Charlotte Amelia was very busy with lots of heavy noisy traffic. Cars were traveling on the opposite side of the road, the only place in the US to do this. It was a pleasure to get to the dock that lines the familar old bay that Larry and I saw 24 years ago.

We visited St. Thomas with Kristy and the Davis family for Spring Break. Want to shout out to Jerry, Ann, Zachary, and Matthew Davis right now because we were traveling together with them...a family holiday. We actually landed in St. Thomas and then took a boat to our little paradise in St. Johns. I remember two things.... One....It was extremely hot (April was the time of year) and Two....a lizard got loose in our home and was a terror to us when it got time to go to bed. It is really funny to think about now, but then it was serious business.

Today we decided that we were going to visit Blackbeard's Castle and the famous 99 Stairs that led up to it. We spotted it as we came into town...a unique looking tower. Up the stairs we went...48 steps before we reached the infamous 99 stairs.

 

Can you spot our ship from the top if Blackbeard's castle?

 On we went to find that the 99 stairs were really 103 steps. Continuing up the hill we came to another set of steps just below the castle...another 48 steps.

Wonder who was counting these steps? I have a feeling they had been sampling the famous Caribbean Rum that was advertised down in the town. HA!

                                                  Lookout Tower of Blackbeard's Castle

 


 
We finally made it to the top and enjoyed the tremendous view of the famous St. Thomas Bay. GORGEOUS!

 We watched cruise ships arrive, planes with water skis land and take off, and spotted our ship parked in its own private cove. After many Kodak moments we wondered back down another different set of
stairs coming to the Fort Christopher, 1671, which needed some real TLC!

                                                                   Fort Christopher


We did some shopping and then started heading back toward the ship being that it was almost noon. We stopped at the post office and met an enjoyable couple from Australia that were traveling on the our ship. We both talked and joked all the way back to the ship. Larry and I spent some more time shopping, using the internet, and eating a spot of lunch before heading back on board. We made it back missing a tremendous down pour that we had no idea was going to happen.

We enjoyed listening to Rod Stewarts biography, watching the huge jets take off and land on the island, and watching the ship leave the harbor. The day passed on by. What a fabulous day... comfortable temperatures, grand views of the Atlantic, new friends, and my man! What else does a girl need?

                                                       Perfect sunset for a perfect day!

Crown Princess Trip Around South America

Crown Princess Trip Around South America

Saturday, February 15, 2014 Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Larry and I left Clearwater Beach at 8:00 am for our trip to Fort Lauderdale. We had loaded the rental car the night before so we just dressed and walked out of the building for our five hour drive south. Gorgeous sunshine, moderate temperatures, and little traffic made the trip a success. We drove to the port to find eight ships waiting to set sail, with the largest cruise ship ever, the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Sea, in dock. It alone houses over 8000 passengers. We heard all about this ship that set sail this fall for the first time out of New York City Harbor while on our trip across the Atlantic from Portugal. The RC Cruises are very proud of their largest ship in the world title. We are not so sure that we would want to be on this king sized floating city.

Anyway, the traffic getting into the port was #%&*! We finally arrived around 1:45 to unload our luggage, and Larry left to turn the car into the airport. Upon his return back to the Pier 2, we got into the longest line that we have ever experienced boarding a ship. Why? Each passenger had to have proof of their Brazilian Visa presented as well as their Argentina Reciprocity License to go to visit these countries. It was amazing the amount of time that it took to look at each individual person's information...but we finally arrived around 4:00pm at our room mid-ship on the 9th floor...the highest that we have ever stayed on a ship...just in time to do the lifeboat safety exercise. Princess took no chances with anyone not knowing how to put on their life jackets. They had everyone arrive with their jacket in the specified area and then made everyone put it on....This is probably a good idea....Not everyone is boat safety conscious.

The ship was supposed to sail at 4:00pm. It did not sail until a little after 6:00pm. Larry and I unpacked quickly and then headed to the top of the ship to enjoy the time leaving the harbor. There was lively music, lots of happy hour people, and a tremendous sunset occurring. Everyone was happy to finally be on the ship and for the ship to finally be moving.

We stayed on the top deck until the sun set and then went to a dinner of shrimp, mussels, prime rib, salad and broccoli. It was all yummy! Larry had a nice slice of chocolate cake while we went to the back of the ship to watch the Fort Lauderdale lights twinkle and fade away. As the evening passed, the thoughts of the afternoon wait faded away, and we smiled at each other going off to bed knowing that our exciting South American journey was going to be one of our most exciting trips yet.


Sunday, February 16, 2014 at Sea
We had a wonderful breakfast with two other couples in the Da Vinci Dining Room. Both couples were second home Florida home owners....One from New York's Long Island. The other was a German/ Puerto Rican couple. Both were well traveled and we enjoyed sharing our travel stories and information about our families. The breakfast service was superb! "Probably the best we have ever experienced; except Kay's kitchen", says Larry.
                                                       

Larry and I went for our daily three mile walk and then went to a seminar about St. Thomas and Antigua. The travel host, Julio Delgado, who was from Spain was excellent! Both knowledgeable and humorous in his travels. He will be a joy to listen to for the remainder of the trip. We had a lovely lunch while attending a lecture on Art. Larry treated us to a chicken platter with fruit and of course, some yummy dessert.

We checked out the Spa in the afternoon....working out on all the equipment, jumping into the pool, hot tub, and sauna. We had a fabulous dinner of duck, mashed potatoes, cream of asparagus soup, salad, and a creamy chocolate confection. We watched a movie under the stars outside, called "Star Trek into Darkness"...WHAT an action packed movie! Brought back the memories of the old Star Trek series with a new younger generation. We returned to our room ready for bed, but watched the Fox television special on George Bush. Informative and entertaining. What a fabulous first day at sea!


Monday, February 17, 2014 at Sea
Today began by setting the clock forward one hour! To our surprise, after looking at a map, our ship is actually sailing south east. I got up at 7:00am to take pictures of the sunrise. Gorgeous!

I brought back some fresh fruit, tea, coffee, and a sticky bun for my man who gulped it down like he had not eaten in days. We enjoyed a leisurely morning of watching the news before going off to the Michelangelo Dining Room for eggs to take out on the back deck of the ship.

 

 

After a quick breakfast bite, we headed to the Sea Destination Talk about Barbados and Trinidad, our upcoming ports of call. Julio Delgado once again entertained us with a lively talk. He has extensive knowledge about the Caribbean and South America. He was a joy to listen to.

The rest of the morning we walked three miles around the ship ending at the Spa for water and a short rest to catch some rays. The day was gorgeous and the temperatures were in the mid 70's again with a wonderful breeze on the front of the ship.

After a corn beef, calamari, and stir fry lunch, we listened to the autobiography of Rod Stewart. What a lively writer! Humorous and informative! The people he encountered in the early 60's were all soon to be hotties of the 60's and 70's. This is an enjoyable fun book.

The rest of the afternoon was restful. I read out in the sun the book called Steve and Me by Terry Irwin....about the Crock Man of Aussieland, Steve Irwin. A very easy read and enjoyable story!

After a grand dinner outside on the deck of sweet potato shrimp soup, salad, pork loin, and vegetables, we enjoyed watching a movie under the stars called "Jack Reacher" starring Tom Cruise. A real who done it and it kept us guessing.