a blog about Kilt and her kids plus Trouble our JRT mascot.

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Sequim, Washington, United States

Monday, November 11, 2013

First stop...San Juan and then Barbados

Mary and I had  great flights to Fort lauderdale and then on to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We stayed at the Hilton Caribe for a night in San Juan..  What a gorgeous resort.   We had dinner at Morton's Steak House on the water.  It was a bit pricey, but the food was delish.  We swam quite a bit in their pools and had lunch the next day at their bar in the water.  It was hot and muggy and threatening rain.  Finally had one downpour while having lunch.  It didn't phase us.  We were in our bathing suits ready for a good time.  We always have a good time traveling together.  I get up early, Mary gets up later, if I want to go on a side trip that may not be Mary's cup of tea, she goes on her own excursion and we meet up later.  This was our third cruise together.  We used to work together :0)


From our room at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan

An room with an ocean view :0)

Just finished dinner at Morton's Steakhouse


San Juan
We made the  mistake of taking a 3 mile walk in the humid and hot San Juan to go to the San Cristobel fort.  We reached our destination soaking in sweat.  We passed by some nice beaches and lots of iguanas.  Also, a fair share of homeless people and lots of graffiti.  Once we got to the fort, you can be sure that we hired a taxi to take us back to the Hilton.  We were now savvy touristas and asked what it would cost us BEFORE getting in :0)  We got lucky and Jesus took us back to the caribe and promised to pick us up in the afternoon to take us to the ship.  Getting on the ship took less than 20 minutes of red tape.  Once we saw our room, we left ship and took a cab to old San Juan.  Mary wanted to check out the Coach shop there :0)  Old San Juan was filled with character.  The streets are narrow, lined with blue tile, the stores colorful and the music plentiful.


Morning walk

Fort San Cristobel

We saw lots of iguanas!
Old San Juan

Painting of old San Juan


Barbados
Barbados is 21 miles long, 14 miles wide.  It is the most eastern island of the West Indies.  Barbados gained it's independence from Britain in 1966 and maintains the british style of government with a Prime Minister and two parliamentary houses.  Bridgetown is the capitol and that is where we docked.  The official language is English.


Every morning we would have breakfast on the veranda as we sailed into port

Okay world.....Stop, I want to get off.  Barbados was tropical without the SanJuan humidity.  We were the only cruise people who signed up to sail with the Black Pearl.  It was a 5 hour sailing and snorkeling trip with just the right amount of people.  And, we be JAMMIN.  The music was fabulous and loud.  The whole boat rocked from a few teenagers up to our age.  And, wowser could our crew dance!  They were all Jamaican and deserved 5 stars. Everyone was dancing and laughing for all 5 hours!  We stopped at 2 places to snorkel.  There was a wicked straight ladder (10 rungs) to get you down to the water or you could walk the plank.  Yeah....I walked the plank and jumped a distance like a middle board diving competition in a swimming pool. 
We snorkeled around a wrecked ship and saw lots of black and white fish.  Even more amusing were the guys trying to kill themselves doing back flips off the pirate plank.  Lordy.  We drank 15% rum punch all day long plus they made us a delicious lunch with various salads and your choice of steak, Jerk chicken or flying fish.  Since Mary and I had never heard of eating flying fish, we went with what we thought was the obvious choice.....the chicken.

Some of the Barbados coast line.

Drinking rum on the jolly Roger

Harbor in Barbados

We be sailing with the Black Pearl on the Jolly Roger



The famous Jolly Roger crew.  This boat rocked!  The music was so loud that any boats near us started to dance.


We be jammin'

 We stopped once again in turquoise blue waters and did some more snorkeling.  They had life vests if you weren't a good swimmer.  I have been swimming since I was 3, so no vest for me.  Plus, how could anyone drown? The salt content in the water kept you afloat.  I'm snorkeling away with Mary's underwater camera when I see something large coming right at me.  It was a huge tortoise :0)  Mary's camera is hot pink and I think that attracted the sea turtle.  He tried to bite it. I have a photo of me trying to push him away and then grabbed his shell and went for a short ride.  Photo to come later.
Late afternoon found the macho younger guys grabbing onto a rope and swinging out over the water.  I think the most that got on the rope at one time were four and it was pretty amusing.  The party was starting to get crazy when we all formed a Conga line and danced around the top deck.  Our pirate crew taught us some new dances ( a lot of hip action) that has left me a little sore this evening as I write this.  But, fun?  Ya sure, you betcha!




Tomorrow we go to St. Lucia.  Mary is doing a volcano and mud hot springs.  I am zip lining through a rain forest.  We always go to open seating so we will sit at a new table each time in order to meet different people at each meal.  We love to do that.  This evening one gal from New Zealand and one from Michigan will be joining Mary on her excursion. That's cool :0)

I have a new favorite Martini......a Peartini.....YUM   We always hit the afternoon Martini bar.



1 comment:

Karen said...

Wow, what an amazing time you had!! And too much fun...well I guess you can never have too much fun:)