St. John’s, Antigua
Yesterday’s bus ride gave us a taste of what today’s excursion had in store for us, only this time we do the driving! We opted for the Antigua Off-Road by 4×4 Buggy…eeehaw… We sign the waiver, put on helmets, pick up water, store our belongings in a bin that is bungeed to the back of our Shaka Buggy and get a speed course on how to drive the vehicle. M is the driver, I worked the blinkers, prayed for a safe journey and we’re off. It’s hot, hot, hot and muggy and no A/C (ha). The only window is half plastic in the front, I guess to keep the mud out of our eyes.
The customized four-wheel drive route starts in St John’s and heads out of town along dirt/muddy tracks winding through picturesque countryside, and Antigua’s only tropical rainforest. Rocks, water, hills, curves; nothing stopped us. Our mission was to keep close to the buggy in front of us because seeing out that plastic window was tough. There was a guide in front, 5 buggies’ and a guide in back. We only made two wrong turns and quickly remedied our mistake by climbing over a couple rocks and through a river. This is really fun. Our first stop was for fresh fruit, water and the guide cleaned our plastic window. Back on the road, we drive on to a scenic beach where we get drinks, cool off in the water and just enjoy the solitude. BTW, all the drivers passed on the rum punch. We were really becoming one with our buggy when it was time to depart our vehicles and head out on foot.
If we thought it was hot at 9am, now it’s scorching and the humidity must be at least 80%. After an hour of walking, I’m burning up. We find a restaurant called Cheers right on the main thoroughfare. Since there’s no A/C inside, we sit outside under an umbrella where we get a breeze every so often and we can see everyone going by. We ordered a dish of fish, fries, rice and broccoli that we shared and 2 diet cokes each with ice. It was a great spot. We watched half a dozen trucks loaded with Viking supplies pull up to the ship. We’ve never seen so much toilet paper and liquor. No kidding, two of those trucks had nothing but liquor. After a couple hours, we finally cooled down enough to walk some more. M found a pair of the coolest Bermuda shorts ever and I bought a hematite necklace from a lady who told us to call her “Sugar Mama”. Yes eerie, this was a pretty fine day.
Roseau, Dominica
Next stop is in the Botanical Gardens where we saw the giant African baobab tree toppled by Hurricane David in 1979. This tree landed on the roof of a bus (everyone got out of the bus uninjured) and is still in the same position on the bus. The tree has continued to grow straight up off the bus.
Our guide told us every Friday is sport day where kids get out of school at noon to play sports at different venues around the city. All kids wear school uniforms. As we try walking the city, we see hundreds of kids going every which way. Streets are cobblestone, curbs are high and broken, sidewalks are narrow and crowded as are the roads. There is nowhere to walk comfortably. There is a music festival this weekend which added to the mass of people. This excursion was very mediocre.
As we browse the port kiosks, we are approached by a taxi driver who asks if we are interested in taking a 2-hour tour up to the waterfalls and volcanos. A Viking couple is in the taxi and has already checked out the taxi company with our Viking representative. We get a thumbs up for the taxi and hop inside. The taxi tour is much better than what we got on the bus excursion. We walked into the National Park up to a double waterfall which was lovely. Our driver stopped along our route to let us smell lemongrass and cinnamon and flowers and trees. Butterflies were everywhere. We stopped at hot springs and pools of water which they refer to as volcanos.
Our driver told us every Friday is sports day where kids get out of school at noon to play sports at different venues around the city. All kids wear school uniforms. As we try walking the city, we are overtaken by hundreds of kids going every which way. Streets are cobblestone, curbs are high and broken, sidewalks are narrow and crowded as are the roads. There is nowhere to walk comfortably. There is a music festival this weekend which added to the mass of people.
We walked and walked and found nothing of interest so we headed to the Fort Young Hotel with a friend from the ship. This was a 4-star hotel, located at the water’s edge. We were seated on the outside deck and ordered drinks where we spent the next couple of hours. We watched the hills come into view, then hide in the clouds, then come into view again. Turns out, this hotel was one of the nicest places in Roseau. It won’t be going on our list of places to revisit
St. Kitts (Basseterre), St. Kitts & Nevis
We took a 2-hour St Kitts Scenic Railroad ride on double-decked railcars with open air observation platforms on top that put us high above the sugarcane and island vegetation. It was a diesel powered hydraulic train. The day was cloudy and sitting up top allowed us a nice breeze. We were served pina coladas, strawberry margaritas, rum punch and pretty much any other tropical drink you can think of. We barely finished one drink and the servers were there to take your next order. We also had sugarcane cookies. It was a little piece of heaven moving along the countryside on a narrow track gauge of 2ft 6in. It was Saturday so everyone was home doing laundry and chores and everyone would stop and wave. We crossed numerous tall steel-girder bridges, saw black sand beaches and many left over sugarcane plantations. There was a 5-girl choir that went from railcar to railcar (5 total cars) singing and narration of what we were seeing was excellent. This was a great excursion.
Once back in town, we found a restaurant and sat on the second floor deck which was perfect for eating, drinking and people watching. Once our bellies were full, we headed out to see what we could see. The town was pretty big with lots of cafes, bars and pastry shops. We looked all over for those sugarcane cookies but came up empty. All that walking made us thirsty and we found a place that served iced coffees; perfect. In our exploration of the town, we saw a boy, maybe 6 or 7 playing with a small toy car. Finally… we said. Prior to coming we bought Frisbees to bring along to give away to kids. I threw the Frisbee to him and he caught it but had a hard time throwing it back. We gave him some pointers and after about 10 minutes, we started to head down the street. He couldn’t believe we were leaving the Frisbee with him. On our return to the ship a couple hours later, we saw him still practicing his throw. That made our whole day.
Philipsburg, St. Martin
We climb on a catamaran which takes us to snorkel and swim spots along the south coast. We set sail, hugging the coast to Pelican Reef. We moor here to snorkel for an hour. Not much to see. I think we humans are destroying all the Caribbean coral and sea life with sunscreen and just the sheer number of people trying to get a look at it. It’s dying right before our eyes. We get back on board, turn in our snorkel gear, reapply sunscreen (ha), get comfortable and drink some rum punch while passing by Oprah Winfrey and Denzel Washington’s homes. Oh yea, really nice! Why can’t visiting them be an excursion? As we continue our sail up to Mullet Bay, none of us have a care in the world. This is island life at its best. Once again we moor, are handed noodles and climb the ladder into the water to swim for an hour. Our deck stewards have already hauled the beer and rum punch onto the sand but we have to swim to it. The catamaran can only get so close; the rest is up to us. The water is just the right temperature and the perfect shade of blue. You can see clearly to the bottom. Again, we’re in heaven.
After four hours on the water, we find ourselves back on land. We take a taxi to town only to find everything is closed because it’s Sunday. Well, almost everything. The town is pretty large and every other storefront is a diamond shop or hair salon. In between them are the cafes, and tourist shops. Everything is closed except the hundreds of diamond stores, and yes I mean hundreds with sales people standing outside willing you to come in “just to look”. We quickly decide our only option for food is back on the ship so we get into another taxi and head home.
Tortola, British Virgin Islands, United Kingdom
Today we’re taking a scenic tour of Tortola on an open air bus. We climb from zero to 1,400 feet on a curvy road that can barely accommodate a small car let alone a bus. We opted for the bus side against the mountain wall; just seemed safer than the cliff side. The driver beeped his horn around every curve to let folks on the other side know we’re coming. And yes, people pass on these roads and around buses. Hard to believe but I saw it with my own eyes.
We viewed a vivid mural painted by local artists which depicts scenes of life after the islands’ emancipation from slavery in 1834. The mural went on forever and was quiet detailed. We continued west to Cane Garden Bay, where we were treated to rum punch (what else, we’re on the islands) while we relaxed on a palm-lined beach of crystal clear water and white sand. We rented lounges and just drifted off. After our driver herded us back onto the bus, we headed back to the ship.
Our plan was to head back into town only to find out today, Monday (not Sunday) everything was closed. Again, we said? Yes, it was some kind of National Holiday. There was a small area by the dock that had a couple cafes and a fairly large number of open air bars. We had some lunch and watched everyone else return from their excursions.
As we headed back to the ship, we noticed an ambulance with lights flashing. No one seemed to have any information but later we found out a man had keeled over in the Explorer Lounge and died on the spot. He was with his wife and 2 other couples. All departed that evening, he in the ambulance and they in a shuttle. Very sad ending to our day.
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, United States
I opted for another open air bus trip up a mountain, only this time it’s to 2,100 feet. The drive was identical to the previous day only with rain. We stopped at a lookout and there was an islander playing a steel drum. The sounds were almost magical. Lucky for me he was selling DVD’s. Today’s driver seemed to be in a rush because we never got our rum punch and he ended the excursion early. There wasn’t much to see and the rain was coming so it was okay. Some of us asked to be dropped in town and we browsed the stores and cafes. Rather than take a taxi back, I just walked the 2 miles. It was hot and muggy but it felt good to walk. The hard rain started about 5 minutes from the ship so I got soaked but didn’t have far to go.
My other half decided to try another day of snorkeling off a catamaran. The main enticement was an old sunken ship, encrusted with coral that attracts all kinds of tropical fish. It just doesn’t get any better than that. The company operating the excursion does not screen for prior snorkeling experience or if a participant can swim. Today’s trip had a few of the latter. I got my equipment and followed the US Marine RECON diver into the water. It was a great opportunity to see the reef fish before the fellow snorkelers jumped into the water. We saw green sea turtles and manta rays as promised. Then off to a wreck with an unusual history. The Cartanser Senior was a 190 foot long, steel hulled freighter that today sits in 50 feet of water. The sunken ship was considered a navigation hazard. Local divers banded together, and then raised funds for moving the ship. It is now a great encrusted reef in a silt free cove.
Bridgetown, Barbados
Time to resurface and climb back onto the ferry. The good news – more rum punch as we head back to the pier.
Rather than take the bus to the ship, we hopped a taxi with another couple to the island’s capital of Bridgetown, hoping to find a restaurant for lunch. It cost us $10 for 4 of us to get to town, a good deal. However, it’s Sunday and again everything is closed except The Bridgehouse which is where the taxi let us off. We ate lunch and decided to walk along the wharf. It’s hot and humid and nothing is open so we opt for a taxi ride back to the ship. This ride cost us $20 for 4, funny how that works. We spent time walking around the Port Shops, then headed back to the ship.