November 25 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Our driver Jose.

The famous waterfalls in El Yunque

Thousands of different plants thrive in this rain forest.

A rest stop featured local food but we only had the beer. Is that a dog on the roof?

Don't look up!

My camera fogged up with the humidity.

View from the top

Old San Juan is rich in Spanish tradition, with cobblestone streets and colonial architecture, but since we’ve been here twice before, we decided that it might be nice this time to take a ride up to the El Yunque Rain Forest. We will still have time to wander through Old San Juan on or way back to the ship.

El Yunque’s biodiversity makes it unique among other forests in the United States National Forest System. Frequent rain showers generate close to 100 billion gallons of rainwater a year and conspire with Puerto Rico’s warm tropical climate to accommodate over 240 species of native trees, 50 species of orchids, and 150 species of ferns. Almost a third of the tree species are native to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and 10 percent of them are endemic to El Yunque and cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

It was overcast with showers when we arrived at 10 am.We couldn’t gt a concensus on what to do here, since this will be at least the third time any of us have been here and the options for seeing new things are running out..The El Yunque rainforest is a twenty-five mile drive each way so Pete and Donna and Wendy and I decided to rent a car. I figured if the drive there and back is that long, we may as well have our own car to take advantage of the ride. I always see something I wish I’d stopped to explore and when you have a cabbie with the meter running, well…

The only car rental within Old San Juan near the ship terminal is a Hertz. All the rest are at the airport, a twenty dollar cab ride away. Walking back to the cruise terminal, we found a diminishing line of 22-passenger tour buses. Our driver from a year ago, Hector (Kunta Kinte) was there. We exchanged pleasantries but were unable to move anybody off the $40 ea. price to the El Yunque rain forest. Probably because there was only 4 of us, our bargaining power was minimal. Fortunately a younger man named Jose, another driver, was able to find two other couples who had been waiting over an hour to team up with enough people to even fill out the load enough to go. Apparently 8 did the trick.

Looking back on the day, I think we made the best decision. The rain was persistent all day in old San Juan, but the brief downpours we had at the rainforest were exactly what you would expect there, and although sometimes somewhat torrential, none lasted long enough to get any of us wet since we were either on the bus or inside a building when it rained. Leaving to return to the ship, we hoped we had tipped enough. ($5 ea on $40). I don’t think we did, but I guess some tip more and some tip less, and I’m sure some don’t tip at all. On average I’d say we tip,as a group, tip average at 15 to 20%. He should have given us a break on the price, because I’m sure he’d get it all back in tips. Today the tipping god didn’t smile on Jose but that’s how it goes. Older drivers seem to know more about playing the “dicker” game.

Back to the cruise ship at around 5 pm we still had more than 3 hours since “all aboard” isn’t until 8:30 tonight. More Sfukkle I guess.

November 24 - Grand Turk Island

BEAUTIFUL BY NATURE is the National slogan of the Turks and Caicos Islands which is rumored were discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and now some 500 years later is being “rediscovered” as one of the fasted growing travel destinations in the Caribbean.
Famous for her secluded beaches, crystal clear turquoise blue waters, un spoilt reefs and dramatic walls this archipelago has some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
The Turks and Caicos Islands are one of the last remaining British Colonies and located some 575 miles southeast of Miami Florida with the Bahamas about 30 miles to the Northwest and the Dominican Republic some 100 miles to the Southeast.
The country consists of two groups of islands, the Turks Islands and the Caicos Islands which are separated by a 22-mile passage called the Columbus Passage. To the west are the Caicos group: West Caicos , Providenciales , North Caicos, East Caicos and South Caicos. To the east are the Turks group: Grand Turk and Salt Cay.

Tied up at Grand Turk Island - Check out he water colour.

We rented a 'clunker' Toyota complete with 'donut' spare tire installed.

We were amazed at how small the first space capsules were.

Is this the Russian capsule?

The Lighthouse is one of the few things to see on this tiny 7 mile island.

We met up with the others at the northern tip. They rented a golf cart instead of a car.

Back at the cruise terminal there was all the usual tourist stuff.

We returned to the ship after some nondescript snorkeling.

Almost every day we played Sfukkle, Pete and Donna's dice game.

One month to Christmas Eve, we arrived at Grand Turk Island. After a good breakfast served to us in the dining room with Pete and Donna, we disembarked at 9:15 as discussed last night at dinner. We wondered through the cruise terminal shops in the phony “Disneyland” designed for “the creatively challenged” and checked out beyond the gates of the Carnival-built compound that is surrounded by chain link fence 12 feet high. Usually, on other islands, there is a waiting fleet of gypsy cabs, hustlers and buses. We like to venture here so we can dicker a deal free of the ship’s commissions. I guess this island is so small and poor that the only thing offered outside the gates was a fleet of gasoline powered golf carts priced higher than the AC equipped Toyotas for rent inside this monopoly that our cruise line parent company created here. Actually, of the fourteen days of this cruise, we will spend five of them at ports built specifically by Carnival for its cruise ships. (Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk Island and Costa Maya Mexico). All this is great if you like an artificial, Americanized Caribbean experience in the complete safety of the company compound but I have read that since major tourism is very new to this island, if you get away from the dock area, the island is supposed to resemble the Caribbean of thirty years ago.

We commandeered a tired looking Toyota with bald tires and one “donut spare” It was the last rental car available and it looked like it may have been the sales attendant’s own vehicle. We sped off down the road, driving on the required left side (most of the time). Fortunately we never had to exceed 20 mph the whole day, so we were pretty safe.

The Internet proclaimed that “the place to be” snorkel site was called Pillory Beach. We decided to check this beach out but chose to explore a little and drive the full seven mile length of the island first to visit the lighthouse where, through the years, islanders would deceptively extinguish the light and place false lights which encouraged ships to run aground on the adjacent shoal so they could plunder the cargos.

Pillory beach turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, both as a beach and for its snorkeling, but it was still nice to get into the warm, turquoise water, if only for the swim. The ship leaves at 3 pm today, so it’s “all aboard” at 2:30. We will be returning here next week so maybe we can find a coral reef the and do some better snorkeling.

November 23 - At Sea with the Birthday Girl

Birthday Girl savours shrimp cocktail

That's me posing with John.

John and Cheryl are so photogenic.

Deb poses with her husband Chris. Chris is John's brother.

A birthday cake with one candle? Close enough!

I wish you could hear the Birthday Song... well maybe not.

A white rose for the Birthday Girl.

Willy, our drinks steward, shows Donna how he made the rose.

Ole!
Ann and Helen (Deb's mom)

Dinner tonight is “formal” so Pete and John were in their tuxes. The ladies looked ravishing in their fancy dresses.Helen (Deb’s mom)and Ann joined us which made our full table for ten. Last night there were two empty seats, since Holly and Barry already have bonded with their table mates since they have been on the ship a week ahead of us. The Birthday Girl was totally surprised when the Wine steward brought a tacky plastic “souvenir glass” containing a large Bloody Caesar. Wendy really wanted a large, tacky glass to use for our cabin “lemonades”. The glass we got at the sail away party was tacky enough, but shaped like a large martini glass, so it spilled easily and really didn’t hold much. Funny how the value of a “more traditional” gift pales in comparison to something more useful especially when it’s filled with a uniquely Canadian classic like Bloody Caesar. Click here for Caesar write-up.

November 22 - Fort Lauderdale

We arrived around noon and were aboard the ms Westerdam by 1:30 or so.

We got to see the largest passenger ship ever built - The Oasis of the Seas
The Coral Princess beside the Oasis.

Leaving Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale at dusk.