Lazy day

Our final port of call is St Lucia. Now without being big headed, we have sailed out of Castries, done the helicopter, done the airports, the catamaran trips and the booze cruise. We have played golf, done snorkelling trips to the Pitons and seen turtles do their thing at 3am. Each adventure will be in the blog history too.

So probably best to stay on the ship and get squiffy. We tried, but I think all the booze is low alcohol, so off to bed to look forward to our week in Barbados.

We have both decided we prefer dry land holidays to cruising but we have done pretty well all of the Caribbean now, so time to search for new challenges.

Death in Paradise

A wet and wild storm treated our arrival in Guadeloupe and following similarities in Martinique I am beginning to think it's a French kind of welcome to the Roast Beef!

It did, however, make for the most disappointing day so far. We had planned to visit the film sets of the Death in Paradise television series, but an hour plus each way would not have left us much time to wander round once the rain had stopped.

The exterior of the police station is the village museum, and the interior is set up in a local church hall. The featured market and beach side accommodation are both pop-up so there would have been no guarantee they would have been there. it would have been good to have a beer in Catherine's bar though and visit The new location at the zoo. Can't see us returning so an opportunity missed really...merde il pleu.

Champagne moment

No cricket involved in this one, but more snorkelling as we are today in Dominica. As I mentioned, we had hoped to catch up with Tristan Dever who is out here helping to repair hurricane damage. That had to take priority so we took a taxi ride out to the beach. It is called Champagne Bay and again is a recommended snorkelling beach. I found it hard going again and saw a few fish, SWMBO was able to go out further and experience the bubbles which permeate the earth crust under the sea, so making it feel like you are swimming in champagne.
Our journey back allowed us to see the extent of the hurricane damage. The government building, the library and the catholic cathedral all still have all or parts of their roof missing. Many residential and commercial properties still have tarpolines as weather protection, and roads are in a sorry state.
Any international aid seems to have disappeared into the wrong pockets, and the residents are having to fund the repairs themselves. Our cruise ship is the last to visit this season so the economy will have little revenue now until October, so living will continue to be tough.
On our return to the ship, we visited the heritage museum. Here the path of the island was followed firstly with the indigenous Carib indians, then their battles with Columbus and other explorers and pirates. The Indians were wipped out in the flatter less densely vegitated islands but survived on Dominica and with the passing of the slave trade they were granted reservation rights on the East coast which they continue to utilise.
The town centre still has the slavery sales stands and execution areas and a memorial to the first running water facility on the island. This was abandoned ,however, after one particularly large scale and bloody execution as the locals thought the fountain contaminated by the blood of the victims.
Later the island became a fierce battleground when the French and English fought over it. France wanted control of the three islands, Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique, whereas England wanted Dominica to provide a barrier to French domination  of the area.
Tomorrow we visit Guadeloupe to see how the French influence survives after all the conflicts.

Flying fish finger sandwich

The disappointment of the snorkelling trip was compensated somewhat by the wonderful display of the flying fish as our ship left port. Some of them could go 100 yards or more using their fins and gills like wings. For many though that was still not enough to evade the terns, Gannett and cormorants who knew where to be when the fish ran out of puff.
My cunning plan to do a bit of tethering using my mobile phone did not appear as clever as I had hoped so I think I will have a fairly large bill for telecoms when I get back.
Anyway, today is Martinique, part of the French West Indies. The town is dominated by its public park, in which stands a statue of Napoleans wife, Josephine, minus her head. This act of vandalism has not been repaired so has become a statue to the status quo instead.
Opposite the park are two outstanding buildings, the public library and the catholic church. The library is named after Victor Schoeler, who was instrumental in stopping the local French managed slave trade. His statue has a hand missing so there seems to be a trend here. The building was constructed by Mr Eiffel, of the tower fame, in Paris at the same time. It was gifted to Martinique and moved piece by piece to its current location. To tune in with the library's history, the church  has a spire which resembles the Eiffel Tower itself.
Chucked down with rain while we were here, so no beach trips. We did stay up for the midnight buffet though and joined a shared table for dinner which was all very pleasant.
Our plans to meet Tristan Dever in Dominica tomorrow have fallen through so we will see what the island has to offer and how it is coping with the rebuilding work after it was devastated by a hurricane in 2017. Tristan is here to help with the rebuilding programme.

Indian signs

Second day of our trip finds up on St Vincent. It's not a big island and the docking terminal has very few facilities so we head off to a snorkelling beach called Indian Bay. Unfortunately the fish appeared to take the day off so I saw very few. SWMBO teamed up with a stronger swimmer and they found some coral and a few fish further out, but after an hour or so we headed back to our cruise liner.

The reggae bus trips were exciting to say the least but we made it back in one piece. SWMBO is on a hammock on the balcony as I pen this.

Last night at sea was dress to impress. I thought my matching sky blue trousers and bow tie were spot but SWMBO thought my red deck shoes made me look like a clown. Hey ho!

Technology seems to be working and my mobile plans gives me unlimited data for a fiver per 24 hours. I have set  up a Wi-Fi hot spot via my phone which seems to work fine. I just hope there is no hidden bill when I get home.

Probably hit the cabernet tonight and maybe the casino. Will report in tomorrow and let you know.

Spice of Life

After the sadness of the early part of the year, we are starting to get back to normal, and what better way than to revisit the Carribean. We have booked a few days cruise followed by a week in Barbados.
There is no golf involved this time round which is no bad thing as my swing is awful at the moment. so its a good time to clense body and soul. The Sir Gary Sobers is on next week but they have dropped Apes Hill so the festival is not as appealing as it has been.
So we flew out yesterday with Tui. There were some last minute seat problems so we got upgraded to Premium. There were huge benefits we did not appreciate. Fast track check-in and priority security clearance gave us ample opportunity to visit the free airport lounge. When we landed we were first off the plane, taken straight to a coach and bused directly to the cruise ship. No queuing here either so we were on board less than an hour after landing. Looks like Premium might be the way to go!

We are now on Grand Anse beach courtesy of the reggae bus, the chaos of first morning breakfast forgotten, and the dress to impress night is in front  of us.

With that thought in mind I am off for a dip.