I Like the City of San Juan

Well, after an Easter hiatus, I am eager to finish up these cruise posts, as time allows.  I'm still digging out from all the postponed responsibilities, post-cruise, post-Holy Week!

Our second port of call was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Before our visit, the extent of my knowledge of this city came from the lyrics of "America" from West Side Story.

ROSALIA 
I like the city of San Juan. 

ANITA 
I know a boat you can get on. 

ROSALIA 
Hundreds of flowers in full bloom. 

ANITA 
Hundreds of people in each room! 

Etcetera.  In other words, not much!

So we signed up for the 3-hour historic walking tour, which was an enjoyable choice.  Our tour guide was a Manhattan native, who had been coming to San Juan every year for 25 years before becoming a San Juan resident several years ago.  His appreciation of the city was obvious and informative.

Our first stop, where we spent the bulk of our time, was Castillo de San Cristobal, the oldest and largest Spanish fort in the New World.  This is the view from our boat, on our way into port, of the oldest section of the fort, begun in 1539.

That highest part, that doesn't match the rest?  That was an observation post built by Americans who were using the fort as a military base during WW2.

According to the National Park Service, it's not only the oldest and largest, but the "most impressive" Spanish fortification in the New World.

Here's another view of that sentry box, which looks so teeny perched atop that wall--it's really about 12 feet tall.

That's Father Freddy, a Catholic priest from India that we met.  He seemed tickled to have been assigned to cruise ship duty for a few weeks!  He led mass every day for passengers and crew.

These are not cannon balls, but mortar shells weighing 200 pounds each.

After we finished up at the Fort, we explored Old San Juan, a well-preserved section of the oldest part of the city.

These were military barracks for Spanish troops and their families in the mid-1800's, and this interior plaza is considered a very fine example of 19th century Spanish architecture.  The Ballaja Barracks now houses offices for cultural and educational organizations, and the plaza is used for many civic affairs--most notably the wedding reception for Marc Anthony's first wedding (before his marriage to Jennifer Lopez).

The streets of "the blue city" are paved with these bluish cobblestones, which actually go down about 12 inches deep, our guide said.  They were made with in England with iron ore, which gives the bluish color, and were used as ballast in boats that were emptied to make room for more valuable cargo.  As the bricks piled up, they began using them to pave the streets.  They really are lovely and distinct.



Here lie the mortal remains of explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, on whom I wrote a report in 5th grade, so I feel a connection.  He was rocked and rolled around several times before he came to rest, finally, here in San Jose Church.

This sculpture commemorates an averted attack by England in 1797.  With the British navy anchored just offshore, the Bishop went out to ask the people to pray for deliverance, and many women joined him in the streets.  The sailors saw all the torches in the streets and thought that reinforcements had arrived to help the besieged city, and they sailed away.

The government gives a tax credit to homeowners and businesses who paint their buildings in colors from an approved palette of authentic colors--part of the ongoing preservation and restoration effort of Old San Juan.  We also saw evidence of another government project on one street; there were many large containers of cat food out on the sidewalk, and our guide told us that the many cats we saw were fed, neutered and shots kept up-to-date by the government.  "And we have no rat problem!" he declared.

I loved Old San Juan.  Some day it would be nice to visit again, and see other parts of Puerto Rico too.

Grand Turk: We Meet Norwegian and Anglican Kindred Spirits

Our first port was at the island of Grand Turk, the largest of the Turks and Caicos Islands (a British territory near the Bahamas).  It was a short taxi ride from the dock to the small capital city of Cockburn Town, which was a sleepy little collection of quaint buildings, many of them shabby and in disrepair as a result of hurricane damage in 2008. 

Our first stop was a diving operation that was taking us snorkeling!  This was the road leading from their shop to the beach:

I think I could handle that view every day.  See where the water changes from turquoise to dark blue?  That's where the reef drops off hundreds of feet; our instructor took us there to see the "Great Wall."

And here he is--a 21 year old kid from Norway who had found the job on the internet; he'd only been on Grand Turk for five weeks!  We asked how, in Norway, he happened to get into diving?  Wasn't the water awfully cold there?  Oh, ja, he said.  Then he explained that in Norway, diving is looked on as a--how would you say it?--as a very manly sport.

I should think so.

He happened to have the same name, same spelling, as Papa Rooster!  It's the first time PR has ever met someone with the same spelling.  And he told us how to say it in the authentically Norwegian way.

I didn't enjoy the snorkeling that much, though. I couldn't see the fish and coral that well, since I had to remove my glasses to put on the mask.  The first reef we went to was relatively shallow and I saw the most there, but in deeper spots, it was all shadows to me, with occasional flashes of vivid color.   I also had issues with leaking in my mask or snorkel tube.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong, but I inhaled, snorted and gargled much more salt water than would normally be considered fun.  And I got cold in the wind as we sped along in the boat (pictured above), in between dive spots.

So I was happy to dry off and set off on a sunny walk in Cockburn Town with the vague idea of possibly visiting the National Museum on Front Street.  On the way, we passed an Anglican church and noted that we had missed their service at 9 a.m.  We passed a couple children playing, and hardly saw anyone else until we got to the museum, where we were cajoled and persuaded and offered a better rate when we hesitated.  We ended up entering and enjoyed seeing artifacts that had been brought up from a shipwreck and many other interesting exhibits.

We learned that there are a contingent of historians who think Columbus first landed in North America on Grand Turk, perhaps on this very beach:

Isn't that turquoise color beautiful?  We also learned about the dubious history of the island's lighthouse.  It seems that many ships used to become shipwrecked along the treacherous reefs of Grand Turk, so eventually a lighthouse was built.  But the wrecks continued, because the light in the lighthouse was too dim.  It seems that the local economy had begun to depend upon the valuable cargo that was taken ashore from the unfortunate ships, so perhaps a brightly shining lighthouse was not in the island's best interest.  A Lighthouse Authority of some sort replaced the original beacon with a stronger one...and there were no more shipwrecks.

I was a little surprised to see cactus on an island.  But it's native; in fact, the Turks are named for a type of cactus, the Turk's Head (not pictured).

Besides being Columbus' first landfall, Grand Turk's other claim to fame is being the splashdown site of John Glenn's Friendship 7, when he became the first man to orbit the Earth.  A replica marks the entrance to the airport:

We took a taxi from Cockburn Town out to Lighthouse Point and then back to the dock, and our driver, Anita, was happy to slow down for pictures of the horses and donkeys roaming along the roads.  They weren't really wild, she explained; they had owners and they usually returned back to their stables on a regular basis.  What if you needed your horse and he was out wandering?  I asked, and she said you would keep that one stabled or fenced; these were the ones the owners wouldn't be needing--mares and foals, or older horses.

As we passed a large church, we asked if it was the Methodist church, as our other taxi driver had said that "Methodist is the main religion of the island."  Our driver nearly turned all the way around in her seat.  "Who to' you that?"  she demanded indignantly.  "Methodist?" she asked, as if the word tasted unpleasant.  "Methodist?  No way.  Anglican is the religion of this island. How come they only got one church, if they is the biggest religion, and we got two Anglican churches, hmm?"

"Well, we're Anglicans too!"  I told her.  "In fact, my husband here is an Anglican priest."

"Well, Father, were you in church this morning?" she asked, sounding pious and mischievous at the same time.

 "Uh, no, we were snorkeling," he admitted.  "But we did walk by your church afterwards and we saw that we were too late for service.  Were you there?  Was the sermon good?"

"No," she replied, "I had some things to do.  But I'll go tonight at 7.  Now, next time you're back through here, you just bring your robes and you can come to service with us and celebrate with Father ____.  He'd looooove to have you."

I joked that those robes took up a lot of space, when the airline only allowed you 50 pounds of luggage apiece.   "Well, we got robes!" she exclaimed.  "We'll fix you up with a robe.  Father _____ would be delighted."

Then we talked about Father ____ and how he was relatively new, and about the two priests before him, and about which Bishop and Archbishop the island was under.

Later, back on the boat, we discussed our visit to the island.  Papa Rooster loved the slow pace and thought he could live there; I said I didn't know if I could relax there until I had helped start some kind of community beautification program.  I was surprised at the amount of trash we saw, plus shacks and fences that had been flattened by the hurricane and never cleaned up.  The roads were full of potholes and many buildings were in disrepair.  Clearly the economy was depressed.

But we agreed that the best part of our day had been meeting Anita!

Cruise Pictures: Exploring the Ship

So here we are, pulling out of Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale, on board Holland America's Westerdam.  This is the smaller of the two pools on board.  This is the ninth deck--the topmost deck that covered the whole ship.  Papa Rooster is taking the picture from the 10th deck, which only covered a portion of the ship.

PR had never attempted this kind of self-portrait with his heavy Nikon D700 before!  We are waiting on a mandatory safety briefing to begin, when they show you how to put on a life vest and which life boat you are assigned to--sobering stuff like that.  (No, that's not a yarmulke on his head, just his hat turned around backward as its brim was interfering with his picture-taking.)

We had a balcony room, which we loved for watching the changing seas, clouds, and ports.

The view straight down.  All pictures are SOOC (straight out of the camera).  In other words--untouched by Photoshop, so the colors are true to life!  Caribbean blues are incredibly vivid.

Our first evening and the following day were sea days.  There were activities scheduled every day, and we participated in just a few.  We learned to waltz, with two dancers from the nightly entertainment troupe as instructors.  I attended a Tai Chi class, and we watched an ice carving demonstration.  We toured the gleaming galley, or kitchen, and saw chefs creating all kinds of dishes and specialty decorations like these bread dough animals.

We ate in the main dining room as often as possible.  There was also an excellent buffet open nearly 24/7, but the main dining room had the best food and wonderful service.  Every meal was 4 courses--appetizer, soup and/or salad, main course, and dessert--which you selected from 4-5 options for each course.  There were a few tables for two, but usually we were seated at tables for 6 or 8, where we met folks from all over the world.  Especially Canadians--they must be even more desperate than we Midwesterners are to get out of the snow and ice!--including French-speaking Canadians who struggled a little to recall English vocabulary words.  It made me appreciate the amazing feats of language so many other cultures master!

On our first morning, Papa Rooster got up early and took shots around the ship.  This one was before sunrise, after the crew had sprayed off the tenth deck:

This was the larger pool, mid-ship, that they covered over at night and opened up during the day:

And this is the main staircase, midship, starting at the third deck and descending down past the second deck to the first deck.

Here's the sun coming up, as seen from the Crow's Nest, the highest observation area/lounge.

Every night we enjoyed excellent entertainment in this auditorium.  There was a ventriloquist (Patrick Murray) with a Jamaican woman dummy/comedienne named Matilda, a comedian/singer/juggler ("The Barnaby Experience"), The Westerdam Singers and Dancers, who performed Broadway-style numbers on several different nights, and a Motown group called Horizon, who were great entertainers as well as singers.

And nearly every night we went for a walk on the decks.

It felt good to walk off all that wonderful food...feel the warm night air and ocean breezes...listen to the lapping waves...and just be alone together. 

After all, that's what we came for!

Back from the Boat

We're back--and we had a great time on a 7-night Caribbean cruise!

It all came together so fast.  We knew we had a big anniversary this year, so it was in the back of our minds that we really ought to make sure we did something special.  With a December 20 anniversary, it's easy to let anniversary plans get lost in the busyness of the holidays.

Then I heard about a website that had last-minute cruise deals and a monthly e-newsletter, so I subscribed.  My parents had taken a cruise last year--their first time--and had loved it, and it sounded appealing to us in several ways.  In the first place, we were both too tired to make decisions about where to go, how to get there, what to do when we arrived, etc.  A cruise sounded like a trip with few, if any, decisions to make beyond picking the date and the boat!  It also sounded appealing from a budget standpoint.  With food, accommodations and transportation all included in the discounted prices, it was a great deal.

As the winter wore on and B15 and Blondechick were making plans to go California with their choir in early March, we started having cabin fever.  Then our bishop's wife prescribed some time away for just the two of us, and that clinched it!  We looked at a calendar and settled on a good week--Blondechick and B15's spring break, so that they would be around to help Grandma and Grandpa Rooster with the younger kids.  We picked out a Holland America ship, the Westerdam, which sounded like it was going to some nice places, leaving Ft. Lauderdale and stopping at Grand Turk in the Caicos Islands, San Juan in Puerto Rico, Philipsburg on the Dutch side of St. Maarten, and finally at Half Moon Cay, a nearly untouched island owned by several cruise companies.

And we couldn't have had a better experience.  We had beautiful weather, a quiet room, fabulous food, super entertainment and incredible service.  We got to go snorkeling and horseback riding in the ocean.  We enjoyed the water, the sand, the shops, the history and the people everywhere we went.  At meals, we sat with interesting folks from all over the world, most of them older than ourselves and with fascinating stories to tell.  (Many of them were Canadians--apparently they are even more desperate than we Midwesterners to get out of the cold!)  The crew also was a multicultural group, with huge smiles and delightful lilting accents surrounding us at all times.

Papa Rooster took hundreds of pictures, and I'll be posting more about our trip soon.  But for now, I am thankful to be back with our kids, thankful for health and safety for us all while we were gone, thankful that we got the time away together...and that it was such a perfect trip!