St. Thomas and Dominca

I look through these pictures and it already seems like a long time ago. As soon as you step back into the United States, the Caribbean islands all seem to fade away and become dream-like in memory. The air I breathed was different, the people I stared at were different (I was discreet with the staring - I hope) the whole world just seems more bright and beautiful. I love vacations. Flipping through these pictures helps me remember it all. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the ship but I did take a lot of pictures. You were warned!

St. Thomas. Loved it. Could live there - happily.

We went to Magen's Bay for the day and it was everything I had heard it would be. We only have one picture from our stop there because about five seconds after this picture was taken, we had all stripped down to our birthday, oops I mean bathing suits and jumped in the water. It was amazing. Warm, clear and turquoise.

This is Dominica. It is crazy green and lush and gorgeous. It has the Peton mountains (and Peton beer which is surprisingly good. It is also very cheap for thirsty tourists - strictly FYI).

All the shopping, buildings, stores, hotels are all right here by the harbor to make it easy for the cruise ship people to access. As soon as you are ten minutes away from the pier it is crazy. I don't mean good crazy either. I mean close-your-eyes-and-don't-watch crazy. We had a tour van take us to our excursion in Dominica. River tubing was what we had signed up for but little did we know we had also paid for a drive that would take years off of our lives. My poor husband was practically leaning out the window so he wouldn't vomit and I was holding on for dear life and trying not to stare into the white's of the oncoming driver's eyes. Not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road - they just drive wrong. It would be like driving with a drunk 5-year old behind the wheel. Lots of speed, lots of honking and lots of swerving.

Finally we made it to our destination. I must admit I was a little anxious about the river tubing. I am not fond of snakes and I had a feeling there might be some living in the rain forest and wanting to swim in the river while I was in there. I was worried about my hiney being in the water. I should have known they would make sure wimpy people like me had nothing to worry about. The bottom of the tube had a plastic piece so that your hiney wouldn't scrape (too hard) against the rocks. That being said, I did hear some people complain about rock wedgies.

Warning: Mark had the camera so there are a lot of pictures of ... me.

The helmet look is making a come-back. Or so I've been told.

We tubed down the river for miles and it was hands-down my most favorite excursion. We did a vote at the end of the trip and all four of us loved it the best. It had awesome rapids, great guides and I didn't see even a baby snake. During the slow parts of the river I would just lean my head back and look at the forest canopy that would spread above me and it was like I was in Jurassic park. Everything that grows there is huge. Huge leaves, huge vines, huge plants and huge bushes. It was unforgettable.

Tomorrow I will be posting pictures of sea turtles, sunken ships, and (drum roll please) some ziplining videos!

Castles and Bones

Puerto Rico - The Rich Port - we didn't know where to start looking. We decided to hop onto the free transit system and see where it took us. One of the first stops was Castillo San Cristobal. Puerto Rico was a prized location in the 1500's because it controlled access and commerce in and out of the New World. This castle was built to protect the city from land-based attacks.

I don't want to bore you with too many pictures of the forts but man they were cool. I'm not a huge history buff but when you see it in person and feel the rocks beneath your feet that people hundreds of years ago stood on as well... history does come alive. Below is a picture of the capitol building and then some more of just different places inside the fort.

The fortress extended to include Old San Juan the city and stretched for over 3 miles. It had fortifications on top of fortifications and I can see why no one was able to take it over.

El Morro was the first fortress built. It started in 1539 as a simple tower and then grew from there. It is massive and it took over 250 years to complete. The Spanish Officers had the ground leveled in front of the fort so that it would make it easier to spot and kill anyone coming close. Thousands of men died on that green grass in front of the fort.

This cannon looks like it is aimed at the little island across from it but there were cannons on that little island as well. Between the two places ships could not access the harbor without some serious poundage from the cannons. The island wasn't just used for the cannons, it was also a place where those with leprosy were sent to die. I had always heard of places like that but had never actually seen one. Again, history coming alive.

No fort is complete without a dungeon and this fort didn't disappoint. It was a small room at the bottom of one part of the fort and it was depressing and dreary - exactly what you need for a good dungeon. You could feel the weight of the fortress pressing down on you and if you weren't claustrophobic before, you would be after staying there for a short time.

On the wall of the dungeon were some pictures. I sense someone was longing for the sea.

He even signed his name. What a neat thing.

Next to El Morro we could see something that looked interesting off to the side of it. So we walked closer to see exactly what it was.

It was a cemetery. We had to go and explore.

(Side Note: Puerto Rico has graffiti everywhere!! I have never seen the likes of it. Either they are very artistic or very bored...)

The cemetery was not nicely arranged and evenly spaced. It was very tightly packed and it didn't have paths. The grass was very squooshy to walk on and it creaped me out to no end. You seemed to sink into it about four inches and it seemed like you might fall through at any moment.

What it did have was some of the most beautiful grave markers I have ever seen.

My grandma would be proud - I even found a long-lost relative. (Padilla is my mom's family name.)

Things were going great and we were doing much oohing and aahing over different sites when we stumbled across something that made us all pause. Actually Christy, Steve and I all blithely stepped right over this dug up area so that we could see the other side and Mark casually called out to me "Did you see the bones in there?"

Come again? Bones? I of course shrieked and called over Christy and Steve so we could investigate together (and so if anything started trying to come alive they would be eaten first). Yup folks, they were human bones and I got thee worst case of the eebie jeebies. We left shortly after that.

After such a hot and sweaty (and scary) day we retreated down to Senor Frog's for dinner and drinks and called it an evening. After all, we had a cruise ship to catch the next day.

We're Back!!

Our trip was amazing ... but if I don't have to get on another one of these for the next few years of my life, I would be completely fine with that.

After many long hours in a plane we finally landed in Puerto Rico. You could tell instantly we weren't in "Kansas" anymore. We collected our baggage and made our way outside to get a taxi. The instant we stepped out the airport doors the heat hit us and I didn't stop sweating for the next two days. I sweated in places I didn't know I could. Luckily our Hotel had air conditioning so then I only had to sweat in the regular places.

We stayed in old San Juan which is a pretty neat place. It was founded in 1521 and you can tell it was built with horses and carriages in mind. The streets are very, very narrow and everything is built on top of each other.

The old buildings all have beautiful balconies in all different shapes and sizes.

The buildings also came in all different colors and there were several actual cobblestone streets.

No golden arches here. Just a simple word - McDonald's. I instantly craved french fries, but we decided to eat locally instead.

This place was called "Roots" and it was recommended to us by our cab driver.

I meant to get a picture of the whole menu and not just the alcohol section but alas, my camera had a mind of it's own. It was interesting to have the menu in Spanish. We all just kind of closed our eyes, waved our hands around and then pointed at something with our fingers.

A lot of the items had plantains (a type of bananna) as a side dish. Steve's were fried plantains with a sauce to dip it in and they were surprisingly good.

That is all I'm going to post for tonight because I. Am. Exhausted. I can't wait to show you all the pictures though and we did get some video of us zip-lining through the rain forest - cool stuff! Until tomorrow...

Leaving on a jet plane...

Well, our bags are packed (with enough clothes to change 3 times a day), my nails are done (which include my fake toe nails that gross out my husband) and my bikini line is waxed (so I don't scare small children at the beach) ... We are ready to go! We leave from Portland tonight and head to San Juan, Puerto Rico and then our cruise sets sail on Sunday. I will be trying to post from the ship so we'll see how it goes. We are going to having so many adventures I want to share with you - zip lining through a rain forest, kayaking along hidden beaches, snorkeling over a shipwreck, swimming with giant sea turtles, cruising on a pirate ship... I am so excited I can hardly stand myself!