Surprise! A mid-crusie blog post? WHAT?!?!??!?!3

I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Roseau, Dominica. It’s my first time here I think this may be an excursion port from here on for me. Immediately off the pier is “downtown.” There are only 2 stores in this port that are guaranteed by the ship- most ports have about 20. Lots of street vendors and a large farmers market though. There is an awful smell in a lot of the streets that make it hard to enjoy all of the open air shopping…that and I’m really tired.

I just got a chicken salad sandwich here. It looked like deviled egg mixture spread on my multigrain bread- it kind of tasted like it too. I think they use mustard instead of mayo to make chicken salad down here. That’s fine with me, I love yellow mustard and they don’t have it in the mess. That’s right, no mustard. Ketchup, mayo, A1, and Grey Pupon, but no yellow mustard. I think I’ll steal a bunch of packets at the next barbeque at Labadee!

It’s been a good trip so far, but it’s hard to believe it’s only half over. I’m usually on my way back to New Jersey at this point and we still have 2 more ports and 3 sea days to go! The last 3 ports of this trip are new to me- Dominica, Barbados, and Antigua. The first time I’m in each port is a day for exploration. I wander around- decide if I like the port and which spots I’ll return to or avoid on future trips. Since I’d already been to the first 3 ports I did a couple tours and hit a different beach.

In San Juan I did the sunset walking tour. Our tour guide told us that the ship did not have very good communication with the sun because we missed the sunset. The tour was good- very informative and I got some good pictures as well. I also found some spots to go back to on the next trip- including a good place to see the sunset so I won’t miss it again. We saw a couple forts, many old military buildings, the second oldest church in America, the San Juan Cathedral, city gates, Governor’s mansion, Ponce de Leon’s family’s residence, the convent from The Flying Nun, the Bacardi Rum factory in the distance, many statues, and the trombone player in the onboard orchestra!

I was in St. Thomas the next day and I went on a kayak, hike, and snorkel tour. I loved it! I have kayaked before, but I remember enjoying it more than this time. Everyone else had double kayaks, but I went by myself so I had a single. They were flying by me and I was struggling to keep up. It didn’t help that I had a kind of glass-bottom kayak with a window below me to see to the ocean floor- you can imagine how distracting that was! We paddled through a mangrove reserve and stopped to learn about these amazing trees. They grow in water, but their roots just hang down and don’t touch the bottom. They are great protection for baby fish as the bigger ones can’t fit through all the roots to eat them. They are also very hearty and protect boats during hurricanes. Then we kept paddling to the island of Cas Cay where we had a hermit crab race before hiking around the island to a blowhole. At the mouth of the blowhole were baby sea urchins. I got to hold one as the babies aren’t dangerous yet. Then we hiked back and grabbed our snorkels. I had never been snorkeling before so I didn’t know if I would like it, but it was awesome! Right away I started seeing fish and we saw more and more the further out we swam. I saw puffer fish, barracuda, squirrel fish (look it up- it’s crazy looking!), and even a sea turtle- I think they said it was a baby sea turtle, but it was the biggest turtle I’ve ever seen! We also swam over some shipwrecks- nothing historic, just a downed powerboat that got too close to the reef. Unfortunately I didn’t have my waterproof camera at this point so I don’t have any pictures from this tripL. I guess you’ll just have to go to St. Thomas and see it for yourself!

The next day was St. Maarten. I’ve been there once before and checked out downtown and the surrounding areas then so it was time for something new. Due to an incident with the underwater camera I’ve been waiting for, I still don’t have it so I decided not to snorkel again. Instead I went to Sunset Beach, better known as Airport Beach. It is a beach right at the end of the St. Maarten airport. It literally goes: ocean, beach, 2 lane roadway, fence, runway. There are signs up warning you about the jet blasts. It was awesome! You have to learn which way to face when planes are landing or taking off so you can avoid sand in the eyes and mouth. Regardless, you get sand everywhere- I found some on my eyelid at 11 o’clock last night! If you’re standing in line with the engine when a plane is taking off a combination of the blast and the sandstorm it creates forces you into the water.

Last night was the annual cruise division party thrown by the cruise director. Two hours into the party he announced that we were weak since he still had 8 unopened bottles of liquor and 6 or 7 cases of beer left. I would be surprised if any was left when the party ended at 5 this morning. I’m proud to be one of the two that walked out sober. It sure was a funny party though! Everybody was friends with everyone last night.

I met a singer in the new cast last turnaround day and found out that she’s from Pittsburgh! I decided that we are going to be friends. Then I learned she doesn’t drink! I declared my friendship to her. Lots of Steeler games and making fun of drunk people in our future! I’m excited that she’ll be here until after I leave- I’ve had 2 or 3 friends leave each turnaround day since I started and I have another leaving tomorrow and a few more on Saturday. That’s just the way it is out here, but it’s still hard.

Tomorrow is Barbados and also a Sunday. I plan on going to church with the International Ambassador, so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully I can find an English speaking church- if not, he speaks about 20 different languages so I’m sure he can translate. Antigua is Monday and I’m back in New Jersey on Saturday.

Check out my new pictures here.