November 6 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

No tour for us today.  The included one was a walking tour of Old San Juan which we've done before.  Instead we got restaurant recommendations from DIL Elizabeth's Uncle Ray and wandered around town for a bit before having lunch at La Madre, a Mexican / Caribbean place.  My passion fruit margarita was great and so was my burrito and Michael's tacos.  Thanks Uncle Ray.  The port area doesn't show signs of the hurricane, but I'm sure we'd have seen plenty once we got outside of the area.

This afternoon we packed for our early departure tomorrow.  Our flights go to Dallas, then Seattle, and finally Redmond.  We've had a great time, but it will be good to be home tomorrow night.

La Madre for lunch

Nice rainbow.

November 5 - St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Today was essentially the same tour as yesterday - an open air 20 passenger jitney ("safari") type vehicle up the mountains.  At least this one had a speaker that worked so we could hear our driver, James.  He is a native who has spent his whole life here except for 2 years stationed in South Carolina with the army.  He is the ninth child of 19 (3 sets of twins) and he and his wife have 5 children (1 set of twins).  The hurricane did a lot of damage here, but it is not nearly as evident any more.  There are still some blue tarps around, but that's about it.  Interestingly, the cars (mostly American brands) have the steering wheel on the left, but they drive on the left also.  The US bought the islands from the Danes in 1917 for $25 million in gold.  Maybe the Danes drove on the left back then and we just didn't change it?

My only complaint about Viking Ocean would be that the included tours are very basic. I guess that's ok for a first visit someplace so you get an overview.  But the quality of the tour operators varied greatly.  A few optional tours are offered but they are expensive, like all cruise tours.  Of course you can make your own arrangements.

We are docked next to a private yacht named Rising Sun owned currently by a Chinese billionaire and formerly by David Geffen and Larry Ellison.  It is 453 feet long, sleeps 16 plus crew (up to 43) and reportedly cost $250 million in 2004.  (I googled it.)  Right now the crew (all wearing white shirts and kakhi shorts) are oiling the teak lounge chairs and polishing the speed boat which is stored at the back inside.  There's a pool at the back on the main deck.

I have figured out how to add captions to pictures finally.

Carnival Fascination on the right, Viking Sea in front of Carnival, and the private yacht this side of Viking Sea.

Michael buying a hat from a vendor whose pitch was  "If you don't buy a hat, I'll have to get the money from Washington."  That made Michael laugh, so he had to buy one.

A $43 million project of land fill and new road.

A better look at $250 million.

The back row was a bit windy.

November 4 - Tortola, British Virgin Islands

We had a pretty good storm yesterday afternoon that stayed all night.  We did a bit of rolling, but what was more interesting to me was the bouncing.  On the big Princess ships we've been on you'll be going along pretty smoothly and then suddenly there's a big shudder, almost as if you hit a speed bump, which jolts you awake.  On this ship we sort of bounced along with little jumps almost continuously.  Made it easier to sleep.

Our tour this morning was memorable and disappointing at the same time.  We were in an open air jitney type vehicle, except that it was built on a Ford F450 truck so it had lots of power which we definitely needed.  The speaker wasn't working so we couldn't hear the guide/driver, not that it would have helped much since he was hard to understand when he was standing in front of you.  He stopped a few times to get out and tell us a little bit about what we were seeing, but we really learned nothing about life here.  This is a very mountainous island and I think we drove up and over each one.  The roads are very narrow and winding so he had to honk before nearly every curve and we had a few close calls.  They build huge homes that hang off the hills.  There was damage from Irma here also of course, but they are much further along in rebuilding.  We looked down on many homes that looked great for the first 2 or 3 floors and then had a flat roof with lots of rebar and pipes sticking up as if getting ready for construction, but no materials around.  We speculate it had something to do with lower taxes on an "unfinished" house, but don't know since our guide wasn't available to ask.  We had an hour stop at a beach, but the day was overcast so it wasn't terribly picturesque.  I thought surely after the beach we'd be taking a level coast road back to the ship. No chance.  The second part over different mountains was shorter, but even steeper.  The brakes squealed, which all the men commented on, and started smelling bad just as we got to the bottom.

Spent our usual afternoon reading, napping and exercising (one of us anyway).  Tonight was our last dinner at the  Chef's Table for Asian night and we enjoyed chatting with a couple of Scottish ladies at the next table.

November 3 - St. Martin/Sint. Maarten

This is our second time to St. Martin but we didn't take a tour last time.  As usual the tour consists of a bus ride with a few stops.  We are docked in Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of the island.  The bus made its way to Marigot, the capital of the French side.  Hurricane Irma swept through here about 14 months ago but the damage is still evident everywhere.  Perhaps homes and businesses haven't repaired or rebuilt because of a lack of money or supplies or both.  We stopped at an indoor mall that has a glass ceiling in the middle with many cracked panes of glass (and dead palm trees also for some reason) which look like they could come down with the next big wind.  There are submerged yachts in the harbors and even the fire house has damage to the solar panels and the roof which hasn't been repaired.  Needless to say, they are very grateful for the tourism dollars.  There are casinos on the Dutch side.  The Dutch are only allowed to visit 6 times per month; the French can go as often as they like.

The last time we were here we rented an umbrella and beach chairs at a crowded beach near the ship, but we didn't see the beach this time.  This is another island with a desalination plant - actually two since everything is duplicated on each side.  Our guide, Dahlia, was knowledgeable but she spoke very fast as if she was reading a speech.  Not much interaction with us and didn't seem to like questions along the way.  After the tour we walked through the obligatory shopping area and looked for our beach, but didn't come away with any luck in either pursuit.

We had afternoon tea for the first time which was nice - delicious scones, finger sandwiches and little sweets.  Couldn't do it every day, but it was a nice treat.  We had dinner with a delightful couple, Ron and Lori from Lake Tahoe.  He, especially, has a wonderful sense of humor that kept us in stitches the whole time.

November 2 - Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis

The name St. Kitts comes from St. Christopher.  The sister island is Nevis, where Alexander Hamilton was born.  Our tour was a drive through downtown and a bit of the area before going to the Bond House which was the big house owned by a sugar cane plantation baron.  It was high on a hill with lovely gardens.  At the heyday there were 67 sugar cane plantations here, but the industry finally closed down in 2003 when the cheaper alternatives like beet sugar in Europe made it unsustainable. Now tourism is the main industry, like most every island here.  There is still a bit of production of small engines and the like.  The population of both islands is around 55,000.  Again we saw a KFC and Subway, but there is no McDonalds.  Wonder why they aren't in the Caribbean.  There are 2 medical universities which follow the US curriculum and a large veterinary medicine school.  The VAT is 17% and payroll tax is 10%, but again no other income tax.  The downtown doesn't have a lot going for it, but the outlying areas are pretty.  You can buy citizenship for an "approved" real estate purchase of $450,000 or a charitable donation of $250,000.  Like all the islands around, water is precious so they have a desalination plant to supplement the rainfall.  There is one in Guadaloupe also.  While we were wandering downtown there was some sort of parade headed by a marching band.  Unfortunately this slow going group was preceded by a police car with the siren going.  We elected to hot foot it away so as not to go deaf, so we don't know what it was all about.

Since New York, we've seen other ships at only one port, Hamilton, Bermuda which had a P&O and a Royal Caribbean.  Today there was a Princess and Carnival.

We returned to Manfredi's, the Italian specialty restaurant for dinner a deux, then back to the cabin. 

November 1 - Pointe a Pitre, Guadaloupe

Guadeloupe is a French Department, not a colony or territory.  So they are governed by Paris, use the euro, and can travel freely to France.  Our impressions are a bit less favorable then Bermuda or even Antigua.  The houses aren't kept up as well and there's a lot of trash and graffiti.  The word that comes to mind is that it's tired.  We did the usual tour that stops at a couple of scenic vistas and then a stop at a beach restaurant for a rum punch and a look at the beach.  The population of around 400,000 has been declining due to many young people leaving or going to France to study and not returning.  This is the island where the BBC show Death in Paradise is filmed, but you'd never know it from what we saw.  We thought about taking a taxi to the quaint town where it's filmed on the western island, but it would have taken a few hours and more money than we cared to spend. Today is All Souls Day so the locals tidy up the graves of their families/ancestors and pay tribute (photo of the cemetery below with the white above ground crypts).

Spent a typical afternoon lounging around the pool. It's very warm (upper 80's) and humid so the water feels good. The pool has a retractable roof and lots of shade which is lovely.  Some areas of the ship are a bit colder than others, but they place blankets around the lounges and small pillows are everywhere for back support, which I especially appreciate.

Had a laugh filled dinner with Joan and Ron from Wisconsin (again) and Sue and Jana, friends traveling together from small towns in Missouri.  Jana has a portable oxygen tank and was on our bus tour this morning, so not much slows her down.

Did a load of laundry and watched a couple of TED talks before bed.