AMAZON ADVENTURE BLOG #1

AMAZON ADVENTURE – BLOG #1

6 January 2010

We celebrated our New Year’s Day with a leisurely flight from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale via Dallas/Fort Worth. Each of our two connecting flights started with a Bloody Mary furnished by our smiling steward and stewardess on each flight thanks to our first class tickets courtesy of the frequent flyer miles we cashed in. After a relaxing night at a local Ramada Inn, we boarded the Royal Princess at noon on Sunday where we met our traveling companions Marty and Paul Zarcone.

Our first night at sea introduced us to the difference between our 30,000 ton Royal Princess and the 100,000 plus tons that were under us during our last several cruises. The Atlantic was unusually bouncy as we headed south. Dottie’s wonderful “seasick watch” kept her comfortable but Bill’s macho approach to the sea disregarded the affect of the moment as he succumbed to the first such discomfort he had experienced in twenty years. Once we were resigned to our `circumstances, we found that the rock and rolling made for the first deep and lasting night’s sleep we had known in months.

Our ship spent its first two days of our cruise “at sea” making time for bridge activities for Bill, sun bathing for Dottie and our first “formal night” of our cruise vacation.

Our ship’s first port of call, after two full days at sea, found us at the little Lesser Antilles island group called St. Barthelemy, named by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after his brother. Frenchmen from neighboring St. Kitts were the first to settle St. Barths; they arrived in 1648. However, until St. Barths became a part of the French owned royal colony of Guadeloupe in 1878, possession of the island was an ungoing issue as, at various times, England France and Sweden claimed ownership.

Our ship’s tenders put us ashore at Gustavia, the capital of St. Barths. We went ashore and wandered through the little town soaking up the atmosphere and peering into the windows of shops bearing the names of some of the most expensive clothing and jewelry lines in the world. St. Barths never attracted much attention as a place for farming and such but it came alive big time when a few of the world’s rich and famous decided to park their yachts in the great harbor after World War II. Today the harbor is home to literally dozens of Tiger Woods sized yachts with hundreds of smaller wannabes parked nearby. The expensive shops are obviously handy to provide shopping diversions for the well heeled owners and their friends to fill their hours between sunbathing and cocktails. We found a waterfront sidewalk café where we enjoyed a glass of wine as we ogled the beautiful people strolling by.

Our next Island stop was St. Lucia; a small island nation that gained its independence in 1979. Discovered in 1502 by Christopher Columbus, the island lived through an interesting history during which France and England vied for ownership. The two countries each ruled the island seven different times before England became the final governor. The island now is a democratic nation with elections every five years to determine who shall rule. The two parties seem equally represented in the government. The population of 160,000 is predominantly catholic. English is the language of the country but the largely black population speaks a unique “creole” that mixes French, English and a form of African that was brought to the islands by early slaves. As we drove through the countryside on tour, it seemed to us that mostly poor black people lived outside of the major towns. The houses we saw were very small wood structures crowded together on narrow streets.

Our tour took us to a marvelous hilltop home called the “St. Marks House”. The home was built in the 1940’s by the Bearubrum family; the wealthiest folks on the island. The family gained its wealth in sugar canes and later shipping. The widow Bearubrum was known to travel broadly and the home was decorated with souvenirs of her travels. The view of the bay and the town of Castries from the home’s balcony was breathtaking.

Our tour took us around the small island to a working banana plantation and an abandoned sugar mill. Our guide explained to us that the drop in prices for sugar in 1960 caused the farmers to stop growing sugar cane and start growing bananas and coconuts. Today the few fields of sugar cane are only gown to provide sugar for the rum brewers.

Our visit to the banana plantation introduced us to the fact that banana trees only produce one bunch of bananas in a life time. Once the bananas are harvested, the tree is cut down and mulched for fertilizer and a new tree is planted in its place. The new tree will produce a stalk of bananas in one year. The planting and harvesting is a never ending year round operation.

About forty years ago an earthquake caused a great deal of damage on the island. Most of the island’s schools were destroyed. A Banana Planter who had received special tax advantages from the government to plant bananas volunteered to rebuild the schools that needed rebuilding. Since the planter liked the colors green and white, he had all of the new schools painted green and white. All of the schools that were rebuilt at the time continue to be painted green and white to show continuing thanks for the unusual gift.

St. Lucia is proud of its two Nobel Prize winners. The town square in the capital city of Castries, formerly named Christopher Columbus Square, was renamed in 1992 the Derek Walcott Square to honor the island’s first Nobel Prize for Literature recipient.

While all is serene and beautiful on St. Lucia, it was interesting to note that the price of gasoline is more than $12.00 a gallon. We didn’t see a lot of cars.

And then came Trinidad & Tobago with lots of cars and gasoline selling for $1.00 US per gallon. Trinidad is less than 4 miles from Venezuela and shares the latter’s oil rich character. In fact, there are those who theorize the island of Trinidad once physically broke away from what is now Venezuela. Because of the oil resource, Trinidad/Tobago hasn’t been affected by the world wide recession. We were told that if someone wants to work in the country there will be a job.

We stopped at Port of Spain, the capital of the country of Trinidad and Tobago, and quickly found a taxi driver who was pleased to serve as our tour guide for several hours. He narrated our tour in perfect English and seemed to know everything there was to know about the places we visited. We felt very lucky to have found such a resource.

We learned that the country gained its independence from England in 1992 and has prospered ever since. The country of almost two million has numerous resources including oil, rich farmland and a number of minerals that are mined for export. About 800,000 of the country’s inhabitants live and work in the capital city of Port of Spain. More than 1.3 million people live on the island of Trinidad and 500,000 live on Tabago. Tobago’s primary products are agriculture and fishing.

Our tour through Port of Spain took us to the National Botanical Gardens, through the world’s largest “round-about”, past the Queen’s Savannah, a grassy park area of more than a square mile, past the various government buildings and a visual tour of the “Magnificent Seven”, a group of century old formerly British land owner mansions that border the Queen’s Savannah. Port of Spain has many parks and open green areas that make it a very pretty city. The Queen’s Savannah was once covered by Sugar Cane fields but is now set aside as a permanent open space.

Our driver described his city as a fun city with people who enjoy a party. We were told about parties that are occurring nightly at his time of the year in anticipation of Mardi Gras which is still a number of weeks away.

Trinidad is the birthplace of Calypso music and steel pan rhythms. A highlight of our tour was a stop at a spot that provided a panoramic view of Port of Spain and a calypso musician who quickly developed and sang a special song for us. We were disappointed that we didn’t have a recorder to save the music to share later.

Trinidad & Tobago are proud of their mixed heritage. Slaves were once imported from Africa and descendants still make up a large part of the population. Our driver was a fourth generation Indian whose family came to Trinidad as farm workers when slavery was abolished. The workers were encouraged by gifts of land to remain after their contracts were fulfilled. Our driver professed to be Christian although most of his family continues to by Moslem. The nation works hard to insure equality for all with a positive effort to minimize differences among its people.

Crime is minimal in Trinidad with most crime associated with drug trafficking from Venezuela. The proximity of the two countries makes travel between the two very easy. Trinidad residents often take the ferry to Venezuela to do their major shopping because of lower prices and greater variety of products.

We’re enjoying ourselves and are supremely well. We’ve met a number of new friends that have made our trip very special.

Love to all,

Gram and Grampa Bill, Dottie and Bill