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Published: March 7th 2024
My travel plans for 2024 were to achieve my final two bucket list goals of:
1) Visiting 100 countries
2) Visiting the Central European nations of both Linda and my ancestors
I figured that the most efficient and economical way to reach 100 was to cruise to the island nations in the Caribbean. We had been to Puerto Rico (see
Spring Vacation in Puerto Rico) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see
Summer Vacation in the Virgin Islands ), but none of the other Caribbean countries. I had been researching cruise website, and the most countries I could visit in 10 or more days was six. Then last September I ran across a Norwegian Cruise Line 14 day cruise to 14 island countries which would achieve my goal. I booked it immediately!
First a word about countries; There are various lists of countries; from 195 in the United Nations of which two (Palestine and the Vatican are observers) to the Travelers Century Club 330 countries and territories, of which I have been to 108. I was using the now defunct Travelblog list which is somewhere in between...and the variations are endless. Then there are many variations as to what constitute having been to a country...just stepping on the
soil of the country or staying a certain number of days. So each person develops their own definitions as they only have themselves to satisfy.
11 Feb 2024. Sunday. We had been tracking the weather, praying that the storms in California would dissipate by the time they reached Colorado. If the weather was going to be bad we contemplated staying at an airport hotel on Saturday night. In the end we had some snow but decided to drive slowly to the Colorado Springs Airport. Our flight was scheduled for a 6 AM departure, which meant getting up at the ungodly hour of 2 AM...not really worth going to bed. Our first problem was at check in. We were not allowed on the flight without an embarkation QR code required by the Dominican Republic. I had not been provided this requirement when making the reservation. I was in a panic. The American Airlines agent finally provide me with the website, which I accessed on my smart phone, and helped me fill it out, thus obtaining the required QR code. Next, our flight was delayed 45 minutes due to de-icing, meaning we may not make a very tight connection in DFW,
which is a nightmare for making connections. Fortunately the flight we caught there had also been delayed due to deicing coming out of Wisconsin. Our 5 hour flight to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (90th country) was uneventful, arriving there about 5 PM. We stayed at an airport hotel, intending to meet up with the NCL buses that would take passengers to La Romana the next morning.
12 Feb 2024. Monday. We caught the NCL bus to La Romana where we endured the long lines going through Customs and Immigration, paid our exit tax, and the NCL ticketing process. Actually, I didn't endure the walk to the ship as my ongoing problem with my legs kicked-in despite seeing my doctor, a spinal surgeon (who diagnosed me with having lumbar canal spinal stenosis), a physical therapist, a chiropractor, etc. None helped...with a steroid shot and surgery as future solutions. I was listing severely to my left as we got on board. Here I was provided with a wheel chair which took Linda and me to lunch in the dining room. We learned to accept a wheel chair whenever one was offered. After lunch we stopped by our room to check whether
our luggage had been delivered, and then toured the ship. The Norwegian Sky is a smaller ship with a passenger capacity of 2000, which is what we like. We returned to our room and found that our luggage had been delivered, so we put everything away. Then we lounged on the upper deck until it was time for dinner.
We had open seating for all meals, and mostly ate by ourselves We did enjoy eating with other couples upon occasion. We met Al and Lee from Colorado Springs, and hope to keep in touch with them. Actually we met few Americans. Passengers came from 58 countries; mostly from French speaking Quebec, Canada it seemed. We couldn't expect that everyone we met spoke English. Each meal included a large selection of appetizers, main courses, and desert, with quality over quantity. The food was good...I told Linda that when we got home we wouldn't want to eat anything, which for the first few days was true.
13 Feb 2024. Tuesday. The cruise from La Romana only went as far as Catalina Island. We did not understanding the reason NCL only sailed 18 miles the first day. We did not want
to take the tender in swelling seas, so we stayed on board.
Our daily routine was fairly consistent...arising about 8:30 AM, having breakfast in the main dining room (we like food being brought to us rather than standing in cafeteria lines), going ashore to plant my feet on the ground of the new country, taking a tour of the port or the island, finding free WiFi to Skype our daughter Rosanna (the only one home at mid day), returning for a late cafeteria style lunch on the upper deck, relaxing until 5:30 PM when we had dinner in the main dinning room, going to the show (a comedian, magician, dancers, singers, etc), and then returning to our room to read and watch American news on TV before going to sleep around 10 PM. There were many onboard activities including Trivia. We happened upon travel trivia just as it was about to start. I won...the prize was an NCL pen which Linda has buried in her purse.
14 Feb 2024, Wednesday. We sailed our longest leg from the northern Caribbean to the southern Caribbean island of Willemstad, Curacao (91); the first of the ABC island countries 37 miles north
of Venezuela. Willemstad is the capital of the the Dutch territory of the Netherlands Antilles which includes Aruba and Sint Marten, but I counted each as a new country. While we were there we saw some Dutch parliamentarians visiting with their Antilles counterparts at their house of parliament. We just walked around the waterfront checking out the various vendors selling clothes. Linda LOVES to shop and had saved her money to buy gifts for each family member.
15 Feb 2024. Thursday. The next ABC island we visited was Oranjestad, Aruba (92). Most of the islands we would visit from here onwards were only a couple hours sailing apart. According to the ship position tracker on our TV the ship took a zig-zag course to go the two hour distance in a dozen hours, rather than leaving after 5 PM and arriving at the next port two hours later. Seems like a waste of fuel to me! We joined the NCL tour of the island, where I encountered my next problem...the first bus step was too high for me so the tour guide had to pull on my arms while Linda pushed my butt to get me on board. I
collected numerous bruises on my arms as a consequence. For all tour buses, the seats were closer together than with the airlines. I brought this to the attention of the NCL tour folks, asking them to require all tour vendors to accommodate disabled passengers. Linda became increasingly concerned with her evolving role in my being able to travel.
We stopped at a aloe plantation (Aruba's major export) and factory (and gift shop) , the California light house named after the ship California which ran aground nearby, and Palm and Eagle beaches where all the party hotels are located. The trade winds blow constantly so you get sand blasted...not my idea of a fun beach! Most of the tours were not worth the price. Many taxis were available at dockside for tours at much lower prices, and also we could craft our own itinerary; like cutting out all the shopping (Linda doesn't agree). I hate paying good money to be taken to places where the main purpose is to extract more money. How many batik factories does one need to visit, anyway!
16 Feb 2024. Friday. We arrived next at the last ABC island; Kralendijk, Bonaire (93). This is
the smallest island of the three so there wasn't any reason to pay a lot of money for an island tour. Those who took the tour to the salt pans to see flamingos saw only a couple. We did enjoy the vibe of the harbor area, with more shopping for Linda.
17 Feb 2024. Saturday. The cruise to St. George, Grenada (94), the southernmost of the Windward island chain, was the second longest. The Windward Islands are all of volcanic origin, with mountains and forests. We took the NCL tour of the island. The island was invaded by the U.S. in 1983 when a communist was elected president and developed close ties to Castro and Cuba. I wonder when that option was dropped from consideration in subsequent years.
18 Feb 2024. Sunday. We did not take a tour of Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (95). Even our effort to use the WiFi to Skype was drowned out by the steel band. I guess experiencing the local culture is more important!
19 Feb 2024. Monday. Our next stop was Bridgetown, Barbados (96), which is really more an Atlantic island, well east of the other Windward islands. The
British colonized that island back in the 1600's, and over several generations many English used this island to transit to the colonies in America. We visited St. John's Church, the fishing village of Bathsheba and the enclaves for yachts of the rich and famous around the northern and western side of the island.
In my ancestry research I came across birth records of ancestors who were born or died here, so we wanted to see as much of the island as possible. One such ancestor was William Vassall, who died on 13 Jul 1655 and was buried at Parish of St. Michael. His father was Jean (John) du Ouvrey de Gourdon Vassell who was a Huguenot refugee. He became an Alderman of London, was the builder and owner of the Mayflower, and one of the Founders of Jamestown, Virginia.
20 Feb 2024. Tuesday. Castries, St. Lucia (97). Today was the first rainy day, which was unfortunate as I wanted to get a picture of the volcanic Pitons which appear in ads for the island. We took the island tour to a plantation, a fishing village, and to Marigot Bay where the rich and famous tie up their yachts.
21 Feb 2024. Wednesday. Roseau, Dominica (98). No tour today. We just walked around the port area, with Linda checking out more shops.
22 Feb 2024 Thursday. Point-a-Pitre, Guadaloupe (99). The day started out rainy. Despite this, we joined another couple and took a taxi to Deshaies (pronounced day hay), where the British detective series, Death in Paradise, is filmed. Filming takes place in September, but Katherine's bar (where you can only sit if ordering a full meal) and the Honore Jail ( where the entrance fee is 10 euros/person...we declined) are there year around. The DCI's shack on the beach is torn down at the end of each season and rebuilt for the next season, but we saw the beach. We toured the town for about an hour then returned to the ship.
23 Feb 2024. Friday. Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis (100).
I finally set foot in my 100th country! We took an tour of the island to include a plantation house and the Brimstone Hill Fortress. St. Kitts changed hands seven time between Great Britain and France with the surrender of this hilltop fortress being the focal point of each.
24 Feb 2024. Saturday. Philipsburg. Sint Maarten (101), where we also visited Marigot, French Saint Martin (102). We took a tour of both countries to include stops in Marigot and Maho Beach where planes landing at Princess Juliana Airport skim the heads of sunbathers at the end of the runway. As most flights arrive after 1:30 PM we didn't see any arrivals; just a few departures.
25 Feb 2024. Sunday. Tortola, British Virgin Islands (103). Back in 2003 we were on vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and had rented a boat to sail to the British Virgin Islands (see
Summer Vacation in the Virgin Islands ). We got half way there before we had to abandon that plan due to high seas. Well, Linda and I finally made it here! We did not take any tours; staying in the port area. As we were returning to our ship we were almost run down by Sir Richard Branson and his entourage. He was going to his Virgin ship to welcome passengers aboard. We didn't receive this treatment on our ship...we didn't even meet the captain which is normal for the first or last evening.
26 Feb 2024. Monday. We returned to La Romana and caught the NCL
bus back to Punta Cana where we had reserved a beach side condo for one night. We walked along the beach and otherwise relaxed.
27 Feb 2024. Tuesday. We flew from Punta Garda via DFW to Colorado Springs. Let's just say that transiting DFW was a horrible experience. I did note that going through immigration, a nun was escorting a large number of Hispanics through the process. Perhaps they were among the 320,000 illegal immigrants that Biden was secretly flying directly into U.S. airports. Arriving in Colorado Springs, the landing was delayed so that the snow plows could clear the runway. Needless to say, our drive home up the mountain pass to Woodland Park was slow and treacherous. Our cats and kittens were happy to see us. Home sweet home!!!
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Caribbean. We didn't have a favorite island, but liked the chill of Bonaire. We do not anticipate returning to the Caribbean, although going to the Western Caribbean and Central America can't be ruled out. Our highest priority will be to accomplish my second goal listed above. Hopefully, we will finally get our health issues taken care of before next fall so
that we can travel unhindered.
Linda is encouraging me to add a cruise in the Indian Ocean (Dubai to Capetown, South Africa) and the South Atlantic (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Santiago, Chile) to our bucket list, so she must have enjoyed the cruise and the shopping!
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His Dudeness
Ralf Kreuze
Congratulations on achieving you 100th country!
And a few more.... I have no idea where I am on that department, close to a hundred I reckon. Now on to your next goal of the year!