Graduation Caribbean Cruise Friday, May 30 - June 7, 2014

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Monday, June 2, 2014

Super excited today. We are visiting the island of St. Kitts for the first time. I have heard that it is a beautiful island, however never experienced it before. Cindy and I are going on our own tour today, a rain forest hike. Michael and Brian are doing a sea kayake trip and Jenny and Marcus are hiking a 3000 foot volcano. We have a packed day of fun stuff.

Cindy and I ate breakfast again in the dining room this morning. I had scrambled eggs again and Cindy had eggs benedict. She says the eggs benedict is spicy.

After a quick breakfast we heading off the ship meet our tour on the pier. We noticed there were lots of very large rocks on the shoreline next to where the ship was docked. I suspect without these large rocks, there would be a ton of erosion.

We exited the ship and met our tour guide. She had us wait until others on the tour joined us. Our group was complete so we were escorted to our air conditioned bus which was located in the shopping area. We boarded the bus quickly and off to our tour of the rainforest. Prior to driving to the rain forest, we learned a little about St. Kitts. On our way to the rainforest, we passed by the burnt out Venezuelan Embassy building. They are ruling this arson. The tour guide also mentioned that 70%!o(MISSING)f the island is covered in sugar cane. The main economy driver is tourism. At one point in the islands history, there over 150 plantations. Here is a summary of St. Kitts. Saint Kitts (also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island (Saint-Christophe in French)) is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighboring island of Nevis constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The island is one of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. It is situated about 2,100 km (1,300 mi) southeast of Miami, Florida. The land area of St. Kitts is about 168 km² (65 sq mi), being approximately 29 km (18 mi) long and on average about 8 km (5.0 mi) across.

Saint Kitts has a population of around 35,000, the majority of whom are mainly of African descent. The primary language is English, with a literacy rate of approximately 98%!<(MISSING)sup>[ Residents call themselves Kittitians.

Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest fortress ever built in the Eastern Caribbean. The island of Saint Kitts is home to the Warner Park Cricket Stadium, which was used to host 2007 Cricket World Cup matches. This made St. Kitts and Nevis the smallest nation to ever host a World Cup event. Saint Kitts is also home to several institutions of higher education, including Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, Windsor University School of Medicine, and the University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The capital of the two-island nation, and also its largest port, is the town of Basseterre on Saint Kitts. There is a modern facility for handling large cruise ships there. A ring road goes around the perimeter of the island with smaller roads branching off of it; the interior of the island is too steep for habitation.

Saint Kitts is 10 km (6.2 mi) away from Sint Eustatius to the north and 3 km (1.9 mi) from Nevis to the south. St. Kitts has three distinct groups of volcanic peaks: the North West or Mount Misery Range; the Middle or Verchilds Range and the South East or Olivees Range. The highest peak is Mount Liamuiga, formerly Mount Misery, a dormant volcano 1,156 m high.

Our bus ride to the rain forest took about 45 minutes. The route to the rain forest was very tropical and hilly. It was nice seeing the diverse terrain and then different types of housing. The housing here seemed outdated and a lot more poverty than St. Thomas. We arrived at our starting point of the rain forest hike. The starting point is Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor. This is a beautifully appointed island building and full of handmade crafts and paintings. The paintings were actually on a cloth and the artists were using a melted wax technique. I attached a photo of a lady using this technique. We did not purchase anything, seems a little expensive and really have no place in our home.

Cindy and I walked around the grounds observing the awesomeness of the lush plants and tropical environment. Our meeting point with the tour guide after this stop was at the 400 year old tree. The tour guide called it the saman tree. This tree is actually a saman tree. It was brought to St. Kitts by the Amerindians approximately four centuries ago. According to the plaque in front of the tree, the “current owner feels only a sense of stewardship of Romney, acknowledging that the true owner is ‘The Tree.’ While he regularly communicates with it, he is yet to receive a reply.” I enclosed a few photos of the saman tree.

While waiting for the hike to start, we meet a couple from IL. Through our brief introductions, they heard that we were from Houston and apparently they are looking at moving there. We gave them our contact information and some information on top cities in the Houston area as well as good school districts.

Our tour group was finally together and we started our rainforest hike. We had a short hike and then stopped at the ruins of Wingfield Rum Distillery. I wish I had taking notes on the history of this distillery. Nothing else I was able to get a lot of photos at different angles. I enclosed a photo of the distillery in the blog.

Following our quick stop at the Wingfield Rum Distillery, we continue our hike. Before moving into the rainforest area, the tour guide multiple times during the hike explaining the various plants. He pointed a specific fern,mimosa pudic, when you touch it the fern closes up. In 30 minutes time, the fern will reopen. There are a photos demonstrating the before and after. We also passed under several zip lines, this was a separate tour. We quickly moved to the deep forest of the rainforest. It went darker and much more humid. As Cindy said, 150% humid felt about right. It was super humid; however it is a tropical rainforest. Words cannot describe the depth of the rainforest here. The amount of flora and fauna were just incredible. We were so amazed with the amount of vines hanging, various types and sized of roots; however the streams of water were very lite. Apparently it has been several weeks since there was rain fall. I attempted to take several photos, including panoramic views during our hike. The surfaces were very uneven and some sections were very steep and rugged. There are a few photos posted on this blog, however the photos do not do any justice to what it is like in real life. The tour guide was really good about taking periodic breaks along the way. You needed the breaks because of the steep inclines/declines. Once leaving the forest, we walked over to a shaded area for a longer rest. The tour guide set up a table and served fresh bananas, pastries, and very sweet lemonade. It was about 1:00 pm, so the snack was really appreciated and needed. It was still hot/humid; however there was a moderate breeze which helped out a lot. We were able to break for about 45 minutes and then our tour bus picked us up to take us back to the ship.

Once we returned back to the ship, we headed immediately to the windjammer to eat lunch. This was super-fast, because we wanted to go back to port so we can take advantage of the free Internet. Cindy was able to post pictures; Todd was able to check in with school.

Cindy and I returned back to the ship and got dressed for dinner. We wanted to have drinks before our 6:00 pm dinner time. As usual, we had the drink of the day. The drink today was lush mint lemonade. This drink is a luscious, crisp and refreshing mingling of lemonade and monin mojito mix, combined with Smirnoff vodka, garnished with fresh mint and lemon.

We meet everyone for dinner in the Tides dining room. It is always good getting back together to rest and relax and hear about everyone’s day. Jenny and Marcus had an awesome day hiking up a dormant volcano. They said the hike was very strenuous and tiring, but worth the effort when they reached the top. They mentioned several people had to turn back because it was too hard for them. Michael and Brian kayaked in the sea. They had a ton of fun but really hard because they kayaked in the ocean which was rough. They followed a 2 mile course. According to Michael he decided to jump off the kayake to swim, however in the process he flipped the kayake, with Brian in it. Crazy boys. The Guo’s zip lined this morning and had a ton of fun. This is the first time they had zip lined and really enjoyed the experience.

For dinner this evening, the theme is Pimiento. A little write up on pimiento according to Royal Caribbean: for nearly 10,000 years, the South and Central Americans have worked to prefect the chili pepper, one of the world’s oldest cultivated crops. Upon sampling his first chili in 1493, Christopher Columbus called it “pimiento” Spanish for pepper. The starters included Caprese salad, arancini, antipasti, creamy roasted garlic soup, minestrone, chilled strawberry bisque, insalata mista, royal shrimp cocktail, escargot, and Caesar salad. For dinner, the options were lasagna, eggplant parmigiana, chicken marsala, garlic tiger shrimp, filetto do maiale arrosto con salvia, and shrimp insalata mista.

Following dinner, we joined a loyalty program reception with the captain. We were late, but still heard the captain talk about his career with Royal Caribbean.

This evening, the show was a tribute band for Led Zeppelin, called Led Zepagain (http://www.zepagain.com/). This was a seriously great show, maybe not for Cindy, but for me. I felt like I was in High School again. They played many of the favorite songs I remember growing and still listen to. As I write this blog, early in the morning, they are playing a Led Zeppelin song, what the heck.

After attending the show, we heading to the Schooner bar to listen to Pat play the piano.



We retired this evening and looking forwarded to sleeping in tomorrow. Tomorrow is a sea day. Of course, knowing me, I won’t be able to sleep in. Stay tuned to our sea day blog for June 3, 2014.

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