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Published: February 9th 2007
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Romney Manor Gardens
How pretty. You go digital camera :P Captains log…
St.Lucia, St.Kitts and a whole lotta Batik going on.
As we are no longer going to Martinique and Barbados the though of going to St.Lucia and St.Kitts is very exciting. New ports mean new adventures.
Today Jeanette, Ursula - a German nurse and I go off the ship in St.Lucia and decided that it was going to be a beach day. We have spent the past little while going on a lot of historical tours. And as much as I love them, you all know I am fond of looking like a 40 year old leather handbag too. So off to the beach after haggling to many of the locals for the best possible taxi fair to a beach nearby.
The beach we decided to go to which was recommended by one of the Customs agents was just outside of the city of Castries. Although the taxi driver redirected us to a place called ‘The Wharf’. You see, it’s a pyramid scheme St.Lucia. You get in the taxi and they are going to take you to an amazing beach, which has a small restaurant/bar on it and the only one for miles. Thus you are
forced to eat and drink there. Which is not cheap - I wonder if the cab drivers get a commission for being in the tourists? But I often wonder now when we are in our home ports, “Am I still a tourist?” After being to a country multiple times when can one say that they are no longer a tourist? Mind you this was our first time to St.Lucia, but the question still stands.
Anyhow the beach that we went to in St.Lucia reminded me exactly of the beaches in Punta Cana. Very nice, however mostly filled with rock and broken sea shell. It water was nice. Not a clear as I would have thought. Perhaps the more ‘clear blue’ waters are within the more expensive and exclusive areas. But I can also report that the sun was HOT!!! that day. You could literally feel your skin baking in the sun. But the weirdest thing is that you couldn’t really see any colour on your skin. You could feel the presence of a burn but still no pink or red skin. Hrm, odd. After a few hours I got ants in my pants and needed to go for a
walk. I wandered down the beach and to the point and then, low and behold a Sandals resort. I walked through the resort like I owned the joint. Crew and myself alike have determined that you can walk through any of the nice resorts at our ports however if you make yourself look like you shouldn’t be there even for a second they will catch you. So off I go to the bar, around the rooms and by the pool. It was very nice. It is easy to see that once someone goes to Club Med or Sandals that they do not ever vacation somewhere else - if they go to a resort that is.
The next day another free tour was granted our way. This time we were in St.Kitts. Everything that I have been told so far is that St.Kitts is like Grand TandC. However I say Booo to these people. Although it’s their opinion, they clearly did not tour either island for a fair comparison. Jeanette and I managed to go on another historical tour and went to Brimstone Hill Fort, Romney Manor, see a lot of historical churches and witness some traditional Batik being made.
Batik is a process similar to Tie-Dye, where the artist covers fabric in wax and puts the fabric in a cool dye bath. Then boils the fabric to remove the wax and repeats the process with additional colours until the desired product is made. The Batik artist was at Romney Manor which is a tourist area full of botanical gardens and amazing views. Some of the trees were over 300 years old and they branches were gigantic. It was truly beautiful.
Before that we went to Brimstone Hill Fort. This was a Fort ordered to be made by African Slaves by the British in defense of the French. The ironic part to all of this is that in later years the two joined together in defense of the Spanish. Unfortunately during all of this all of the Carib-Indians were killed. Aside from the obvious tragedy, the Fort was fantastic. The craftsmanship that went into the Fort and the views of the island and neighbouring islands was unreal. I love walking through old Forts and historical areas. Although it sounds odd, I can feel the history. Or it’s my mind playing tricks on me. Just standing in a narrow passage
way watching the other tourists walk around I get a perspective that I am someone from the past watching.
I think I can safely say now that my favourite places so far are, Costa Rica, for its colour, St.Maarten for its beaches, St.Kitts for its natural beauty and Martinique for its old European feel.
As a member of the Corporate Training Department one of my duties is to ensure that the crew and staff have activities throughout the month to keep them ‘happy’ and gainfully employed. And February is no exception to this. The CTC or Crew Training Centre, Audio Visual Dept, Spa Dept and Photo Dept, we are all responsible for running organizing and creating the crew/staff activities for February. You know I can just see it now, Brooks is going to get stuck doing it all. I don’t mind really but as I said before I just don’t want to half ass anything and with how much work we have on our plates I know that I will and that is annoying to me. I don’t want people to think that ‘this’ is all I have to offer. When I could quite literally throw a party
that would sink the ship. WOW, bad analogy there or what. HAHAHA. Speaking of parties, you will notice some new pictures of the people that I have met onboard as well. Richard the Dancer and Catherine the AV girl, a group of us decided that we were going to go to the Disco and shake what our mamma’s gave us. Which was followed by some 3am pizza at the Pizza bar, good times all around.
But time will tell and I am sure that things will be fine. I am planning on getting off in Ft. Lauderdale and Panama to look for decorations with some others. I hope it’s a success.
Miss everyone and hope you are enjoying the entries.
Brooks
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