Day 4 - St. Thomas Island

Oceans and Seas » Caribbean
February 4th 2014

Published: February 5th 2014

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Sandy and Cory

St. Thomas & St. Sam

The canon maker man!

Morning brought our arrival to the dock of St. Thomas Island. What a gorgeous picture it made....postcard pretty. Ooooooo, Ahhhhhhh. Enough beauty ogling. I still think it is terrific how we go to sleep in one location and wake in another. What a way to travel and see the world...or at least a part of it. But now it's the breakfast hour which we must attend in order to provide us with stamina for the busy day ahead. Once we debarked and set foot on the island, we found our way to the taxi station. These are not the usual yellow cabs. Although, there is a lot of yelling and hollering for cabs as in any city. The "cabs" have a front end of a pick up truck with what might look like a safari wagon on the back.....rows of seating in an open air vehicle....each with many dents and creases in the body of the rig. Why? What does that mean? The reason was quickly explained....the people drive like crazy nuts here and the roads are not much wider than sidewalks. Nothing and no one is safe. There must be constant side-swiping and collisions. Pray for us as we ride,

Lulu on her ass + taxi cabs

Loving it all

clutching our hearts. The cab we took looked new so either it hadn't been in service long or we had a good and lucky driver. We were taken quickly to the business district. On the narrow road, cluttered with dented vehicles weaving in and out, were millions of little jewelry shops and liquor stores. Sam found a fancy watch for himself while Cory held out....sniveling and sad afterwards. Hang tight....we still have another island to go so hopefully he'll get what he wants there. He drowned his sorrows by buying four bottles of liquor (the prices are so cheap and it is all duty free). Just like a kid in a candy store! On this chaotic, crowded avenue, we boarded another open air taxi for a tour of the island. OMG....I can't even put into words what this ride was like. A cross between a wild, out of control, amusement park ride on a washed out dirt channel that twists and turns like Lombard Street in San Francisco and traveling at the speed of light. Can you get the picture? Cory was right when he said we didn't need our scopalamine patches (anti-nausea) on the ship but could have used

Load 'er Up. Matey

All aboard on our first taxi

them on this harrowing, whirlwind ride.....but it was such fun! We had the last back seat so we didn't miss a thing....what we didn't see coming, we saw going. The driver took us to Bluebeard's Castle, the classy homes along the super steep hillsides, to breath taking views on the mountains (straight up and then, of course, straight down). Photo Op for Lulu at the top of one mountain: posing with "Lady Ga-Ga", the pathetic donkey being dragged around by an equally pathetic local. I shutter at seeing pathetic critters (both) so had to do the shot quickly and with my eyes closed. The tour ended at a nice beach.....water so blue and inviting. The cab took us back to the boat and the first thing to do was grab something to eat just BEFORE dinner. We had missed lunch! OMG....will we die from this break in our routine? Our bodies have been primed for continuous feedings. Pizza was the appetizer choice before the main course. Whew....now we are back on schedule.....we can survive. No drop in blood sugar here. Entertainment tonight was a show by a musical singing group. Mostly country music but a mix of other. They were

Rum to Resting Spots

Cemetery

very good. "One for the road" was downed at a bar at the very top of the ship. The lounging couches were much too comfy.....the music was good but loud so that kept us alert and happy. The liquor helped, too. And then back to our rooms to get some sleep before another full day of fun and excitement. Going from a nightly routine of watching "The Big Bang Theory" on TV to this over abundance of activity is like running a daily marathon. Sometimes we are dragging ourselves across the finish line but we are still coming out winners. This excursion has been something out of this world! And still, there is more to come. Stayed tuned one and all.

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