Haloranch

No blog about a cruise would be complete without mention of the exquisitely presented food. On some days the choices were so tempting that it was too hard to choose just one. So some people at our table - I won't mention any names, but it wasn't me - ate 3 appetizers. This was sometimes followed by two entrees. Yes, self denial was not practiced here. Actually, all the men at our table were at one time or another guilty of multiple selections and on one memorable occassion, all six of us did it. That was lobster night. The menu said something like "lobster tail", not "tails". We all ordered it and we asked our waitress if we could each get an extra lobster tail. "No problem," she said and when our plates were delivered, there were in fact 2 lobster tails on each plate. "Excellent," said someone, "she already put them on the plate instead of bringing an additional one on the side." Two minutes later she showed up with, you g...

Two fabulous days in a row! First, a 45-minute drive from the capital city of St. George through the scenic hilly interior of the Grand Etang Rainforest Reserve to the Balthazar River. The river is nestled in the exotic and magnificent tropical rainforest. Quite a trip in itself. I couldn't help wondering just how steep this river was when our bus crested at 1900'. The roads are very twisty and heart-stoppingly steep. I don't remember ever having seen such steep grades. At the top of one hill, we were greeted by the unlikely sight of a Dickie Dee ice cream truck playing calliope music. Many houses are built on stilts due to the very steep terrain, and their clotheslines are under the house. Clever. It makes use of otherwise lost space and also protects the laundry from the frequent light showers. Oddly, no building in Grenada may be built higher than a coconut palm. Grenada is also knows as the Isle of Spice because it's the largest spice producing island in the ...

Today we swim with the turtles! I had forgotten that the busses here, just oversized vans really, have additional seats that fold into the aisles to maximize seating. A short ride later we arrived at our boat which would take us to the turtle site and we were instructed not to wear fins while snorkeling with the turtles so as not to hurt them. Our guides brought turtle food and in no time at all, there wre 3 giant turtles swimming around us. We were able to touch them though we were asked to keep our hands away from their faces. No problem. The fish food the turtles dropped quickly attracted a school of silvery white fish who fed on the remains, so we got a double visual treat. A half hour or so of this and we boarded the boat again to head for a sunken ship where we would snorkel with a variety of fish. In fact, there turned out to be thousands! Again, the guide fed them and fish of every colour swarmed him: black and yellow striped Sergeant Majors, lrge trumpet fish, slende...

Always pose next to something large like a cruise ship. Next to something that size, you're bound to look small. Fort-de-France is the capital of Martinique, an island of approximately 360,000. French is the official language and you could hardly miss that as all signs were posted in French. The first notable difference on this island is that the women are very stylish. They are also noticably distant, bordering on being unfriendly. The second is that it is very expensive here. Currently the island enjoys one of the highet standards of living in the Caribbean. Among its notable former residents was the future empress of France, Naoleon's wife Josephine who was born on Mortinique in 1763. Pau. Gauguin also lived and painted here in the late 1800's. St. Pierre used to be the island capital until it ws wiped out by the eruption of Mount Pelee in 1902. Killed all 30,000 residents except one, who was in jail. The city itself isn't particulary attractive so we walked...

Hans, playing with his food. I am a voyeur. From the deck of the ship I sit and look at a bright array of umbrellas spread out below me. There's a constant flow of people accompanied by throbbing drums. It's overcast. The leaden clouds were excreting a lazy drizzle, more of a mist than a rain. There was an intermittent parade of clouds scudding across the sky interrupted by brilliant sun and spectacular double rainbows. Three rainbows framed the shore over the course of the day. In town, the sidewalks are chopped up blocks of cement filled with weeds and broken glass. Music blares from every doorway and like in Korea, if you have something to sell, park yourself on the sidewalk under a sunshade and peddle your wares. We walked to the Botanical Gardens where colourful birds twittered their welcome from the tops of every tree. The Gardens have huge spans of lawn which are cut with... weed whackers. Honest. We saw two men working the entire area with these inefficient lit...

So we're idly browsing around Antigua and talking about our upcoming river tubing tour. "I'm almost positive we booked for Dominica," I said to Hans, "so it will be fun to join Rocco, Pat, Clark and Deb." "I don't think it was Dominica," said Hans. "Could it be Antigua?" We stopped short and started at each other. We had been lulled into such a lazy state that when we first entered our cabin and saw the ticket for our upcoming tour, we never even checked it, just put it away. Out of our heads. Now, suddenly the thought that our tubing tour might be taking place even as we were sauntering through Antigua, we virtually sprinted back to the ship in breathless anxiety. "Thank God it's not Antigua!" I said as I looked at the ticket. "It's in Grenada. But I can't believe I would have booked us on an 8:00 a.m. tour. They obviously made a mistake," I insisted, disappointed we wouldn't be joining our fr...

This island is the reason we chose this particular itinerary. About 5 years ago we stopped here on another cruise and in addition to spending the day snorkeling at fabulous Brewer's Bay, our driver also took us to an old rum distillery which has been a family operation for over 200 years. It had the best rum Hans ever tasted. We only had enough money with us to buy one bottle and that bottle haunted Hans. This time, we were here to buy a case. With fins and snorkels in hand, we asked a cab driver to take us to Brewer's Bay first. "I will take you, but the water's so choppy you won't be able to snorkel," he says, eyeing our gear. Disappointed, we asked if there were any other areas where we could snorkel. "Not today," he replied. "The surf is too high but I'll take you to a beach and you can at least play in the water. And the rum distillery you're looking for is just up the road." He was certainly right about the surf. It po...