It’s about 7:00 local time on Monday, January 15. We’re easing into port at Kralendijk, Bonaire. I have a great sunrise picture to prove it and hopefully will get to post it and a few others soon. More on Bonaire in the next blog, I’ve got a little catching up to do.
We went “off the grid” just before leaving St. Lucia on Friday afternoon. We had no service in Barbados on Saturday and we were at sea yesterday.
Like our first two stops (St. Thomas and Antigua), we spent the majority of our time on St. Lucia and Barbados refining the fine art of beach sitting and relaxing in the refreshing, blue Caribbean water.
St. Lucia is part of the Lesser Antilles Windward Islands. We were docked in the port city of Castries (it’s always good when they dock these big things in a port). Interesting fact I learned about the harbor, it’s actually located inside the crater of an extinct volcano. It was a busy day in port with several other cruise ships in town. The city, island and numerous beaches were all big enough that it didn’t feel crowded. We hopped on a taxi/van with some other beach goers and off we went with James (our driver) to Rodney Bay Beach. We were dropped off at a busy section of the beach but a 10-15 minutes walk took us to a very sparsely crowded area. There was plenty of shade and a funky little refreshment stand called Marie’s Fish and Cool Beer Shack. It was being operated by an older, friendly island lady (not sure if it was Marie). In addition to serving a steady stream of tourists there were a number of locals who seemed to make Marie’s their daily watering hole. There were no changing facilities other than a couple of pieces of tin roof nailed to a palm tree. One of the locals who pointed us to the makeshift facility told us they had been asking for a changing room for 20 years. He then broke into a semi-toothless grin and said.... “bad government”......can you imagine that? The water was refreshingly cool and we sailed away from St Lucia quite pleased with our first visit to the island.
Barbados was the largest (population) of the four islands we visited the first week. It’s population is just under 300,000. The capital is Bridgetown, which is where we docked. It was an easy 30 minutes walk to Carlisle Bay Beach and the clearest of the clear water we have found so far this cruise. As usual we found our way to the most deserted stretch of beach (far end, near the Hilton) and set up shop for the day. The air temperature was warmer (mid 80’s) so there was probably more time in the water than on land. Four amazing beaches on four amazing islands in four days.....not bad!
After a relaxing day at sea yesterday we’re ready to get back to work here in Bonaire!
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| Maries Fish and Cool Beer Shack |
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| Floating Fruit and Vegetable Stand |
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| Rodney Beach |
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| Rodney Beach Up Close |
