Cruise Stories - Excursions
I don't have any pictures from our first tour which was to the Bacardi Distillery in San Juan. We got on a boat, then a bus, then a tram to get to our final destination. Seemed unnecessarily complex to me. Our bus tour guide was freaking hilarious. He was a huge flamer and kept us cracked up the whole time. The distillery was somewhat of a bust because we didn't have enough time there (though they did give us free samples which was a bonus).
They had these self-guided phones where you punch in the number by a picture or artifact then hear a story about it. Being the OCD type that I am, I wanted to listen to every single one. Unfortunately, there must have been 100 different things to look at and listen to and I barely got through 20 before I realized the rest of the tour had moved on to the next stop and I was all alone and needed to skedaddle.
Kathy, Mary and me in St. Thomas. We were supposed to go on the BOB which I can only describe as riding a scooter underwater with a diving helmet on your head. Picture Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. However, that fell through so we ended up taking a cab into town where a really nice guy named Bernard sold us on a group guided tour. It was cheaper than setting it up through Carnival and it was really good. Bernard had the nicest tour bus of all and took us to some neat places. Kathy O. made us late leaving two of the places because she was shopping at one and buying a beer at another. I thought our co-tourers were going to go off on us so I made sure we weren't the last ones back on the bus the rest of the time.
St. Thomas is gorgeous. The water was clear, the sand was white, the people were friendly, Bernard was adorable and the beer was cold. What more could you ask for?
This is a view of English Harbour in Antigua. It's the only existing Georgian style dockyards in the world. We did a "Fascinating Forts" tour which took us to several different forts and the harbour. Admiral Nelson was actually stationed here for a while but hated the weather. There are something like 40 forts on the island but they never had a battle. Guess just having the forts was enough to keep the pirates and the French away.
Antigua used to be all about sugar plantations but they decided to move to tourism about 30 years ago. They're getting there but, they're still not nearly as sophisticated as St. Thomas. The museum at English Harbour had little dioramas that I thought looked like an 8th grade history project. When I told that to Kathy O, she laughed and said she thought the exact same thing. It was really beautiful, though, and the beer was cold so what more can you ask for?
Mary, me, Debbie and Terry on Jost. Another beautiful place with friendly people and cold beer. I don't think I could have asked for more.
My favorite excursion of all was our trip to Ardastra Gardens on Nassau. Our bus didn't show up so they ended up shuttling us over in several taxis so we were running behind schedule which was a bummer because I could have spent all day there. They had birds (not sure who was more amused by whom, Sam or the parrot), lizards, big rodents, peacocks, ring tailed lemurs, big kitties, snakes (which I avoided), bunnies...all sorts of creatures. We ran around like a bunch of third graders high on Coke and Twinkies trying to see everything before the show started.
This guy was just hanging out rather far from his cage. He's a big pig if you can't tell from the picture and he didn't flinch at all when we petted him. Good thing because I would have screamed like a little girl and run away. His hair felt just like transistor radio wires.
Here's the show that they're famous for. They've trained flamingos! They actually respond to commands like 'left face', 'forward march' and 'halt'. Apparently, because they're instinctively good flockers they train easily. Debbie got to be part of the show and petted a few of them. She said their feathers were really soft and it felt like petting a kitten. When the flamingos aren't performing, they just wander around the grounds.
I do not like birds. They creep me out and I'm convinced that they're going to bite me or dive bomb me and get caught in my hair. Mary does not like birds either but she is braver than I. She went into the big bird cage and actually fed the little beasts. She doesn't look too pained in this picture but Kathy's got one of her that is just priceless. She looked like she was doing the Toddy face.
I took this picture for two reasons. One, to show how big this goat is. Two, to pretend I was actually on vacation with John Frinzi. Somehow, his wife who was standing right behind him didn't make it into the pic. Go figure.
It really was a remarkable garden...and they even had cold beer to go along with my Frinzi Fantasy so I couldn't ask for more!
