Day 10 - Thursday 5th December 2024, Gustavia, St Barts - the Caribbean Cruise

 

St. Barth was originally inhabited by Arawak Indians; they were followed by the Caribs, who greeted Christopher Columbus when he arrived in 1493. He named the island for his brother Bartoloméo. The French made initial unsuccessful attempts to settle it until some determined Huguenots from Normandy persevered and prospered. Later, French buccaneers made it a way station as they plundered Spanish galleons, which adds to St. Barth's lore.

In 1784, France traded the island to Sweden, and the capital was named Gustavia – in honor of its king, Gustavia III – and declared a free port. (To the delight of shoppers, it remains free.) In 1878, it was sold back to France, but charming reminders preserve the past in street signs and the Swedish Cemetery. Those touches delightfully enhance St. Barth's European ambience.

Tourism took hold when Rémy de Haenen, an eccentric Dutch aviator, landed his plane at what is now the airport. He later became the first hotelier and the island's mayor. Rémy hosted the era's luminaries – he was a friend of Howard Hughes – and Hollywood starlets. The '60s brought the Rockefellers and Rothschilds and saw the arrival of the first jet-setters. Thus, the mystique was created. The '70s brought spectacular yachts like Onassis's Christina into the Lilliputian Harbor in Gustavia.

We saw the stunning views from the Gustavia Lighthouse, after walking back through the town. We charted a path passed the churches, and the belltower.  Our path took us past the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption. Just like with forts, lighthouses double as great viewpoints (that’s their job – to see and be seen). The Gustavia lighthouse shares its location with the remains of Fort Gustav. We explored the site and saw the ruins of the fort.  Some cannons remain as a remembrance of its military past.

Church of Our Lady of the Assumption

The BellTower

Visited Shell Beach, no visit to a Caribbean island is complete without a walk on a beach!  So, we headed back down that set of stairs, took a right, and it’s just a brief walk to Shell Beach.

Enjoyed the million-dollar views from Fort Karl. As we got to the next stop of our walking tour, we saw just how steep the roads are in St. Barts. Fort Karl itself isn’t the attraction here (as it no longer remains) – it’s the views. (You’ll always find a great viewpoint at a fort site. That’s why they built the fort there – they could see incoming invaders early and protect the island.)

At the end of Rue Victor Schoelcher, we found a set of stairs heading up the hill to the site of the fort. The stairs themselves are worth a look as they contain a lot of inlaid materials—shells, coral, glass, pottery—so they have a mosaic-like quality. As you’re climbing, we paused for a moment and turned around to enjoy the view (and catch our breath).  There are greens from the foliage and distant hills, blues from the sea and sky, and varying shades of red from the local roof tiles.

Once we got to the top of the stairs, there are excellent panoramic view of the sea and surrounding islands.  There is an interpretive display at ground level that maps out the nearby islands so that you can identify what you are seeing.  I was surprised at how close the various port islands were to each other.

We then walked to the other side of the site to get a fantastic view overlooking Shell Beach.

Shell Beach

A crab, casually going up the stairs to fort Karl

Check out the fun sculpture garden. As we followed along the water’s edge towards the end of the peninsula, we found the Hôtel de la Collectivité. The Hôtel de la Collectivité is a large building facing the sailboat-filled harbour.  Emblazoned across the front of the building are the words “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”.

Continuing on past the Hôtel de la Collectivité, we reached the end of the peninsula and had a great view all the sailboats and yachts in the harbour.  Turned around to see the island’s welcome sign: ‘Bienvenue a Saint Barthélemy’.

Michael found glue for his 10 dollar shoes that he bought in Jamaica, they fell apart and the upholstery department ion the ship tried to fix to no avail. We then found the yacht club where young children on yellow boats were being taught to sail. Stopped for Belgian beer in the middle of a rain downpour.

The weather changes from intermittent downpours to bright sunshine over the course of our explorations.

Back to the ship on our Tender boat seen below.

Day 9 - Wednesday 4rd December 2024, Tortola, British Virgin Islands - the Caribbean Cruise

 

We caught a ferry to the nearby island of Virgin Gorda, The Baths and the Caves and spent some time snorkelling and exploring the large boulders at the beach. 

When you visit The Baths, you can actually visit two beaches with your entrance ticket: The Baths and Devils Bay. They are very similar beaches separated only by the giant boulders and what is known as The Caves.

Both beaches are National Parks though ironically, Devil’s Bay was the first to become a National Park in 1964. The Baths was declared a National Park later in 1990. Most tours include a visit to both beaches.

We then made our way to the caves that are large boulders arranged on top of each other, forming large cave like structures

Day 8 - Tuesday 3rd December 2024, San Juan, Puerto Rico - the Caribbean Cruise

Started to pour down with rain in our walking tour of San Juan, Puerto Rico so we sheltered in the highest bar on the waterfront and watched the rain. A sudden burst and 20 minutes later just as suddenly, out cam the sun accompanied by the heat.

The entrance to Old San Juan is known as Puerta de Aguas or Puerta de San Juan (San Juan Gate). It is one of the most colorful and known of all the entrances to the walled city and it has stood tall for centuries. The gate is 16 feet tall and 20 feet thick and leads you to the romantic Paseo La Princesa. The inscription above it reads “Benedictus Oui Venit In Nomine Domini” which translates to “Welcome those who come in the name of God,” a testament to the island’s Catholic roots.

Great ice cream at Anitas

He was initially tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows, though this did not kill him. He was, according to tradition, rescued and healed by Irene of Rome, which became a popular subject in 17th-century painting. In all versions of the story, shortly after his recovery he went to Diocletian to warn him about his sins, and as a result was clubbed to death. He is venerated in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as the Patron Saint of Athletics, Archery, and Plagues. Although inconsistent with Catholic Church teaching, many view him as the patron saint of the LGBT Community, even though the saint himself has no ecclesiastical connection to the subject beyond a large body of homoerotic works of art

As the story goes, during the San Juan Bautista celebrations of 1753 a rider, Baltazar Montanez, lost control of his horse and plunged to the cliffs below. The Spanish Secretary of Government Don Mateo Pratts was watching the drama unfold from a nearby balcony, and allegedly cried out, “Christ of Good Health, save him!” Though the horse didn’t survive the fall, the young rider did. 

That same year, Montanez built the small chapel on the exact spot where he fell over the cliff. The altar was built in shining silver and gold leaf, surrounded by beautiful oil paintings by the famous Puerto Rican artist Jose Campeche. Much of the modestly sized but immaculately appointed chapel hasn’t changed since then. But  over the decades it has been slowly added to by believers who come to the chapel seeking their own miracles. Tiny silver ornaments decorate the chapel, each one representing some ailing part of the body. These small milagros, or miracles, represent a cause of pain for the pilgrims, and take the form of miniature silver legs, arms, hearts, and lungs.

Today the church is reverentially cared for by a group of local women, volunteers called “La Hermandad del Santo Cristo de la Salud” (The Sisterhood of the Holy Christ of Health). It is only open on Tuesdays and religious days. 

Julia our Guide

A community of perhaps undocumented locals that have always lived in this prominent area are seen as an eyesore. The Government would like to turn the area into money generating Hotels.

From San Juan Bay, which was constructed to protect from attack, it’s an awesome feat of engineering and a daunting display of military defense featuring four levels of cannon-bearing batteries that rise 140 feet from the sea. From Old San Juan, the approach is more welcoming, thanks to an enormous expanse of grassy lawn and breathtaking views of the shore. It’s easy to see why this is such a popular spot for kite-flyers.

Inside Castillo San Felipe del Morro is a maze of rooms, including gun rooms, soldiers’ quarters, a chapel, turreted sentry posts, and a prison connected by tunnels, ramps, and a spiral stairway. The foundations for El Morro were laid in 1539, but it wasn’t completed until 1787. It successfully endured many foreign attacks by the English in 1595, 1598, and 1797, and by the Dutch in 1625. During the Spanish-American War, the United States fired on El Morro and destroyed the lighthouse, which was later rebuilt.

Castillo de San Cristóbal is the large fortress at the entrance to Old San Juan by Plaza de Colón. Before it was built, two significant attacks from land—first by the Earl of Cumberland in 1598, later by the Dutch in 1625—convinced the Spanish that protecting the walled city from attack by sea alone was not adequate.

The fort’s construction began in 1634 and was completed in 1783. The fort eventually encompassed 27 acres of land, although some of it was destroyed to accommodate the expanding city. The fort’s defense was tested in 1797 by another unsuccessful attack by the British. After the United States won the Spanish-American War, it took control of the fort and used it as a World War II observation post. Today, a section of the fort is open to the public, who can wander freely among its intriguing array of tunnels, ramps, stairways, batteries, magazines, soldiers’ quarters, and turreted sentry posts.

 

Day 7 - Monday 2nd December 2024, La Romana, Dominican Republic - the Caribbean Cruise

 

Sugar cane fields on our way to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.

In 1501, the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand I and Isabella, first granted permission to the colonists of the Caribbean to import African slaves, who began arriving to the island in 1503. In 1510, the first sizable shipment, consisting of 250 Black Ladinos, arrived in Hispaniola from Spain. Eight years later African-born slaves arrived in the West Indies (called the West Indies as when Columbus first arrived, he thought he had reached India). The Colony of Santo Domingo was organized as the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo in 1511. Sugar cane was introduced to Hispaniola from the Canary Islands, and the first sugar mill in the New World was established in 1516, on Hispaniola. The need for a labor force to meet the growing demands of sugar cane cultivation led to an exponential increase in the importation of slaves over the following two decades. The sugar mill owners soon formed a new colonial elite and convinced the Spanish king to allow them to elect the members of the Real Audiencia from their ranks. Poorer colonists subsisted by hunting the herds of wild cattle that roamed throughout the island and selling their hides.

The first major slave revolt in the Americas occurred in Santo Domingo on December 25, 1521, when enslaved Muslims of the Wolof nation led an uprising in the sugar plantation of admiral Don Diego Colon, son of Christopher Columbus. Many of these insurgents managed to escape to the mountains where they formed independent maroon communities, but the Admiral had a lot of the captured rebels hanged.

Arch on the entrance to the The Colonial Zone which is both an important historical site and a vibrant neighborhood.

Founded in 1498, the Santo Domingo Colonial Zone is the oldest European settlement in the New World. In 1990, the entire zone was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Colonial Zone is a wonderland of historic Spanish Colonial buildings and monuments. Yet, the area is so much more than a mere open-air museum. It is a bustling district filled with shops, restaurants, cafes and night clubs. The vibrant street life, incredible live music performances and beautiful parks and squares make the Colonial Zone a prime tourist destination.

A towering monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus. It’s called “Faro a Colon”, which is Spanish for “Columbus Lighthouse”, so named because of its powerful lighting system consisting up nearly 150 searchlight beams that project a gigantic cross in the sky. The beams are so powerful that they can be seen as far away as Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, when the 70-kilowatt beams are turned on it causes a power blackout in the immediate neighborhood, which is why they are rarely switched on.

There is another thing that makes Faro a Colon a special attraction: it is purported to contain the remains of Christopher Columbus, a claim that is, however, challenged by the Cathedral of Seville, in Spain.

Getting off the cruise ship, La Romana, in the Dominican Republic

Parque Colon itself takes up the whole block and is a great place to sit and watch the world go by. You will see many interesting characters go by – well worth a visit. Here you will find the Cathedral Primada de America – the first Cathedral in the new world. Originally it was built in 1514 however there have been many additions and changes since then. The first stone was laid by Diego Columbus – the brother of Christopher Columbus. It is beautiful inside and is definitely a must see.

Our guide showing us the large area that is the Dominican republic. 

The islands of the Caribbean were first settled around 6,000 years ago by hunter-gatherer peoples originating from Central America or northern South America. The Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taíno moved into the Caribbean from South America during the 1st millennium BC, reaching Hispaniola by around 600 AD. These Arawakan peoples engaged in farming, fishing, hunting and gathering, and the widespread production of ceramic goods. The estimates of Hispaniola's population in 1492 vary widely, including tens of thousands. Estimating how many people lived on the island in pre-Columbian times is challenging, as no accurate records exist. At the time of Columbus' arrival in 1492, the island's territory consisted of five Taíno chiefdoms: Marién, Maguá, Maguana, Jaragua, and Higüey. These were ruled respectively by caciques Guacanagarix, Guarionex, Caonabo, Bohechío, and Cayacoa. The Taíno name for the entire island was either Ayiti (land of high mountains) or Quisqueya (mother of all lands).

First place we stopped at to go to the bathroom

Day 6 - Sunday 1st December 2024, Sea day - the Caribbean Cruise

We got up and I did the morning stretch class as it was my rest day, we rested and read and in the afternoon, I did a cycle class and Michael joined me for the sunset stretch class, so much for rest. The food is so good and my new found champagne enjoyment means I have to maintain my exercise regime if I don't want to get rather large quickly.

 

The Insignia, Oceania line, is a smaller ship compared to the Emerald Princess or any other that we have been on in the past. Built in 1998 and re fitted in 2018, she takes 684 passengers and 400 Crew from 52 nationalities

Lobster, the waiter tells me one is too small so better you order 3.

Pork Loin chop with bone, about 2 inches thick and huge in size.

The food is out of this world.