1017. My Southern Caribbean Cruise, March 31st, to April 9th, 2018, Part 1.

Last week, from March 31st to April 9th, I was on a tour/cruise to the Southern Caribbean!  I went with "Fun For Less Tours", in a group of 12 LDS widows -- It was so fun and I learned so much!  I want to tell about that in this blog, and maybe one more.  There is so much to tell!  Michael Wilcox, (retired BYU professor) was the guest tour guide.  He gave 4 lectures, specifically about the different islands we visited, and their history.  It was fascinating!  I'll try to include some of his thoughts, as they made the cruise so much more interesting.

Our ship from the Royal Caribbean, "Jewel of the Seas."

On Saturday March 31st, 2018, we flew from Salt Lake City to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The next day we entered the ship around 11 a.m.  It was interesting getting used to the ship, and getting acquainted with the other 11 ladies.  I went with my dear friend from High School, Belva Hunting Gardner.  She is 1 week younger than me (I was born October 6, 1934, and she was born on October 13th! -- same year).  We talked over a year before at a class reunion, and decided to travel someplace together.  This was it!

This selfie was taken Monday night, our first "formal" dinner on the "Jewel of the Seas", with the Royal Caribbean.  

It had 13 decks (stories), with the swimming pool on the top.  It had about 2500 people on it -- I'm not sure if that was tourists, or included the 800 who were workers.  Our waiters for the entire 7 day cruise were Kadek from Indonesia, and Jerald from the Philippines.  They told us to call them "Batman" and "Robin"!

For those who have been on cruises, you know that the evening meals are served in fine dining rooms, and you have choices for a salad/appetizer, then main entree, and then dessert!  The food was all amazing, and Kadek brought us ladies about 4 extra desserts each night, to be able to "taste" many kinds!  He is married, and has 2 daughters, and his wife will have a son in June.  He will return home for a few months before that time.  We got together some baby boy things, and gave them to him our last dinner there. 

There were workers from 60 countries, -- not one from the United States that we saw.  They work so hard -- about 10 plus hours a day, with no days off in the week.  They commit to 6 to 9 months when they come.  Most speak some English, but it improves while on the ship!

On Monday we went on a Panoramic Drive on the small island of St. Croix.  It is a territory of the United States, as is Puerto Rico.  English is their main language, and they have a university on the island.  But our tour guide on the bus was Yulette George, born and raised on the island.  She is a 50 year old lady who graduated from Notre Dame, now working on her Master's Degree, has 2 teen age daughters.  She was very educated, and explained things about her island so well!  She told us many interesting things about her island, clear back to Columbus who discovered it in 1494.  Alexander Hamilton of early New England history was born and raised there until about age 18. 

One interesting thing on that tour was seeing the very large 300 year old tree -- I forget which kind!  It's trunk was over 10 feet in diameter.

On one of the narrow streets in St. Croix.   Also on St. Croix was the remnants of a large mill which was used to process sugar cane into sugar.  Several of the islands grew sugar cane, and it had a large market, especially in Europe.  It made many plantation owners wealthy.

On board, we had 4 different lectures by Michael Wilcox which were so interesting!  His first was about Columbus, and the 4 trips he took, beginning in 1492 when he discovered America. Have you ever wondered why Brazil speaks Portuguese and the other islands and countries speak Spanish?

 A very interesting story he told was that during the years after Columbus, both Spain and Portugal wanted to have control of the Atlantic, and the islands there.  It was such a problem they took it to the Pope.  He solved it by giving the east half of the Atlantic to Portugal, and the west half to Spain.  The interesting thing is the outside eastern part of Brazil is far enough east, that Portugal got control of it!  That's why Portuguese is spoken in Brazil!

On Tuesday, we went on an excursion called "Captain Your Schooner or Tall Ship.  It was 110 feet long, and after we left the harbor they put up the sails.

  

The owners of the schooner are from the Netherlands, and live on this boat.  They have quarters in it, down below the deck, where they could take an extensive trip with 16 passengers.

The one on the left is the owner (Captain), and the one on the right is a native of St. Maartin.  They sailed from the Netherlands clear to St. Maartin on about a 30 day ocean voyage.

It was while on this 4 hour sail that we saw the devastation on St. Maartin (St. Martin) Island from last year's hurricane!  Before it, they had 10,000 hotel rooms for tourists.  So many were totally ruined, and now they have only 500 rooms available.  They are trying to get building materials, and also construction workers to come and help rebuild.  It will take many years!   

The 2 pictures above show many hotels which were devastated, many with only the frame standing.  That island was hit the hardest.  Before a week passed, they were running out of food, and had to ration water.  They basically have to have all their food brought in by ship, as they don't grow much on the island.  The water treatment plant was also demolished.

The next island of Martinique was the prettiest island, in my opinion.  It has 380,000 people living there, and seemed to be the most prosperous.   They have a large rain forest, with a narrow 2 lane highway through it and a live volcano.  Many years back (300 or more I think) they had an eruption that killed 30,000 people.   It is a French territory, and is the birthplace of Joséphine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.  She was a very charming and beautiful lady, and they have quite a touching love story, which Brother Wilcox told in exciting detail. 

Below are areas from the past which, if I remember right, were devastated by a volcano eruption.  They had a period, as did the other Caribbean Islands in which many slaves were taken, and also the white leaders on the islands had slaves of their own.  They even had a period of when cannibals came to visit!

An outdoor market in the city.

      This highly populated island had many homes, up and down mountains, etc.

An ancient church on the island.

One scene in the rain forest.  Many trees were so tall you couldn't get a picture of them out of a window on the moving bus.   Because of the very narrow 2 land highway, and sharp turns, the bus driver honked before a turn, to let an oncoming driver know we were coming!

There even was a McDonald's in the city of Fort-De-France, Martinique.

I will continue this in one more blog.  Then I'll be getting ready for my tour to Egypt, Petra and Jordan, and Israel.  I leave on that tour in 6 days, and have much to get ready!  I'll write about that when I return.  I'll be gone from April 18th to May 2nd, so no blogs during that time.

For those of you who do facebook, check under my name: Paralee Eckman, and on my timeline I posted 5 different posts of just pictures, 30 pictures each.  There are many more photos than are on this blog.