Cruise in the Caribbean - Part II

It was a dramatic day on Wednesday when we were going to St. Marteen. We woke up to the message from the captain who said that another cruise ship had had a man over board situation, and that we had been helping them look for the man over board for tree hours before they found the body. Therefore we came in to St. Marteen a little late. 

St. Marteen is the smallest two nation island in the world. It is split between Netherlands and France, and we were going to the Dutch side of the island. We arrived around 11 am and there were already 4 other huge cruise ships in the port. So you can imagine that it was quite crowded. 

We walked around a bit and looked at the city, even though it was a little too touristy for our taste. In the end we ended up spending the last couple of hours on the beautiful beach:

Caribbean style lunch, it took them forever to have the food ready...

Last island on the cruise was St. Kitts. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but what an amazing place!! We had a taxi driver, Joe, drive us all around the island, and then we ended up the last 3 hours at the beach with white sand and crystal clear water. Amazing!! I could live here!!

The island used to be just for sugar cane and sugar production. This is what is left: a lot of chimneys reminding us of the slavery and sugar production days

We had a short break here, the ladies could not understand how a white person could have dreadlocks, but they thought they looked good haha

Enjoying the great view

Joe telling us about the island

Joe and his car, great team and definately the best driver we could have asked for

You know you are in the Caribbean when there is a Rum bottle tree

Paradise!!

The last two days we were all day at sea to get back to Ft. Lauderdale. We relaxed all day, did absolutely nothing and just had a good time. In the evenings we went to our favorite bar with the cruise's most hilarious bar tenders, Brian from Jamaica, Fransisco aka Mexi, Brasil and Romania:

From the left, Brian, Roberta and Fransisco

Crazy Brasil

Jamaican style

Lovely Chen from China, who was our assistant waiter for dinner. She had the best laugh of them all.

It has been a great vacation, but everything comes to an end. Now it is back to Colombia and the work with the foundation.

Cruise in the Caribbean - Part I

I won a bet with my old man some years back, and the price was a cruise, so now it was time to go on a family trip on a cruise in the Caribbean.

It is a 8 day cruise in the Caribbean, and then we combined it with a couple of days in Fort Lauderdale to begin with... A perfect way to get an energy refill before I start the work in Colombia. In Fort Lauderdale we mostly relaxed, shopped a bit and had some great food thanks to my sister who knew all the great places to go after living there for 9 months ;)

The best pizza I have had in a very long time!!

Saturday 15th we boarded the Cruise, Freedom of the Seas, and after some hours of waiting for everyone to get onboard we sailed out from Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale:

Feels good to be sailing

Formal night for dinner

After one day of sailing we arrived at Labadee, Haiti. It was a little strange, since it was a private port, but we booked a tour to see some of the traditions from the island. It was hilarous!! Our guide told us a bit about Haiti and then there was a dance show, fire show and they showed us how they make the traditional sugar cane juice:

Our guide, Antonio

He was all over the place doing the fire show, we were laughing so hard

Berdie and I were dragged up to participate in the dancing

Shake it!

The dancers were taking a break in the shade after the show

Sugar cane juice

Wood carving. This guy made the most amazing figures!

After the tour we had some time to walk around on the beach:

The old man and the pinguins

Goodbye Haiti

Next day we arrived around 13.30 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Beautiful city, very similar to La Habana and Cartagena actually. We had a stroll around the old frotress and the beautiful old part of San Juan:

Serious discussion before we enter the port

Some of the roads still have the old blue stones in the roads

The fortress

Another serious discussion

Colonial style

They had their flag out everywhere

Which beer to choose?

We had a great time in San Juan, it could be a place to come back to some time, especially since you only have a very limited amount of time when you have to be back on the ship (except of course if you don't come back in time like two people from the cruise, then you will be left on the island and you have all the time in the world haha).

We have two more islands to go, it will be interesting to see what they have to offer.