SAN JUAN AND CRUISE SHIP

The blog will not include photos for a few days as we are paying huge Internet access fees and it is as slow as a wet week. But we will make up for it by including a selection of the best from the cruise after we get back to the States.

We arrived in San Juan on Friday night and did not see much of it before boarding our cruise ship around noon Saturday. But we do a tour on our return and from what we have seen so far we are sure we will enjoy it as there is a lot of historic architecture.

Our ship, the Jewel of the Seas (Royal Caribbean line) is great! It takes about 2000 passengers and has every luxury. The crew are very friendly and helpful, the cabin is about as spacious as they get and the food is to die for. We have spoken to many fellow passengers, and they all say to keep talking as they love our Aussie accent. Even at dinner last night the waiter came over and said “Aussie, Aussie Aussie” to which we dutifully replied “Oi, oi,oi”!  It cracked everyone sitting nearby up, and we all had a laugh.

ST MAARTEN

We sailed Saturday night and arrived at St Maarten on Sunday morning. St Maarten is divided between the French and Dutch and each side has its special charms. This place is just what you might expect from a Caribbean island. Beautiful clear blue water, forested hills, busy markets with lots of stuff you can buy (especially clothes, as Sue and Jamie can attest J). We were taken by coach from our landing on the Dutch side to Marigot, the capital of the French side where we checked out the flea market. Then the highlight of the day – a boat ride to Simpson Bay then back to Philipsburg where we docked. We were treated to commentary and some great singing of typical Caribbean songs by a guy named Shine (accompanied at times by Sue and Phil – how unusual that they should be singing along –maybe it was helped by the free rum punch that was distributed as we boarded the sightseeing boat!!!) who had us all singing and even dancing along.

We saw a lot of beautiful scenery, lots of yachts and some very interesting sights like the wrecks of ships destroyed during Hurricane Louis in 1995 and left to rot. Apparently 1200 boats were ripped out of the water by the storm and a lot of people died. So much housing was destroyed that the government rebuilt lots of low cost housing that still looks pretty new. Fortunately, and very surprisingly, quite a few 200 plus year old houses somehow survived and are real attractions for an island that depends on tourism for its prosperity. This was certainly a great place to visit.