Friday, December 13, 2013

Day 44: Dominica

Our 9am arrival gave us a chance to sleep in a bit after last night's football game, and we were finishing up breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room just as it closed at 9am. We took a few minutes for a walk on the Promenade Deck before settling inside in Crooners and catching up on news we'd downloaded yesterday in St. Thomas. While we were there, we chatted a bit with bar waiter Renan from the Phillipines about the Tagalog language and he came back a bit later with roses made out of bar napkins to thank you for trying to use his language. Sweet!

It was nearly 11am before we walked off the ship with no particular plan in mind; we just wanted to get some exercise.

Lunch menu

We don't need to climb down hills to slip and fall. Here's a typical sidewalk in Roseau.

Crosstalk


Force of habit had us stopping into the grocery store where we remembered we needed to replace a small hairbrush that G had lost when it slipped out of his pocket. Though we checked at the grocery and the pharmacy store, it became obvious that hair implements on Dominica are of a different sort than G was looking for (although if I need another pick for my curls, I'm all set). 

Catsup in bags

Powdered milk (there aren't a lot of cows here)

 No shortage of these, but no small brushes

Finally we settled in the Ruins Rock Cafe, drinking rum and using $3 all day wifi of a fairly good speed. It was harious to see the cooling misters come on and off right over laptops and iPads, and it made me thankful for my waterproof iPhone case. 

The second story of the cafe

We also met several of the cruise staff there, so you know the drinks are good!

We walked back on the Emerald Princess just as afternoon tea began in the DaVinci Dining Room, and, knock me over with a feather, G thought we should grab a quick bite there to tide us over until dinner (generally, hot tea is not his drink of choice). We followed that up with a serious haircut for G; none of this "quick trim" stuff we've been doing lately. It was a good time for it...the Emerald Princess was docked in Roseau until 6:00pm and so was nice and steady. 

Despite having just had tea, we were at dinner by 5:45pm, and watched the lights of Dominica fade into the distance as we sailed. Generoso told us there will be three Chefs Tables on this cruise, and the first one was tonight. It's always fun to walk by the beautifully set table on the way to ours nearby, and Darko does not have a late seating at several of his tables on Chefs Table nights to cut down on the activity surrounding that area (he calls it a holiday). 

We went to the 7:15pm performance of production show Disco:  Blame it on the Boogie, and we shook up things a bit by sitting in the front row (as always) but in the MIDDLE of the row, not the left side. It seemed a whole different show from six seats down (and I'm only half joking about that).

Finally, we're back in the cabin where I'm silently willing G to fall asleep so I can switch to the news he refuses to watch tonight. Once again, news of the real world has reached us in the midst of a utopic winter.

Life is sad tonight.