Evening- Grenada

For the first time, I truly have nothing to say about today. But I'll try to make something from nothing...

When the ship was cleared by the local authorities in Grenada, we went ashore to use the (historically) free, fairly fast wifi in the terminal. Much to our chagrin, it did not exist. Whether this was simply because it was a Sunday, or this represents a change from past years, I'm not certain. I sincerely hope it's the former; on our upcoming Noordam cruise, where we'll have no free Internet on the ship, I was counting on wifi in Grenada to catch up. We'll see...our Noordam stop in Grenada will not be on a Sunday, so perhaps we'll have better luck.

We were in no mood today to do our usual Grenada walk around the Carenage and up to Fort George. (I'm fighting to keep this cold out of my lungs. Interesting that it was exactly this cruise last winter when I also got sick, but then stayed well the rest of the winter). Nor did we particularly want to take the water taxi ($4 or $5pp each way) to Grand Anse Beach, another go to activity for us on Grenada. There was another ship, the Aida Luna, already in port when we arrived. We suspected that those passengers, coupled with the locals out on the weekend, would make the beach a very busy place (and this was later confirmed by several people we spoke with who HAD gone there). So, in the end,we returned to the ship. We skipped lunch,but did later have tea in the buffet, and I spent the afternoon watching FOUR episodes of Downton Abbey on my laptop. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. Oh my, that show IS addictive!!

So, in the end, it was a very unexciting, but very fun day.

We skipped Skywalkers tonight, but did make it to dinner in the dining room, and then skipped any entertainment in favor of sitting on the Terrace Deck and watching our sailaway after dark.

I'm hoping I feel a bit better tomorrow, when we're in Dominica, but, like Grenada, that is another port where we typically do some walking and hill climbing. If I'm not up to that, it may be another Downton Abbey island for us.

And that holds some major appeal also.

Photo 1: a musical greeting

Photo 3: sunset from our dining room table

Photo 4: sailaway from Grenada after dark...beautiful!

Day 26: Grenada

It's 10:30am, and the ship is still cruising en route to St. George's, Grenada. We slept until almost 8am, then went to breakfast in the dining room. I'm not certain what this day will bring for us. We have another short day in Grenada, with arrival at noon and on board by 6:30pm. The weather, although sunny at the start of the day, has clouded over and it's not a particularly pretty day. We may simply go into the terminal to use the historically free, historically fairly fast wifi that exists there. We had talked about a walk up to Fort George, on a hill overlooking the harbor, but given my back and the cold I've developed, we may just return to the ship and enjoy a slower day.

I wanted to take just a moment to thank those people who have emailed me about my blog. I really enjoy hearing that people are cruising along with us, albeit vicariously. There's certainly enough fun to go around!

I was stopped in the hallway yesterday by room service steward Yulia (of the curly hair). She told me that she was using my blog to practice reading English. I was stunned...how did she know about it? Apparently someone who is reading along knows Yulia, saw that I mentioned her and sent her the link. The world gets smaller and smaller... I told her I hoped she wasn't upset that she and her curly hair were now on the Internet, but, thankfully, she wasn't at all. But using my blog to practice reading English? I am always humbled by and in awe of these crew members who go half way around the world to work. I wouldn't have the fortitude to do that!

So...more later, although I'm not certain how exciting it will be today. The best we can hope for is for the day to cool a bit. Only then might we consider climbing the hill to Fort George.

Photos: another reality of life at sea. Our shower curtain was replaced last cruise. The new one is short...way, way short. Instead of having an issue with water leaking onto the bathroom floor just when I bend over to shave my legs, now it's a constant stream all shower long. The floor would be flooded if we didn't take some pool/beach towels, line the outside of the shower basin and cover the floor. After three showers, as in this photo, the bathroom ends up trashed and the towels are soaked. I heard that the laundry washes (I think) 8000 towels every day. It's obvious that not everyone is keeping up with our usage, which is probably 5 towels daily for each of us, at least 4 of them solely for the floor. Twice a day, Johnathon comes in, works his magic, and voila, we're good to go until the next shower.

Evening- Bonaire

After sailaway, I returned to our cabin to rest a bit and start preparing these posts. Neither one of us needs any more sun. These two days in Aruba and Bonaire have tested even the strength of our SPF 50 and 100 sunblocks. At about 10 degrees latitude, the sun is extremely intense here. We're cooked.

G attended a veterans get together and then we went to our Captains Circle party for this cruise. After a wonderful dinner (we want to take Suttipong and Somphong with us to the Noordam) we are making it an early night. My back is not happy today, and the thought of sitting through even the best entertainment is less attractive than a muscle relaxant and ibuprofen and bed.

Photo 1: Cruise director Peter at the Captains Circle party tonight

Photo 2: sunset as seen from our dining room table through a salt-crusted window

Photos 3 to 5: G's sea salt purchase and the salt ponds and piles on the southern tip of Bonaire

Sailaway from Bonaire

Photo 1: sailboats moored just offshore

Photo 2: Kralendjik waterfront as seen from the ship

Photo 3: the beautiful reef off of Klein Bonaire with the northern end of Bonaire in the distance

Photo 4: flat as a pancake Klein Bonaire

Photo 5: the ship's long, sweeping curve as it cruised around the southern end of Bonaire before heading northeast to Grenada

Day 25: Bonaire

The Emerald Princess arrived in Bonaire today bright and early at 7am this morning...not that I was up to watch it. That's too bad, too, because the approach to Bonaire is one of the prettiest ones we enjoy on these cruises. But when this itinerary is done in this order- with Aruba first instead of last, we are generally worn out after a beach day on Aruba and miss our arrival in Bonaire. When this itinerary was done in the reverse order- with Princess Cays first and Aruba last- as it usually was last winter, we arrived in Bonaire about noon. That was nice.

However, our opinions on this are not solicited. If they were, we'd want a full day on Bonaire and to skip Grenada altogether. But then, the appeal of Bonaire for us lies under the water, not above it, and not everyone is similarly impressed with this barren little island, particularly those people who don't like to get wet.

In contrast, I am happiest with my head (and my hips) underwater.

Back to today...

While I was slowly waking up, G was already out on shore, exploring the tour options and checking out the changes since we were last here in January. After I showered, I used our two way radio to contact him on shore, and he returned to the ship for us to have breakfast together in the dining room. Afterwards, he was again off exploring the area around the ship, while I went back and packed for a simple, and quick day on shore. Because of the distance to Grenada tomorrow, we sailed at 2pm today, and had to be on board by 1:30pm.

Last night at dinner, we had discussed our options for today. A highlight of Bonaire for us is taking the water taxi over to Klein (Little) Bonaire, a protected marine sanctuary just off the coast of Bonaire. But it's about a 30 minute trip there and the same back, and although we've done it on these short days in port, it's been when we've arrived at noon and hit the ground running. Arriving at 7am, it's a bit harder to get things together first thing in the morning. We also knew we would be here again in just 12 days, on our Noordam cruise, and then we will have a full day here, as well as a full day on Grenada, with a sea day in between. We decided to hold off on Klein Bonaire until then.

Eventually G and I met up at the Divi Flamingo Resort, on the water about a 10-minute walk from the ship. We were hoping to find the same free wifi they had last year, but, sadly, they now charge for it, and so we just went out on a short pier at the resort and sat in some lounge chairs under a palapa for shade. G was carrying a container filled with Indonesian food that he had picked up from a vendor in the market across the street from the ship. She does a booming business from crew members in search of something a little closer to the food they eat at home. When G had shown interest in the food, the lady who prepares it gave him a full meal, but wanted no money in return. It's hard to know what to do in these situations: do we appear to be "rich tourists" if we give them money anyway, or do we accept their kind generosity and return only sincere appreciation? In this case, G both tucked some money into a niche on her stand and offered sincere appreciation.

So G and I sat on this pier eating this divine Indonesian chicken and watching the divers and dive boats come and go at Divi Dive, the Divi Flamingo's dive operation. It was a hot, hot, hot day, and the only way to stand being outside was to be in the water or in an air conditioned vehicle. Pity those poor passengers who had booked open 4WD excursions.

We spent some time talking with a couple who were staying a the Divi Flamingo for a week of diving. Coming from Portland, Oregon, they told us it takes them FOUR flights and two days to get to Bonaire. Yikes! That's just another reason we love that we can get there by cruise ship.

Finally, the allure of the water was too great, and the day was too hot, and I slipped on my rash guard to protect my back from the intense sun and gathered up my mask and snorkel and walked right down wooden steps from the pier into the water. The beauty of Bonaire is that you can dive and snorkel from practically anywhere right off the shore. Although the coral was quite limited near the resort, the fish were fairly abundant. I spent a most enjoyable hour snorkeling around the rocks right next to shore, and took lots of videos. I hope to get fast-enough wifi to get one or two uploaded in the next few days.

Once again G was off, this time in search of Bonaire sea salt, for which the island is famous. I took the time to sit in a lounger and dry a bit before I walked back to the ship. I love that everything is so close on Bonaire that it allows us to each do our own thing, staying in touch by radio. After a quick shower, I went to the dining room for a lunch of Greek salad. G joined me about half way through, proudly showing me his new purchase of a salt grinder and actual salt rocks.

I went to Zumba at 1:30pm but left early to watch a most beautiful sailaway with G from Deck 19 on the jogging track. We've decided that when we stop watching sailaways (as we've done the past two days), stop taking food photos and stop getting off the ship at least for a short while in ports...it will be time to stop cruising.

We're not even close yet.

Photo 1: the Emerald Princess docked in Kralendjik, Bonaire

Photo 2: Indonesian food stand in the market across the street from the dock

Photo 3: plaque in the park where the market is (double click on the photo to enlarge it)

Photo 4: Kralendjik waterfront with Klein Bonaire in the distance

Photos 5 and 6: the pier at the Divi Flamingo resort where we sat and ate Indonesian food and from which I snorkeled