Adventures in the Caribbean: St. Lucia

Because of COVID, St. Lucia does not require ship excursions, but does require "government-approved" excursions for cruise passengers. The kiddo stayed onboard to enjoy Adventure Ocean, and Diana and I arranged a hiking excursion. Before we left the ship, we had to queue for our free COVID antigen tests which would allow us to re-enter Barbados tomorrow. That was a long queue and we had to eat breakfast while standing in line, but we managed to get our tests and meet our tour organizer in port by 10:30.

We drove about 20 minutes north of Castries to Rodney Bay, a ritzy part of St. Lucia, and where colonization first took place. Here we met up with the young man who led us on our hike up Mt. Pimard.

During World War 2 a base at Rodney Bay was leased for ninety-nine years to the US in the "destroyers-for-bases" deal, and there are several places on Mt. Pimard where you can see remnants of bunkers, anti-aircraft gun mounts, and so on. 

Of course, the flora and fauna also make it an interesting hike.

And best of all there are several places with good views.

After the hike we enjoyed drinks at a cafe. St. Lucia's most popular beer is "Piton," after their famous, UNESCO heritage mountains. 

I would have liked to hike one of the pitons, but that would be pretty much impossible on a shore excursion. Petit Piton is basically unclimbable by amateurs and Gros Piton takes something like 6-12 hours round trip to climb, never mind transportation to and from the trailhead! Hence, why we settled for two hours on Mount Pimard!

We were back at the port at 14:30, where we shopped for some souvenirs, and sat down to enjoy some St. Lucian rum.

Back on board Grandeur of the Seas, we enjoyed views of Castries and the island as the sun set and we sailed away.

Adventures in the Caribbean: Dominica

Unlike St. Vincent, Dominica has lifted restrictions on vaccinated travelers, but before we knew that we had already booked a family river tubing excursion, so we followed through with that today.

This is Dominica's capital city, Roseau. 

Unlike our other stops, Roseau does not have a (overly) developed port area, which is kind of refreshing. Instead, vendors operate out of colourful temporary huts and tents.

Once ashore we boarded a small bus and were driven inland, up a winding road towards the Central Forest Reserve. 

Dominica is mountainous and lush, which proved troublesome for the kiddo, who got car sick unfortunately. If you could survive the switch-backing, however, it made for a beautiful drive.

The terrain also contributed to the survival of a small group of Kalinago, more commonly known as Caribs. British colonial authorities apparently established the Kalinago Territory in 1903 on the eastside of the island, and the Layou River that we tubed on is part of the northern border of their territory. I read more information about the Kalinago here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44723391.

After well over an hour of some pretty incredible tubing, we got out and were able to buy some snacks and drinks. Here I drank a Kubuli beer, derived from the Kalinago name for Dominica: Wai‘tu kubuli (which apparently means "tall is her body").

I found this sign by the snack shack interesting.

After another winding trip back to Roseau, we dropped the kiddo off at Adventure Ocean, and headed back ashore to get a drink and use the wifi at this rooftop bar. 

I found it interesting here because most of the clientele were not actually from the cruise ship, but French backpackers apparently ferrying from either Martinique or Guadeloupe, both of which are quite close to the south and north, respectively.

I drank a Carib here, which I believe is an import from Trinidad & Tobago.

Adventures in the Caribbean: St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Today we are in St. Vincent. 

St. Vincent & the Grenadines is unique on our itinerary as the country with the strictest COVID restrictions. So far on this cruise vaccinated travelers have been able to go ashore without restrictions at all, but here you can only go ashore on a ship's excursion. So, with the kiddo at "Adventure Ocean," Diana and I did a "scenic drive" tour.

We boarded a minibus like the one below.

After passing through Kingstown our first stop was Fort Charlotte to the north of the capital and high above the harbour. You can see Grandeur of the Seas far below. You could see some of the Grenadine islands from up here, too, but not in the photo below.

We had maybe half an hour or so to tour the fort.

Some goats were foraging nearby, and I enjoyed watching them.

Our only other stop on the tour was the botanical gardens, which is more than 250 years old. We had a nice walk through the gardens.

For me the most exciting part of the botanical gardens was seeing St. Vincent's indigenous and endemic Amazona guildingii parrot. 

I did not take any good pictures, but you can see one of them below, and I really enjoyed watching them because they are very noisy and quite active.

Once we reached the end of the walk through the gardens, a lady was there selling beers, so we bought a couple. I must have failed to take a picture of the bottle, but as in Antigua the local beer is named after the Indigenous name of the island, in this case the Carib word Hairoun, meaning something like "land of the blessed." It actually might be the same beer as Wadadli because it is produced by the same brewery, but either way I find the naming choice interesting.

After the botanical garden we drove south of Kingstown before coming back to the port.

We had a nice view of the sunset as we sailed away.

Adventures in the Caribbean: St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda

Today's stop is St. John's, Antigua, and again we were in port when we woke up. 

A Royal Navy ship was across the harbour from us.

There's the Antigua and Barbuda flag flying atop Grandeur of the Seas.

I took the kiddo ashore to buy and mail postcards and go for a little walk in the morning, but really we have realized she is better off staying in the kids club aboard the ship than touring Caribbean islands in the heat (although the temperature has rarely been over 30 degrees!).

So, after lunch and leaving the kiddo amongst friends, Diana went ashore and enjoyed drinks at a popular cafe called Hemingway's.

I always try to drink the local beer, and here on Antigua it has a pretty cool name--Wadadli! 

Sadly, albeit not surprisingly, colonialism's legacy here in the West Indies is not only chattel slavery but also genocide. I have struggled to determine to what extent Indigenous people remain, but I do know in many cases they were killed or fled these islands for greater security further west. Still, Wadadli is the island's name in Arawak (apparently meaning "our own") and is now the name of Antigua's most popular beer.

After Hemingway's we had an interesting walk to the market--I was surprised how quickly we got out of the (very touristy) cruise port area and into what felt like authentic St. John's. 

We also walked to the cathedral, but we could not figure out how to get inside. 

Then we stopped by the national museum, but it was closing when we arrived, so that was not an option either... anyway, we enjoyed the walk.

We returned to the port and sat by the water drinking Tings before reboarding.