NOW TO VIEW MY JANUARY POSTS YOU WILL HAVE TO CLICK ON "JANUARY" SO THOSE POSTS WILL BE DISPLAYED.
TO VIEW PREVIOUS POSTINGS USE THE "BLOG ARCHIVE" UNDER OUR PHOTO ON THE RIGHT. THEN CLICK ON THE DAY OR DAYS YOU MISSED. ALSO CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM. I RECOMMEND THAT.
TWO POSTS TODAY!!!!!!!
I had scheduled yesterday's post to be published yesterday at 3:30pm but it didn't. Not sure what happened so there will be two posts today. Today's post will be quite long as I am putting a LOT of photos on it including the ones I took on yesterday afternoon's tour.
YESTERDAY'S TOUR:
My 4 hour tour was called "The Spice of Our Lives" which met at 1:15 in the theater. It was a long walk off the pier to the tour van that was waiting behind the terminal/mall.
Overlooking the port is the old Fort George which protected the harbor.
The tour bus waiting for the 11 of us on the tour was a small one and all the windows were open. I asked the driver/guide (he was both) if his bus was air-conditioned and he said yes. Had it not I would not have gotten on it. So we headed out on the tour with windows still open. I was sitting on the back row. The tour began with a drive through the town of St George's. It did not take long to see I had made a big mistake by not staying back on the pier. The tires must have had 100 psi of air or made of wood as the ride was rough and roads rough also. The windows rattles loudly so it was had to understand what the guide/drive was saying. He was black and had a local accent.
Our first stop was at this rum distillery. As we got off the bus we were handed hard hats to wear on the tour of it. I declined to wear one so went into the show room while the others toured. The guide was also in there so I confronted him about him saying the bus would be air-conditioned. I told him to call his tour company and have somebody come pick me up and return me to the ship. He went back to the bus and eventually returned saying his boss had approved the windows be closed and the air-conditioning be used. He said the windows had been left open due to their covid protocols but his boss approved them being closed. I wish they had come pick me us instead!!
Of course they wanted to sell us some rum. We could taste some rums on counter at left side of photo but I am not a rum drinker so declined politely.
Off we went again with windows still rattling even though closed and bumping along on the rough roads.
Our next stop was at this spice and herb garden.
We were led down a path by the spice garden's guide. It was quite a long path and along it there were lots of stops at the different spices where the very good guide was let us taste them growing in the garden along the path.
This is our tour bus.
This black lady (most of the island's people were black), was a very good guide explaining all the different spices. This part of the tour was interesting.
This is what cocoa comes from.
This asshole did not wear his mask as we were supposed to while on tours. But then he never wore it correctly on the ship when we were required to wear masks prior to March 1st.
.
Maybe you have noticed that Grenada is all hills. They had to level one hill to build the airport. There is no flat land for agriculture but people living outside the towns about all have gardens to provide vegetables for the family. I saw quite a few goats tied to stakes grazing. Our guide said they eat fish and chickens but no beef. They do raise chickens and obviously fish come from the sea. Spices are there biggest export.
Most of the houses were colorful and actually looked quite nice. The one thing that struck me was many abandoned junk cars just sitting along the road.
This is a "Rainbow Eucalyptus" tree. The trunk is multi-colored.
Next we drove up to the Grand Etang Lake. It is 1600 feet above sea level and is a crater lake in an extinct volcano. The volcano is responsible for the formation of Grenada and has not erupted for over 12,000 years. People are not allowed to swim or fish in the lake.
This platform was the only thing at the lake. The drive up to it had lots of curves and steep climbs. Good thing no one on the tour was susceptible to being car sick. Also their roads are narrow and barely accommodate meeting vehicles. That is why there are small cars and buses.
Our guide called these people (probably 25 or so of them walking down the road) "protester". Said they were church people saying the the of the world was coming. Not sure I believed him.
Barely got the grain bins in the photo. He said this was a flour mill. Wheat was imported and processed here for flour and feed for the chickens.
Some of the tethered goats.
Hard to see unless you enlarge the photo but there is a church at the end of this street. You may notice there are no people on the streets. It is Sunday and ALL stores are closed on Sundays.
Finally returning to the ship at 4:45pm.
LAST NIGHT:
I rushed to get showered and dressed so we could attend the interdenominational worship service being held in the card room at 5:30. Paul, our cruise director, does a nice job composing the service ahead of time. There were 11 of us in attendance and it lasted 15 minutes. This was the first Sunday of Lent.
After that we headed to the Horizon Lounge with Marcia for what I called jokingly, Communion. Instead of cracker/bread we had potato chips and stuffed jalapenos. Manhattan instead of wine. Marge Goddard joined us there also for cocktail hour.
The Lounge is in the aft of the ship on deck 6. We had a very nice view of the sun setting.
At about 7pm we headed down to Compass Rose where we met Joan & Charlie Davis.
From L to R: Charlie & Joan, Marge, Rebecca & I, and Marcia.
As I mentioned on next year's 143 night world cruise we will going around South Africa and will be getting off the ship for 4 days/3 nights to do a safari. Of the 6 suites at the Phinda Rock Lodge, 4 of the suites booked are at our dinner table tonight. Another couple will be on our world cruise next year and the last suite is booked by our friends in Dallas, Jane & Melissa. So this is our "pre-safari" dinner. I requested the chef prepare a special Mexican dinner for the table. Here is the link to the brochure of the lodge I arranged for us all.
https://mk0cs00242yfx7ww7i54.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Phinda-Rock-Lodge-Brochure-May2021.pdf
As you can see we were served massive quantities of food by the Compass Rose maitre'd, a head waiter, and two other waiters. We started with tortilla & pita chips, guacamole, salsa, refried beans, a spicy sauce, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese. Next came lobster nachos, beef nachos, beef quesadilla, fish burrito, empanada, chicken enchilada, melted cheddar cheese sauce, and more refried beans. It was truly massive quantities of food and very good I might add. Ronald, the Executive Chef, came by the table to check if everything was good. Nino, the manager of all restaurants on board, also came by.
Jason, the maitre'd, showed up later with a Mexican sombrero doing a little dance. What a fun night we all had.
Dessert was churros with chocolate sauce.
Our waiter, Dennis, made flowers out of paper napkins for the ladies at our table.
Chef Ronald presenting the anniversary cake.
At the big table near us was this 68th anniversary dinner for a lovely couple. Their son is traveling with them and taking really great care of them. We see them every evening in the Horizon Lounge for cocktail hour. Every crew member working in Compass Rose came around their table and sang to them. It was quite a tribute to this special couple.
After dinner we all adjourned to the theater for Richard Rubin's show. Incredible pianist and funny guy too boot. It was a great night.
TODAY:
Same routine this morning. No touring after yesterday's failure. I might have gone into the nice shopping mall just off the pier today but there is a huge RCL ship (Grandeur of the Seas) next to us today. Do not want to mix with those passengers as not sure they have been vaccinated. Some of our crew was allowed to go to the mall today however.
She is 16 years old and showing it. Needs some new paint on aft end. Passenger capacity nearly 2500.
It has taken me several hours to get today's post ready to publish. We are still not getting the Dallas Morning News every morning. They say there is a problem with the server in Miami.
This evening at 6pm we will be sailing again. We will arrive at Kingtown on the island of St Vincent tomorrow morning at 8am. I have a 2 hour tour scheduled upon arrival but it remains to be seen if I will do it. Maybe I can hack a small bus for just two hours.
This evening we will be joining Marcia and Bert & Karen Schraga again for cocktails in the Observation Lounge at 6pm followed by dinner at 7 in Sette Mari. I ordered another veal parmesan for tonight.
Yesterday we got some new headliner entertainers as the others headed home. Tonight's show is featuring Rachael Tyler, a vocalist who will be singing songs from Broadway. We want to check it out.
