The end of the trip

January 11th saw us in Curaçao.  We have been here three times before, so we decided to go take a walk to a toy shop.  After a long 3 mile walk and no sign of it we returned to the ship.  We got lost.  We ended up in a neighbor hood that was no were near what the cruise port area looks like, and I have a feeling that the entire island is nothing like where the ships dock.  

The only thing that remained the same was the colorful houses.  

The rest was very different.  The one thing that surprised me was the bars on everything.  Stores, homes, you name it.  They either had all the windows and doors barred up, or there was barbed wire everywhere.  Not at all what we see in the cruise area.  

I guess the place just caters to tourists.  Therefore, the best place to be is the modern shops at the terminal.  Oh and the Elizabeth Bridge. That is worth seeing, especially when it is moving. Sadly, on this trip it stayed in place.  

The graffiti and the sculptures we saw were awesome!

When we got back to the ship we were exhausted and thirsty.  We headed straight up to the juice bar and grabbed a drink and an apple.  After we returned to the cabin and I worked a bit on the pirate, but the poor instructions and missing pieces caused me great frustration.  I put it away and decided to switch to a starfish to build my confidence back up.  1/2 hour later it was finished.  Confidence back.

The next day we were again in Aruba.  

We had a good laugh about being almost jailed here last trip and the memory of the dives we took was strong.  Oh how I wish we would have brought along our gear.  Instead, we went on a toy shop walk.  This was fun, and while we didn't find any puzzles, we did find a few lego sets that I wanted.   Yes, I'm enjoying a new hobby and wait till you see what I have planned...

I did catch a set of lock hearts that thrilled me.  I especially like the one with the end date.

We wandered around the island for a few hours, but since it was the same as last time, again we returned to the ship and I began working on a seahorse.  Nothing new here.  Same old stuff.  We did play a game in the afternoon before heading to dinner in Tamarind again.  

The 12th was a sea day.  George played Leisure Suit Larry again while I hunted puzzles and sent out emails to friends about our next trip.  Stay tuned to see what we are up to next. 

The last day on the ship we returned to the private fake island. George and I were fooled the first time, but not again.  We decided to stay on the ship for the day, play a few games, watch come movies, finish a nanoblock or two...same as any other sea day.  

I later found out that we made the right decision. Apparently there was some cockup with the ferry service and people were waiting upwards of two hours to get off the ship-only to have it start raining when they landed.  

We sailed back to Ft. Lauderdale under slightly rough seas.  When we landed, I only had shorts and a t-shirt. The temperature? 48 F.  As soon as we got out of the terminal I opened a suitcase, grabbed my jacket and a pair of jeans and put them on.  Our daughter picked us up and I drove us back home.  Another nice holiday is over.  Fino alla prossima settimana, arrivaderci e continua a rompicapo. 

4 more days

After we left the kid in Ft. Lauderdale, laden down with nanoblocks for me to assemble, we headed back to the ship for lunch and a nap.  We tried the New York Deli today and had a very nice pizza. Sadly, as with every meal g on a cruise ship, it was too big and a lot went to waste.

After we had eaten our fill, we went back to the room where George had his afternoon nap and I started work on a new Nanoblocks.  This time it was the Statue of Liberty.  This puzzle has 2810 tiny tiny pieces. They measure 4mm x 4mm x 5mm.  I have a pair of tweezers to help me assemble them.  So my day was spent sorting out pieces into different cups for ease of assembly.  George and I played Sequence and had a lovely dinner at Tamarind.  We enjoyed it so much I had a dinner reservation made for the Polo Grill later in the week but we changed it to Tamarind. 

(These photos are for you Bill)

The next day we were in Grand Turk.  This was a new island for us so we took a wander around. We then on our usual puzzle hunt.  Boy was I in luck!  I found 8 sets of beach themed NanoBlocks!  How wonderful.  Yes, I bought them all.

The island really didn't do much for us.  There was another ship in the port that day and can you say crowded?  We bought the puzzles, then returned to the ship for the rest of the day. I was fine with this.  It gave me more time to work on Lady Liberty.

At lunch, we discovered juices.  

The healthy kind that we used to drink in Hong Kong and when we have put on too much weight or just need a cleanse.  So guess what we decided to do. Lunches at the juice bar and dinner at Tamarind or Nami Sushi.  We booked up every night for the rest of the cruise.  I know there is a surcharge, but the main dining room is crowded, understaffed, and noisy. This is so much better.  and who knows, perhaps we will lose a pound or two.  

The next day we were in Amber Cove Dominican Republic.  Yep.  This was one of those tourist trap type places.  We wandered around the island for a while looking at the views, and then headed over to  what we thought to be a radio antenna of some sort.  

Turns out it was an observation bar. We then wandered around to the swimming pool area and watched the people for a bit, but really it was not a pleasant place to stay.   It was a very clean orderly place, but just another purpose built stop for cruise ships.  I did buy another bottle of Mamajuana for myself.

It reminds me a bit of Jagermeister but with honey added. 

That night after dinner we went to a show!  

We were told the guy with the Rubic's cubes was amazing and his show did not disappoint. Well....The first part of the show, he had someone mix up a cube then he took a solved one and mixed it the same way.  Yawn.  His jokes were mostly funny, and he didn't do any rope tricks so that was a plus.  His underlying theme was Alan Turin and at the end of the show he had 5 people name famous people everyone would know.  Mother Theresa, Elvis... anyway, he had a stack of 100 keychain cubes and went about mixing them up a bit.  I knew he was going to make Elvis and he did.  But here is where the show got really good!  He had Turin on the back and Elvis on the front.  

I've seen lots of cube art and this was a first for me. Now I was impressed.  How did he do that? 

Our next port was to be Bonaire but we seem to have bad luck with that place.  This is the second ship we were unable to dock with.  This time the captain came on two nights before and told us that there was a problem with the number of ships being allowed in. And we weren't.  But good on him! Instead of another sea day he brought us to San Juan Puerto Rico.  Another new place for us.  

I had a sleepless night and was up at 2:30 looking up stuff on the internet.  I guess I was excited about the scenic ride past the fort in town.  It was very nice.  We were told it is the oldest fort in the Caribbean.  It certainly was strategically placed.  For added effect, there is a pirate ship in the harbor.

We got off the ship around 10 in search of an arts and crafts market.  We found it, but sadly it was closed.  We decided to wander around the town for a while.  This was a very nice clean town.  Around noon, George decided to try some local food and we sat down for pork mofungo.  It was absolutely delicious.  

When we got back on the ship I looked up the recipe and will be adding it to our meals. We wandered a bit more and I managed to snap a few good photos of some of the area.  

We headed back to the ship and I finished the Statue of Liberty!  

The next day we spent at sea and as usual, we played a few games, watched a few movies, worked a bit on a new puzzle. A rather dull day.