Home Again

Hubby and I got home late Saturday night from a Caribbean cruise. We left out of San Juan for a week of sunshine, blue waters, lovely sand beaches and a tiny bit of rain.

We started in San Juan for a couple of days, we took a bus over to Castillo San Felipe del Morro, construction began in 1539 and was worked on for over 400 years. There was so much to see there-and it was very surreal to think about all the lives lost on the field leading up to the fort.

We also spent a lot of time on the beach outside our hotel. No shells, but hearing the waves rolling in was so relaxing. It was great to unwind prior to boarding our ship.

We sailed on the Serenade of the Sea-a gorgeous ship that is part of the Royal Caribbean fleet. Starting off with a stop on Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

We took a ferry over to the Baths on Virgin Gorda. A natural rock formation of massive boulders and open sea grottoes.

Apart from being a little crowded it was so much fun to explore the 'caves' and climb the rocks.

Second stop brought us to St Maarten for a pirate ship adventure on the Lord Sheffield for snorkeling, swimming and of course lots of rum punch!

Next was St Kitts, we didn't plan any excursions that day, just shopping and a stroll through the Independence Square, the former location of the St Kitts slave market. It was another very somber experience knowing what happened there. There was a small plaque on a building across from the park, a very dark dingy looking place where the slaves were held prior to their sale.

But apart from this the island was very bright, friendly and the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. Ok so he was actually born on the sister island Nevis, but the people of St Kitts were very proud to call him as their own!

After a restful day of no pressing agenda we next stopped at the rain forest island of Dominica, Coby's favorite island. We took a hike to the Emerald Pool and then went tubing down the Layou river. There were a lot of rapids so helmets and life jackets were a must-but I have never seen my dad smile so much or heard my mom laugh so hard. Well worth waiting in the rain!

Our last island was Barbados for a 4x4 tour and shipwreck snorkel. I wasn't sure about the shipwreck snorkeling since last year's trip to the Antilla on Aruba wasn't really much, wreck was hard to see and the water was so choppy. But this time was so much different! The sand on the sea floor was so white and the water was so clear it was just amazing, coral was growing and there were so many fish. Due to the currents there were also thousands of 'jellyfish' (completely harmless) floating around. Was my absolute best experience snorkeling yet. Before heading to the airport on our final day we spent some time in the El Yunque rain forest on San Juan, I really wished we would have had more time there it was just gorgeous, green and lush, there were a lot of frogs 'singing' and there were snails everywhere as well as several natural occurring streams and waterfalls. It was a very mysterious place. I have over 300 photos to go through and I can't wait to start scrapping them! I have a whole collection of Tropical Travelogue on stand by and I'm off to Archivers tomorrow to start printing photos! I look forward to sharing our journey with you through my future pages! Thanks for stopping by!

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