Tinkerblue

Barcardi Distillery - San Juan

It's not often we get a full day in San Juan.  Usually I'm port manning and can't get off the ship or we have a general boat drill and then we only have two-three hours. But about a month ago we didn't have boat drill and we had the whole day in San Juan.  After stopping in Starbucks for some free wifi and then wandering Old San Juan spending money on items we din't really need we decided on the spur of the moment to visit the Bacardi Distillery. 

 

 

We could have taken a shore excursion through the ship for about $40 each or grabbed a tour from one of the many operators right outside the ship for about $20 each. But we went with the cheap option.  We took the ferry - it's about a 3 minute walk from the cruise ship.  The ferry cost a whole 50c for the return trip.  We did get a laugh when the ticket they gave us said Seniors!  The ferry takes about 10 minutes and then it's a quick cab ride to Bacardi. The cab ride was $3 each.  The Bacardi tour?  It's free.  And it includes two drinks.  

 

 

You arrive at the visitor centre, a huge big covered area with tables and chairs and more importantly the bar.   First stop - at a tiny desk where a not so friendly employee gave us our tour and drink tickets. We had just missed a tour and had about 20 minutes to the next one, so it was a good time to have our free drinks.

 

 

For my first drink I had the classic Cuba Libre, and for my second I tried Black Razz Rum with orange and cranberry juice.  It was oh so good.   I could have drank oh so much of it! Just as we were getting comfortable they called our tour.

 

 

We took a tram across to the tour building.  It was not far, we could have walked easily, but the tram is their way of keeping everybody contained.

 

 

The tour is not actually a tour of the distillery, we didn't actually get to see the rum being made.  It's more of a fancy infomercial. Also we hadn't realised how late in the day it was and the tour was going to finish after the ferry back to Old San Juan, which would have meant us missing the ship, so we were a little stressed.  Still it was fun.

 

 

The tour starts with the history of sugar cane and the origins rum making. A short movie follows with the Bacardi family history and the rum making process. The guide took a long time getting everyone seated and starting the movie. This section of the tour could have been done in half the time.  I don't remember too much about the movie except that the ceiling was pretty cool.

 

 

Moving on into a reproduction of the original factory, the guide talks about the tells you more about how rum is made, how it's stored in the oak barrels, etc. Did you know they don't clean the Bacardi bottles with water? They clean them with rum so they don't dilute the product.

 

 

By now all four of us were getting a little ansty about missing the ferry and the ship! We asked if we could leave but the guide wouldn't let us, she said we had to go to the next part of the tour and then we could leave.  The second to last part of the tour is the bar.  You don't actually get any samples or drinks here, but a bartender talks about the different rums, and the cocktails you can mix.  

 

 

Finally they let us go, we raced back to the ferry, which was not at 200pm as we had been told but at 215pm.  Which made us very close for the 230pm back on board, but we did infact make it.  We still need to go back to Bacardi.  We had to skip the gift shop all together. Next time, we'll skip the tour, have our two free drinks and then go to the gift shop.

 

Bushwacker at Paradise Point - St Thomas

 

Okay, okay so Paradise Point in St Thomas might be one of those tacky tourist traps, but we wanted to go anyway. I signed on to the ship July 18th and Paradise Point has been closed up until now.   So this was the first chance we had to see what it was like.  

 

 

First off, it's expensive. $21.00 per person.  Lucky for us there is crew discount which made it much much much more affordable.  I think I might have baulked if I'd had to pay the full $21.00.  Or maybe not. The whole point of working on a cruise ship was to travel, see the sights and enjoy myself.  

 

 

Anyway we waited maybe a whole 5 minutes for the cable car to arrive.  There was only two other people waiting to board so Victoria, Jorge and I and a car to ourselves. The ride up takes about 45 minutes and the views are spectacular.  

 

 

There is a a lot of construction happening at the top of the tramway, so the nature trails etc are all closed.  However the lookout is what you go up for and it was open.  We took all the requisite tourist photos and then some.  Three people, three cameras, three smart phones. That's a lot of photos.

 

 

At the top there isn't really much other than the view.  A few souvenir shops that carry the same stuff you can get anywhere and a restaurant that only accepts cash (no cards) but there is no ATM to get cash.  The menu is limited - very.  No more than 6 items. And they were expensive.  We didn't eat.  But they do have free wifi.  Very important to facebook starved ship crew.

 

 

We decided to drink instead.  That's a wise decision when it's 40c out! But Paradise Point is famous for it's Bushwacker.  

 

 

Depending on who you talk to or what you read the Bushwacker was first served in St Thomas or Florida.  I'm going with St Thomas purely because it suits me and I'm in St Thomas, not Florida! 

 

 

The bushwacker looks like a chocolate milkshake but holy cow is it way more potent! Basically it consists of rum, vodka, Bailey's, Kahlua, Amaretto, Creme de Cacao, crushed ice and nutmeg.  Very very tasty.  I'd go back for another.

 

 

Altun Ha Mayan Ruins, Belize

 

Hmmm this day didn't quite go as planned.  Mariana, Victoria and I had signed up to do the excursion to Xunantunich, Mayan ruins close to the Guatemala border.  But the weather had other plans for us.  Rain had caused flooding in the area and Park Rangers closed the ruins.  Bah.  Shore Excursions offered to put us on the trip to Altun Ha instead. Why not? We were already up. 

 

 

The bus ride to the ruins took about an hour or maybe more. I'm not 100% sure as I slept most of the way.  Gotta get my sleep when and where I can.   The ruins at first seem tiny. There are only two plazas and about 1/2 a dozen buildings - temples, tombs and pyramids.  But... Most of the site remains covered by jungle.  There are actually 6 plazas and 500 buildings here.

 

 

Altun Ha was constructed about 600 bc or maybe even earlier. It may have been small but it is thought to  have been one of the major trading posts for the Mayan civilization at the time.  Objects have been found that would have originally come from Mexico, Panama and Guatemala. 

 

 

Inside the Temple of the Sun God they found a jade head representing the Sun God. It's about 6" tall and weighs over 10lbs.  The real jade carving is now in a vault at the bank in Belize City (which was built in the same shape as the temple) and a replica is on display at the Museum of Belize.

 

 

The Temple of the Temple of the Masonry Altars is the logo for Belize's Belikan Beer. Just thought you needed to know that!

 

 

According to our tour guide:

• every 52 years the Mayans added to or renovated a building. First time I'd heard that piece of information about Mayan temples. 
• 13 is a lucky number for the Mayans.
• Women were buried in Mayan temples, an indication that the Mayans held women in high regard.

 

 

On the way back, we took a boat ride on the River Wallace and saw crocodiles, howler monkeys and really big gekkos.

 

 

 

The Royal Dolphin Swim - Cozumel

I've said several times that I would never swim with dolphins. But I'm eating my words.  In Cozumel last Monday I went swimming with dolphins and it was awesome.  I don't like that the dolphins are fenced in or that they are performing tricks they wouldn't do in their natural environment, but I'm going to have to be hypocritical about it. The dolphins at Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel are apparently all born under human care and were not captured from the wild, but I still feel conflicted.  But I thorougly enjoyed myself.  It it one of the highlights of my contract so far - up there with the Amazing Secret River that I went to with David.

 

Jorge, Me, Karl getting ready for our dolphin swim

 

dorsel tow

 

handshake - my eyes are full of salt from the dorsel tow, and I couldn't get them open!

dolphin kiss with Luke. Our dolphins were Luke and Leia!

Hand touch - also can you see Karl holding on to my life vest? The current was strong and kept pushing me off the platform.

The foot push. There are two dolphins - one under each foot.

Dolphin Discovery - Cozumel

Castillo San Cristobal - San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan is one of my favourite ports, we come here every second week. But one week I'm port manning and can't get off the ship, the other week we have our crew boat drill and don't get off until late. I never get enough time in San Juan. Oh the problems of ship life!

 

After the last boat drill Manny, David and I went to visit Castillo San Cristobal.  It's a Spanish fort that was built over 150+ years ago to protect the city from attacks.  

 

Hanging out in the Sentry Box

Castillo San Cristobal is the largest fort that the Spanish built in the Americas. 

 

Once upon a time they fired canons from here, now I get to sit and enjoy the view!

 

It once covered over 27 acres but nearly a third of it was demolished to allow for the expansion of the city.

 

David trying to look cool on top of the 200 pound mortar shells.

 

El Morro guarded  San Juan from ocean attacks, San Cristobal guarded against land based attacks.  We didn't visit El Morro - too far to walk, and with what time we had left we wanted to go and eat lunch. Food in our belly was more important.

 

Manny and David doing what they do best - playing the fools!

 

The fort doesn't just look pretty, it's seen it's share of battles.  The first shot by the Spanish in the Spanish-American war was fired from here.  The US used it during World War II.

 

View from the Observation Tower

 

Just in case anyone wants to know, Castillo San Cristobal is walking distance from the cruise ship dock. We spent about an hour to an hour and a half here and it cost us $3.00 each. One of the cheapest tourist attractions I've been to in a while. You can spend longer here, we didn't watch the movie or explore some of the inside displays.  But we didn't really feel like we missed anything.

 

Hey, their bunks are bigger than ours! But ours may be just a little more comfortable.

 

That's our sightseeing and history lesson for the month. No doubt next time we have some time in port we'll go back to sitting in restaurants or cafes for food, drinks and internet.  

 

Don't fall - it's a long way down to the ocean on the other side.

The Amazing Secret River - Shore Excursion from Cozumel

David and I have been talking about doing this excursion for a while.  We had a whole group of people lined up to go, but everyone else cancelled at the last minute - either too expensive or too tired or whatever. So it ended up just being the two of us. 

 

We booked through the ship, because it requires a ferry ride to get there and we didn't want to miss the ferry back to the ship. That wouldn't be good!  The ferry ride was about 40 mines, then a 1/2 hour bus ride to the Rio Secreto Natural Reserve.

 

You cannot take anything with  you into the caves. No camera's, no jewelry, no sunscreen, no body oil etc.  So the first stop is the change rooms and then an outdoor shower to rinse off. You can choose to wear a wetsuit or not, it's included in the price.  Our guide assured us the water wasn't that cold so our group all chose to not wear the wetsuits.  You are also given water shoes, life jacket and helmet with headlamp.  If I were doing it again, I'd bring my own water shoes.  

 

From the base it's a 10 minute or so walk through the jungle to the Rio Secreto.

 

Inside the caves you travel nearly 11 miles either walking or floating and it takes about 90 minutes, I think. I lost track of the time.  I've been into quite a few caves over the years, but I have never swam in any.  The cave system is huge, it's pretty much under all of the state of Quintana Roo (the Yucatan peninsula) but much of it is unexplored.  The area where our tour went is called Pool Tunich.  It's seriously a labryinth of waterways and amphitheaters filled with stalactites and stalagmites formed from limestone and quartz crystals.

 

 

The water is cool, and crystal clear.  At some points it was only ankle deep but in other places it was over my head. Yeah I know, I'm short but David is taller than me and it was over his head too.  The bottom is either rocks or sand. my favourite parts where when we just floated along, looking up at the stalactites.  It was stunning.

 

 It was really awesome. I can't really put in to words how I felt.  But I wanted to spend more time just exploring, listening to the silence.  Even in a group of 8 it was so peaceful.

 

 

One of my favourite parts was when the guide had us all float on our backs, close our eyes, turn off our head lamps and then open our eyes.  It was dark.  Really dark.  My eyes never adjusted to the darkness, and I couldn't see my hand in front of me.  Every one was absolutely quiet and we just floated there for 5 minutes.  You could hear water dripping from the stalactites.  Amazing.

 

 

Seriously if you are ever vacationing in Cancun or Playa del Carmen or Cozumel you should go to the Secret River.  It was well worth it.  I would go again.  The tour I went on was to the Secret River or Rio Secreto.  But you can also do an underground river tour at Xcaret.   It's all part of the same cave system.

 

 

(all photos are from Rio Secreto CD and you can't take your own camera)

 

 

We Went to Hell, Grand Cayman

 

Last week Mariana, Victoria and I decided to go to Hell. 

 

 

Hell is a tourist spot in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.  You can go as part of an Island tour which also includes the turtle farm, rum factory and dolphin show. We didn't want to do a full tour, because we wanted time to sit in the coffee shop and use the internet.  You can tell which coffee shops have good internet access by the number of crew sitting outside.  Or you can take a taxi which was our first choice. However the taxi's wanted $6 per person each way, which was too much for our cheap asses.  It was a tad too far to walk so we were debating whether to go or not when a local guy told us to take the bus for $2.5 each. Sweet. Sold.  

 

So we caught the bus to Hell.

 

Hell looks like volcanic lava but it is actually a limestone rock formation. It's about the size or half the size of a soccer field depending on which website you are reading. You can't walk on it, just on the viewing platforms that overlook it.  There are also multiple versions of how Hell got it's name:

A US president or dignartary said "It's hot as hell here."

An official from England was shooting birds, missed and shouted, "Hell!"

A local official said, "This must be what Hell looks like."

Or when you throw a pebble into the formation it makes a sound like it's falling all the way to hell.

Take your pick.

 

 

Hell has to potential to be so much more.  There was no information about the rock formations on the viewing platforms.  The store/post office is looking very run down and could do with a fresh coat of paint.  We had planned to buy and send some postcards from Hell, but all the postcards had this scary old man dressed as the devil on them.  We all left without spending any money and a more than a little disappointed.  Oh well. My next adventure more than makes up for it!

 

Would I go again? No. Would I recommend it as a place to visit? Not really. Use your time for something else. 

Shore Excursion from Cozumel to Tulum

 

Our ship docks in Cozumel every second week. So far I have been to Cozumel 4 times, each time I've gotten off the boat and just wandered around near the port, gone for lunch downtown, or gone to a local hotel for internet access.

 

Yesterday I finally got myself organised enough to do something further afield and more exciting. Victoria and I booked one of the ship's shore excursions to the Mayan ruins of Tulum. Sure we probably could have done it cheaper ourselves but it involves getting a ferry and a bus there and back and we didn't want to risk missing the last ferry and thereby miss the ship. So we paid the big bucks to do the official excursion.

 

The excursion itself was okay. There wasn't much communication. We got off the ship and went to the meeting point on the pier. The person standing there with the Tulum signed just waved us on, said keep going to the ferry. At the ferry they took our excursion ticket but didn't give us any further information. I had heard horror stories about the ferry - that it's long and rough and everyone gets sick. But it was okay. I napped. When we got to Playa del Carmen finally someone asked us if we were on the Tulum tour and directed us to a coach. Our tour guide for the day was Angel del Jesus or Angel for short. He was very friendly, very funny and way too talkative. Would have been nice if he had shut up for 5 minutes. (says me!)

 

We stopped at a craft cooperative between the ferry and the ruins so we could do the obligatory shopping, Victoria bought an obsidian pendant and I bought a christmas decoration. For the tree I wont have this year, in the home I don't have. Not very practical I know.

 

This is what I learnt from the tour guide:

• Tulum means stinky land in Mayan, Cancun means snakes nest and Yucatan means "Listen how they talk".
• It was a major port for the Mayans
• The Mayans never said the world would end last December
• Most non-Mexicans confuse the Mayan calendar with the Aztec Calendar. They are not the same.
• Tulum was one of the last cities built by the Mayans
• They Mayans were short, averaging 4 feet tall. So most of their entrances ways are only 5 feet tall. Which means even I have to bend down to get through the gateways.
• Mayan women give birth standing up.
• Tulum is located right next to the ocean. The salt and wind are part of the reason it has disintegrated faster than the non coastal ruins ruins.
• The Mayans were very smart. They built whole cities with functioning sewer systems, supplies of fresh water, drainage for storm water etc. Compare that to some of the towns we build now in the 21st century.
• The temples are built based on the Mayan calendar, 91 steps on each of 4 sides = 364 steps plus the platform at the top = 365, which corresponds with 365 days in a Mayan year.
• You can tell a building is a temple because the doors face East and West, in non temple buildings the doors face North and South. (I think it was that way round!)
• The doors also line up so that on the spring and autumn equinox the sun streams through an exact spot each time. Thousands and thousands of visitors will show up to the Mayan sites on the equinoxes. The next one is the 21st of this month.

 

 

After touring the ruins we climbed down the stairs to the beach below.  It was right out of a tourist brochure... white sand, turquoise water.  My life is a tourist brochure right now. I am so lucky.

 

 

How cool is it that I get to go swimming here before I go to work?

 

 

And drink a local Yucatan beer and eat some of the hottest Pico De Gallo I have ever had. They warned us that the locals call it Ay Ay Ay sauce.

 

Kayaking in the Caribbean - Isla Roatan, Honduras

I've been working on a ship in the Caribbean for a month now, and haven't got my ass out a kayak. What is wrong with me?  That finally changed yesterday. Woohoo!!!!!

We were docked at Isla Roatan. Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras.  I rented a plastic sit upon kayak on the beach at West End.   I only the kayak for an hour, and didn't get to explore the bay as much as I would have liked to but it was so nice to be out paddling again.

 

The rental wasn't cheap, $20 for an hour. And they only had plastic double sit upons. But hey, it's better than nothing at all. The weather wasn't the best.  It had been raining, and the sky was all grey with a storm brewing.  That didn't matter, the water was choppy but clear, the sand was fine and white and it was warm.  

 

I went out at first on my own.  But then managed to talk Natalia and Mariana into taking turns to come out with me. Neither had been in a kayak before.

The beach was crowded, so I paddled away from the swimmers and snorkellers as quick as I could.   Once out away from the obstacles it was beautiful, so relaxing.  I saw eels, a stingray and lots and lots of fish.  

 

No photos of the kayaking because I left the waterproof bag for my iPhone packed in a rubbermaid tub along with all my other kayaking gear in my storage locker in Vancouver!  It never occured to me to bring it with me. What was I thinking?  I have ordered a waterproof case for my camera. Hopefully it will arrive next week.

The ship I'm on has two itineraries in the Caribbean and we visit 8 different ports. Cozumel, Belize City, Roatan, Grand Cayman, Half Moon Cay, St Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk. My goal in the next 5 months is to kayak in every port at least once. (and to drink a local beer).

Guy's Burger Joint

Carnival and Guy Fieri teamed up to add Guy's Burger Joint to the Carnival ships.  Last week Natalia and I were port manning and couldn't get off the ship to one day we had lunch at Guy's.

 

The burger was good, I had "The Ringer" - the straight up burger with S.M.C. (special melty cheese), Guy's bourbon and brown sugar BBQ sauce and a righteous Rojo ring. The toppings were endless. It was nice to have something different from the crew food.