Tinkerblue

Bacardi, Beaches and Broke

We just finished an 8 day cruise that was successful (we hit target) and expensive (I've spent my paycheque before we get paid!).

We had two long sea days at the beginning of the cruise and then our first port was San Juan, Puerto Rico.     About 6 of us thought about going to the Bacardi Distillery but we were worried about timing... last time I went with Jorge, Victoria and Karl we cut it very close and only just made all aboard.  This week we had a general emergency drill meaning ouldn't get off ship until 11am, back on board was 230pm so it was a no go.  

 

After boat drill Trudy and I decided to check out the ferry schedule and fares for next time. Only we couldn't wait for next time. The ferry was leaving in 5 mins  and cost 50c.  We went.  

 

Ferry ride from Old San Juan to Catano took about 10 mins 50c each way

Taxi from ferry terminal to Bacardi 10 minutes $3.00 per person each way 

 

 

Barcardi tour - 1 hour, $12.00 includes a souvenir glass and one drink.  There is an option for a 2 hour tour that includes a mixology class and three drinks for $35.00. We might have done that except for the timing.

 

The tour is the same as I took last time with Victoria, Jorge and Karl expect Trudy and I didn't have to cut it short we actually stayed until the end and we even had time to browse the gift shop. I passed on the $85.00 bottle of limited reserve rum with personalized engraving on the bottle and I also passed on the very cute rum barrel.

 

Antigua was our next stop, the only time we stop there.  Antigua has 365 beaches. One for every day of the year. We only had time to visit one.  Trudy, Lavinia and I spent the day at Jolly Beach.  

 

 

 

When I think of Caribbean beaches, this is what I imagine.  Glaringly bright sun, blue blue green water and white sand.  Thank heavens for cloud cover.

 

A good few hours were spent doing nothing but floating in the water, laying in the sun to soak up some vitamin D, laying under the beach umbrella to avoid looking like a lobster, reading a few pages of my book, or just people watching.

(my toes are not sunburnt, I accidently had the vivid colour setting on my camera turned on!)

 

This photo makes me laugh...the tanned Romanian, Lavinina between the lily white South African and Australian!

 

I wish we stopped in Antigua more than once. It was a beautiful, relaxing day.

 

Our third stop of the cruise was St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Again we only stop here once. When I was on Liberty last year we stopped here every other week, I very much like St Thomas... beaches, shopping, skyride, ice bar, resorts, lots to do.

 

With so much to do, what did I do? Ummmm....spent money. Lots of it.  Mainly on speakers for Shaun, but I'm going to use them until I take them home!  He'll just have to wait patiently.  I did also get some jewelery and a headphones for me. And drooled over a very pretty diamond palm tree necklace but that stayed in the store.

 

Last stop for this cruise was Nassau, in the Bahamas.  It's not my first time in Nassau and it won't be my last. Nassau is on our itinerary quite a few time. Unfortunately it's not really a place that interests me much, and there's always rumours of tourists being mugged etc etc.  We just had a quick bite to eat, tried to find some fast internet and then went back to the ship for a nap.

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.