From Cataño to the World: Lesser Antilles at Sea Part 1

Hello guys! Welcome back to my traveling blog.

Me in Barbados local market.

Today, I will be talking about my first experience in a cruise and the islands I visited while 7 days at the Caribbean sea for 7 days. Traveling on a cruise was one of my dreams since I was a child. I always told my dad I wanted to go on a cruise on "Free Willy's" tail when I turned 10. It didn't happen at 10, but it happen when I was 16! My father gave us the option (to me and my sister) in choosing between going on a cruise or to Disney World and guess where we decided it? The Cruise! Or like I called it: City at Sea! We decided on the cruise because I have always wanted to be on one. The cruise trip happened on July 2009. These days were the craziest and most amazing days of my entire 16 years old life. This trip was the end of my four-year hiatus of traveling, but yet beginning of my wanderlust addiction. On this blog, I will be talking about three of the six islands I visited and next week, I will talk about the other three islands and the rest of my experience that I had during that amazing week.

During this trip we visited 6 islands. We departed from San Juan, Puerto Rico at 9pm on a Sunday. On departure day, we arrive super early to the cruise because we didn't want to mis it or make a line for being late. We arrived at noon and settled down on our rooms. The cruise was huge and amazing! I memorized the whole cruise in only two house by walking every corner of the cruise except, staff rooms and the casino. Two hours before departing, the cruise personnel showed us the safety procedures we should follow in the event of an emergency (pay attention to this, you never know when they might come handy, ref. Italy). This was kind of weird because the "safety guy" was overly excited, kind of strange for someone talking about safety. After the emergency drill, my family and I went for dinner and it was AMAZING! Our waiter was from Honduras and we bonded with him and almost kept him from doing his job. He was super nice! Besides the amazing food, which by the way is 24/7, they had amazing shows, free gym, free sauna, and free steam room. Did I mention FREE! Many things are free in the cruise. They even have a little mall inside, but that one is not free for sure.

Me in St. Thomas

When we departure, we walked tot he deck to see the view of "The Old San Juan" while the boat navigated away from the port and it was stunning to see "El Morro" slowly disappearing. It made me think about the colonization period and what Spaniards left behind here or the rest of America, after returning to Spain. Thinking that this was the exact same view they had as they were leaving. It got me really nostalgic, I was leaving my home, temporarily, but hype because I was about to experience theist adventure in my life, at sea, with my family.

Our first stop was Saint Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands) on a Monday morning. We woke up late and after some breakfast, we ran out of the cruise to see the island. We arrived at the Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas capital) and walked around the historic sites in the area and grab some lunch and just enjoyed the view of the capital. We had about 8 hours (9am-5pm) to see the island and go back to the cruise. The cruise offers you excursions and activities to do as well but some of them, if not all of them, have a free to pay so instead we decided to walked around the island and enjoy the bay and the beautiful blue sea. One cool thing that we did was buying a replica of a colonial locked. We strolled around the market and the local stores and it felt like we were on the Old San Juan but everything was in English and smaller than Puerto Rico. My father wasn't the most adventurous guy so after we were out for a couple hours in the harbor we went back because he didn't want to loose sight of the cruise.

http://www.carnival.com/cruise-to-classic/caribbean-cruises/st-thomas-cruises.aspx

View of Roseau, Dominica

On our second day (on Tuesday) we stop in Dominica ( Do not confuse it with Dominican Republic). This time we woke up early and left the cruise to sightseeing around the island. The first thing we did was to go to the bank to exchange US currency to the currency in Dominica (which is the Eastern Carribbean Dollar, look it up) and after we walked around the capital of Dominica, Roseau, and ran into Juan (El Cubano). At first my father was really concern about Juan approaching us because it offered us to give us a tour around the island for a really cheap price. He than later give in because Juan spoke Spanish and three other families from the cruise were going to take the tour too so we got into the van and began our adventure in Dominica.

Juan "El Cubano" and Myself back in the port after seeing the island.

On of the things I loved about the islands was the black sand ( Dominica is a volcanic island) and the hot spring in the forest. During our tour with Juan, we visited an amazing waterfall not he top of a mountain. While walking to the fall, Juan showed us some natural hot springs around the island. In one of the scenic view of the island, Juan showed us how the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. The same effect is possible to see from the west and east coats of Puerto Rico. It so amazing seeing how the world works and see how the Atlantic Ocean is darker than the Caribbean Sea (ocean is deeper than the sea) and how the waves collides with each other. I took pictures but they don't make justice to it. Moments like this are the ones that I take in to myself and admire how amazing nature can be. On our way back from the mountains, a van that literally was flying almost killed my family and I. Cars in Dominica drive in the opposite side of the streets, like in all English colonies. I also realized that the island of Dominica was not as developed as Puerto Rico, and tourism is the only thing that keeps this island alive. Dominica was one of my favorite islands in the entire trip. I really enjoyed exploring the island and meeting Juan. During the evening, we got ready for Captain Night, and my father birthday! He didn't want people to know but, because I am spontaneous, I went to the waiter and told him that it was my father's birthday and they brought a piece of cake singing Happy Birthday to him. Later during dinner, we met the Captain and he wished my father a great birthday. It was a great day overall.

My father on his birthday.

http://www.carnival.com/cruise-to-classic/southern-caribbean-cruise/dominica-cruises.aspx

On our third day we arrive to Barbados. I was excited of being visiting because...Rihannah is from Barbados!!! On that day, my father decided that we were spending the entire day at the beach. Fine with me! We met with the same group from Dominica and went to the beach. When we arrived at the beach, we found out they had sea turtles at the beach for $20 we could get could get on a boat with a clear floor and get near the turtles, snorkel with them and feed them. This was an unbelievable experience! The turtles were huge and it's amazing to see how they swim so majestically into the deep blue and calmly get near you to eat. My parents were freaking out because they didn't get in but they also, were far away form the shore. My sister and I were enjoying swimming with the sea turtle. After 30 minutes of swimming and feeding the turtles we headed back to the shore and enjoyed ourselves the rest of our day at Barbados.

Snorkeling with the turtles 

 Coming back to the harbor in Bridgetown (the capital of Barbados) the driver showed us where Rihanna was raised and the house she is stay when she visit the island. When we arrived to Bridgetown, we walked around the local market to buy souvenirs but first, we need to exchange US dollars to Barbarians Dollars, the local currency. After dinner, we saw one of the cruise offered: an impersonation of an artist and stand up comedy. Okay, the quality was not that bad but it could have been better. Half way through the trip, only thing that it was getting boring was the food. I ate so much the first few days that I was over it half way through the trip. Good thing I discovered the sauna and steam room and it was a nice place to go and relax and talk to other passengers about their experience in each island.

Coming back from snorkeling and feeding the turtles 

http://www.carnival.com/cruise-to-classic/southern-caribbean-cruise/barbados-cruise.aspx

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Next week, I will be talking about the rest of the islands (St. Lucia, Antigua, and St. Kitts) I visited while in the Carnival cruise, as well as, when is the best time to travel to the Lesser Antilles. I will be also posting a video with all the pictures of the cruise so you guys can picture everything that I am talking about.

If you want more information about carnival cruise and their trips you can visit the link below.

http://www.carnival.com