A Photography Lesson in Antigua

The only problem with cruising close to the end of the year is that real life, especially Christmas preparations, get in the way as soon as we get home. This post is quite a bit late, but all the Christmas shopping and baking are done! 

This doesn't happen very often, but we split up in Antigua, me to do an excursion with a local photographer and Larry to stay on the ship.

It was only a small group of 14 on the tour, so our photographer, Steve, who was originally from Montreal but moved to Antigua when he was quite young, was happy he'd be able to check with each of us to see how well we were composing our photos along the way.

Our drive took us to four places that Steve likes as photographic subjects, and he gave us all tips for improving the way we look at our photo subjects.

The first was to Fort James, which is now a ruin at the headland of St. John's harbour. I had taken a photo of the fort from the ship when we were here in March, and had done a sketch of it, but had no idea what the place was.

One of the local cats suddenly appeared from 
a roof. They know tourists when they see them!

Our second stop was at Betty's Hope, an old sugar plantation. There is very little sugar cane grown on Antigua now, but there are many ruined sugar mills around the island.

Our group taking photos of the sugar mills
with Steve's help

One of the mills. The long wooden pole sits on
a large wheel and is attached to the windmill on
the other side. It is used to change the angle
to catch the wind in the blades.

Gear mechanisms that were used to run
the sugar mills

Ruins of some of the buildings

Third Stop was Devil's Bridge. This is a headland on the Atlantic side of the island with interesting rock formations, including a small natural stone bridge where the waves splash up into a column of spray. The sea was not heavily active, but with a little patience it was possible to see this effect.

Locals were selling conch shells and handmade
jewellery from stands nearby

I waited a bit to get this shot!

Our fourth Stop was at Long Beach to see the remains of a dead Fig Tree where someone had carved likenesses of Rastafarians into the trunk. The tree was supposed to have been taken down, but local opposition has kept it here as a 'curiosity'.

It was a really good tour, and I learned a lot that will help my photography in the future.

There were a couple of sea days back to Miami. I finally got to the Chat and Needlepoint meetings and worked on the projects I had brought with me:

Stitch 'n Zip credit card wallet and scissors case
done with beads and metallic ribbon as well
as cotton floss

Overall it was a nice cruise, but due to the number of guests it always seemed a little crowded. Not being able to get near the pool, even on port days, took away some of my enjoyment of a cruise. The ship is beautiful and the staff is great, but we look forward to a few fewer people on our next cruises.

Next up in February is the very new (not in service yet) Regent Grandeur, where we will be meeting Mary Ellen and Ed once more. She is a sister ship to Regent Splendor that we sailed last November.

Hope you enjoyed following along with this cruise, and will join us for the next one!

The Food Post

 It is much easier to showcase each restaurant and the food they serve than to build it into each day, so here we have the specialty restaurants of Oceania Vista:

Red Ginger:

The Asian inspired restaurant. It has a very diverse menu, but the sushi selection is nowhere near as extensive as Crystal's Umi Uma. On the other hand, they do have Thai, Indonesian and Chinese dishes, as well as a selection of different chopsticks, depending upon your experience and dexterity.

The Chef's Selection Sushi and Sashimi Platter

Spicy Duck and Watermelon Salad - it was quite
delicious!

Doesn't every cruise line serve a Miso Glazed
Seabass? Seems like it

Soft Shell Crab Tempura - two of my favourites
in the same dish

The trio of Sorbets for dessert

Waves Grill and Aquamar Kitchen:

Waves Grill is the place to get burgers, hot dogs, grilled sandwiches, and the like during the day. In the evening it becomes the local pizza place if you just want a light meal.

Aquamar Kitchen serves more healthful fare, like poke bowls, or also options to design your own bowl, tuna tacos and avocado toast. All the food we had there was also nicely presented and delicious, just not as heavy as some meals would be.

One of the 'bowl' options with chicken, quinoa, avocado
and a peanut dressing

Larry will always find a sandwich - even one with avocado
in it!

We did go to Waves for pizza one night, and had the chicken wing appetizer as well. It was just enough to split a 6-slice vegetarian pizza.

Polo Grill:

The 'steak house' dining venue. The food was very good, but the size of some of the steaks - like a 30 ounce Tomahawk - was just a little over the top. We ate there twice and enjoyed both meals.

The Oysters Rockefeller were very good - not quite
to The School's standard, but close.

There were some reasonably sized steaks -
a 10 ounce Striploin for Larry

and Surf and Turf for me. Half a Florida
lobster tail and a 5 ounce filet - just
the right size

Key Lime Pie

And on our second trip, the tomato salad with 
blue cheese and onion

And the lamb rack

Ember:

This is the most contentious of the dining options for may who are long-time Oceania guests. The other two large ships, Marina and Riviera, both have Jacques, the French restaurant named for chef Jacques Pepin, Oceania's Executive Culinary Consultant. There is no Jacques on Vista, and the American themed replacement doesn't live up to the standard. The food is still very good, but it will take some time for many to get used to the change.

Larry ordered the tuna tataki appetizer

I had the beet and goat cheese salad

Is there a burger on the menu? 

and I had a nice piece of Salmon

It was Thanksgiving Day, so we had Pumpkin Pie
for dessert - except that it came on the same plate
as Pecan Pie! Yummy!

Toscana:

The Italian restaurant. Again, a nicely varied menu, and very easy to over-order! The food here is also spectacular, although the restaurant doesn't have the same elegant feel as its counterpart on Riviera, as we recall from a few years back.

Calamari appetizer

Beef carpaccio - Larry said it looked naked compared
to the Prego version from Crystal! That one had
a little mustardy mayonnaise and was finished off
with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

I can't resist a good gnocchi, and this tiny portion
was delicious!

Caesar Salad - prepared tableside, but the dressing
is premade

Osso Bucco - not a huge portion, but still more than
I could finish!

Larry had the Lobster Fra Diavolo, spicy and
served with pasta

On our second trip, I had the Caprese Salad - only
3 slices of tomato, but they were huge!

And small Penne with Mushroom and Beef
Sauce

This was a special of the day - a Cheese-filled 
Ravioli

I don't think we had enough room for dessert that night, either! 

The food on this cruise has been quite good, from the breakfast buffet at the Terrace Cafe to all of the restaurants. We remembered a more elevated atmosphere for our dinners on Riviera which we didn't feel here, but the service is every bit as attentive as we are used to and the staff, many of whom are Filipino or Indonesian, are willing to do everything they can to make your experience a good one.

A 'Hotel Chocolat' Birthday in St. Lucia

Our first actual scheduled excursion on the cruise was in Castries, St. Lucia. The Culinary Centre chef was accompanying a tour to a coffee and cacao (among other things) plantation that also produces chocolate under its own brand, and is home to a hotel and restaurant. We would be getting a demonstration of the cacao growing and chocolate making process, and then have lunch at the hotel restaurant before returning to the ship.

It was a small tour, only 9 of us including Chef David Shalleck, who coincidentally was also the Culinary Centre chef when we sailed on Oceania Riviera in the Mediterranean in July 2017 (leading us on a couple of local market/cooking tours on that cruise), and one of the Destination Services team members. This was a brand new tour for both Oceania and the local tour operator, so they wanted to confirm the service and that the tour was presented as described.

We started out driving to Soufriere on the other side of the island in a small bus with our local tour guide, Verna. She was very knowledgeable and gave us lots of information on St. Lucia's history and other aspects of life on the island. She must be very good, as she told us that she had been chosen to guide the (now) Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Edward and Sophie, on a tour of the island on their visit earlier this year.

We had a couple of photo stops along the way, a little on the busy side as we were in port with MSC Seaside, another of the 4,000 guest-sized ships, but we managed to get a few photos:

The Pitons, two of the three largest on the island.
Soufriere is down below

We arrived at the Rabot Estate, which was established around 1745 on 140 acres of land as one of the first agricultural estates on the island. The main crops grown here are coffee and cacao, but as cacao needs to be grown along with other plants, they also produce pineapples, oranges, grapefruit and coconuts among others. About 20 years ago the estate was bought by two British entrepreneurs - lovers of chocolate and the almost forgotten process of hand-producing it - who wanted to revive the industry.

They now buy from a cooperative of cacao growers on St. Lucia who they provide with grafted plants, knowledge and support. They also make sure they are giving them the best prices for their beans to further develop their farms and keep the quality high. Their product is exceptional chocolate from an exceptional business!

 

After learning the history of Hotel Chocolat and
the estate, it is no wonder that Prince Charles
visited to break ground for the production facility and
hotel in 2008.

The Seederie, where seedlings are
grafted on to base plants. This method
reduces the production time for cacao beans
from 5 years to 3.

Coconut is one of the other crops grown
along with cacao. This is how new
coconut palms start out.

The info on these two blackboards tells much of what you need to know about the variety of cacao they grow here, its quality, and the way the local growers' cooperative benefits everyone. 

These are the small saplings taken from the estate's stock that will be grafted on to base plants and then grown and harvested by the local farmers.

After splicing the root stock and sapling together, they wrap the sapling tightly with a stretchy form of paraffin wax to protect it from moisture. It only takes a couple of weeks for the nodes on the saplings to start growing into leaves.

Enough said???

The demonstration area at the Cocoa Bar includes a stall where you can buy 'velvetised' ice cream, milk shakes, and drinks. 'Velvetised' means that the chocolate has been mixed with a little vodka and cream. There is also a bar which serves chocolate inspired cocktails and stands where you can purchase chocolate bars (50%, 65% and 72% cocoa), cocoa nibs, chocolate sticks that you grate into hot milk to make hot cocoa, as well as a line of beauty products called Rabot 1745 that are made with the cocoa butter they don't need in making the chocolate.

Our guide at Hotel Chocolat, Marina, did all the hard work in demonstrating how to make chocolate by hand. It only needs 3 ingredients - prepared (fermented and dried) cocoa beans, cocoa butter, and icing sugar. She used a granite mortar (preheated in an oven) and pestle and quite a bit of elbow grease:

The ingredients and the heated mortar

while we were offered samples of the 65% chocolate

After she had finished smashing the cocoa nibs almost to a powder, she added the cocoa butter

and we were offered a taste of the 72% chocolate

And finally she added a little bit of sugar. If you are an individual doing the tour, they'll sweeten the chocolate to your taste and then pour it into a 'Hotel Chocolat' mould so you have your very own custom-produced chocolate bar.

After the demonstration and tasting were complete, we headed into the hotel restaurant for our lunch. You can't beat the view of Petit Piton and the jungle. There's even an infinity pool just below the restaurant for hotel guests to enjoy.

Lunch started off with Cocoa Nib bread along with pesto, butter with cocoa, and a very lightly sweetened chocolate dipping sauce

My Three-Layer Quinoa appetizer was topped with cocoa confit tomato and pumpkin. Very light and delicious!

The Snapper Fricassee was served over a pineapple and potato base and glazed with coconut and cocoa butter sauce. Also amazing!

Larry ordered a fresh-made burger that comes in a cacao-pod shaped bun. The cocoa influence here is in the onions and the smoked bacon.

The cocoa dessert was chocolate mousse with velvetised ice cream and a thin chocolate wafer

The non-cocoa dessert was 3 flavours of sorbet - pineapple, coconut and strawberry 

We didn't know this until I started researching a few things for this post, but Hotel Chocolat has a number of stores in the UK, and even also has a restaurant in London! Two guys who wanted to revive a dying tradition of chocolate-making have certainly created a sustainable bean-to-bar-to-table industry showcasing St. Lucia's quality product to chocoholics everywhere. 

After this informative and delicious tour, we all boarded an open speedboat for the high-speed ride around the island back to Castries and the ship. 

A final view of Petit Piton

Quick stop to check out the local 'bat cave' 

There are some beautiful resorts on St. Lucia, along
with the ubiquitous 'Sandals'

It was looking like we'd get a bit of a dousing
from this rain squall, but we managed to
avoid it

Our ship from our boat

The balcony on the port (left) side under
the big overhang belongs to our suite

We still had to eat dinner, and went to Toscana in the evening - details on what we ate are in the 'Food Post'. And when we got back to our suite, we found that it had been decorated with balloons and a Happy Birthday banner. Love the towel birthday cake, too!