Finally Seeing Tortola

Considering we have stopped at Road Town, Tortola on many cruises over the years, we had never taken an island tour. We had gone to Virgin Gorda a couple of times, and wandered around the port area, but hadn't seen much else. We decided to change that on this trip, and I booked a panoramic drive with a short beach stop. We climbed into our open jitney buses and headed out.

The view of Road Town's cruise pier with us
and Oceania Allura

It was quite the drive, up to 1,400 feet on narrow, twisting roads that weren't always in the best condition, and back down again on the other side of the island. The views, however, were quite gorgeous.

The views from our first stop

Our beach break of about 45 minutes came at Cane Garden Bay. A beach lounger rental was included in the cost of our tour, and the umbrella cost an extra $5 for the two of us. There were already quite a few people there from the local hotels and resorts, and we're sure there were also tour groups from Oceania Allura, who was sharing the pier with us.

Arriving at Cane Garden Bay. You can see why
it is a popular beach spot.

On the beach.

The island in the distance is Jost van Dyke

A last view as we drove away after
our break

Rather than taking the same route back to Road Town, we were driven along the coast for the most part, coming into Road Town from the opposite site from where we left. It was also a very scenic drive.

Coming back down to sea level, you can see how
steep the roads are. It reminded us of the
twisting road on Tenerife a couple of years ago.

It was a nice drive back, as the coast road is in much better condition than the mountain road, and the views of the island and others in both the British and US Virgin Islands were beautiful. It is only a very short distance between Tortola and St. John, which we could see during our drive.

St. John across the water

We had to stop at the Shell Man. Apparently these
folks lost everything in the last hurricanes to hit Tortola,
Irma and Maria, within a couple of weeks of
each other in 2017.

The entrance to the beach area of an exclusive resort.
Sure looks inviting!

The view as we sailed away toward Ft. Lauderdale.

It was a beautiful day and an opportunity to finally see something of the island. We only have one excursion planned for the next leg of the cruise, in Martinique on the last day, so the rest of the blog posts will focus on what we did on board the ship.

I have been working on my travel sketchbook while on the cruise as well as a few other sketches. Here are a couple based on my photos from Tortola:

A History Lesson in Les Saintes, Guadeloupe

This morning we arrived on the island of Les Saintes, Guadeloupe, where it was already sunny and quite hot on our balcony at 7:30. Our shore excursion to Fort Napoleon was in the early afternoon, so we had to make sure we were prepared for the heat and humidity.

Les Saintes is on Terre-de-Haut, one of the smaller islands in the archipelago of Guadeloupe. In 2023 we visited Deshaies on the large island of Basse-Terre. They look surprisingly alike; walking through the town to meet our van transfer was very much like walking through Deshaies, but on a much smaller scale.

We were met at the tender pier by our guide, a former teacher who had studied and taught in England. He was obviously very knowledgeable as he took us through the museum at the fort. Fort Napoleon is on the highest peak of Terre-de-Haut, providing stunning views over the island and its neighbours, including Basse-Terre.

Fort Napoleon also maintains a botanical garden featuring many different species of succulents. The island has no natural water source, so the people and flora have always depended upon rainwater to survive. Now there is an underground pipe from Basse-Terre providing a consistent source of water. The botanical garden is paired with the Jardin Exotique de Monaco, with which they do regular plant exchanges. Not only do they grow protected plants, but the gardens are also home to about 50 large green iguanas, also protected species. We saw one sunning himself on top of one of the outbuildings.

Christopher Columbus was the first European to land on and name the islands of Guadeloupe in 1493 on his second voyage. The Spanish, however, failed to establish a strong settlement and the French took over forcibly, expelling any Spanish settlers left in 1625. Plantation agriculture was carried out under the French West Indies Company until annexation by France in 1674, and there was a booming industry in sugar cane that provided France with consistently huge profits.

The British captured the islands in the Seven Years' War, and in the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France chose to keep Guadeloupe and give up its colonies in Canada to Britain because they were getting so much more economic value from the islands.

The fort was built of wood by the French as Fort Louis between 1777 and 1779. It was renamed after Napoleon III in 1805 and destroyed by the British in 1809. After the Treaty of  Paris of 1814 once again gave Guadeloupe to the French, they began rebuilding with local volcanic stone. This took 24 years between 1816 and 1840. It was a very secure and fully functioning fortification, but was never used in battle.

Christmas decorations are already up
just before Advent starts.

There is a rough path around the fort, where you can see how it would have been a very useful lookout point and defense position.

After our walk around the rampart path to see these gorgeous views, we returned to the main building where we were offered refreshments of some local products - rum punch, fish rolls made with tuna, and finally a cake called Torment d'Amour, or torment of love.

Here in the French West Indies, rum is not made from molasses like it is in the former British colonies like Jamaica, but from sugar cane juice. The juice is distilled right after pressing and comes out as a clear liquid of 70-80% alcohol. The alcohol content is cut by adding spring water in small amounts until the alcohol level is about 50%. In order to make the rum punch, you take a bottle of this rum and add fruit like passionfruit or coconut and spices. Leave it out in the sun for about a week and, voilà, you have rum punch! We tasted a small cup of passionfruit rum punch and it was delicious, but quite potent.

As the main industry on Les Saintes is still fishing, women still prepare easy to pack and eat food for the men. The fish rolls contain whatever fish was abundant in the previous day's catch. In this instance it was tuna, mixed with local herbs and spices and rolled inside of a sheet of dough. It was very tasty.

And finally, the dessert. This is a small cake filled with fruit jam or coconut that the fishermen have traditionally taken with them. In the past when they were out for longer periods in boats that wouldn't hold up well in heavy seas, the men would get these cakes from their wives and eat only small amounts of them each day until they returned. Their wives at home would spend the time worrying, especially when the sailors were gone longer than expected. So the cakes were named 'torments of love' to reflect that worry. Great story and a delicious pastry. Apparently the recipe is available online. I may have to look it up and try it out myself.

After we had our refreshments we walked back down the hill to our transfer van and were driven back to town and the tender pier. As luck had it, a tender was there waiting so we hopped aboard. Here are a few photos of the waterfront from our ride back.

Sunset has been before 6:00 every night, so we've been in port or just leaving as it went down. Here's a photo of the afterglow of sunset with the tiny crescent moon above.

Our next port stop was Plymouth, Montserrat. We did not book a tour, but I had a spa appointment in the afternoon and a special dinner in the evening.

 

Caribbean Foodie Tour #2 - St. Lucia

 Yesterday we ate our way around the island of St. Vincent, today we were driven from Castries to the town of Rodney Bay where our culinary walk took place.

Looking back, it was probably much better that we had to contend with Saturday traffic between the two towns; we were one of three ships in port - P&O Brittania, one of the Aida ships from Germany, and us. Doing anything within Castries would probably have been quite crowded.

The holiday season is here just as it is in the colder climates, although it looks a bit out of place. Here's a photo as we passed one of the larger department stores on our way to Rodney Bay:

Our small group was picked up at the local shopping mall by our guide, Silma. She led us first to a little place just off the main street called Lucian Cuisine. There we were served a 'breakfast' (oh, no, not again!) of salt fish - cod - cooked with onion, garlic and peppers and sandwiched between two small griddle buns. Along with it we had cocoa tea. On the island, cocoa beans are turned into dense sticks of cocoa. Pieces of it are boiled in water until they disintegrate, along with spices like bay leaf, cloves and cinnamon. It comes out really thick but unsweetened, tasting very much like Indian Chai tea.

From there we headed toward a food stand, and on the way Silma gave us a taste of a local treat, sort of a cross between a cookie and a granola bar, called Lababad. It tasted of oats with a zing of ginger, cinnamon and coconut.

At the food stand, a couple of lovely ladies put together a dish for us called Doubles. They have this name because they use two pieces of the tortilla-style base for each one. This is a vegetarian dish made with stewed chickpeas in curry sauce, some hot sauce made from a local version of coriander, shredded cucumber and what looked like cheese, or maybe another veggie. They were a little messy to eat, but quite delicious!

Putting it togther

The finished product. You have to fold one end of the foil up so the sauce doesn't
run out and get all over you. This is NOT the neatest thing to eat. If it doesn't
get on your clothes, it will be all over your chin!

We weren't finished yet! After this we stopped at the Royal Palm Grill and Bar for a local Piton beer for those who wanted one, juice for the rest of us, and something called Provisions. This small bowl came with a small piece of chicken atop some taro root and cooked banana. It was pretty good, too, and not too much. It was actually also lucky that we were there, as we had a brief rain shower while we sat under the corrugated roof.

We still had two more stops to go after this, but they weren't too far apart and close to our pickup point.

Next we visited a lovely private home where we had shared a large plate of tropical fruits. The home belongs to Jasmine, the owner of the food tour company. After we had our fruit course, Jasmine brought us inside the house for a brief look. It is quite beautiful....and available as an AirB'n'B if anyone is interested. It is called Villa Pineapple.

Our fruit plate included guava, canistel (also known as egg fruit
because of the consistency of the golden flesh), golden apple,
passionfruit and tangerine.

The house is just beautiful, both outside...

...and inside!

After leaving Jasmine, we walked only a short distance around the block to our final stop, the Cakes and More Bakery where we tasted coconut turnovers. The small piece each of us got was quite delicious too.

And that was it for our St. Lucia culinary tour. We got back to the ship early enough for me to get the blog up to date and relax a little before our evening events: Captain's Quarters cocktail party before dinner at Beef Bar.

The evening's show is by Salvatore Hasard, who sings in many different voices and plays a number of instruments. That should be very interesting.

We'll be in Les Saintes, Guadeloupe tomorrow, where we will be checking out Fort Napoleon.

Back to the Caribbean

 We were so busy before leaving on this cruise that we had no chance to do the intro post! Not only have we already arrived in Bridgetown, Barbados for the cruise, but we've had our first port stop in Kingstown St. Vincent.

We are once again on board Crystal Serenity celebrating my birthday. It is also a milestone cruise for us, being our 50th Crystal cruise. It has only taken us 26 years to get here, from our very first Crystal voyage in March of 2000. We think there must be something like a 'Wanted' poster down in the crew area for guests celebrating milestones, because we've been welcomed back by crew members we don't even know!

We are on board for 17 nights in total, an 8 night voyage from Bridgetown to Ft. Lauderdale and a return trip for 9 nights with no repeated port stops. We are. however, very busy on board. We have our booked dinners along with an invitation for cocktails in Captain's Quarters on Saturday, a Milestone Dinner with the captain in his quarters on Monday, and we are being presented at the Crystal Society Party on Thursday as well. We'll need the next segment to recover from this one!

We spent one night in Bridgetown before the cruise at the Hilton Barbados Resort. It is a very nice spot on a point not far from the port. We had a huge corner room that overlooked a large bay with the port in the distance. It was your standard Caribbean-style resort with a large pool area and beach, and it only seemed crowded when we were waiting to get into the main restaurant for dinner and breakfast.

We also checked out a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is part of the hotel complex - Charles Fort. This was likely one of the first fortifications built on the island as it dates from 1650, and it is currently used as an event venue, judging by the lighting system installed above it.

The view from our room. The port is way off on the left.
There was a Princess ship there when we arrived.

After our comfortable night's sleep we headed over to the port at 11:00, where we had a brief wait to board the ship and complete the check-in process on board. Our first stop after that was the Crystal Cove Bar where we met up with our good friend Afzal and had a glass of Prosecco to celebrate being back on Crystal Serenity.

Lunch was a little late, as we unpacked our suitcases first. The Trident Grill was open, and Larry chose a Ham and Cheese Sandwich with fries, while I had my favourite Chinois Chicken Salad. A scoop of Amarena (cherry) Gelato rounded out lunch.

In the evening we met two ladies, long-time friends who were travelling together, Mary and Cathy, and had dinner with them in Waterside. It was a lovely start to the cruise. We had a really nice time. 

Today (Friday) we had our first port stop in Kingstown, St. Vincent. We were in the Grenadine islands a couple of years ago, when we stopped at Bequia. It is only a few miles away, and I recall one of the stops on our island tour gave us a nice view of St. Vincent from there.

We had chosen a Culinary Tour that we had assumed was just a walking tour, but fortunately, because it was quite hot and humid, we only walked to our first food stop and to the local market before boarding a mini-bus to our other venues.

Our first stop was at the Cobblestone Hotel in downtown Kingstown. This is quite an old building with only 20 air conditioned rooms. I don't think they could rent them if they weren't! We went up to the top floor to their restaurant where we were served 'breakfast'. Had we but known....

In the courtyard, climbing to the third
floor

The second floor hallway to rooms. Looks
very nice!

Our breakfast consisted of a selection of local foods: a bread ball, fried Plantains, Banana Bread, some salt cod with onions and peppers, and a spinach fritter. The drink in my glass was Mauby, made from the bark of the Mauby Tree. It is described as tasting like root beer with a spicy, bitter aftertaste. I thought it was more like root beer and licorice and I was right, as it is often flavoured with aniseed that does taste like licorice. Good thing we only had a small breakfast on the ship!

We had a quick look at the local fruit and vegetable market as well. Our guide, Shaquille, showed us what Mauby bark looks like before it is steeped and made into the drink. There are lots of spices grown in the Grenadines. No surprise as they are only about 70 miles from the 'Spice Island' of Grenada. Who knew that raw turmeric looks like orange ginger?

Tables full of local produce. The turmeric is in the
box above the 'C13'.

After our walk through the market, we boarded our bus and started an island tour that led us, through narrow, winding, and steep roads to our next stop at Grenadine House. This is a beautiful hotel high above the town with some gorgeous views.

Here we had a 'brunch' that included Sorrel juice, which is a mixture of the herb and hibiscus. It is apparently a popular Christmastime drink here. On the plate we had sweet potato, which is white down here, some mutton curry, golden apple chunks and codfish cakes. They also offered sweet potato chips, which were handmade and quite delicious. The golden apple had the consistency of very firm mango and tasted like a combination of the two fruits.

The view toward our ship from the terrace at Grenadine
House.

The facilities look very inviting and exclusive.

The terrace where the buffet meals are set up,
just outside the restaurant.

Our final stop was at an even more exclusive resort, Paradise Beach Hotel. This is a lovely spot on a long protected sandy beach. Only a few hundred yards away is Young Island, a privately owned resort. It is very exclusive and hosts celebrities and the like when they are on St. Vincent. As an example, Johnny Depp stayed there while filming 'Pirates of the Caribbean'.

This stop was for our 'dessert' and a taste of the local island rum, 84.5% alcohol. Needless to say, neither of us had that, opting for the tamer coconut water for Larry and fruit juice made from Soursop for me. The juice was very tasty and refreshing. We were chatting with our old friend Cintia from ShoreEx, so I forgot to take a photo of our Paradise Cake and ice cream. To make up for it, here are some photos of the beach and Young Island:

Young Island. There were also a couple of large
yachts anchored nearby.

We arrived back at the ship around 2:00 p.m., in time for me to go to the first Art Class at 3:00. This one was jewellery making with glass beads. I made two more stitch markers for my knitting as well as a bracelet.

The pier and port building from our balcony

We sailed out at 6:00, just a little after sunset.

Saturday's stop is in Castries, St. Lucia. Another culinary tour, so we'll be going light on breakfast again.