CARIBBEAN CRUISE - February 18 - March 4
Here we are on the Celebrity Eclipse in the blue waters of our first port stop - St. Maarten. We spent four hours wandering around the town of Philipsburg, popping into churches and shops to escape frequent raindrops. Below is a view of our ship, plus three others visiting the island on that day (there was only one other ship with us on the other islands) -
Our next stop was the island of Antigua. We walked several blocks to the bus station and caught a local bus to the southern end of the island to see Nelson Dockyards. We rode Bus 17, along with a full load of locals, the 40 minute distance. It was a very nice historic, British encampment with a great museum about their hero, Horatio Nelson.
We climbed the hill beside the boatyard and had a lovely view of rugged cliffs and pounding sea.
The next day we woke up with the beautiful island of St. Lucia below our ship. A lovely, green mountainous jewel in the Caribbean Sea. We enjoyed a private tour and a muddy climb up the Tet Paul Trail with wonderful views of the famed Pitons.
Barbados was our next stop. We had to take a shuttle into town, which was surprisingly more like a regular city than most of the other islands we've been to. There was shopping malls, escalators and plenty of traffic, along with the beautiful white sand beach -
The first of the ABC islands - Bonaire was our next port call. It was a sunny, hot day and the island was beautiful. We took a 2-hour van tour and saw the north end of the island (we'd seen the south end on a previous visit). The island is chock full of cactus, but so nice.
One of our stops on the tour was to see this gorgeous beach where there were largesea turtles and numerous scuba divers - and the bluest water!
We had our first Caribbean overnight in Curacao (pronounced Curacel for some reason). The view of shops across the river is so colorful and lovely -- very much like Nyhaven in Copenhagen. The city has a bit of a European look to it. We walked a lot that day.
The Queen Juliana floating pontoon bridge Larry is standing on is unique and interesting.
It offers a nice view of the colorful shops on the shoreline.
Our final island adventure was Aruba. We took a 3-hour bus tour and saw the north end of this large island. The photo was taken atop a massive rock that we climbed (like the one below). In the far distance, along the shoreline, you can spot our cruise ship docked in town. This is a very Dutch island of rock and cactus, with wild donkeys and many grand hotels.
We'll end with this nice, big heart that sits on the edge
of the water in Curacao. It's covered in locks that
represent "lasting love," which is a good motto
for our cruise - since we were celebrating
our 50th wedding anniversary
