Tenerife

After 6 days at sea we arrived at Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

Santa Cruz is the capital of Tenerife and Tenerife is the largest island of the 7 Canary Islands.

We arrived at 8 am and were departing at 2 pm. now, this being a Sunday, everything was close, but the time the town starting to come alive it was time for us to leave.

I went walking with this one young American guy and two German girls. We went to the market and after that we took the tram to La Laguna which is a patrimonial town per UNESCO.

The town was very nice, as most patrimony towns are.

It was a festival in town, staring at 1 pm, so a lot of people were dress in their traditional customs. Of course we could not go because we needed to be at the ship by 1:30. Oh well…

Tenerife has the third largest volcano in the world named El Teide.

One more day at sea and then Malaga, Spain.

I know, I am short.

In the middle of the sea

We had 6 beautiful days at sea, it did not seem like if we were in the middle of the Atlantic, the sea did not move. the last few days we got a little rocking, nothing to talk about, it just made it even better to sleep in that gentle rocking, (like if I need help).

Everyday was the same, breakfast, dancing, lunch, movie, sauna, snack, dancing, dinner, game, dancing, whirlpool, sleep.

I saw:

• ·         Jack and Jill with Adam Sandler. Typical Adam Sandler.

• ·         The Muppets with Jason Segal and Amy Adams. I really like it, it was like a Muppet show should be, cute, musical, reminiscence of past times. *****

• ·         The War Horse by Steven Spielberg, I don’t know any of the actors in it. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see it because the name did not make it sound like a good movie. Oh, how I cried, it was so sad…so good… I really enjoyed it. *****

• ·         J. Edgar directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Leonardo de Caprio. It was a great performance by de Caprio, he made you feel sympathy for the man, you felt sorry for him even when you did not like what he was doing, he showed his humanity even when he was being a tyrant. I am not too impartial to Cling Eastwood, I like every everything he has directed. ****

• ·         The artist, with Jean Dujardin     , another one that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see and what a beautiful, great movie turned up to be. So touching, so well done, the cinematography was excellent, the acting was excellent, you knew exactly what they were trying to said without them saying a word, just by their expression, and the transition from silent to speaking was great, just great.*****

• ·         Twilight saga “Breaking dawn”. Nice views and scenery, however just as slow as the other ones, still I have seen them all and I have read all the books too, so I can’t complain.*

Day 5 = ST. Marteen

As we arrived in St Marteen, there were 4 other cruise liners on the port and about 2 hrs later another one came, as you can imagine there were a lot of people there.

The place it’s very nice, beautiful beaches, however there is all stores. They are high end stores and they are all duty free, of course everybody was buying jewelry, lap tops, bosses systems, you name it.

I walked all those streets and then I went to the neighborhoods with run down shacks and colorful houses, where the dogs and chickens run loose. As I was walking back to the centre I hear this lovely chorus on a Baptist church singing. I always wanted to see one of the services; I have seen them in movies as most of us have but never for real, so I went into the church. What a lovely service, and the people were so friendly, they welcome all the visitors and they gave us the microphone to introduce ourselves, we sang and danced and walked around the church shaking hands with everybody and then more singing, very nice, I really enjoyed it.

They gave me couple of books but I left them at the church because I will never read them and I did not want to throw them out, bad enough that I went into the church out of curiosity.

In the afternoon there was a children parade, very lively, all the children were dressed in carnival customs, lots of music, very nice.

Back to the ship for dinner and then dance the night away.

Day 4 = San Juan, Puerto Rico

                We were supposed to disembark at 2:30, however when we arrived at the port there were two ambulances and the police waiting for the ship. As I was wondering what happened, I see a hears arrive, my morbid curiosities made me stay there waiting for the coffin. They took a lady on a stretcher and after a while we disembarked without knowing what happened.

We only visited the old city which is very nice, I went with these two guys and a lady and we walked through the city until we found a Starbucks café but there was so many people using their Wi-Fi that we went walking some more until we found a Burger King. The cruise line wants .65 a minute for the Wi-Fi so of course we were all looking for the free ones.

All the parks and squares have free Wi-Fi, however it was drizzling, so we needed an inside place.

Once all the emails were done, one of the guys and lady left, they wanted to go for lunch on the ship, so I stayed with the other guy and went to visit “El Morro” better known as the “Fort of San Felipe del Morro”, built in 1539; it was very nice with its old walls and tunnels. Beautiful views of the city, which is very nice with their old buildings in bright colors some of which date back to the 16^th and 17^th century.

 After the fort, of course, more walking. For the people that knows me, that it’s not a surprise, for the new people, I walk a lot, I been known to walk 8 to 10 hrs. a day when I am visiting a new place.

I would like to have expend more time in that beautiful country.

When we come back to the ship the hears was still there waiting for the police to finish the investigation. Later on I found out that a man died.

Usually on longer cruises there are a lot of older people, so you know that these things will happen. Too much food, too much heat, too much excitement, not enough common sense. One day a lady felt down and hit her head very badly, she stayed in the whirl pool for 1 ½ hrs, of course she was dizzy and felt down.

Anyway, back to happier happenings.

Back on the ship for dinner and then to dance the night away.

Day 3: Labadee, Haiti

Today we arrive at 8 am in Labadee, Haiti and we stayed there till 4pm.

Labadee is a beach resort owned by Royal Caribbean. It is very beautiful, however everything is new and fake in the way that it was made to look like the real Haiti but it’s new and clean and everything is in order, it remain me of Disney World. Everything is manmade, even the palm trees looked like if they were planted there full grown.  It was really pretty in a club med type of way, however, I like to see the real places not just the touristic ones.

There is an artisanal market and then a lot of vendor selling their wears, however they are so insistent and pushy that they take the joy out of shopping (even if I don’t buy anything because I can’t be carrying anything else), nevertheless, I don’t like it went you can’t walk in peace, (it remind me of Mexico). Besides they did not have anything interesting, just your typical island souvenirs.

The beach was nice; the water was transparent, just beautiful. They had many activities to do: a zip line (done that), parasailing, a water park and some other activities that I forgot what.

Today the breakfast buffet was small because most people left early for Labadee, so I had waffles, and couple pastries.

In the island we had barbecue ribs, chicken, hamburgers and hotdogs, and salads and fruits. I had the ribs and chicken and then a few desserts and some fruit. It was very good.

For dinner I had a nice crab cake and stroganoff, well, something that they called stroganoff, because that wasn’t it, it wasn’t bad, it just was not stroganoff. For dessert I had a berrymissu which was really good.

Second day

Every night there is a show on the cruise, and tonight it was one done by “el gaucho”, so of course I went to see it and it was great, it wasn’t just your typical “boleadoras” show, this guy was funny, played a lot of instruments and kept on talking through the whole show, telling jokes and just being entertaining. He was great and he just happened to be from Uruguay, so of course he was good.

I been eating too much, for breakfast I had French toast, ham, peaches and some pastries.

For lunch I had prime rib, chicken and way too many desserts, and for dinner I had escargot, duck and chocolate mousse.

I rationalize all these eating by dancing all day and all night. I have been attending all the dancing classes during the day and at night I go to the disco and dance all night, however, all these dancing it’s not helping with my weight gain, I need to dance some more.

Oh well…

first day

We left Miami three hours late, and by then it was dark so I could not see anything.  Nevertheless, it’s been great, as I waited for the cruise to depart, I dance by the pool, then I went for lunch, and then I danced some more, then dinner and of course more dancing.

Today we sailed by Cuba. You could not see much, just a long coast, but still it was nice to be so close to a country I would like to go. Well, one of these days.

The cruise is going great.

Today I took a ballroom dancing class, it was a lot of fun, however, I am a great dancer but I am not good at following directions. I dance with the music, I follow the beat, I can’t count steps and make sure I put my head here and my arm there, for me it’s not natural. Nevertheless, I had a great time, and I will be taking all the classes anyway. Then at night, disco time!

After all, I need all this dancing, because I am eating like if there is not tomorrow.

Besides dancing and eating I have done napkin folding and I saw “Jack and Jill” with Adam Sandler because I needed to seat down for a while.