Azamara Journey Cruise and Pacific Costa Rica Trip

The Azamara Journey after spending the day passing through the Panama Canal from the Caribbean/Atlantic to the Pacific

We recently took a cruise on Azamara Journey. Our trip started with a night in South Beach Miami, where we embarked a newly refurbished Azamara Journey on Sunday, February 7 for a cruise to Cartegena, Colombia through the Panama Canal and into Panama City, Panama.

Modern Cartegena Columbia  

Our cruise took us north along the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. We called on Golfito, a former banana plantation, on the Golfo Dulce, and sailed into Quepos, the jumping off point for Manual Antonio National Park and dozens of deep sea fishing charter boats. We ourselves jumped off Journey a day early in Quepos to travel back to the Osa Peninsula for a 5 night stay at LaPaloma lodge in Drake Bay. We had always wanted to visited the Corcovado National Park, and had been less than thrilled with how habituated the wild animals were in Manual Antonio, so leaving while leaving our new friends on the Journey a day early was sad, we loved the wildness of Corcovado NP and Drake Bay!

Fabulous flora in Costa Rica at the Casa Oraquideas Botanical Gardens in Golfo Dulce

Over the next few weeks, I'll post a variety of trip reports for each port and our time in Costa Rica...will they be interesting? I don't know, not much happened, except marauding monkeys, a little civil unrest, getting invited to salsa with a hot Latin dancer, getting doors repeatedly slammed in our faces- by spiders and, oh yeah, a small earthquake. (But note that we never encountered an actual mosquito, much less one infected with Zika!) I hope you'll enjoy reading our reports, and seeing Jeff's photos.

A Little Trouble in Paradise (St Croix)

It sure looks idyllic, and I have to say our recent visit there was amazing, but there is a little trouble in St Croix!

Today, I began a post on Cruise Critic about our recent visit to St Croix aboard Adventure of the Seas.  One of the pictures I posted was a standard photo of a sign, not that different from signs Jeff photographs all over the world to help us navigate the slew of photos when we return and to help you, dear reader, navigate to the same places yourself if you decide to go.  One of the things I often do when I see someone's name tagged to a place is "google it"!  I can't just post a photo without knowing the back story about the person who it is named for, and often it's an interesting story.  In the past I've discovered parks named for the generous woman environmentalist who donated it, or a squares named for the man who died defending it.  All over the world, places proudly proclaim their best citizens. The I googled this one: 

The sign marking the cruise ship pier in St Croix

What I found, in the St Croix Source (coincidentally with a dateline of today!) was an article about a court case.  I'll let you read the details yourself, but I'll just quote the opening statement from the US Assistant District Attorney.

““Hurricanes are a way of life here,” ...”The community suffers and reacts in one of two ways,” either pulling together to help one another or looking out for themselves to the disregard of everyone else.
”Ann Abramson, with the power invested in her, used the disaster of Hurricane Marilyn to profit for herself,” ”

— Julien Adams US ADA via St Croix Source

Reading this did not make me proud!  This isn't her first trial, the first jury was deadlocked, and maybe she will be vindicated in this one, but I'm fairly certain that there must be a Veteran from the Virgin Islands who has died in the line of duty who is more deserving of being memorialized. 

It was not the only thing I saw in St Croix that made me sad.  We visited the Salt River National Park during our stay, taking a kayak tour with Virgin Kayak located in Cane Bay. Our guide Brian, was an excellent guide and ambassador (evangelist, really) for the National Park.  

Brian from Virgin Kayak in the bio luminescent bay in the Salt River Bay National Park

While our tour was scenic, we also noticed that there was little investment in the National Park or enforcement of National Park rules within the park.  There was trash all around the put in point for kayaks and there were campers who were unpermitted and appeared to be permanent squatters.  We learned that there is no "Friends" group for this National Park, as there are for other National Parks, to provide much needed advocacy and fundraising. 

Kayaks are launched in the Salt River Bay National Park, where there are apparently permanent camp sites in the background.

We paddled through the mangroves to one of our country's few bio luminescent bays.  Our daytime trip didn't allow us to see the dinoflagellates that live in the bay and "glow" when they are disturbed.  This defense mechanism allows them to be seen in the bay on dark nights and causes the water to glow when paddled or moved. It's a beautiful phenomena we have seen in Farjardo Bay in Puerto Rico.  We learned in St Croix that development is planned in a very ecologically sensitive area within the park that could destroy this natural phenomena.  

An iguana living in the mangroves

In general, I try to respect the local ways and respect that fact that I don't know everything about a place, and I may miss some complexities of the situation.  But I plan to keep an eye on what is happening in St Croix, because while there was a lot of natural  beauty and sustainable development we saw in St Croix,  I am left with the feeling that there is a little trouble too. I hope we are not letting this lovely place languish just because it's not near us, and I worry things are happening that most Americans would object to.  It seems that just because it's so far doesn't mean that we shouldn't forget that national funds and National Parks belong to all of us and we are all responsible for them too! 

Salt River National Park Link

Antigua: It's All About That Boat (with apologies to Meghan Trainor) Aboard Adventure of the Seas

Nelsons Dockyard

Antigua and I'm just a yachty girl in a yachty world...ok, enough silly bubblegum pop references! But Anigua is clearly all about the boats!

The Arawaks arrived by one, most likely paddling piragua canoes from Venuzuela. Christopher Columbus arrived from Spain by one 1493, and gave it it's name "Sancta Maria de la Antigua". Sir Christopher Codrington arrived by one, as did, unfortunately, the West African slaves who worked his sugar plantations. The British Navy arrived by boat during the 18th century and established the English Dockyard, where British vessels arrived for repair and maintenance. Today, that area is renamed Nelsons Dockyard (for the Admiral Horatio Nelson) and it still serves as a dockyard for yachts from all over the world, as well as an anchorage and race location for those same yachts.  Boats are everywhere in Antigua. We arrived on this one! 

Adventure of the Seas in St John

As soon as we arrived we noticed a contrast between the work boats and the "play" boats

A tug and a motor yacht

Dock workers headed to tie up the lines of Adventure of the Seas.

The dock workers arrive

Dock workers

Even the birds are names after boats- here a Frigate bird swoops along the aft of the ship as we sail in.

Frigate bird

We proceeded to Heritage Quay, the welcome area in St John for visiting big boats! (Known as cruise ships!) 

Just outside the shopping area we met Keisha, of Sean's Antigua VIP Tours (Keisha is Sean's little sister- be sure to ask her about riding out a hurricane together after she and her brother convinced their mother to leave two adventure seeking teens behind, a great example of natural consequential parenting that I'm not sure I could have pulled off!) Our tour was all inclusive, with admissions and lunch as well as an on board bar, with local beers if you like. 

Heritage Quay cruise ship dock and shopping area in St John

Our first stop is a sugar plantation ruin called Betty's Hope.  It had a well curated little museum and descriptive plaques at each of the ruined buildings to explain the sugar making process. 

The cane press at Bettys Hope

Did I say all about that goat, that goat!? No, I guess not, but at Bettys Hope the grass was kept short by a large herd of free range goats, but Keisha explained they were well cared for and if one went missing, the owner would know! 

"Lawn mowers" at Bettys Hope

We made a stop to the West End of the island, where a dramatic natural feature called "Devils Bridge" lies on a lands end, and the surf dramatically crashes up against this natural limestone bridge.

Devils Bridge

Our next stop was to the more recently renovated Nelsons Dockyard. This area is now a National Park, but it had been developed in such a way that the "dockyard" mission still exists, although for a much more well heeled crowd! There are sailing charter companies, and marine and sail repair companies located in the yard, along with a museum of history, slips for yachts from all over the world; Oslo, Bahamas, and we even saw one from the tiny town in Maine where we spend our summers (population 824, but in the summer, there may be an equal number of boats!) We had a chance to say hello to the Captain who was preparing to return the yacht for it's owner to Maine and we plan to look for the vessel in the harbor this summer!) 

The Antigan glad flies above a docked yacht

The buildings in the dockyard have all been beautifully restored. The day we visited was in advance of Antigua Sail Week, and worker bees were busy putting the finishing touches on the party site, while the yacht's crews were varnishing, varnishing, varnishing! 

Beautifully restored Colonial era buildings in Nelsons Dockyard.

There are several marine related business still in the dockyard.

An active sail repair shop located in the dockyard

There are also a few local artists and shops, as well as restaurants and bars.

A local gallery at Nelsons Dockyard

The National Park is intermingled with these businesses, including a nice museum with a time line of the Dockyard, a selection of silver racing trophies and lots of photos.

Artifacts and displays at the museum at the Nelsons Dockyard

Our next stop was within walking distance of the Dockyard, but a business that is a world away, a local restaurant run out of a little home, called Caribbean Taste. Local specialties (and burgers for the less adventurous) are cooked in the kitchen and served out on the porch. 

Caribbean Taste

You order from the chalk board...

The menu at Caribbean Taste

We chose a variety of local specialties including curried conch, a cornmeal side called funge and a dense sweet potato and plantain side dish called ducana.

Curried conk and ducana

Curried conk and funge

After a tasty local lunch, (there is an option on this tour for a "tourist lunch" in a lookout spot with a view if you prefer) we made our way to Shirley Heights for a look at Eglish Harbor from above. 

English Harbor and Neslons Dockyard from Shirely Heights

This amazing plant (the yellow flower bunches on top of the stalk in the center) is called the century plant, it blooms like this once every 25 years and then dies (so really, it's a quarter century plant, but we won't get hung up on semantics, it's still really dramatic looking!) 

The dramatic century plant on the coast of Antigua

After Shirely Heights, we drove along the "Fig Tree Road", which is the rainiest part of the island and more lush and green.   Keisha took us to one of her favorite beaches on the East Coast of the island for a dip, before we had to head back to the ship, because if it's "all about that boat" - you certainly don't want to miss it! 

Back to St John