Basseterre – Today we scheduled the Grand Island Tour through Grey’s Island Excursions. We were more excited about this tour than any of the others (Curaçao & Aruba). There was only eight of us on this tour and Pastor Henry was our driver – he was a trip. The gentleman who sat in the front with Henry (Nick) had an issue with his hearing aid so Henry made a special effort to ensure Nick understood the information. It was quite comical at times.
Henry drove us through the city pointing out all kinds of trivia – some more interesting than others. Our first stop was the Romney Manor that is rich in history and also houses the Caribelle Batik company where handmade batik products are made and sold. The manor dates back to 1626 and at some point after the Europeans took over the land Sam Jefferson was one of the original settlers and claimed it as his own. Sam Jefferson was the great, great, great grandfather of Thomas Jefferson (our third US President).
Henry told us various interesting facts about the beautiful plants/trees growing in the gardens before we went into the batik store (and took pictures for all the lovely couples in front of a gorgeous tree). The process for creating these gorgeous pieces of artwork (whether hung on your wall or worn on the body) are labor intensive, hence commanding pretty steep prices.
We visited with Henry while waiting for others to finish their looking/shopping and it was during this conversation he informed us about the medicinal properties of the Golden Shower Tree, which led to pharmaceutical stories which in turn led to current politics. In passing conversation we learned our government we reopened yesterday and the shutdown was “temporarily” over. We’re kind of in a bubble when we travel and deliberately rarely connect to current news whether it’s on tv or social media, so that was really interesting to us. LOL
Our next stop was Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park. It was an amazing spot filled with history and incredibly beautiful. We could’ve stayed there for hours, but we only had about 40 minutes. The views from the top are probably some of the best on the island. The wind at the top was rough. Some of the gusts felt like they could take you down. Henry said it’s always windy up there but normally not like today. It was wicked – just like it’s been on every other island.
Our next and final stop was to be the beach. On the way we stopped at Timothy Hill, where the land is so narrow you can see the Atlantic Ocean on the left and Caribbean Ocean on the right. It’s an iconic photo op. Even with the tropical depression churning somewhere out there in the Caribbean you can see the difference between how rough the Atlantic is and how much calmer the Caribbean is.
The beach we were being taken to was Shipwreck Beach. We had not done any research and so didn’t know what to expect but in the description of the excursion it said to bring snorkel gear. Based on the weather on the other islands and conditions at the other beaches we’ve been to this trip we had already decided to just take a look and see if it was worth staying or not. The rest of the group were going directly back to the ship. It didn’t take long to make our decision. It’s not much of a beach. It’s a black sand beach (which isn’t my favorite) and it was in general a dive, not to mention there is very little “beach”. (However, it gets mostly good reviews on tripadvisor.com.) Not the kind of place that called to us to kick back and stay a while. So we joined the others on the van and just came back to the ship.
We loved Henry and felt he did a good job with what he had to work with as far as the destinations on the tour. But the tour itself we felt was lacking. The only stop that was worthy in our opinion was Brimstone. The beach was a joke (personal preference) and we could’ve done without most of the other stops. Out of the three island tours we took this was our least favorite.
Two ships in port today, Summit and the Norwegian Dawn. We have criss crossed each other the whole cruise. We were in port together in San Juan and have seen them at several of the other islands. Since we weren’t fed on this trip we came back to the ship, dropped our beach bags off in the cabin and went to get food. Then we headed back out to see what we could find. The port is so commercialized it’s overrated in our opinion. But right past that area is the “local” shopping and it’s a little too “local” for us. Anyway, a couple of shirts and a hat later we headed back to the ship. As we’re being beat to death by the wind (you should see my head – rolling eyes), as we are greeted with head banging, hip pumping noise pollution up to about 100 decibels from the Norwegian Dawn. Oh. My. God. There are no words. I don’t understand. Last I looked we were in the Caribbean … why is that crap being blasted instead of a steel drum band? And dontchaknow our balcony was right over top of that noise. We had to leave our cabin until they packed up and pulled out. It was that bad. (At least my journaling for today got done in a timely manner – guess there’s always a silver lining.)
Tonight’s show was called All McCartney Live – they were fantastic!! The band played hits from Sir Paul McCartney’s career from The Beatles, Wings and solos. They were tight, they sounded awesome and it was all around probably our favorite show of the cruise.
It's a Wonderful Life! 