~Tidbits of Food & Life~: Shore Excursions!

Each day we stopped by a different island and the passengers were allowed to explore the island via a shore excursion through the cruise ship or meander on their own and try to navigate to their destination. Our first two days we stopped in St. Thomas and Tortola and did not sign up for shore excursions but tried to find our own way about. One thing we learned is that on these islands it is hard to travel on your own. In order to get around you need to get a taxi and they are hecka expensive with only two passengers. The weather was cloudy for the first two days and so most of our plans fell through and we ended up not doing much on these two islands because of that. We did get to see gardens with lots of tropical flowers and wander the streets where jewelry seemed to be the main seller.

View of part of St.Thomas

Green gardens!

Cute Caribbean Spice store

After the disappointing first two days we decided it was better to sign up for the shore excursions so that we could at least have an easier and stress free time seeing and having fun on the islands. We arrived in Antigua the third day and had an awesome time kayaking and snorkeling there. The waters are blue, clear, and warm. It was amazing!

Antigua

Our fourth day landed us in St. Lucia and I have to say this was my favorite island. We did a bus tour of the island along the Soufriere area that took us to see the landmarks of the Pitons, the Diamond Waterfall and mineral baths, and the world's only drive-in volcano, Sulphur Springs which really did smell. This island is so beautiful and lush. Everywhere along the roads there were mango trees, breadfruit trees, bamboo, palm trees etc. The people were friendly and our tour guide, Sammy was so funny and sweet. We ended the tour with a Creole lunch and then headed down the windy road back to our cruise ship.

The Pitons!

Sammy our awesome guide!

Barbados was our last island and we did a canopy adventure which was a zip line adventure! This was pretty fun. We were harnessed , helmeted, and gloved and zipped over the trees 7 times with distances ranging from 150 feet to almost 300 feet. It wasn't as scary as we thought it would be and we had a lot of fun talking with others in our group. I also learned the true value of a hard helmet when a branch fell from above and thoroughly wacked me on the head. Totally unexpected, but no one got hurt and that branch got laughed at as I tucked it into my harness and brought it back with me. We also got to lounge at the beach this day after our canopy tour which was wonderful!

Ready to do some zipping?

Wheee!

What can be better than a day at the beach??

In Old San Juan, the architecture was quaint and picturesque. Everything is of the old style and it was interesting to see the different buildings and the rich historical buildings and forts. I'm really glad we got to stay an extra day in Puerto Rico. It was by default this happened actually because as we were booking our flights back home we discovered that it would be cheaper for us to fly out on Monday versus on Sunday. Great addition to our trip!