On Tueday evening, we discovered that our Puerto Rico excursion departed the ship at 8am the next morning, which was much earlier than we expected. We got up early - I grabbed some breakfast in the cafeteria 2 decks above our cabin, and we were ready to go by 8am. There was about 20 of us who were trooped off the ship to a waiting minibus where Mitzi the driver and tour conductor greeted us with a grating enthusiasm. After driving through San Juan and its outskirts, we headed along some narrow roads in the forest, up a steep hill, and finally into the El Yunque Rainforest National Park. We were expecting a tropical rainforest, but what we found was a definitely a rainforest, but located in a more moderate climate than one would encounter in Central America, for instance. Our tour guide continued the drive along the park roads, steadily climbing to over 2,000 feet. We stopped occasionally to get out and admire various sites such as a waterfall, a lookout tower and for a short (20 minute) walk along a forest path. By the time we returned to the ship about 1pm, we had concluded that it was an interesting experience, but the rainforest didn't meet the expectations that we had. The tour guide's irritating style reminded us of that of a Grade 2 teacher taking her class for a half-day excursion in the park.
We headed for one of the ship's restaurants upon our return, where we were seated with 2 couples - one from Switzerland, and the other from Germany. Service was unusually slow so we had a good opportunity to chat with the couples, although only one person of each pair spoke enough English to carry on a conversation with us. (One of these days, I must improve my German so I can reciprocate). After lunch, we departed from the ship again, walking out onto the cruise dock area of the San Juan harbour. We wandered around the small streets, stopping at a few of the shops. There were numerous jewellery shops, which don't really get much attention from us. After an hour or so, we decided to split up so Ann could shop without me hanging over her shoulder, and then she could also enjoy a cup of coffee. I headed for one of the 2 old Spanish forts which were built in the period 1640 to 1790. By the end, the Spanish had completed these impressive fortifications, as well as a 40 foot thick wall lined with cannons along the coastline of the peninsula upon which old San Juan is located. I took photos while walking along one of the coastal walls, finally coming to one of the forts. (Castillos as they are called in Spanish). I decided I didn't have time to tour it, so I slowly made my way through San Juan back to the ship. I called Ken using my cellphone and found that Ottawa was getting ready for a 15cm snowfall! Winter seemed so far away from the beautiful weather in Puerto Rico.
We met our dinner companions at our table at 5:30pm. One of the couples had brought a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne to share with us all. (They are "frequent cruisers" on MSC and the champagne was complimentary to them). We chatted through dinner and finally had to be asked to leave the dining room because the staff needed to get it ready for the next sitting. Ann & I headed for the Atrium where an excellent pianist kept our attention while Ann had a latte and we watched all the people going by. (We were surprised to see a group of young people from Italy - they looked like a class of junior high school students. A transatlantic cruise would be quite an experience at that age). We skipped the show in the theatre and watched a documentary movie called "Oceans" in our cabin.
The ship moved along at a moderate speed during the night and by sunrise at 6:40am, we were within sight of the island of Antigua. I headed for the fitness centre which has a panoramic view one deck above the bridge, where I "cycled" and watched our approach to the St. John's harbor of Antigua. We didn't have to meet up for our tour until 9:45am, so Ann and I had breakfast in the cafeteria (and met a couple of women from Ontario).
We had our choice of about 10 different tours in Antigua and we decided to take one that would get us out of town to an orchard for a walking tour of the area. As we were driven for 30 minutes from the ship to our orchard destination, we could see that Antigua is still a very poor country, but proud of their independence since 1981. We discovered that the orchard is in "Christian Valley" where the former British government, helped by a donation from the Baptist Church, established a government agricultural area to experiment with the growing of fruit trees on the island. (Antigua's history has been dominated by sugar cane and cotton, which was the reason thousands of slaves were brought here in earlier centuries. Both crops continued after slavery was abolished, but finally died out once tourism was established on the island. The government thought it would be a good idea to see if other crops could be established and that was the goal of Christian Valley). We were met by a small group of workers from the agricultural "station". They showed us examples of the fruit which they are growing, then they took us for a one hour walk up the hill side along a pretty rough trail. (Four people in the tour group realized they weren't physically up to the hike, so returned to the minibus). We saw examples of various fruit trees, but the station didn't resemble, in any way, an orchard that we would find in North America. No brush had been cleared between trees, and shrub covered the hillsides as well. The staff told us of their challenges to establish new trees primarily due to the hurricanes that come through, knocking down some of the new plantings. Some of the trees or plants we saw were guava, black pineapple, golden apple (not actually an apple), mango, date palms, and bananas. (The date palms were brought to feed camels which had been imported to work on sugar plantations. The camels got hoof disease and couldn't survive, but the date palms flourished!).
Our impression of Antigua is of a newly-independent country whose economy has become dependent on tourism. We didn't see large resorts - there may be some elsewhere on the island - but the Antiguans certainly do welcome cruise ships, which can be easily accommodated in their harbour. (During our visit, there were 4 cruise ships tied up in the harbour, so the little town of St. John's was bustling with visiting shoppers and sightseers).
I'm sitting on our balcony with Ann at the moment with in the late afternoon. The ship backed in this morning, with the stern facing the town giving us an excellent view. The sun is behind us, and we are cooled by a breeze from the north. We've really enjoyed our short stay and look forward to St. Lucia tomorrow.
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