After 10 days sloshing around in the jungles of the Amazon
and being hot, sweaty and dirty, 4 days in the Caribbean seemed warm, beautiful
and luxurious (although not as interesting….).
Moving from southeast to northwest through the Caribbean, we
first stopped in Barbados, which is very British.. It’s primarily known for its rum and duty-free shopping,
although we found the views (Picture 1) much more interesting.
Our next stop was the French territory of Guadeloupe,
although we bypassed the two main islands. Instead we visited the island of
Terre-de-haut, which is one of the several islands (mostly uninhabited) in the
les Saintes archipelago. Discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493, it is only
5 km long and only about half that wide. It has one sleepy little village and
goats and chickens roam the best beach, but there’s a pretty amazing fort that
was built by the French, with amazing views of the entire island. Picture 2
shows the town from the fort (zoomed a bit).
Then it was on to French St. Barthelemy (St. Barths). It too
was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and named for his brother,
Bartolomeo. It’s capital, Gustavia, has a harbor filled with yachts and streets
filled with designer clothing stores. There are more cars than people on the
island and getting around is a nightmare on narrow, winding roads, but it is
beautiful (Picture 3). St. Barths does have one dubious distinction: it has the
2nd shortest runway used for commercial aviation in the world
(Picture 4) at 2183 feet. The largest plane that lands carries 21 passengers
and pilots must have a special certificate to land there. We watched a couple
planes land and it would scare the daylights out of me. You come across a
saddle between 2 hills, point the nose downhill as you go down the other side
and then pull up as you hit the end of the runway, stopping before you get to
the beach at the other end of the runway. By the way, the world’s shortest commercial runway is on the
island of Saba in the French Antilles and is only 1150 feet long.
Lastly, we spent yesterday on Jost Van Dyke in the British
Virgin Islands and finally had a bright sunny day without rain. There’s one
sleepy village on the island and lots of yachts in the harbor or near the
beaches. We spent the morning on one of the beaches (Picture 5). As Seabourn
traditionally does on beautiful beach days, they delivered caviar to the beach
and served it on a surfboard, standing in the water (Picture 6). We can attest
to the fact the caviar and champagne can be enjoyed before noon. How very
decadent….
We now have 2 days to sail to Ft. Lauderdale, where we will
leave the ship. We’ve had a great time. Thanks for traveling with us.
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