Good morning friends and family,
Yes, we revisited Devil’s Island to get some pictures of our dolls escaping from that devilish place.
If you ever visit Devil’s Island, listen to my advice: Don’t follow everyone else as they turn to the left as you leave the jetty area. Instead, turn right over the grass until you come to a dirt road that leads you around past the first island you see to your right to see the real Devil’s Island. Yes, it’s that small isle off about 200 yards from the island you landed on.
The cable I mentioned before is now missing. I imagine some ingenious teens probably used it to get to the real island and got in trouble. Whatever, it is gone, but the view of the island from this walkway is magnificent and we saw a group of youngsters swimming where there are supposed to be sharks.
We also saw a rodent that looks like a cross between a large rat and a small pig, plus a pheasant of some sort. We were mostly by ourselves, as everyone just followed the cement brick road and went left instead of right. They missed the best part of the island.
Big waves were splashing against the side of the ship as we boarded the tender, which was bobbing up and down at least four feet. It was a chore to get aboard, but both Carol and I made it with no problem. Needless to say, it took some time to fill the tender with 60 souls. It was less violent at the dock.
Talk about hot and humid – we are both drenched. Our walk took us around the back of the island and then up several sets of stairs to a rock road that slopes up most of the way to the hotel until you reach other stairs at the end of your journey and a cold “Becks” beer for $3.00 for an 11.1 ounce can of cold liquid. Worth every penny by the time you get there.
We attempted to talk several people into joining us on the walk back the same way, but someone came by and told them it was a three mile walk (he was wrong), but they declined to accompany us. Their loss. We enjoyed the views again and took several more pictures to show them what they missed.
Now, we are back in our cabin, enjoying the air conditioning. We will change shirts at least after we cool down and go see what else we can find here.
We spent the afternoon walking around and getting addresses from all our new friends and still have many more to reach. We set sail about 2, having watched them raise the lifeboats up into their nests. Then we played a new game, “Celebrity Challenge”, which was neat.
Now we are attempting to get dressed for dinner and trivia before and the “Captain’s Circle Party” with free booze. This is where our tips to our waiter pay off.
Yep, three doubles in a row and one to take with us to dinner.
We had the same folks win prizes as the last cruise for the number of days at sea – 797 was tops. That’s a lot of cruises.
We are skipping the show tonight as we saw this gal before when she first came on the boat – she is okay, but sings way too loud for us. Just because it is loud doesn’t necessarily make it good!
So, we will sit and listen to Brad play his tunes on the piano for a couple of hours and drink a little more of our bottle of champagne. (They keep it for you overnight or for two or three days if you choose – they remember you).
We have truly made so many new friends on this cruise. I have 11 addresses already and am just getting started collecting them.
The entire show crew knows us by name and we have many of the waiters and buss people we chat with each day. I sing, “I just met a girl named Maria” to Maria every morning or when I see her; then there is Karolina in the morning who greets us at the door to the buffet in the morning. Miko and Ivy, (his wife) who are our best waiters (see above). Jesse who also waits on us, and the man behind the BBQ grill whose name I can’t recall now. I just say, “the usual” and he fixes what we want.
All the young people from so many foreign countries do their very best to assist all the passengers. They greet you with a smile and remember your name. It is really neat.
Speaking of the workers, our room stewards all meet just across the hall from our room in a sort of a kitchen affair ever morning. We all it the “gathering of our chattering magpies” as that is what it sounds like for about five minutes at 7:30 or so. It doesn’t bother us, as we are usually awake and thinking about getting up anyway.
We watched Brad play for about 30 minutes and then he took a break until 10:30 so Karaoke could take place. So, it’s up to the room to prepare our laundry list for tomorrow and hit the sack.
Today the weather Gods decided to look down on us with favor again, as they have every day of the cruise so far. It was lovely with bright sun and a few clouds. Devil’s Island was hot and humid as I said, but it wasn’t too bad on board.
Until tomorrow,
Via con Dais,
Karl & Carol