Our American Odyssey is effectively over. We have departed American shores for the last time and are now on our way home ... except that we are currently enjoying a 3-day R&R stopover in Tahiti enroute to Sydney. In fact, as I compose this, I'm sitting in the spa on the balcony of our hotel looking at the resort's infinity pool (which Janet is currently floating around in) and the sea beyond ... what a life!
I had planned to see a bit more of Tahiti and the neighbouring island of Moorea while we were here, but it has been all too hard ... I think we needed this time to just chill out.
In any case, I'm not sure, if first impressions count for much, that Tahiti offers anything much different to what we saw in the Caribbean and indeed, to what we have seen and experienced in Fiji and Vanuatu ... and everything here comes at a high price too, like $45pp for the breakfast buffet (and a fairly ordinary one at that) here at the hotel; or $6.60 for a 1.25l bottle of Coke at a convenience store; or $21 in a supermarket for their cheapest bottle of wine. French Polynesia is certainly not a value holiday destination!
Inevitably, all good things, including holidays, must come to an end and after eight weeks, ours comes to a real crunching end tomorrow (Saturday) morning ... at 4am no less, when we get in a taxi to head to the airport. On the positive side though, we are really looking forward to seeing Jorja and and 3-month old Summer(she was only 5 weeks old when we left) and, of course, everyone else when we arrive back in Sydney on Sunday afternoon.
Friday, May 15
Venice Beach
Wandering along the Venice Beach boardwalk will be one of the enduring memories of our holiday. I would love to have been there on a weekend when the crowd is at a maximum, but even on a Monday, the eclectic mix of cultures that this particular beachfront area attracts is amazing.
Surfers, skaters, bike riders, hippies, musos, artists, exercise freaks (basketball courts, paddle tennis courts and an outdoor gym are just an integral part of the Venice Beach streetscape), blacks, whites, yuppies and even the homeless all happily coexist and thrive along this 1 - 2 km stretch of what is a much longer and an otherwise fairly ordinary beach.
Adding to the mix were the hundreds of shops (and NOT your boutique chain variety, I might add) and market stalls that line the street, and the amazing murals and street art that adorn many of the buildings.
Never have I seen such laid back vendors (except for those trying to flog you a CD of their music) ... it was as if they are there just for the lifestyle and that their mind-set is one of “if I can make a few bucks on the side selling my art or playing music, then cool”. It was great not being badgered whenever I stopped to browse or listen for a few moments while waiting for Janet, so much so that I even enjoyed the “shopping experience”!
I don't think anyone could leave Venice without a good feeling ... it is a place I think that offers something for everyone who visits it ... and for some (Gaz, I'm thinking of you here ... indeed, I thought of you all the time we were there), it is perhaps nirvana.
Our day in Venice,which ended with a really nice dinner in The Cheesecake Factory (a restaurant chain we had discovered while in Waikiki a couple of years back) overlooking the beach next door to our hotel, was a fitting finale to our American odyssey. I think it captured, in just one day, much of what we had discovered and experienced about America and Americans over the previous seven weeks ... can't ask for more than that!!
Surfers, skaters, bike riders, hippies, musos, artists, exercise freaks (basketball courts, paddle tennis courts and an outdoor gym are just an integral part of the Venice Beach streetscape), blacks, whites, yuppies and even the homeless all happily coexist and thrive along this 1 - 2 km stretch of what is a much longer and an otherwise fairly ordinary beach.
Adding to the mix were the hundreds of shops (and NOT your boutique chain variety, I might add) and market stalls that line the street, and the amazing murals and street art that adorn many of the buildings.
Never have I seen such laid back vendors (except for those trying to flog you a CD of their music) ... it was as if they are there just for the lifestyle and that their mind-set is one of “if I can make a few bucks on the side selling my art or playing music, then cool”. It was great not being badgered whenever I stopped to browse or listen for a few moments while waiting for Janet, so much so that I even enjoyed the “shopping experience”!
I don't think anyone could leave Venice without a good feeling ... it is a place I think that offers something for everyone who visits it ... and for some (Gaz, I'm thinking of you here ... indeed, I thought of you all the time we were there), it is perhaps nirvana.
Our day in Venice,which ended with a really nice dinner in The Cheesecake Factory (a restaurant chain we had discovered while in Waikiki a couple of years back) overlooking the beach next door to our hotel, was a fitting finale to our American odyssey. I think it captured, in just one day, much of what we had discovered and experienced about America and Americans over the previous seven weeks ... can't ask for more than that!!
Sunday, May 10
Around the Caribbean
At last, a chance to quickly update people on where we are ... at this moment, we are sitting (well I am sitting, Janet is still sound asleep as all sensible people are at 5am) in San Juan harbour waiting to disembark the Carnival Victory after our week cruising the Caribbean. It has been a very busy week ... each day a new island or city/town to check out and explore. The absence of sea days on this cruise has meant however that there has been little rest time (and therefore no time to write a blog or even transfer pictures from the cameras to the laptop) ... it's been good though, even if it feels like we have been staying in a mobile hotel rather than enjoying a week-long cruise.
Our jaunt around the Caribbean has taken us to an amazing diversity of islands ... some with British heritage/links, some with French, some with Spanish and even one with Danish. It's seems that after Christopher Columbus stumbled across the Caribbean back in 1492, a race began amongst the early European explorers to plant their flag on an island (maybe any island) and claim it for their country! First in got the spoils ... unless, of course, somebody else (other countries or pirates) tried to take it from you! And they did ... I think it was St Lucia, for example, that changed hands 14 times during the 16th century ... 7 times by the British and 7 times by the French. The irony is that while Europeans colonised the islands (and pretty much wiping out the native population of the islands in the process), their physical presence there has pretty much disappeared ... today they are mostly populated by descendants of the African slaves who were brought to the islands by the European colonists.
We boarded the Victory in San Juan last Sunday after staying overnight in a waterfront hotel in the Old City (we were lucky enough to get upgraded to a suite that had a wonderful view of the harbour and cruise ship pier into the bargain). San Juan is part of the US these days but it was hard to see evidence of America there, other than the usual collection of fast food outlets (which you find everywhere in the world anyway) and posters of Obama. The city still has a very strong Spanish feel and indeed, Spanish is the language used everywhere. We had a great time wandering around the cobbled laneways of Old San Juan ... many of the 300-400 year old buildings there have been restored to their former glory. It was interesting comparing Old San Juan to the largely unrestored old city area of Acapulco and the “yuppified” restoration of Cartagena's old city.
St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was our first port of call. Some amazing views and beaches here so we decided to do an island tour ... unfortunately, unseasonally heavy rain meant we couldn't see as much as we would have liked so we bought a few postcards to remind us of what we didn't see.
We spent the next day in Dominica (not to be confused with the similarly named Dominican Republic, also in the Caribbean) which is described as the nature island of the Caribbean. Lots of tropical rainforests, waterfalls, etc here but rather than doing a tour of areas that looked very similar to North Queensland, we instead had a pleasant day wandering around the capital of Roseau taking in the local sights.
Next stop was Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados and this provided us with our first taste of a Caribbean beach. We rented a beach umbrella and a couple of beach lounges and enjoyed a few rum punches (included in the price) on the beach in between dips in the beautiful blue sea. Janet says it was the day she had expected to have every day in the Caribbean!
Next day was the very pretty island of St Lucia, where we enjoyed a full-day tour of the island, albeit in the rain. It was just us and a guide and a driver, who happened to be the owner of the tour company, so was quite an exclusive tour. We did lots of things including driving into into a drive-in volcano crater which was steaming (like in Rotorua) and having a dip in a warm mud bath, and enjoyed a typical Creole lunch in a restaurant with an amazing view.
Antigua, an island that boasts having a different beach for every day of the year, was our next stop so this meant another lovely beach day, but not before we spent a couple of hours wandering around the town of St John. We even found and wandered through Antigua's cricket arena, pretending to watch Viv Richards face up to Andy Roberts on their home ground.
Our final port yesterday was Bassitiere on the island of St Kitts. Here we enjoyed a scenic train ride around the island, then spent a couple of hours wandering around enjoying the town ... it was a good to watch all the locals doing their Saturday morning shopping and to finally see some examples of colonial architecture. Everywhere else we had been, there were just remnants remaining of the former colonial days so it was great to see the style of buildings put up by the English and French here.
I may add some more to this post later, but time now to disembark and head for the airport for a very long flight to LA via Miami. The trip is almost over ... we are homeward bound even though it will take a week to get back to Sydney.
By the way, I think we might be getting swine flu ... if starting to eat like a pig is a symptom. The food here on Carnival Victory was plentiful, like it is on all cruise ships, but it came in larger quantities than we are used to. Just as well we have been doing lots of walking in our ports of call ... although Janet would say too much walking!
Our jaunt around the Caribbean has taken us to an amazing diversity of islands ... some with British heritage/links, some with French, some with Spanish and even one with Danish. It's seems that after Christopher Columbus stumbled across the Caribbean back in 1492, a race began amongst the early European explorers to plant their flag on an island (maybe any island) and claim it for their country! First in got the spoils ... unless, of course, somebody else (other countries or pirates) tried to take it from you! And they did ... I think it was St Lucia, for example, that changed hands 14 times during the 16th century ... 7 times by the British and 7 times by the French. The irony is that while Europeans colonised the islands (and pretty much wiping out the native population of the islands in the process), their physical presence there has pretty much disappeared ... today they are mostly populated by descendants of the African slaves who were brought to the islands by the European colonists.
We boarded the Victory in San Juan last Sunday after staying overnight in a waterfront hotel in the Old City (we were lucky enough to get upgraded to a suite that had a wonderful view of the harbour and cruise ship pier into the bargain). San Juan is part of the US these days but it was hard to see evidence of America there, other than the usual collection of fast food outlets (which you find everywhere in the world anyway) and posters of Obama. The city still has a very strong Spanish feel and indeed, Spanish is the language used everywhere. We had a great time wandering around the cobbled laneways of Old San Juan ... many of the 300-400 year old buildings there have been restored to their former glory. It was interesting comparing Old San Juan to the largely unrestored old city area of Acapulco and the “yuppified” restoration of Cartagena's old city.
St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands was our first port of call. Some amazing views and beaches here so we decided to do an island tour ... unfortunately, unseasonally heavy rain meant we couldn't see as much as we would have liked so we bought a few postcards to remind us of what we didn't see.
We spent the next day in Dominica (not to be confused with the similarly named Dominican Republic, also in the Caribbean) which is described as the nature island of the Caribbean. Lots of tropical rainforests, waterfalls, etc here but rather than doing a tour of areas that looked very similar to North Queensland, we instead had a pleasant day wandering around the capital of Roseau taking in the local sights.
Next stop was Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados and this provided us with our first taste of a Caribbean beach. We rented a beach umbrella and a couple of beach lounges and enjoyed a few rum punches (included in the price) on the beach in between dips in the beautiful blue sea. Janet says it was the day she had expected to have every day in the Caribbean!
Next day was the very pretty island of St Lucia, where we enjoyed a full-day tour of the island, albeit in the rain. It was just us and a guide and a driver, who happened to be the owner of the tour company, so was quite an exclusive tour. We did lots of things including driving into into a drive-in volcano crater which was steaming (like in Rotorua) and having a dip in a warm mud bath, and enjoyed a typical Creole lunch in a restaurant with an amazing view.
Antigua, an island that boasts having a different beach for every day of the year, was our next stop so this meant another lovely beach day, but not before we spent a couple of hours wandering around the town of St John. We even found and wandered through Antigua's cricket arena, pretending to watch Viv Richards face up to Andy Roberts on their home ground.
Our final port yesterday was Bassitiere on the island of St Kitts. Here we enjoyed a scenic train ride around the island, then spent a couple of hours wandering around enjoying the town ... it was a good to watch all the locals doing their Saturday morning shopping and to finally see some examples of colonial architecture. Everywhere else we had been, there were just remnants remaining of the former colonial days so it was great to see the style of buildings put up by the English and French here.
I may add some more to this post later, but time now to disembark and head for the airport for a very long flight to LA via Miami. The trip is almost over ... we are homeward bound even though it will take a week to get back to Sydney.
By the way, I think we might be getting swine flu ... if starting to eat like a pig is a symptom. The food here on Carnival Victory was plentiful, like it is on all cruise ships, but it came in larger quantities than we are used to. Just as well we have been doing lots of walking in our ports of call ... although Janet would say too much walking!
Thursday, April 30
A "quiet" week in Florida
Putting a camera in Janet's hands is dangerous ... she just clicks way with gay abandon. If she sees something interesting, she just goes click, click, click ... no setting up shots for Janet; she takes 3 or 4 or even 6 shots, figuring that at least one will turn out OK. Surprisingly, since most of the shots she has taken here in Florida have been from a speeding airboat or a car doing 65mph along the freeway, a hell of a lot of them have turned out well! Maybe there is something to her approach to photography ... the downside, however, is that it leaves me with so many photos to sort through and decide on the "keepers".
This was supposed to be a "lay around the resort" week, but has turned out to be just as hectic as every other week of our trip. So far, we have:
- hunted for alligators on an airboat in the Everglades (really good fun, even if we got sprayed with mud and hit in the face by sawgrass as we motored along ... the downside of sitting up front on the side of the boat);
- trawled South Beach in Miami (full of beautifully restored art deco buildings);
- driven the Florida Keys (over 100 islands stretching over 200km and linked by 62 bridges, the longest 7 miles long and highly featured in Arnie Schwarzenegger's "True Lies");
- water taxied up and down Fort Lauderdale's waterways (the locals are very proud that their "Venice of America" has more miles of canals than Venice does ... by the way, Ian, their water is far cleaner too); and
- browsed through innumerable shops (Janet must be nearly shopped out now ... I wish!)
Here's a few photos recording a really good week. Firstly of us whizzing through the Everglades over just a few centimetres of water and sometimes over mud. Also, our first (and only) sighting of an alligator ... not a great view but at least this gator was more active than the crocs in Costa Rica and indeed North Queensland.
A couple of shots of the art deco street streetscape in SoBo, as it is called by locals ...
Here's just a couple from our drive through the Florida Keys ... the first was taken as we drove over one of the many bridges separating the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico and the second is one I took from the southern end of the Seven Mile Bridge looking back between the bridge and the old railway bridge (now a very long fishing pier) towards the island on the other side.
I think what grabbed our attention the most during the drive was how blue and how clear the water was ... I took this otherwise boring photo of the water hoping it would show the colour of the water, and it pretty well has ...
The freeways here make ours at home look like back streets ... this one had 6 lanes each way most of the way and more at some points. The freeway interchanges here, and particularly the stacked ones (that the locals fittingly call "spaghetti bowls") are huge too, even bigger than those we saw in the freeway capital of the world, LA ... I wanted to take a photo of one but it was impossible to take one at ground level that would capture its enormity.
And then there's the Port Lauderdale waterways and canals ... miles and miles of multi-million dollar houses and multi-million dollar boats ... it all got a bit boring after a while! Here is just part the largest home (owned by the founder of Wendy's burger chain, who also built one around the corner for his daughter, Wendy) and one of his yachts (a smaller one is docked in front of this one, and he also has a bigger one that won't fit in the canal). There are still opportunities to get a cheapie here though ... ... the "project" on the right is on the market now for just $5 million or so ...
As you can see, Janet was enthralled by all the opening bridges we passed under (here there is a road bridge in the foreground and a rail bridge behind), but she did spy a bar/restaurant that had a name she thought Jorja would like, if only she could read ...
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Our time here is now almost ended ... on Saturday, we fly to San Juan, Peurto Rico, for a quick look-see before embarking on our Carnival Victory cruise on Sunday night. Watch for my next post from somewhere in the Caribbean.
Saturday, April 25
A quick reflection on our cruise
Now that our cruise is coming to end, here are a few stand-out moments and the highlights of our past two weeks on Infinity and in our ports of call ... and a few photos as well, since I still have lots of minutes left on my internet package to use before we dock tomorrow morning
Cabo San Lucas ... for Janet, the stand-out moment was me offering to
buy a ring she was longingly looking at in one of the many diamond/jewellery stores. The highlight of our stay of course was getting the ring. For me, the best thing about Cabo was leaving ... and with a lighter wallet to boot! Here's a typical street shot to show why "loved" Cabo.
Acapulco ... Janet says her stand-out memory would have to be of the cliff divers but she will long remember trying to buy Jorja an outfit in a store in the old town where no one spoke English and only pesos (which we didn't have) were accepted. For me, the highlight was the vibrancy of the Old Town ... but I also won't forget seeing so many VW bugs in just one place, and mostly being used as taxis. Just as well there were only 2 of us catching a taxi to the cliff divers!
Next stop was Huatulco ... Janet's most memorable moment (but hardly a highlight of her day) was “the sight and smell of stinking meat on the counter uncovered in an open air butcher”. She says her other standout memory is of having to hang on for dear life in a taxi going from the port to La Crucecita. My lasting memory, on the other hand, is of having a few cold beers sitting on the beach in a comfy beach chair under a big umbrella, while Janet had her beach “fix”.
In Puntarenas, nothing really stands out for either of us, although we both enjoyed our short Costa Rica experience, and it was ironic that we saw more crocodiles here than we did in North Queensland. What I probably will remember most is not Costa Rica itself, but rather the view of how the other half lives on the very upmarket The World. Janet says, on reflection, that she will probably most remember the heat ... so hot in fact that she did half the flea market at the pier/beach before heading back on board for a swim! It was even too hot to sit on the beach and have a beer, like in Huatulco!
Our Panama Canal higlight ... for Janet, it was the surprise of enjoying the entire transit, not just the first lock. For me, the Canal itself was the highlight of the day and of the entire cruise! Here's just one of several hundred photos we took.
Cabo San Lucas ... for Janet, the stand-out moment was me offering to
buy a ring she was longingly looking at in one of the many diamond/jewellery stores. The highlight of our stay of course was getting the ring. For me, the best thing about Cabo was leaving ... and with a lighter wallet to boot! Here's a typical street shot to show why "loved" Cabo.
Acapulco ... Janet says her stand-out memory would have to be of the cliff divers but she will long remember trying to buy Jorja an outfit in a store in the old town where no one spoke English and only pesos (which we didn't have) were accepted. For me, the highlight was the vibrancy of the Old Town ... but I also won't forget seeing so many VW bugs in just one place, and mostly being used as taxis. Just as well there were only 2 of us catching a taxi to the cliff divers!Next stop was Huatulco ... Janet's most memorable moment (but hardly a highlight of her day) was “the sight and smell of stinking meat on the counter uncovered in an open air butcher”. She says her other standout memory is of having to hang on for dear life in a taxi going from the port to La Crucecita. My lasting memory, on the other hand, is of having a few cold beers sitting on the beach in a comfy beach chair under a big umbrella, while Janet had her beach “fix”.
In Puntarenas, nothing really stands out for either of us, although we both enjoyed our short Costa Rica experience, and it was ironic that we saw more crocodiles here than we did in North Queensland. What I probably will remember most is not Costa Rica itself, but rather the view of how the other half lives on the very upmarket The World. Janet says, on reflection, that she will probably most remember the heat ... so hot in fact that she did half the flea market at the pier/beach before heading back on board for a swim! It was even too hot to sit on the beach and have a beer, like in Huatulco!Our Panama Canal higlight ... for Janet, it was the surprise of enjoying the entire transit, not just the first lock. For me, the Canal itself was the highlight of the day and of the entire cruise! Here's just one of several hundred photos we took.
Cartagena ... for me, the colour and vibrancy of the Old Town stands out. Janet agrees wholeheartedly. She also has a Colombian emerald to remind her of her day here, but it was at the expense of time to browse in other stores!
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Of our time on Infinity, the best 
thing for me was having sea days in between port days and port days in bbetween sea days ... an ideal mix of land and sea. Janet will remember the huge balcony we had on our aft stateroom, as this is where she spent much of her days at sea. Janet will also remember the prices she had to pay for “maintenance” in the AquaSpa.
The high point for both of us was our 35th anniversary dinner in the SS United States restaurant.
A truly memorable dining experience, as good as one gets in the best restaurants in Sydney or Melbourne and at a fraction of the price!
Janet says the low point of the cruise is tomorrow morning!
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