April 1st - John and I (accompanied by our friends, Clare and Gerry), sailed from Bridgetown, Barbados on the British ship, Sunbird. We were all tired out from our flight from Toronto that afternoon, but we knew a wonderful, relaxing week lay ahead of us. We slept well in our little cabin that night. John felt right at home on the Sunbird, as 70% of the passengers were Brits, the rest of us were Canadian! Lots of limey accents! The currency used was pounds sterling.

April 2nd - Our first port of call the next morning was St. Lucia. We disembarked the ship at the town of Castries and hiked around the harbour to a busy marketplace. We met a couple from Rhode Island who told us they had been on twenty-three cruises! I remembered the fun week Clare and I had experienced in St. Lucia back in 1975 when we stayed at the Halcyon Days Hotel.

Here is a quote about the island from the ship's daily port of call newspaper - this is very poetic.

"St. Lucia is only 27 miles long and 14 miles wide, with a shape that is said to resemble either a mango or an avocado (depending on your taste). The Atlantic Ocean kisses its eastern shore, while the beaches of the west coast owe their beauty to the calm Caribbean Sea.

In natural beauty, St. Lucia seems like an island plucked from the South Pacific and set down in the Caribbean. Its dramatic twin coastal peaks, the Pitons, soar 2,000 feet up from the sea, sheltering magnificent rainforests where wild orchids, giant ferns, and birds of paradise flourish. Brilliantly-plumed tropical birds abound, including endangered species like the indigenous St. Lucia parrot. The rainforest is broken only by verdant fields and orchards of banana, coconut, mango, and papaya."

April 3rd - we docked at St. George's, Grenada. Again, we used our trusty feet to take us up and down the hilly and winding streets of St. George's. We hiked up a long winding road to a Spanish fort at the top of a hill, which afforded a sweeping view of the harbour and town. We met a local man named Hector, and he took us for a beer at a local watering hole. Great fun!

Here is some background information about Grenada, again from the ship's daily newspaper:

"Grenada is a very mountainous island, covered with fragrant spice trees and rare tropical flowers. Bordered by stunning beaches, and dotted with picturesque towns, this verdant island has long been a major source of nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and cocoa. In the interior of this volcanic island are cascading rivers and waterfalls, lush rainforests, and one of the most breathtakingly beautiful mountain lakes imaginable. The capital, St. George's, is widely held to be the loveliest city in the Caribbean. Its horseshoe-shaped harbour is surrounded by a pastel rainbow of dockside warehouses and the red-tiled roofs of traditional shops and homes."

April 4th - This morning, we reached the port of Margarita Island, which is located twenty-three miles off the mainland of Venezuela and is part of that country. This was the one island on which we decided to take a guided bus tour, which proved to be very fascinating and informative. Our first brief stop was El Valle, the birthplace of Santiago Marino, one of the heroes of Venezuela's independence from Spain. We were then driven to the colonial capital of La Asuncion and stopped at Bolivar Square, graced by the oldest church in Venezuela (built in the early 1600's). There is a statue in Bolivar Square of the great liberator of South America, Simon Bolivar, who was born in Caracas, and freed the countries of Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. The currency of those countries, the "bolivar", is named for him.

continued. . . . .