We had two great days on Grenada.  Day One I rented a car and took off on the left side of the road for an island tour with Kathie, Sharon and Hoa.  Three women helping me drive on the left....who says I don't have any patience :-)  On our first stop Kathie made a new friend.  Then we moved on to Grenada's most important export...NUTMEG and a tour through the Nutmeg Museum.

The next part of the tour took us to what the ladies considered the islands most important spice ...CHOCOLATE!  We stopped at the little known Crayfish Bay Organic Chocolate Estate to view the operation and sample the finished products.

After a great lunch of fresh yellow fin tuna we were off to our last stop which was the Levera National Park where Kathie and Sharon had to put their feet in the sand and water.

Day Two in Grenada was a walking tour that include the history of slavery in Grenada at their National museum which include  a few artifacts from that time.  Then it was on to National Chocolate Shop of Grenada which was conveniently located next door.  The picture on the left is a cocoa fruit pod.  Inside are cocoa beans which go through an extensive process before becoming chocolate.

Our second island was St. Vincent & the Grenadines. 

The capital of St. Vincent is the city of Kingstown.  Outside of one old Catholic cathedral in the city the primary attraction was a beautiful botanical garden.  The pictures from the garden are from top to bottom, left to right - Garden overview, Poor Man's Orchid, Breadfruit tree, Cannonball tree flowers, Pandanus tree fruit and Heliconia bihai flower.

The third island we visited was Martinique.  Its capital is Fort-de-France.

This wasn't the most exciting island we've visited.  We were docked next to a huge German Cruise ship named Mein Schiff 2.  The capital Fort-de-France did have a bit of interesting architecture including three impressive buildings - the first few pictures are from the outside and inside of the Cathedral of Saint-Louis, the next picture is the Fort-de-France Library, the third picture is the Theater and the final picture is the sunset as we leave the port.

Our fourth island was the always interesting Barbados who's capital is Bridgetown.

On our first day in Barbados we did a walking tour of Bridgetown.  The highlight of tour was a stop at the Barbados Parliament Building.  Here are pictures of the outside of the building, the Senate Chambers, the HR Speakers chair , Barbados coat-of-arms, and a painting depicting a sport unique to Barbados....Road Tennis.

If you know Kathie, you should now by now that the second day in Barbados included her three favorite pastimes...visiting the Barbados Historical Museum, taking a walking tour and finding a beach to walk on.  So here goes  with some pictures of the museum, Gold Cup Barbados Turf Club and Race Track and Carlisle Bay beach.

Part of a Rum making still and Kathie's new formal dinner dresses

Our fifth and sixth islands were Tobago and Trinidad

By now I'm begging for no more museums but I did have settle on Pigeon Point beach in Tobago

And then in Trinidad we did the unexpected and found the unexpected....we visited an unbelievably interesting Emperor Valley Zoo.  It had animals big and small, a reptile house, an aquarium and many birds...I think you'll recognize these so I won't identify them for you.

The next stop on our Caribbean Island tour will be the ABC islands (Bonaire, Curacoa, Aruba, ) in that order.  For the most part these are arid desert islands.

Our first stop was Bonaire.  The sights on land in Bonaire were interesting but when you put your snorkeling gear on it turns into a gorgeous underwater world.  We were lucky to meet Barry and Cindy on the ship so we toured the island with them.  I attempted to do a little underwater photography, you can judge for yourself how it turned out.  From top to bottom, left to right.  Barry & Cindy, Parrot fish, Sergeant Major fish, Trigger fish and schooling reef fish.

Here are a few of the more interesting land based things to see on Bonaire.  From top to bottom, left to right Bonaire wild child (eg Kathie and fan coral), and wild donkeys.  The a salt mining operation and finally, in the distance a gigantic flock of flamingos.

Our next stop was the island of Curacao.  Since we knew we couldn't top Bonaire for underwater fun, we made Curacao a land based visit. Like the other ABC islands Curacao has a strong Dutch history and influence.  The first two recognizable sights are the Queen Emma floating pontoon bridge built in the late 1800's and the colorful houses along the harbor.  The bridge swings open to allow ships through and the colorful houses are the result of a late 1700s law which outlawed white houses.

We also did our requisite walking tour of the city where we saw the equally requisite colonial architecture, Kathie with a Chichi doll, the RIF Fort (now a shopping mall) and Mikve Israel-Emanuel, the oldest continually operating synagogue (1732) in the western hemisphere.

There was also a sad history to the island of Curacao.  It was the main island for slave trade in the Caribbean islands.  There was a fantastic historical record of the slave trade and subsequent brutality and denigration of Negroes at the Museum Kura Hulanda.  The descriptions of how the slaves were gathered and sold, primarily by and to the West Indies Company, and then transported in slave ships to Curacao was unbelievably inhumane.  The description of the accommodations on the slave ship said there was less room per person than in a coffin.  See below a pictures of slave ship inside and painting representing slaves being transported and lastly the uniforms of the concierges on the ships:-)

I would argue that the itinerary saved the best island for last and that was Aruba.  We had two great days on Aruba.  The first day started with a water canon welcome as we came in to port.  Then we moved on to the Kathie mandated day at the beach.  She selected Eagle beach which has supposedly received high marks from those people who rate beaches.  She also made it exciting by deciding we take a public bus to and from the beach.  See below as she gives me instructions on how to get on the bus :-)

Our second day was an all day driving tour of the highlights of Aruba.  From top to bottom, left to right they are the following - California Lighthouse northern tip of the island, ruins of a Gold smelting plant, collapsed Natural Bridge, Donkey Sanctuary, and Butterfly Farm that include some wild looking moths (check out the snake head on the wings) and monarch butterflies.

Although Cartagena Colombia isn't a Carribbean island it was the next stop in the Caribbean on our tour.  Like many of the islands it was first explorer by the Spanish in the early 1500's.  But before I get too far into its history I want to show you what we saw immediately as we got off of our dock and headed toward the main street - a tropical bird sanctuary.  From top to bottom, left to right - Welcome sign, flamingos, macaws, peacocks,

OK, now its back to the history of Cartagena.  Pedro de Heredia was the original discoverer of the bay of Cartegana and as such was honored with the requisite statue.  As with many other cities, in order to protect itself from the next country that wanted to take it over, Cartagena built a huge (8 miles long) wall around the city.  You can also see the "new" Caragena in the background.

As always Kathie, with her phone and her "walking tour of the city" app, led us around Old City Cartagena.  From top to bottom, let to right - Main entrance to the old city and clock tower, colonial architecture,  Santo Pedro Claver church and statue.  He was the Apostle of the Slaves.   And since it was Easter Sunday we were in time to see the procession and the altar of the Santo Domingo Church.

Well that's all for now in the Caribbean.  Our next stop is Colon Panama, the canal transit and then up the Pacific coast of Central America.  Go back to the home page where I'll be posting those pictures on the next section titled Destinations - Latin America.