January 16th, 2018

Done With the Caribbean & onto South America.


Today is day 13 of our voyage. We’ve spent the last 12 mostly playing in the Caribbean waters. We’ve gone through Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Barbados, & Tobago. So far each stop has had it’s unique charm & beauty.


Aruba,
Here we rented a UTV and were able to tour the island on our own. We went for an off road Segway tour up to California Lighthouse. Than we took the UTV down to explore some old caves that were formally inhabited by native Indians. We really enjoyed being able to drive the UTV on the roads & highways and take our time where ever we wanted.


Curaçao,
Here we also explored the island by UTV, but as a guided tour. The guided tour did offer us a bit more of the history of the island and how it’s been influenced by its neighbors. We were taken aback by the amount of trash & plastic that littered the windward side of the island.


Bonaire,
Here is where we started to get wet. Bonaire is known for its amazing reef that surrounds the island. The entire island is a marine preserve. We were able to rent tanks and shore dive directly across the street from the dive shop. Water clarity was beautiful. Temps were warm & Jeni even saw a huge sea horse!


St. Vincent,
Here we made plans for a boat dive with a small dive shop. This was a family shop made up from a young Swiss couple and his mom. They had just bought the shop and moved to St. Vincent 6 months ago. We had a great time with Great Wall dives.


St. Lucia,
This was a disappointment. We took the day off from the water to rest our ears and wondered into town. As soon as we exited the port terminal we were bombarded with taxi drivers & tour operators. We made our way through the swarm thinking that it would calm down once made it to town. We were wrong. Around every turn were another taxi or tour guide yelling at us to come there or go here. We finally gave up & went back to the boat.


Barbados,
Here we did a “Sail & Snorkel”. We took a catamaran out off the coast. Although a little crowded for our tastes we had a great time snorkeling with turtles and the boat was a lot of fun. We got to snorkel over the top of a barge wreck as well.


Tobago,
Tobago was great. Wild Turtles dive shop picked us up at the boat & drove us across the island to their boat. We dove a site called “The Sisters” & no, Laura & Jennifer were not there. The dives were pretty rough & murky due to weather, but we still had a great time. The dive master speared a bunch of lion fish and talked the little restaurant on the beach to cook them up for us for lunch after the dives.


Now we’re on a sea day as we travel down to South America & we start tomorrow in French Guiana