Indian Diner

Barbados...11:00pm sail, so we all decided that it would be great to go out for an Indian Diner with a few beer on the side. The Restaurant was called Zafran and it was amazingly beautiful. Totally well decorated and the food...oh my God...best food i've had in a long time. Although I will say that my mouth was on fire like never before. The above pic is myself, Shivram (India), Budda (Thailand) and my cabin mate Maria (Portugal).

Tom, don't worry about Shivram...he is like a brother to me. Seriously, I've never had a guy treat me like you do until I met Shivram. He picks on me daily and any guy who shows any interest, well Shivram demands to meet him. So you should feel good about that.

Emerald Pool

Another day in the Sun. A group of us went to Emerald Pool in Dominica today, it was a 45 minute van ride up the mountain, with a stop at a fruit stand where you ate all the fresh fruit you wanted and pay nothing, just leave a $1.00 tip. We gorged on Bananas, Pineapples, Grapefruit, Sugar Cane, Coconut and some wierd thing that you suck on??? (Don't get any ideas guys, this was a "clean" day). Then we continued our way up the mountain and then hiked to the pools, it was soooooooo cool. The water felt like Lake of the Woods in the summer, refreshingly cool and it wasn't really deep so we could goof around. We hiked the rest of the way to the lookout points and then went back to the ship. Totally a great day, really sunny and warm. Hope you're all doing well. Hilary...how's the Yukon??? Hope you haven't frozen to death, i'll send you some rays of sunshine!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Valentines Party on the Sea. Spent a lovely day on the beach, and then spent the night partying with friends. What more can you ask for. Below is a picture of the beach in Tortola. We went for lunch there and a quick tan before I caught the cab ride (45 minutes) back up and down the mountain to the ship. Seriously, make it with 1 minute to spare to take the VIPs up for their bridge visit. God that would have looked bad if I was late?!?! Love you all...happy love day...cherish the ones close to you.

Curacao

Spent the day shopping in Curacao today. It was the coolest little Island. Every house was painted a different colour, and all bright. The history is that when Curacao was being built up the Governor insisted that everyone's house be painted something other then white, and must be re-painted every so often (can't remember how long he has proclaimed). So everyone followed this and later on in life, after this man moved on from his position as Governor they found out that he at his point of power owned the only paint shop in Curacao!!!! Greedy bugger! I had a great Cappacino, with friends, sitting by the waterfront and baking in the sun. See a pattern here???

Answers for Dad

Dad, to answer your question, yes that is a gun....no he is not "just" happy to see me:) Actually it was a real machine gun and the other guy had a knife holstered to his pack. I guess with the alarming rate of 14 murders in Trinidad for the month of January alone and the "gorillas" in the Trinidad rainforests they now need at minimum two armed police officers with any group of hikers!!! YIKES! But they were super cool and I thoroughly enjoyed myself...as i'm sure you can see;)

Trinidad - Maracas Falls Hike

Today I had a great day. I went on a hike to Maracas Falls in Trinidad. It was about an hour hike and because it was raining it was hard, really slippery. But totally worth it when we got to the top. You can't really understand how beautiful it was by picture, but honestly it was wonderful. Also...I am attaching a picture of myself with the two ARMED police officers who had to come along on the hike. Because of the way Trinidad is at the moment, any hike needs to have police officers (armed) with the hike in case something happens. They were super cool guys and I thought Dad you might like the picture! ha ha ha enjoy!

St. Maarten

O.k. so another picture. This was in St. Maarten this cruise. I got off the ship early morning so no one was on the beach and me and a friend went for Breakfast. It was so beautiful and quiet. We walked along the beach for a while and loved the space before the frenzy of shopping tourists arrived.

Now as I begin to take over Hotel Secretary position part of my duties is taking the VIPs to the bridge for visits and tours. Last night I took a group of 4 VIPs to the bridge for sail-a-way from St. Kitts. I have never been in the Bridge for sailaway and let me just tell you that it was soooooo beautiful. The sun was setting, you got the best view of the Island AND just as we were turning, we saw a rainbow, now just one side of it, we saw the full arc, up and down. It was stunning. So thats my "awe inspiring moment" for this installation of "Oh Such a Hard Life aboard a Cruise Chip" ha ha ha.