After working really hard in 2008, we needed a vacation so we booked a cruise on the Celebrity Summit with a day before and 4 days after in Puerto Rico. If you want to read more and see some pictures, click on "Read more" (warning--it's long).
We flew into San Juan on 1/9 and stayed overnight in a cheap hotel in the Isla Verde section of San Juan.
The next morning, we caught a local bus to within 1/4 mile of the pier. The trip was easier than expected, so we ended up being the first people on the ship at around 11:40 am.
The Celebrity Summit is a lovely ship with great service in all areas. Here are a few pictures of public areas of the ship:
Since our stop in St. Martin was on a Sunday, we walked around town then spent most of the day on the ship. 
This would be our first trip to Dominica so we wanted to see as much as possible. We booked a tour with Levi Baron to visit Morne Bruce, the Botanical Gardens, Titou Gorge (scene of some of the Pirates of the Caribbean II action), Trafalgar Falls, Woven Wotten, and Champagne Reef.
On our way back from Titou Gorge, we encountered this scene:
Fortunately the workmen had a great chainsaw and had the road cleared in about 10 minutes. Then on to Trafalgar Falls, a pair of waterfalls, one of which has hot springs below.
Since it's Tuesday, this must be Grenada, another lush, hilly island. After spending the day in a van full of fellow passengers in Dominica, we opted to only spend a small part of the day in a van with total strangers in Grenada--taking the local bus to the beach. Bus service in Grenada is primarily provided by Toyota HiAce vans with a 2 man crew, one to drive and the other to round up passengers.
After a scenic drive mostly along the coast, we debarked at Grand Anse beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean.
The wind was a bit strong so we decided to walk over the hill to Morne Rouge beach which was more sheltered. Unfortunately, the snorkeling was pretty poor, but the beach was lovely.
After lunch on the ship, we explored Ft. George, a fort built by the French in the early 1700's. It's located on a volcanic spine overlooking the harbor in St. Georges.
Our stop in Bonaire was a short one, 1 - 7 p.m. Not having made a definite plan for the day, we followed a group of passengers who seemed to know where they were going. It turns out they were headed for Karels pier where one can catch a water taxi to Klein Bonaire, a small island just off the coast of the main island. Since we had read that the shore snorkeling was poor following the fall visit of hurricane Omar, we decided to give Klein Bonaire, supposedly less affected, a try. 
Klein Bonaire is an uninhabited island that was purchased by the Bonaire National Marine Park. The only structures on the very flat island are some slave huts and a couple of small shelters built by tour operators. 
The snorkeling was a bit disappointing because the water was a bit rough that day (we even had a brief rain shower) and because the shallow reef was a bit too shallow. It was necessary to find a break then swim on the outside in order to view, and impossible to swim over it. Most of the few pictures I took did not turn out due to mess up in settings.
There is a bit of shopping in the capital, Kralendijk, and a few historical buildlings.
The final port of call, and definitely the most Americanized was Aruba. Having visited before, we opted to take the local bus to Arashi beach, passing by all the fancy hotels on the way. From Arashi we swam south to Catalina Cove for some snorkeling.
After lunch back on the ship, we explored the downtown area of the capital, Oranjestad, where the ship docked.
Sadly, the cruise was over:(
But wait, we still have 4 days of vacation left! touring the island of Puerto Rico. After picking up the rental car in San Juan, we headed west toward Aguadilla, stopping at the Arecibo Observatory on our way.
After checking into the hotel, we stopped at Crashboat Beach just as it started to rain. If it had been a sunny day, this is what we would have seen:
The hotel that had seemed like a good choice got a zero star rating from us when we were kept awake by a band playing in the hotel bar across the parking lot until after 2 am. (we got a refund). I was not amused to see this sign the next morning:
After our night of revelry, we tried in vain to find the local LDS church the next morning. Perhaps we failed because there were no street signs in evidence. After giving up, we continued south from Mayaguez to the Cabo Rojo Lighthouse:
Now heading east, we continued on to Ponce, the second oldest city in Puerto Rico. We stayed at the Hotel Belgica in the heart of the old city. 
Continuing to the East the next morning, we searched high and low for the Coamo hot springs, even asking several people for directions. When we finally found them, we discovered that they are closed for construction.
So, we continued eastward along the southern coast of Puerto Rico.
Then it was North again on a hair raising trip over the mountain on a road that was often missing the lane closest to the edge. By the time we reached the northeast corner of the island, we had had enough of poorly marked roads in lousy condition, noisy hotels, problems with the toll road, and closed attractions so we opted to try to check in early at the Fajardo Inn and skip the rainforest.
Now, that's more like it. We relaxed by one of the pools all afternoon and met a nice couple from PA who own a home in Rincon. The house was rented for a week so they were temporarily homeless and exploring the island. Since they also planned to take the ferry to Culebra the next day we agreed to show them the ropes.
Tuesday found us on the ferry from Fajardo to the island of Culebra, one of the "Spanish" Virgin islands. We had been there 2 years before and were happy for the opportunity to return. We returned to our favorite haunts:
After another night at the Fajardo Inn, we headed home again, fortunately missing the coldest weather of the winter back in Virginia. Thanks for reading.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Southern Caribbean Cruise and Puerto Rico
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