We took a dinner cruise on the "Jungle Queen" that was very nice. They took us to a private island for a BBQ dinner and then entertainment. Along the way they pointed out all the famous people's homes and their private yachts. We were in awe of all the breath taking homes and gorgeous yachts.
Saturday we boarded the Carnival Conquest Cruise Ship. Our destinations were Grand Turk, La Romana (Dominican Republic), Curacao, and Aruba. We had never been to any of these destinations.
In Grand Turk we didn't do anything for an excursion, we just went to the beach that was adjacent to the cruise ship. Of course, the water is so crystal clear and the white sand it beautiful.
This is the King and I and our feeble attempt at a selfie. Needless to say we need more practice!
A view of the beach from the Cruise Ship.
The second port of call was La Romana in the Dominican Republic. We toured a Cigar Factory (guess who picked that one!) and the historic Altos de Chavon.
Matilde Cigar Factory
A worker rolling the cigars (and smoking one too)!
The amphitheater was magnificent at Alto de Chavon
And the view of the river below was majestic.
We did not care for La Romano too much! It is a very poverty stricken area, lots of garbage in the city everywhere and even more motorcycles and scooters. We had a very uneasy feeling just driving through the streets on the tour bus. I'm glad it was a unanimous decision NOT to stop at the city market by all the passengers on our bus. I don't think I would have gotten off if we had stopped.
Curacao was our third stop. It had a very quaint feeling with all the dutch influence in the architecture. Sadly I forgot to turn around a take a picture of it. This is the floating bridge that we walked across to get to the shops.
In Curacao, we took an island tour that was very informative. Our first stop on the tour was a slave museum. Our guide "Babe" (in the green dress) spoke of the life style of the slaves before and after being freed.
Notice the quilts on the bed in the slave's bedroom...
Another attempt at a selfie....
The last port of call was Aruba. We really liked it there. We took another island tour that concluded at the beach, our favorite place.
The King at the Natural Bridge (which fell into the ocean in 2006)
This is a small part of it that still remains that they call the "Son of A Bridge".
Our next stop on the tour as a rock formation. The King went to the top and took this photo overlooking Aruba. You can see the cruise ship in the distance.
I thought it was interesting that the mosques in the cemeteries are painted the same color as the house that the descendents live in, and every 5 years bodies are rotated out, the bones are crushed and placed in an urn inside the mosques.
We were disappointed that we couldn't go up in the lighthouse due to maintenance and refurbishing being done.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end and it's back to reality! Until the next one.... Cruise On.
