Island Hopping in the Southern Caribbean

 

Caribbean Cruisin' ...

Vibrant,

 Colorful,

And a Whole Lot of Fun!

After a week in San Juan, Puerto Rico, it was time to change things up a bit. And lucky for us, San Juan just happens to be a major port for cruise ships heading to the southern Caribbean. 

The deep blue seas were calling us for nine sunny days

and golden nights of

Island Hopping in the Southern Caribbean

... along with plenty of snorkeling,

... sight-seeing,

... relaxing,

... and, of course, eating!

Yes, Doug ate two lobster tails that night.

Island Hop Stop #1

St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

It took us two days via a slightly "strange" route

to sail the "short" 76 mile distance from San Juan to St Thomas. I suspect that cruise line operators like to have the first day be a "sea day" so that travelers will start their vacation reveling out strong with plenty of eating, drinking, and gambling.

It's always nice to enjoy lunch with a view!

But once we arrived at our first of five ports of call, we would have from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm to explore a new island either through guided tours or on our own. Upon our arrival at St Thomas, we noticed that our ship was docked right next to the Water Island ferry.  Since we had no pre-planned excursions booked, we were able to catch the ferry and spend the day away from the crowds in one of our favorite places  ... Honeymoon Beach.

Snorkeling with some sea turtles sent this beautiful day over the top!

Island Hop Stop #2

St John's, Antigua

St John's, the capital city of the two island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, was our second port of call. Doug signed us up for a three hour catamaran and snorkeling tour.

The rum punches that the crew members served up helped calm the nerves after snorkeling in the middle of the ocean that was a tad too wavy for me.

A stop at this beautiful secluded beach definitely helped also.

Island Hop Stop #3

Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten

Our next stop was on an island with two different "official" spellings of its name along with two different personalities, depending on which side of the island you are on. "Sint Maarten" refers to the Dutch side of the island, and "Saint Martin" is the French side.

We took a bus tour to see and learn more about the unique history and co-existence of these two countries on this one small island. Of course, no trip to "France" would be complete without a stop at a French bakery.

How does one choose???

Afterwards, we walked around the Dutch town of Phillipsburg to find another capitol building,

... and stumbled upon some amazingly delicious gelato.

I'm thinking that there may be a little Italian influence in this Dutch town!

Island Hop Stop #4

Castries, Saint Lucia

After another day at sea, we reached the only country in the world that is named after a woman ... Saint Lucia. Our catamaran tour today would treat us to the shoreline beauty of this island nation.

Colorful homes and elegant yachts adorned the coast,

... but the true stars of the show were the majestic Pitons, two volcanic spires that rise up from the sea approximately 2600 feet.

Afterwards we walked into town in search of the capitol building, but Google failed us. Instead we enjoyed the smiles and a short conversation with a group of local children who were curious about where we were from ... and even more intrigued with the idea of living in a place that has "snow".

Island Hop Stop #5

Bridgeport, Barbados

Our southernmost island and final stop was Bridgeport, Barbados. Our catamaran tour operator filled us with the hope that we would be snorkeling with sea turtles... but this little fellow is the only one that we encountered. 

But we did see a variety of fish that now call the wreckage of a sunken ship "home". After the snorkeling was done, we relaxed on the trampoline and enjoyed the island scenery and party vibes that included Caribbean music and plenty of pineapple and  fruit juice ... with or without rum.

Our mission in the afternoon was to find the capitol building,

Success!

... and put another dot on Doug's craft brewery map.

Success ... with the added bonus of snagging his most unique beer coaster yet!

While cruising isn't our preferred way of travel, we're glad that we could catch a "snippet" of what life is like on these small Caribbean islands. 

 Our island hopping adventure gave us the opportunity to see both the beauty and the hardships of island life,

... and helped us to realize how our tourism dollars can help build up these small island communities.

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