Luckily I had Jennica home for Conference so she helped me again on this blog. I think I have it down now so I can stay caught up. Feb. 17th Norlen and I went to Puerto Rico for our 30th anniversary. Wow, can you believe it. After 2 days on the island driving to a rainforest and Camuy caves (fun, fun, fun) we cruised several islands and Norlen did some diving on Aruba and Curacao.
My favorite island was St. Lucia where Norlen had a picture taken with this boa. Of course everyone wanted money for a picture. This island is very tropical and lush with rain forests and Pitons which are two high mountain peaks on one side. We hiked to a hot sulfur spring and across some hanging bridges to a plantation where they showed us how to juice sugar cane, make cocoa from the beans, and our guide named all species of plants and flowers. They stopped in a very poor part where the only water they had was in big black barrels on top of the roof. If it didn't rain, they had no water. Many are unemployed and eat what they grow and fish from the ocean. They cannot cut down a tree or they spend a year in jail because they found when they cut down trees the rain would cut in half.
The prettiest islands were the Dutch owned Aruba and Curacao with their brightly painted buildings. I went snorkling on a pirate type shipbut the fish and coral weren't as beautiful. I think we were there almost 15 years ago and now there are so many tourists it has destroyed much of the beauty.
We sure had a great time, met some wonderful people (a 90 year old man from Belgium) and ate fantastic food. About half the ship was from Europe, one fourth from Canada and the rest from the USA. This Galaxy ship only had one more trip and then it was being sold to Germany. When we stopped on Grenada the ship gave all the extra beds, bedding, etc. to the islanders. So many of them are quite poor. One of the islands had traded their UN vote to China so they could have a road built from one side to the other. We are soooo blessed to live in America and have more than enough of everything. I really am sad when people complain about what they don't have because there is no one on earth that is blessed as much as we are !!!!! God bless America.
