CASTRIES, ST LUCIA

CASTRIES, ST LUCIA

APRIL 23, 2014

 

St Lucia was sighted by Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage in 1502 but the English didn’t claim it until 1564. It went back and forth between the English and the French until their independence on February 22, 1969.

 

St Lucia is a volcanic island that is 14 miles long by 27 miles wide. One hundred and sixty five thousand people live there. Sixty five thousand of them live in the city of Castries. Sixty five percent of the island people are Roman Catholic. Bananas are their biggest export.

 

On tour our guide “G” showed us a tree that grew cashews. It grows a big fruit with a nut at the end. The nut is poison if picked and eaten from the tree. When ripe it is taken and goes through a process of hand roasting to get the oil out of it and it takes several hours. The whole process takes hours for each nut which is why cashews are so expensive.

 

A harbor our guide “G” showed us he said at least scenes from four movies had been filmed there.  One was “Blue Lagoon” with Brook Shields.   

Our ship docked in the harbor

"G", our guide, and flower

Harbor where "Blue Lagoon" was filmed

Cashew

Cashews on the tree

 

 

 

 

 

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS

APRIL 22, 2014

 

Barbados is the epitome of paradise with the white sand beaches, lush greenery, and plenty of space for enjoying some rest and relaxation. The island is 13 miles long and 21 miles wide and has 288 thousand people. It was first discovered by the Spanish in the late 15^th century but it was the British who took ownership almost 200 years later in the early 17^th century. Barbados has earned itself a strong economy from its robust sugar-cane industry and booming tourist draw.

 

The sugar-cane had a great export demand up until the last few years but it has drastically fallen off. Many of the sugar plantations have been sold off and the island is struggling to exist on just the tourist trade.

 

Barbados, the most easterly of the Caribbean islands has long been known for its healthy climate, and is the reason George Washington brought his ailing half-brother here to recuperate.

 

Barbados is unique in another way as it is ringed by coral. The very middle was made by volcanic rock but the outside is coral and limestone.

 

On tour our guide, Ronnie Cunningham, a photographer of note from the area, took us to see a chattel house.  It is one of Barbados’ architectural gems that are rapidly disappearing.  There are only a few remaining of the original model, with traditional jalousie shutters and window hoods.  The high-pitched gable roof, without eaves, enabled these houses to withstand the high winds of the hurricane season.  Ronnie also gave us photography lessons that were very helpful.  

Chattel House

Sea shore - Note coral rocks on beach

Tom and a coral rock

Sandy and Ronnie Cunningham

 

 

 

 

 

 

MINDELO, SAO VINCENTE ISLAND, CAPE VERDE

MINDELO, SAO VINCENTE ISLAND, CAPE VERDE

APRIL 15-16, 2014

 

First discovered in the 1450’s, Sao Vicente was uninhabited until the eighteenth century, when the Portuguese built a colony here, which grew as a provisioning station for ships crossing the Atlantic for slave trade.  After a hundred-year drought devastated the island and most of its inhabitants died or immigrated, the British formed a colony in Mindelo in the nineteenth century and used it as a coal station at the height of the steam ship era. Now, the population, speakers of a local Creole that combines Portuguese and several African languages, make their living by fishing and the tourist trade.

Panorama from island's highest point

On tour we visited a middle school

Talking with children

Eel at market for sale

Houses in fishing village

Child in the fishing village

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRAIA, SANTIAGO, CAPE VERDE

PRAIA, SANTIAGO ISLAND, CAPE VERDE

APRIL 14, 2014

 

Cape Verde consists of 10 volcanic islands, 9 of which are inhabited. The islands are in the Atlantic, west of Africa. Praia on Santiago Island is the capital for Cape Verde. Twenty six thousand people live on this island. The Portuguese founded these islands in 1460.  With them they brought the Catholic religion and this island is 80% Catholic. There is a church here that claims that Christopher Columbus stopped here and worshiped during his third voyage, 1498-1500.

 

When the slave trade started in the 1500’s from Africa to South America and later North America the Portuguese saw a way to make money off of it. They had the slaves delivered to this island and then they trained them and then held a slave market 

where the slaves were sold.

 

Cape Verde received their independence from Portugal in 1991 and they now have a Republican form of government. 

Panorama of Praia

Slave Market Place-Slaves were hung up here and beaten when needed.

500 year old house built by the first settlers.

Outside meat market

Mother with child

 

 

 

 

JAMESTOWN, SAINT HELENA

JAMESTOWN, SAINT HELENA

APRIL 8, 2014

 

Jamestown was founded by the English East India Company in 1659, when they built a fort and established a garrison the site on James Bay naming it after James II. Jamestown was once a place of great strategic importance for ships making their way around the Cape of Good Hope on trading routes to and from Asia.  It became a key spot in the abolition of slavery, with patrols established here to stop ships on their way from Africa to Brazil and points in the Caribbean.

 

 But the island is best known for its most famous resident: Napoleon, who was exiled here after his defeat at Waterloo.  He lived here from 1815 until his death in 1821. He was buried here until 1840 when his remains were taken back to France to be buried in Paris. On tour we visited the house he lived in for six years. It was in very nice condition but we were told when he was there it was not as nice. He had 80 people that lived in the house that waited on him. They slept on the second floor and we were told they didn’t have much room up there. He was allowed to ride a horse on the property with guards that went with him. There was not much danger of his escape as James Bay was the only way into the island and a large ship could only tender a small boat in. When we tendered in it was very difficult to get close to the dock and several of our tenders were damaged.

 

Another claim to fame for Jamestown is Jacob’s Ladder.  It is construed in 1829 to connect Jamestown to the Garrison on Ladder Hill and was used to haul up manure from the horses and send goods down.  Jacob’s Ladder has 699 steps and is 900 feet in length. Tom and I didn’t climb the ladder but many of our friends did and they got a certificate! We were on a tour bus that took us all over the island so that is how we got pictures from the bottom and then the top.

 

Saint Helena’s natural beauty has dramatic range, from desert like mountains, to lush tropical forests and waterfalls, to sea views from ancient forts to rural farms. It is an overseas territory of England and one third of their economy comes from them.

 

Because of an Ebola outbreak in Guinea our ship’s Captain has changed our itinerary so we will not go to any more ports in Africa.  We were to go to Banjul, Gambia and Dakar, Senegal.  We will now go to Praia, Santiago Island and stay an extra day in Mindelo, Sao Vincente Island. I am glad he is looking out for us and we will come home healthy.

James Bay. Our ship is on the right.

Behind Sandy is Jacob's Ladder from the bottom.

Napoleon's home in exile

Napoleon's vacant tomb

Governor's House

From the top of Jacob's Ladder

 

 

WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIA

WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIA

APRIL 4, 2014

 

Walvis Bay means “Whale Bay” in Afrikaans and this deep-water harbor was long known as a stopover for whaling vessels along the Southern Atlantic coast between Cape Town to the south and Windhoek to the north.  The town became part of the English Cape Colony (a portion of what’s now South Africa) after World War I and when Namibia gained its independence, remained in limbo until it was ‘given’ back to Namibia by South Africa in 1990.  Today, Walvis Bay continues to grow based on its shipping, fishing and salt processing industries, which draw on the Walvis Bay salt fields producing 400,000 tons of salt a year.

 

Further down the coast the dramatic dunes of the Namib Desert meet the sea. The largest dune, called Dune 7 because it is seven kilometers from Walvis Bay, is 156 meters high.  It is a place of recreation for the locals.  They climb up the sand and then run back down.  The sand is so hot from the sun.

 

To the north the German colonial town of Swakopmund gives insight into the region’s past.

 

Next we head out to sea for three days to a small island in the Atlantic called Saint Helena.

Dune 7-Where people come to climb the hill

Rent-a-Camel instead of a car!

Flamingos

Namib Desert

 

 

 

 

 

CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

APRIL 1-2, 2014

 

Cape Town is truly a beautiful city. It is built at the very tip of Africa where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean.  Its backdrop is unusual shaped volcanic mountains, one called table top.  It has a very flat top and several times a day the clouds come down and lay over the top and the people say the table cloth is now on it. Within the 50 kilometer radius that makes up Cape Town today there are four million people living there.

 

A Portuguese navigator came around the Cape in 1488.  The Cape is not a natural harbor so there was not an interest to colonize until 1652 the Dutch decided to colonize. The Dutch East India Company conscripted laborers from their Javanese colony to help work the vineyards they planted.  Soon this area was a growing port town, with immigrant from France, Portugal and Southeast Asia along with local Khoi people. The British eventually took control in 1806.  In 1834 they banned slavery when it was banned in England. After that diamonds were discovered and a period of unrest began including the Boer Wars in the nineteenth and early 20^th centuries. 

The period of Apartheid period started in 1948 when the National Party wrote into law that blacks and whites could not live in the same section, they could not marry except other blacks, and they couldn’t be educated. They had separated rules for colored which were mixed blood people. They could have a modest education. Blacks had to carry documents on their person that had all their information about them.  If they did not have it, they were arrested and might never return. The next 50 years were terrible years for blacks but there were four men that were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by their efforts to show the world that people should not be treated differently because of the color of their skin. The first one was Albert Luthuli 1960. He worked for equal education for all. Second one was Archbishop Desmond Tutu 1984, he not only spoke from the pulpit about equality, and he also put himself in harm’s way to save lives. The last two were co-recipients in 1993: F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.  deKlerk had been President of South Africa for only nine months when the riots were so bad he saw no way but to free Nelson Mandela and the political prisoners. Mandela had been in prison on Robben Island 27 years.  Then de Klerk and Mandela worked on a Reconciliation plan for South Africa. South Africa is healing and they are getting the peace they deserve.

Cape Town Harbor

Tabletop Mountain with tablecloth in the background

Plaque in District 6 where 60,000,000 blacks were moved out of town in 1960's

Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years

Bronze statues of Peace Prize Winners

Leaving Cape Town

 

 

 

 

 

 

ON THE HIGH SEAS

ON THE HIGH SEAS

MARCH 28-APRIL 2, 2014

 

When we sailed from Durban, South Africa we learned we had some dignitaries come aboard. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and one of the world’s foremost human rights activists.  Traveling with the Archbishop were his wife, Leah, their daughter and son-in-law, the Archbishop’s sister, and Mrs. Tutu’s brother.

 

Also, joining us was Mr. Stein Kruse and wife Linda Kruse. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Holland America Group, a division of Carnival Corporation & plc that includes Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Seabourn, as well as Holland America-Princess Alaska land operations.

 

Also, joining the ship from Durban to Cape Town was Mr. Arnold Donald, President and CEO of Holland America Line’s parent company, Carnival Corporation & plc.

 

Archbishop Tutu is the recipient of several distinguished awards.  He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986, The Pacem in Terris Award in 1987, the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999, the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007 and the United States’ Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

 

He spent a 90 minute session with us being interviewed by Robert V. Taylor, President of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation in New York.  They sat on the stage in two easy chairs, Tutu in slacks and a sweater, and just talked. He has such a sense of humor and he laughs and giggles. He is very straight forward in his answers but you can see the love of the Lord in everything he says.  One can understand how he could teach a whole nation and then the world that all men are created equal.

On Sunday morning, March 30, 2014, Archbishop Tutu held a church service for us. It was a very meaningful service and Tom and I had the privilege of being served communion by him. It was a time we will never forget.

 

Mr. Stein Kruse had delivered to everyone’s cabin a big book called TUTU that was put together by Tutu’s daughter and published just two years ago for his 80^th birthday. In reading it you can understand about apartheid and all that he and Nelson Mandela did to change things in South Africa. 

Archbishop Tutu before church

Preparing Communion

Serving Communion