May 19, 2005

TIMES TRAVELS

Caribbean cruises offer bounty of activities

By Mike Cleary
Times Columnist

Yes, we were the odd pair standing in front of Continental arrivals at SFO happily hugging the humidity-free, crisp night air that welcomed us home.

We’d just flown in from San Jose, Costa Rica. That country’s port city, Caldera, was the last stop on an 11-day cruise that started in Fort Lauderdale with day-long stops in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antigua and Aruba, culminating with a nine-hour commute through the Panama Canal.

While we had a splendid time from start to finish, we were nevertheless thrilled to finally say good-bye to the hot, heavy and oppressively humid air of the Caribbean. The region produces a first-rate mugginess that fogs up your sunglasses when you step outside. This weather condition invited a number of “our humidity is worse than your humidity” stories from guests who hail from everywhere except, obviously, Northern California.

The Caribbean Sea is almost completely landlocked, either by the coasts of the major continents and the 7,000 islands that surround it. Cuba at 43,000 square miles is the biggest kid on the block.

Some piece of coral barely scratching the water’s surface in the Lesser Antilles is, perhaps, the smallest. Tiny as that may seem, it would not surprise me to find a Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren or Diamonds International store on its main shopping street. They were on all four of the islands we visited. Duty-free is the password in these here parts.

Christopher Columbus, thinking he had reached Asia, called his island discoveries the West Indies. In what my friend, Kirk Frederick, says is probably the first tourist letter written from the Caribbean, Columbus wrote Queen Isabella, “I saw so many islands that I could hardly decide which to visit first.” He evidently made no mention of the humidity or the duty-free shops.

Antigua
Historians argue over where Columbus first set foot on Caribbean terra firma, but Antigua is thought to be one of the places. One beach for every day of the year can be found on this tranquil island.

One beach for every day of the year can be found on the tranquil island named Antigua.

Antigua is home to the naval installation at English Harbour Town established by Captain Horatio Nelson in 1784. It is now completely restored and definitely worth a visit. Just to give you an idea of what it was like to live under his command, they have free flogging demonstrations starting at noon each day. Of course, I am kidding.

It’s another Nelson who is to blame for a misconception I always had about the island. I can’t count the times I have played Nelson Riddle’s “Lisbon Antigua” on the radio. So, imagine my surprise when I learned that the island’s name is really pronounced an-TEE-guh and not an-TEE-gwa.

Snorkeling
St. Thomas was our first port of call. We anchored off Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands. We couldn’t dock because there were eight cruise ships in town that day, including the impressive looking Queen Mary 2.

Mary Ann and I signed up for a snorkeling adventure at Trunk Bay on St. John, a short ferry ride from St. Thomas. Two-thirds of the island belongs to the U.S. Virgin Islands National Park and Trunk Bay is considered one of the best places in the world to snorkel.

Our sign-up sheet for the excursion read limited participation. Obviously, the sign-up forms on the eight other ships must have said the same thing. Add it all up and by the time we arrived at the beach, it looked like the entire city of Chicago decided to go snorkeling that morning.

After seeing our fill of legs, arms and other anatomical features of our fellow species under water plus the occasional fish, we headed back to Cruz Bay and waited for the ferry at Margarita Phil’s where we dove into the biggest, deepest and best Margarita this side of Mexico.

There’s a lot to do in the Caribbean, from shopping to water sports. Toss in the many shipboard activities and you can stay pretty busy. That said, some of our most enjoyable moments were spent just looking at the marvelous blue waters of the Caribbean.

As a bonus, occasionally schools of dolphins performed playful aquatic shows for us or giant sea turtles swam by without a care in the world.

Mike Cleary hosts AM Monterey Bay weekday mornings on radio station KIDD, Magic63. Sundays at 6 p.m., he and his wife, Mary Ann, host Food and Travel Radio. He can be reached at mc@foodandtravelradio.com.