November 25, 2024
Guadeloupe - today we went for a chill day on the beach!
We were in a taxi van headed to St Anne's area from the port and our driver wanted to pick up more people to fill the van. The 2 we added were Robert and Fred from our ship, who were going to a hotel to use a day pass they offered - 60 Euro for use of beach pool and facilities and it included hot & cold buffet lunch with cocktails. Hotel was lovely when we pulled up and secluded beach & pool lovely - so we changed plans and joined in. Robert, who is a wealth investor in our Ship, ended up paying for all 6 of us and we had a very nice day just relaxing. Rod, Fred & Robert bonded over cars and music discussions. Us ladies just chilled! A good day!
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Got to love a place that sells shirts saying " Where the heck is Yap? " Colonia ( population 3,100 ) is the Capital and Harbor town of Yap State ( population 11,600 ) one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. We are in the Pacific Ocean or Philippine Sea just north of the equator, Papua New Guinea and Australia.
Ternate, Indonesia, which is both the name of the city and island, and is part of the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia. It is a port that sees maybe 3 Cruise ships a year. However, they really made an effort to show us the best of what they can offer. It's mainly a Muslim country, and we knew we had to dress discretely, but we knew little else. We didn't have our typical port talk prior, due to a technical issue with the AV equipment. Ben a fellow resident, organized an island tour, with about 8 stops, for 90 of us residents.
Cebu greeted our Ship with a big warm welcome, despite having just been rocked by a major Earthquake, days before our arrival. The Minister of Tourism arrived with a motorcade and she proceeded to chat with the residents and thank us, for all our support.