In the Caribbean with Crystal Serenity

This is the last of my travels this year. Now a much needed stay in the UK. Having said that, I will probably be off to Isle of Lewis in January.

The cruise was a lovely relaxing holiday with my friend Amanda. I can not recommend Crystal Cruises enough. It is worth the extra money. The service was excellent and great not to have to shell out on all those extras. Except for alcohol and the photos, I didn't pay for anything. I rarely go to the entertainment on other ships but on Crystal it was like being at a West End show. A good time was had by all. Not much on the islands we visited, Grand Turk, St Barts, St Maarten and Aruba but the Panama Canal was definitely a highlight. I have tried not to put too many of the canal - I have several. The photos do not do it justice. As Amanda said "You are in a great sea then you are in a canal, then a lake, a canal then back in a great sea again." The birdlife and animals were magnificent but unfortunately no commentary on the identity of them. Hope you enjoy the photos which I still haven't managed to be able to put with the words!

A view of the pristine promonade deck when docked at Grand Turk



Amanda and I snorkled in the rocky seas just off this cay then relaxed on the beach by the ship. Red makes his first appearance. The conch weather forecast was useful!

If it's wet - it's raining
If it's swaying - it's windy
If it's hot - it's sunny
If it's cool -it's overcast
If it's white - it's snowing!
If it's missing - Hurricane

St Barts was the most picturesque of the island harbours (we only ventured further in Aruba, where it rained!).


This Scottie dog had a collar with "Harley Davidson" written on it. Delusions of grandeur, maybe, as a bit of his owner's bike is in the photo. Managed to snap a picture of Kirsten, our splendid waitress with a fellow colleague from South Africa. I loved the picturesque background to the ATM, hence the snap.






Next stop at St Maartens where the serious shopping happened. Finally found a Harley Davidson for the bike fans. I found the cat, lizard hunting. He put up with me trying to stroke him but gave me a look as if to say 'Look, can't you see I am working'.





A few scenic shots of St Maarten which I took while Amanda was having her hair braided. The lizard came out and posed for me.






Red wanted to pose in front of the print I bought.





A quick tour around a wet Aruba - had to take the sad donkey trying to shelter from the wet stuff. I was pleased I had bought a waterproof camera so was able to take the 'hammerhead shark' rock and the little church in the rain. The green lizard did not want to pose as he strode purposely away from me.

Finally managed to get a photo of the many pelicans flying over the ship. There were frigates too and white tropic birds but I had better photos in the Galapagos section. One too of a glamorous Amanda sipping a rum punch.


A lovely picture of Dr Martin Lee and Emily Lee, the tai chi instructors. I learnt a lot from them and have been practising tai chi. Check out their tai chi exercises on a free video on http://hprc.stanford.edu

Ship going into canal, Ship coming out. Lots of pics of these mules - so called because it used to be mules doing the job.





A few scenes, both on and off the ship.





If you look closely at the grey spit of land in the photo you should spot one of the two cayman I saw in the canal. (The photo should near the end of the blog even though I wrote this beside it). The brown things with long tails are coatis.



The last two photos are of Bridge of Americas and Panama City in the evening.