After a very delayed and near sleepless first 24 h trying to get from rainy San Francisco to our Oceania ship VISTA in Miami we then had a more relaxing 48 hrs at sea cruising at 18 knots down the windward eastern Caribbean past Bahamas, Virgin Islands, and finally to the volcanic French West Indies, just past St. Maarten and into the protected cove of Gustavia, capital of St. Barts (St. Barthélemy).
St. Barth is the undisputed most exclusive and high-end hideout of the world’s celebrities and billionaire super yacht owners.
We tendered in eager to explore this exclusive enclave and then hopped into a dive boat to go snorkeling off deserted rocks in a local marine reserve.
Connie stayed on the boat as she was feeling a cold coming on. The water was very clear and wonderfully refreshing, and in addition to the usual colorful reef fish in the shallows, out further and deeper (20-30 ft) you could see schools of meter-long barracudas, and a little further out two meter long tarpons - which I don’t recall ever seeing while snorkeling or diving before in the Caribbean.
Back on land, Connie and I then walked about Gustavia’s high end Parisian-like stores and then back along the docks to admire the wall-to-wall 120-190 ft super yachts, looking up and reading about their billionaire owners (eg. check out Skyfall on www.superyachtfan.com).
Tomorrow morning early we dock in Dominica - very lush and mountainous and at the extreme opposite economic spectrum as St. Barts, but a destination for nature lovers and extreme sport/survivor fanatics.
Day 5
Our docking (Jan 10) at Roseau, capital of Dominica, involved a most interesting excursion- a 90 min drive over this French colonized island’s range of 9 active volcanoes and into a protected eastern area where most of the remaining 5,000 Caribe inhabitants reside, never conquered or completely eliminated, but now preferring to live their old ways and self-referred to as “Kalingos.”
After visiting Jack Falls (this island has 365 rivers and waterfalls everywhere), we approached the Atlantic side of the island for 90 min of “relaxed” tubing down the Pagua River – thru a mix of rapids and calm pools that left us wet and refreshed after a lot of fun “bumping” off rocks, bushes and other tubers with only one tuber getting spilled – not Connie – but needing rescue because of the shallow fast water and very slippery bottom rocks.
After tubing concluded just before connecting with the Atlantic ocean and, after climbing out of the river with some difficulty, with my sampling a Kalingo snack and a small bottle of a delicious Kalingo-brewed rum-sorrel (local plant) chaser. After our 90 min van ride on the winding mountain road back to the ship we arrived just before VISTA’s departure from Roseau, heading toward the easternmost West Indies island that sits not on the Caribbean plate but on the subducting Atlantic plate: Barbados. 
Day 6
At 7am the next day, we arose early at the dock of Bridgetown, capital of Barbados, a tourist favorite among Caribbean islands, British occupied for ~400 years. We caught two short bus rides to our sailing catamaran docked further north for our half day coastal excursion including 3 different offshore stops for snorkeling and swimming.
Connie chatted with another couple while I jumped in and saw green turtles, very large tarpons, and another “first” for me: a large “batfish” crawling across the sandy bottom. These creatures, related to angler fish who walk with their enlarged fins (but are poor swimmers) are definitely bizarre (see Google image – sorry now that I didn’t bring my underwater camera).
After a delicious “Bajan” lunch (including grilled Marlin) washed down by another tall coconut rum drink, we returned to VISTA to clean up and dress for our 6:30 French dinner appointment at Jacques (one of 4 specialty restaurants on VISTA), where we shared our table with a new acquaintance, Ruth, 4 years retired from the US Foreign Service and travelling solo, who entertained us with interesting stories of her background and many different foreign postings around the world.
Tonight, we head further south and east, leaving the Caribbean and out into the Atlantic, where we’ll lose another hour and enjoy another “sea day” (day 7) as we head toward South America and French Guiana’s Devil’s Island (day 8) - the French penal colony made famous by Alfred Dreyfus’s Papillon (and the movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman).
Day 8
Tuesday Jan 13 (day 8) we arose for a leisurely breakfast and saw by our GPS (MAPS.ME) that we’d come to within 20 miles of French Guiana near Kourou and the coastal site of the Guiana Space Centre (“Europe’s Spaceport”) and were rapidly approaching the three virtually uninhabited and lushly volcanic Salvation Islands (Devil’s, Royale, St. Joseph), only 9 miles off the coast from the capital Cayenne. Unfortunately, it was still raining and rolling (in 3 meter swells) this morning – as it had been all night long – so we couldn’t see much through the mist and rain (usual rainfall here in January is ~10 inches) until we got to the position where the ship was supposed to throw anchor and launch the tenders. At 10am the captain made the sad announcement that sea conditions were too poor to safely tender into Royale Island where we had hoped to spend the day hiking the island, seeing the penal colony ruins and observing all the local wildlife (monkeys, birds, marine life). The captain said it would be another day at sea and we’d be continuing toward the north coast of Brazil and port of Belém, where the Amazon River enters the Atlantic Ocean.
After tubing concluded just before connecting with the Atlantic ocean and, after climbing out of the river with some difficulty, with my sampling a Kalingo snack and a small bottle of a delicious Kalingo-brewed rum-sorrel (local plant) chaser. After our 90 min van ride on the winding mountain road back to the ship we arrived just before VISTA’s departure from Roseau, heading toward the easternmost West Indies island that sits not on the Caribbean plate but on the subducting Atlantic plate: Barbados. 
Connie chatted with another couple while I jumped in and saw green turtles, very large tarpons, and another “first” for me: a large “batfish” crawling across the sandy bottom. These creatures, related to angler fish who walk with their enlarged fins (but are poor swimmers) are definitely bizarre (see Google image – sorry now that I didn’t bring my underwater camera). 
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