Day 67 - 12/12/23 - Scarborough, Trinidad & Tobago

 Angela's alarm at 7:15am woke me up and I could see we seemed to be a bit far at sea than I expected for an 8am arrival.  Eventually Jeremy came on the PA system and told us that there was a change in Pilots and the current Pilot had to fly from the other island early this morning and meet us.  Then as we approached the harbor, the ship rotated 180º and we backed into our berth which was very cool to watch.  We were about an hour late in docking so the Captain extended our day by sliding back the onboard time to 5:30pm.

The ship was pretty quickly cleared and after breakfast we headed off the ship.  Unfortunately I forgot my backpack, so I had to walk the length of the ship on the pier, reboard the ship, pick up my backpack and then exit the ship and walk the long pier back to the terminal building to meet up with Angela.  

Our plan for the day was to walk to the Botanical Garden located behind the KFC store.  We'd then walk around the town, get some lunch and then figure out what we would do with the rest of the day.  So we headed for the botanical garden passing through a little market where Angela found a replacement belt for $3.  We entered the botanical garden just as it started to rain.  Fortunately both of us had umbrellas and they became quite needed throughout the morning with the periodic rain showers, some of which were quite heavy.  

The garden is actually quite lovely and is well cared for.  We walked up to the gazebo at the top of the hill and enjoyed the vistas.  We then walked down through the garden looking for birds.  They were quite elusive until we reached the area near the entrance where we met up with some folks from the ship who had some pretty good pictures of birds.  The secret seemed to be to just sit down and wait for them.  That seemed to work and we observed a number of them including some hummingbirds that were too hard to photograph.  

Backing in









Yes they do race goats!

Interesting combination of events


Fort King George Mortar


Water cistern at the Fort



Leaving the park after spending well over an hour there, we walked the downtown area including the 3 story mall and found some lunch at a chicken place.  It was quite good and we happened to sit next to a couple from the ship who had fallen in love on the voyage.  It was sweet to hear their love story and then share ours.  We also had discussions about America (she's English and he's American) that got a bit intense but all was well.  They headed off to the garden while we continued our walk before ending back at the port.  We now know of at least two couples who have found each other on this ship.  Maybe the Zaandam is really the "LOVE BOAT".  With 73 days, there's definitely enough time for love to blossom.


At the port, Karen from the ship arrived in a van taxi gushing about how good the driver was on the little tour that they just took.  So I asked him if he could take the two of us a little loop tour to the other side of the island.  So for $40US, he agreed to do it.  And he (Too Sweet was his necklace name) was terrific and we enjoyed a couple hour tour to Fort James, Plymouth and more on the other side of the island.  Along the way I was able to photograph a number of birds and other things.  We even drove by one of Harrison Ford's houses and the golf course on which he plays. On the way back he took us to Fort King George which we visited 4 years ago.  We repeated some picture poses and enjoyed a nice view of the ship before he dropped us off at the main gate shortly after 5pm.  We cleared security in the Terminal building and I was the 10th person from the last to reboard.  9 people reboarded after me.  

We watched the sailaway and I had a nice chat on the railing with the Chief Engineer who is the husband of the Future Cruise Consultant.  We also decided to book a HAL excursion in the British West Indies stop on Friday 12/15/23. Up in the LIDO I showed my bird pictures to Dan and stumped him with 3 of them.  I then had a light dinner of chili corn chowder of 4 giant shrimp,  I think I have eaten shrimp for dinner at least 95% of the voyage.  

The evening entertainment was the Italian tenor, Luca Lattanzio, who was once again excellent.  We even stayed for the second show at 9pm which was pretty sparsely attended.  Afterwards we went to the 10:30pm feeding where I had a couple of BBQ drumsticks, green beans, two more shrimp, and some potato chips.

Tomorrow is Bridgetown, Barbados and the last tour I am responsible for will be there.  We have a small group of twelve.

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