DECEMBER 28

Early this morning we docked in Greneda (West Indies) … the “spice island”. The capitol is St. George and that’s also where the docks are. Today Lois and I went our separate ways… she isn’t back yet from her Island tour. I chose to join up with a whale and dolphin spotting excursion that left right from the pier. Today is a rainy and pretty rough day on the water so I have to admit my tummy was a little unhappy with the 4 hour trip in a small boat. But the good news is that we saw lots of dolphins, tho’ no whales today. It rained on and off all morning which made for some pretty light when the sun peeked thru. I didn’t have a ton of success photographing the fast-moving dolphins but I’m including one photo just to give you an idea of what we saw. There were dozens of them all around our little boat and I think we were maybe 2 or 3 miles off shore.

Wait ’til you see the photos below of our little Semester-at-Sea ship docked next to this gigantic German ocean liner. Until today I thought the Explorer (our ship) was big but now I see we’re just little pip-squeaks on the sea!

It’s a short day for us here… we were allowed to go ashore beginning about 7:45 this morning but everyone has to be on board by 5 PM for a 6 PM departure. Next stop… Santarem on the Amazon Rive. I think we have about 2 1/2 days of sailing ahead of us now.

When we are at sea we are kept extremely busy (or as busy as you’d want to be) with all sorts of educational lectures (geography, ornithology, ethnology, etc.) plus meditation, Portuguese lessons, Bridge tournaments, 12-step meetings, Yoga, Art and Writing classes and, and, and… you get the idea. Before each port we get a “pre-port briefing” where we’re told a bit about what to expect, how to stay safe, what to try and what to avoid. It’s usually pretty informative and often pretty funny too when we hear some of the past experiences people have had.

So, today we say goodbye to the Caribbean and head towards South America!