Blue Papaya Trip Report - Final
Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 2:28 pm
Part 8 Tues Nov. 16th - Travel day again. We had checked at the ferry dock the night before and found out that the downtown ferry was finally running. We got up, quickly had some coffee and each person had to fend for themself for breakfast. I finished off the rest of the jello shots because........well, why waste them??? Plus I rationalized that it would work like cough syrup since I now sounded like I was trying to cough up a lung.
We got everything packed into the rental cars, made the last stop at the dumpsters and stopped at the ferry dock to drop things off before returning the cars. We took turns watching our mountain of luggage and everyone scurried around doing last minute shopping. I stopped in at St. John Spice to pick up some Pineapple Pizzaz and other trinkets. I wanted to introduce myself to Ruth and had considered getting her to document our walk of woe. She was busy unpacking a shipment of goods in the store so I was in luck. I stepped up to say hello and could barely croak out a few words before I went into a paroxysm of coughing (unlike the guy on the plane I used a tissue to protect the innocent). Poor Ruth took one look and slowly backed away from me as though I had consumption or the plague - I can't say that I blamed her because the combination of fever, sunburn, humidity and abject misery had me sorta wild-haired and looking like I had been on a three day bender in Tijuana. She was kind enough to ask me how my week had been from the safety of the other side of the counter even though it was pretty obvious that it hadn't been my best week health-wise. Oh well, there's always next time to document our walk of woe for posterity. Maybe next time Ruth will actually be able to understand what I'm saying to her.
The weather was the best that it had been the entire week as we ferried to Charlotte Amalie. Damn, why does the sky have to be SO blue and the water SO calm on the day that we leave??!! I kept my eyes glued to the rock as long as I could but I eventually had to turn around and face the reality that we were pulling into Charlotte Amalie. We got off the ferry and headed off in the direction of the Visitor's Center to park our luggage there so we could shop for a few hours before heading to the airport. One of the taxi drivers at the dock tried telling us that the Visitor's Center didn't watch luggage anymore and offered a special price to watch our luggage and drive us to the airport later. I hadn't seen anything on this forum mentioning that the Visitor's Center had discontinued their service so we called Rachel who told us that wasn't true. We made arrangments for Rachel to pick us up later and proceeded on to the Visitor's Center leaving the guilty taxi driver shouting at us as we crossed the street. Take note fellow Forumites - don't fall for that scam. The Visitor's Center will place your luggage in a backroom and watch it for a nominal fee. Plus the nice ladies working there will call a reliable taxi driver for you.
It always seems to be 20 degrees hotter in Charlotte Amalie than Cruz Bay and I didn't feel well enough to deal with the plethora of jewelry stores so a few of us decided to have a leisurely lunch at Calico Jacks and then head across the alley to hit the Belgian Chocolate shop. Hubby and I sat in there for a while enjoying the air conditioning. We walked up and down a few of the Gades and giggled at a sign offering free husband parking for the ladies hitting the jewelry stores. That was clever! We ducked into Coconuts to grab something cold to drink and Hubby was happy to find a bunch of Green Bay Packer memorabilia hanging on the wall so he had to write a note on a dollar bill and staple it there with the others. That bar had all sorts of interesting things hanging from the walls and the ceiling!
Rachel showed up right on time and we shoehorned everything and everyone into her van again for the ride to the airport. We found out that her birthday had been the day before (same as Brad's) and that she had turned 69 years young. She sent each of us off with a big smile and a warm hug and we told her we'd see her next time. We'll be sure to bring her some country music CDs for her van.
We sailed through customs because I had picked up the forms when we landed and they were already filled out. Everything was going smoothly until one woman in our party got pulled aside because her boarding pass said "Betty" and her passport said "Elizabeth" - apparently it's not known in the Caribbean that Betty is a nickname for Elizabeth. Nor was it known that she had flown back and forth the prior two years without this being questioned. We must have found the only cranky TSA agent in the Caribbean that day - she insisted that Betty go back to the check-in counter and get another boarding pass that said Elizabeth. Being the dutiful citizen that she is, Betty did just that but they couldn't reprint her boarding pass so they simply crossed out "Betty" and wrote "Elizabeth" on the original. I'm not sure exactly how that's supposed to deter a terrorist attack but it did satisfy the cranky TSA agent because she got through the second time. In the meantime, her husband had been frustrated and verbally protesting and must have looked like a dangerousmiddle aged Italian-American terrorist because he was taken aside to enjoy one of the new pat-downs that included all of his bits and pieces. He thinks he might now be engaged to at least one very large Caribbean man who now knows him "in the biblical sense". After all that it time for another drink in the airport bar!!
We made it home safely and actually a little early - not bad when you're getting there after midnight and exhausted. I'm STILL hoping that the coughing man on our outbound flight is suffering from locusts, painful boils and other forms of pestilence since I wound up on antibiotics, steroids, an inhaler and codeine before I recovered about three weeks later. When someone asks what I brought home from vacation this year I just tell them "Don't ask!!". Even with being sick, rainy weather and limited snorkeling this trip I'm STILL checking the webcam and researching for my next trip. I told Hubby that I'm entitled to a "do over". That's only fair, right? Only next time I think I'll take the window seat.......and wear a mask.
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We got everything packed into the rental cars, made the last stop at the dumpsters and stopped at the ferry dock to drop things off before returning the cars. We took turns watching our mountain of luggage and everyone scurried around doing last minute shopping. I stopped in at St. John Spice to pick up some Pineapple Pizzaz and other trinkets. I wanted to introduce myself to Ruth and had considered getting her to document our walk of woe. She was busy unpacking a shipment of goods in the store so I was in luck. I stepped up to say hello and could barely croak out a few words before I went into a paroxysm of coughing (unlike the guy on the plane I used a tissue to protect the innocent). Poor Ruth took one look and slowly backed away from me as though I had consumption or the plague - I can't say that I blamed her because the combination of fever, sunburn, humidity and abject misery had me sorta wild-haired and looking like I had been on a three day bender in Tijuana. She was kind enough to ask me how my week had been from the safety of the other side of the counter even though it was pretty obvious that it hadn't been my best week health-wise. Oh well, there's always next time to document our walk of woe for posterity. Maybe next time Ruth will actually be able to understand what I'm saying to her.
The weather was the best that it had been the entire week as we ferried to Charlotte Amalie. Damn, why does the sky have to be SO blue and the water SO calm on the day that we leave??!! I kept my eyes glued to the rock as long as I could but I eventually had to turn around and face the reality that we were pulling into Charlotte Amalie. We got off the ferry and headed off in the direction of the Visitor's Center to park our luggage there so we could shop for a few hours before heading to the airport. One of the taxi drivers at the dock tried telling us that the Visitor's Center didn't watch luggage anymore and offered a special price to watch our luggage and drive us to the airport later. I hadn't seen anything on this forum mentioning that the Visitor's Center had discontinued their service so we called Rachel who told us that wasn't true. We made arrangments for Rachel to pick us up later and proceeded on to the Visitor's Center leaving the guilty taxi driver shouting at us as we crossed the street. Take note fellow Forumites - don't fall for that scam. The Visitor's Center will place your luggage in a backroom and watch it for a nominal fee. Plus the nice ladies working there will call a reliable taxi driver for you.
It always seems to be 20 degrees hotter in Charlotte Amalie than Cruz Bay and I didn't feel well enough to deal with the plethora of jewelry stores so a few of us decided to have a leisurely lunch at Calico Jacks and then head across the alley to hit the Belgian Chocolate shop. Hubby and I sat in there for a while enjoying the air conditioning. We walked up and down a few of the Gades and giggled at a sign offering free husband parking for the ladies hitting the jewelry stores. That was clever! We ducked into Coconuts to grab something cold to drink and Hubby was happy to find a bunch of Green Bay Packer memorabilia hanging on the wall so he had to write a note on a dollar bill and staple it there with the others. That bar had all sorts of interesting things hanging from the walls and the ceiling!
Rachel showed up right on time and we shoehorned everything and everyone into her van again for the ride to the airport. We found out that her birthday had been the day before (same as Brad's) and that she had turned 69 years young. She sent each of us off with a big smile and a warm hug and we told her we'd see her next time. We'll be sure to bring her some country music CDs for her van.
We sailed through customs because I had picked up the forms when we landed and they were already filled out. Everything was going smoothly until one woman in our party got pulled aside because her boarding pass said "Betty" and her passport said "Elizabeth" - apparently it's not known in the Caribbean that Betty is a nickname for Elizabeth. Nor was it known that she had flown back and forth the prior two years without this being questioned. We must have found the only cranky TSA agent in the Caribbean that day - she insisted that Betty go back to the check-in counter and get another boarding pass that said Elizabeth. Being the dutiful citizen that she is, Betty did just that but they couldn't reprint her boarding pass so they simply crossed out "Betty" and wrote "Elizabeth" on the original. I'm not sure exactly how that's supposed to deter a terrorist attack but it did satisfy the cranky TSA agent because she got through the second time. In the meantime, her husband had been frustrated and verbally protesting and must have looked like a dangerousmiddle aged Italian-American terrorist because he was taken aside to enjoy one of the new pat-downs that included all of his bits and pieces. He thinks he might now be engaged to at least one very large Caribbean man who now knows him "in the biblical sense". After all that it time for another drink in the airport bar!!
We made it home safely and actually a little early - not bad when you're getting there after midnight and exhausted. I'm STILL hoping that the coughing man on our outbound flight is suffering from locusts, painful boils and other forms of pestilence since I wound up on antibiotics, steroids, an inhaler and codeine before I recovered about three weeks later. When someone asks what I brought home from vacation this year I just tell them "Don't ask!!". Even with being sick, rainy weather and limited snorkeling this trip I'm STILL checking the webcam and researching for my next trip. I told Hubby that I'm entitled to a "do over". That's only fair, right? Only next time I think I'll take the window seat.......and wear a mask.
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Until next time, cheers!