lounge, float, repeat…
this is the life…
the early knocking woke me up so i rushed to the door to open it- aaah, room service breakfast! around 8:30 or so, we got up, had some breakfast of granola, breads, coffee and yogurt and then opened the veranda doors to see the ship slowly circle around to set it’s anchor at our 4th and final stop: labadee, hispaniola.
a peninsula of haiti, labadee is a small portion of the island privately owned by royal caribbean. set aside only for cruisers, this stop was full of just what we wanted- sun, beaches, lounge chairs, free lunch, and floating mats. as opposed to the other places we stopped in, labadee was the perfect end; no planning of where to go or what to do was necessary. no need for fast taxis or crammed water tenders, just step off into paradise.
after putting our suits on and gathering our towels, books, and sunscreen, we made our way down the stairs to the tender station. minor problem…we were faced with yet another monstrous line. oh, you mean we weren’t the only ones on the cruise ship wanting to get off here? we found the end of the line, which wrapped around itself a few times around one deck, but luckily, since the tender boats fit a ton of people, the line moved swiftly.
we landed on the island and were bombarded with photographers (cruiseline photographers mind you…we are no celebrities!). forced to go through a narrow passage with a camera at every angle, we slipped, snuck and dodged through without a single photo taken of us. woot! we approached the out of scale, cartoonish map and decided to explore “dragon’s breath point.” at the very tip of the island, there is a series of rocks and crevices and with each wave, the air and water create a hissing sound as they fill and empty certain fissures in the rock. we leaned over the edge and heard the looming dragon, breathing closely below…..eeck! a few photos later we were headed back towards the beach to find ourselves the perfect lounging spot.
with the help of some attendants, we had two perfect lounge chairs in the perfect spot. nestled on a ledge between some building ruins behind and the rest of the beach in front, we had the perfect amount of shade to keep us from boiling and burning in the sun. (i didn’t realize at the time that i would be craving that shade by the end of the day!) once we were settled the day went like this:
1. lounge on our chairs while we people watch, relax, snooze….
2. grab our floating mats and sunbathe in the water while we people watch, relax, snooze….
3. come back to the chairs and repeat multiple times!
to make it interesting we threw in a few wildcards ever so often: we grabbed some bbq lunch, sipped some fruity drinks in a souvenir cup, and perused the nearby “flea market,” a market of 40 or so booths of junk, each booth with the same junk as the other: tshirts, weird paintings, carved wood sticks, straw bags, and other dust collectors. we figured we had to at least go in to experience the hounding of the locals trying to get you to just look in their booth, and just maybe there’d be a diamond in the rough…nope. after continuously saying “no thanks” as we walked through we made it out the other end, laughing at the entire scene, with the same amount of money in our pockets. i guess we are both too cynical to get into the goofy souvenir stuff.
around 3 or so, wil finally dragged me out of the water to get us to go back onto the boat. salty, sweaty and sticky we landed back in our room to take some long showers and freshen up. while wil showered i sat on the veranda, taking inventory of my sunburn. although i lathered myself with 30 before going out in the morning, as well as re-applied midday, i was fried. i burned all over the place, and even in places that i didn’t know could burn!!! the tops of my feet, the tops of my hands, the tops of my elbows, and my knee caps of all places! luckily large areas like my back and shoulders were spared, but i guess tanning in a booth before doesn’t tan those odd sides and joints too well. of course, wil didn’t burn whatsoever….he just looks even more handsome than before with his browned face and arms. but, maybe that’s because i spent a third time out in the water sitting on my mat for a long time, while he sat in the shade….
after our showers we sat on our veranda and both smoked a cigar while the boat loosened the anchor and began to set sail away from labadee back to new jersey. upon putting out our cigars and me setting my book down, we got ready and grabbed an elevator to the dining room. a few courses later, we found some spare time on our hands. so where would a newlywed couple go when they’ve got a few extra moments? come on, get your head out of the toilet…we went to the casino!!! wil, excited to play hold ‘em once more, was eager to get in there and try again, but there was not a single person at that table to play. to waste about a half hour, we snuck in and watched the latter half of the headline show. after sitting through a few cheesy magic acts we came back to the casino. no players…still. this time we just walked around the promenade and wasted another half hour. back to the casino for a third attempt…no players. wil still determined to play, led me back to the theatre, where we watched the beginning half of the headline show (the second showing) to waste another half hour. the table just wasn’t there when we came back the last time, since most people were i think either at dinner or at the show. i guess it just wasn’t his luck that night. so, tired and worn out from wasting so much time we ended up just walking around the casino.we watched roulette, watched an addicted maniac guy playing with thousands of dollars at the black jack table (i think he played non stop every night!), and tried to watch and understand craps.
a long night of nothing led us back to the room, where wil coaxed me to sit outside and enjoy the warm sea air on our veranda to get me out of my tired and cranky mood of walking no where all night in heels, before heading to bed. it worked, and no we are off to sleep, ready to face our day onboard tomorrow as we are at sea all day!
