This is from yesterday:

October 27th

Sunday we were in Samana again, where I just went off very briefly to get some free internet at a local restaurant. 

On Monday we went to Tortolla Island, which is one of the British Virgin Islands. Since it is a bigger and wealthier place were were able to dock right at a pier instead of having to take tender boats, which made it much less of a headache going ashore.

Compared to Samana, Tortolla quite a wealthy island, and it obviously gets a lot of tourism. It is situated in a beautiful cove of a small valley surrounded by mountains lush with greenery, and the water is a piercing shade of blue. Immediately outside the ship is a row of vendor stalls selling clothing, souvenirs, jewelery, sunglasses, hats, and various other accessories at inflated tourist prices.  As you kept walking in you approached a main street which is full principally of clothing stores. Tortolla is under Britain's jurisdiction but nonetheless it uses the american dollar for it's local currency. One of the principal clues that it is under British rule is that people drive on the left side of the street there, which is surprisingly disorienting. Tortolla, like most of the islands in the Carribean, has a history that is very much entwined with the slave trade, and as such a vast majority of the locals are descendants of African slaves, with an extremely small minority of white people who's principal role seems to be to run a few English style restaurants for tourist appeal. My overall opinion of Tortolla as a tourist was that it's greatest asset is it's natural beauty, cleanliness of the city and a some interesting looking buildings. However, it is quite a small town with pretty limited retail outlets, and I found it to be eerily empty of pedestrians relative to every other Caribbean port. A more positive way of looking at it is that it is less of a tourist trap and has other means of making money.

Next, on Tuesday, we were in Antigua. While not having quite the same degree of natural beauty as Tortolla, Antigua is a much bigger and denser town, filled with shops of very kind. The streets are narrow and bustling with pedestrians which I always find comforting in a place. I found it to be most reminiscent of Coracao as far as the layout of the city. It is clearly too intriguing a place to take in one short visit so after walking around for a little under an hour I settled down for a Pina Colada and some free wifi usage. It will be an interesting port to explore each week. My main criticism of Antigua is that it is surprisingly expensive, but I expect that if you know where to look you can find most things, and if you are patient and walk further in I wouldn't be surprised to find some much better prices.

Today (Wednesday), we were in Barbados. Barbados I believe is the most well developed country in the Caribbean, and one of the largest. We docked in Bridgetown which is it's capital, which is an extremely popular cruise ship destination. As such, the port is large and a little bit removed from the downtown core. Still, it is a pleasurable 20 minute waterfront walk into town and if you go just a little bit further there is a beautiful scenic beach overlooked by restaurant patios. I went to one, The Boat Yard, which is the local hangout area for crew, with a 5$ admission which includes a drink, access to their waterfront facilities, internet access, and a shuttle back to the ship afterwards. In the future I intend to do some biking around Barbados to so as to see further into the downtown area. 

After going into Barbados I came back and played a jazz set with the ship's comedian as well as our Tina Turner Tribute set. It was rock knight for the ship's cover band who were playing outside by the pool, so I checked that out for awhile before coming down to get some food and do some writing.

Tomorrow we are in St. Kitt, which is the final port of the nine day cruise, before we make our two day journey back into Miami. The showband will be supporting a guest singer tomorrow night for two shows in the Stardust Theatre, so that will be nice to look at some fresh material.