So remember how in Grand Turk Kim’s Dad Jerry had swallowed sea water and had a panic? He went to the medical center on the ship to get checked over and they kept him there because they thought he’d had a heart attack! So that threw a spanner in the works. We were all back and forth to the medical center to sit with him and rotate eating, and bringing him clothes and stuff – the staff were really good and kind. It was agreed that he would be taken off the ship by ambulance at the next port which was San Juan but that he was stable. So Kim’s Mom stayed with him over night and Kim, her sister, her sister’s husband and I were all unsure of what to do as there wasn’t much we could do to help. We went to see the show for that night which was a Spanish themed dancing show and then had an early night.
The next day we sat around in a hospital in San Juan and Kim and I got paid back for every time we were frustrated that our patients at work couldn’t speak English because although San Juan is in Puerto Rico and is part of the USA hardly anyone could speak English. None of us could really speak much Spanish apart from the odd word here or there. The doctors in San Juan said they thought Jerry had had some kind of cardiac event but they couldn’t tell until they took him to the cardiac cath lab so he had to stay in San Juan for a week (spoiler alert – it turned out he didn’t have a heart attack and was completely fine so he missed out on the cruise for nothing, ugh!). Kim’s Mom stayed with her Dad in San Juan, luckily there was a hotel directly above the hospital (weird?) and we continued on with the cruise with Kim’s sister Jen and Jen’s husband Andrew as obviously everything had already been paid for very kindly by Kim’s parents.
It was evening time when we escaped the hospital and we had a nice walk around old San Juan and looked in a couple of shops.
Moaned about the irony of Kim’s parents booking a big family holiday that they then couldn’t go on.
And then headed back to the ship.
The next day we went to St Thomas which was a lovely island but it was ridiculously hot. So. Hot. We were booked on a tour excursion and we started out at a beautiful beach and had a swim. There were pelicans flying over the water (no one was excited about this except me!).
I spotted my style icon for when I am an old lady.
Next we went up a mountain top with a good view. We were transported around in these mini bus taxi things. Ours was called ‘best taxi’… it was decidedly not the best taxi. A white knuckle ride up and down jungle strewn hills with tight narrow forked turns where the driver would beep his horn to alert people he was coming at breakneck speed. I was packed in with a ton of Americans who were going “Oh my lord!” and a Texan saying “I think there’s smoke coming from your wheel?!” as I grabbed on to Kim so she didn’t fall out of the side on the bends.
Anyway, we all lived to tell the tale and got out at a duty free shop at the top of the mountain which claims to be home of the banana daiquiri.
So we got one, would be rude not to really.
And then went out to enjoy the view, drink in hand. “Make sure you stir it, it’s strong” said the lady who made them, so what did Kim do? Drank it without stirring of course, and was rewarded with a hefty dose of banana liqueur.
After that we looked around the market place and shops.
But it was the kind of heat where you’ll do anything to stand in the shade so we sat it out after a while and went back to the ship after a lemonade.
Back to our towel dinosaur.
hayleyiraina 