October 30 and 31

Wednesday, October 30

Today at sea was pretty much like the first 2 days of the cruise except that, in the early morning we turned south between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico and moved from the Atlantic into the Caribbean. In the afternoon there were several birds ... not seagulls ... flying with us dining on the flying fish that our passage stirred up. I am really enjoying our balcony on these sea days.

Thursday, October 31

Up very, very early as we arrived at Curacao and tied up to the new pier. Mark's tour to some caves to see Arawak petroglyphs went at 7:45, and my tour of an ostrich farm went at 8:45. The weather was rainy off and on, and many who walked to town or went on other tours got soaked, including Mark. My tour got some rain while en route to and from the ostrich farm, but only a few drips while there and out of the bus. (Thanks, Jill, the weather magic is still working wherever you are.) Our driver/guide, Kenneth, kept thanking us for bringing the rain as our present to the island. Having been there before and seen it with no rain, I can sympathize with him.

This ostrich farm has hundreds of ostriches, a few emus just to show people the difference, and lots of other animals that wear feathers including peacocks, several sizes and varieties of parrots, guinea fowl, turkeys, several fancy breeds of chickens, etc. Beyond birds, they have an assortment of other animals like regular pigs, pot-bellied pigs, Barbados sheep which look rather like goats because they don't grow wool, some goats also, and three alligators who are the butcher shop's clean-up team. All very eco-friendly as they use every part of the ostrich for food, feathers, leather, and even the bones are eventually used by a local craftsperson. They took us around in safari trucks with hard, narrow seats and zero knee room. Our young guide was very knowledgeable. But in the end, I've got to say that a wet ostrich is definitely the poster child for the word "bedraggled."

Back on board, I located Mark and went for a quick bite to eat. We then camped in one of our favorite bars near the ship's central atrium until some highly amplified activity started up several levels down. Meanwhile the ship set sail for Grand Cayman which we should reach on Saturday after another day at sea.

As it is Halloween, there were a few people wandering about the ship today wearing t-shirts with pumpkin or ghost faces on them. There is quite a display of carved pumpkins in the atrium. As Mark said, "If you can carve a watermelon, you can carve a pumpkin." Supposedly there is a costume party tonight after dinner. It would have been nice to know that ahead of time. Ah well ...

And yes, there were costumes galore on both staff and passengers! After another really fun dinner where the group swapped brain teasers that I only hope I can remember, Mark and I went to the Halloween costume party and dance with Rob and Leah. We had a great time watching all those in costume and the judging. They even had a category called "What th'...?" for ones that required a lot of explanation. There were some great ones, but my favorite was a pair of folks dressed as pieces of candy corn that won the "Home-made" category. Or maybe the "Group" category winners who were "Zombie Passengers on a Carnival Cruise." The music was excellent, rock and roll things that even I knew most of the words to.