So. Caribbean Cruise Trip review

As most of you know K and I went to the Southern Caribbean for a 7 day cruise. We travelled with 27 other couples who were all LDS. It was great to travel with people who share the same beliefs as us.

We spent 2 days in San Juan Puerto Rico and visited the two Forts there. They are very fasinating and take a few hours to explore. We passed by the leper colony,which is still in use and they don't like any outsiders in their city. Saturday evening we boarded the ship and woke up Sunday in St. Thomas, we did some snorkelling and snailing around the island. Monday we woke up in St. Maarteen and to the news of President Hinkley's passing. Our group had a humanitarian project planned for that day and thought it very fitting that we should be doing service on that day. We visited an orphanage and school for mentally and physically disabled children. It was quite humbling to see these sweet children who had been abandon who aside from needing alot of care and supervision, really needed love. Sadly for whatever reason their parent(s) were not able to give it to them and so they end up in facilities like this one. The leader of the Orphanage had never had anyone visit and offer assistance in any way and was amazed at our desire to visit and the generous gifts that our group pitched in an bought for the kids. It was an emotional experience. From there we went to the LDS Branch building on the island and helped the missionaires and locals paint their church and the walls around it's grounds. With our large group we were able to accomplish this amzaing task in three hours. The branch members were so grateful and generous and fed us more food than we could eat. I have never felt the spirit so strong before in my life, as I did that day. It was an amazing day.

After St. Maarten we sailed to Antigua, here a group of us took taxi's to Long Bay on the other side of the island. We snorkled, played Ultimate Frisbee in the water and generally just relaxed on the beach for the afternoon.

Wednesday we were on St. Lucia, most of the group were scheduled for a tour of the island via van. We stopped for photos of the views, tried local fruits and foods and had an amazing lunch overlooking Soufrire near the Pitons. We visited a waterfall and the caldera of the Volcano where there are hotpots and later boarded a Catamaran and travelled back to the ship. Along the way we stopped to do a little snorkelling. This was a long, but very fun day.

Thursday we arrived in Barbados and K and I went scuba diving with the Moyles and Tom. The first dive was a wreck dive, 5 different wrecks all in the same area. I freaked out a little an it took some time to get down, but I eventually made it and got to enjoy diving around the wrecks. The rest of the group actuallly went through some of the old boats which was neat. I opted out of the second dive, but the rest of the group say a sting ray, turle, eels and lots of fish.

Friday was a day at sea in route back to San Juan. We enjoyed the ship a bit, ate alot of food of course and made many new friends. All in all a great trip, we were very happy to come home of course and see our sweet children. Maybe in a few years they'll be old enough to take with us on such and adventure, or not.

Hope you enjoy the slide shows below.