We woke up this morning as the ship was coming to a stop in Labadee (or as Bob says, Labardee). We heard a comedian on Monday night who made fun of Boston accents, how the 'R' is dropped. He said you couldn't be a pirate if you were from Boston, because you wouldn't be able to say "AARRR". Anyway, I thought it was a beach off of Haiti, but the ship calls it Hispaniola. I guess that is another name for Haiti? I would look it up online now, but the price of internet access on the ship is highway robbery, or should I say high seas robbery?

I seem to be settling into a routine in the mornings - going online to download email, signing off to read and reply to emails, and write more in our travel blog, and then signing back on to send everything and upload the files.

I worked out in the fitness center this morning while Bob walked on the track outside with lots of other people. When I first got on, the man on my right was from Scotland, and had a cast on his right arm. He had been in a car accident, and was misdiagnosed originally, and ended up having to go back into the hospital a few days later for surgery to put some screws a week ago. He wasn't sure he was going to make it on the trip. The woman on my right was from Westford, MA, practically the next town over from Concord, and she works at Emerson Hospital as a nurse. Small world! Then a new guy got on the elliptical trainer on my right, - he was on antibiotics for a year after getting an infection after open heart surgery. So there we are talking about infections, hospitals, surgery, etc, and Bob walks by every few minutes, since we were facing out the window to the track. Everyone seems to know who Bob is because of his cast. And is this middle age cruising or what? Everyone on this ship has a health-related war story.

There are no activites to do here in Labadee that are DRY, everything is a water activity, so we took the boat over to sit on the beach. It was really hot, so we sat in the shade. Many people went to jetski in the cove, and go to the water park. This panorama didn't turn out well, but you get the idea!

We were provided with a barbeque lunch under a a couple of large thatched canopies. At lunch, we sat with a couple, probably in their 70's, who sit with us at dinner. Earl and Marlis lived in Wisconsin, but have retired to Florida, near Cape Canavaral. We were talking about the gambling on the ship. Earl told us that they gamble all the time at home, and that in the last 19 months, his wife has made 43,000 on the slot machines! She gets her money from the casino in the gift card of their choice. They often choose Walmart, because Walmart has a travel department, and that is how they paid for this trip. She has hit a few of the slots here on the ship, and has made some money here too. She didn't admit to having a method, but wow, she has certainly been successful. Bob told them it was a good thing we don't know their last name, because he thinks you can get a reward turning in people who are cheating on their taxes!

After lunch, we visited the flea market. The Haitians manning the booths were like flies on honey, it was so annoying. They pretty much grab you and won't let go. I did manage to buy a tank top and a metal painted salamader to hang on the wall though. Several booths had masks made out of wood, which were very interesting to see.

Here is a photo of the cove from the beach as we were waiting to take the boat back to the ship. The ship seems so huge, it just dwarfs the cove, although it is not nearly as big as many of the cruise ships out there. It has to be narrow enough to get through the Panama Canal. We found out last night that there are about 2200 passengers, 1500 from the USA and the rest from 30 other countries. And there are about 800+ staff on the ship.


We are thinking about skipping dinner in the dining room and will eat in the cafe, where there is always food being served. I have never seen so much food served all day long, which is the norm on the cruise ships. We are trying hard not to eat too much, or at least hit the work out center to work it all off!
Tomorrow we are at sea again, getting to Aruba, which is very close to South America.



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