Around the World Again

Reunion Island – March 27, 2018

Where? Not a very commonly known island. I had never heard of it until a piece of flight 370 washed up on the shore a year or so ago. We were not scheduled to come here originally but when a form of plague hit Madagascar, HAL cancelled our stop there and added Reunion. Reunion is French and English is not widely understood (unlike almost every other place we have been).

I chose a 4.5 hour excursion called “West Coast and St. Gilles”. St. Gilles is a seaside (mostly resort) town. We started with a trip to the Sailor’s Cemetery. The two most famous people buried there are a French poet (Leconte de Lisle) and a pirate (Olivier Levasseur) - neither of whom I had ever heard of.

We continued on to St. Gilles and the aquarium. We were there with dozens of kids under 5. After looking through the aquarium (it was not big) we had some free time and I sat with some friends and had a cold Coke.

Our final stop was supposed to go to an exposed reef called Roches Noire for a swim but the beach had been closed due to numerous shark sightings. Instead we went to a lagoon area that was shark free. Being a French beach there were some people in skimpy bathing suits (or less). The water felt wonderful and was crystal clear – you could see the bottom clearly even when it was four or five feet deep. There was lots of coral so I was glad I had brought my water shoes (first time I have used them on this cruise). We had about 45 minutes and I spent it all in the water. Luckily, the weather stayed sunny although there were black clouds approaching (our weather forecast had been for a 90% chance of rain and only 72F [it was at least 15 degrees warmer, however]).

My plan had been to return to the ship and sit by the pool and swim some but the black clouds settled over us and we even got at least one rain shower. So instead, I had lunch, started a new book and went to 3:30 trivia. Since I was the only one from “The Bridesmaids”, I played with Dorothy’s team and met two of my blog readers. There were only a handful of teams and we tied for first place with 13 out of 17.

1)In what country would you find 8 of the 10 tallest mountains in the world?

2)What species of fish is also known as kippers?

3)In what year did the Tour de France begin?

4)What was the first hormone to be identified?

5)Which poet’s love “was like a red, red rose”?

After trivia I headed to the Lido pool area where they had set up for tonight’s sail-away in order to get a seat. There are a number of special events going on since the head of Holland America (Orlando Ashford) is onboard for a few days. This sail-away offered free drinks along with appetizers. The Station Band (that usually plays in the Crow’s Nest) played the music. The place was packed.

Bev and Mary joined me and we tried various appetizers. Most of you know I seldom have anything stronger than a Coke but I had not one, not two, not three, but four margaritas over the course of the hour and a half. Good I didn’t have to drive!

Only five of us at dinner. I had fruit, orange-ginger pork, and more fruit with a scoop of sorbet for dessert.

The show was four singers from South Africa called “Cul’Afrika”.

We gain an hour tonight and there is no water aerobics tomorrow so I am sleeping late!

From my deck…