Working Together in Prosperity

Article by Ross Pays

If you missed the last few articles we have been on the Carnival Victory Cruise ship for a few days after a week on the island of Barbados. In the Eastern Caribbean, as well as Barbados where we joined the cruise, we have so far been to St Lucia, Antigua and St Kitts all of which have been intriguing and beautiful in different ways.  When we rejoined the ship In St Kitts, after our day tour, we soon realised that the next day St Juan, Puerto Rico, was going to be different. To start with we already knew that it was where most of the passengers had joined the ship and where most would be departing.

Waiting in our cabin was a summons to attend a special briefing on the next day, now every night there had been a briefing that passengers could either attend in person or watch on the in cabin CCTV but now for all passengers that had boarded in Barbados this was essential apparently. Puerto Rico is a self governing commonwealth in association with the United States. Its Head of State is the President of the United States and it controls its own internal affairs including the internal revenue code with the US controlling pretty much everything else including defence etc. It is not a US state and the population cannot vote in the Presidential elections, the currency is the US dollar and the flag is a Star and Stripes - as apposed to the 50 Stars and Stripes.  The population is basically of Spanish (Hispanic) descent unlike the other Caribbean Islands we had visited and also unlike any other island it is very crowded with 3.9 million people on less than 9000 sq km, of which 60% is mountainous Puerto Rico is just behind Bangladesh, The Maldives, Barbados, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in populations density – and another 2 million plus live in the US!

What was going to matter most to us though was the American connection! Entry into Puerto Rico is controlled by American immigration and homeland security which means that getting off at Puerto Rico involves the same requirements as visiting the US, you need a biometric passport and a visa and you must complete the online pre-arrival form – be sure to check out your country specific requirements first. We also learned that unlike our other ports of call we HAD to pass through immigration and customs and we HAD to go ashore to allow the ship to be cleared.

Now we could see that this might not be funny as another 2600 passengers were getting off at the end of their cruise but we struck lucky again and with our transit stickers slapped on our shirts we sailed through the checks in less than 15 minutes –which was lucky for us because the queue of disembarking passengers going though customs and immigration looked pretty daunting – they had started 2 hours before us and it looked like they were going to be another few hours standing in line – and these were people with American passports!  We learned a TOP Tip –never board or disembark an American cruise at an American port – when we returned to the ship we walked smartly on board through the transit entrance while the check in queue made the first day opening of Terminal 5 look like a picnic in the park.    

There had been a number of tours on offer but this time we decided to go it alone and a short walk outside the terminal there is an information desk and from there a number of free tour buses operate that will take you around the city of San Juan. Just stepping ashore it is immediately obvious that San Juan is unlike any of the other ports of call. It is a modern city modern roads, modern buildings and crowded. One small problem is that with a dozen or so huge cruise ships in port the queue for the buses was as bad as the immigration queue!

So plan ‘B’ was one we have used a good many times before and go to the cab rank – look for a bored driver and work out a deal for a private tour. As we have so often found, it is a good plan and this was no exception, sitting half asleep in his Cadillac people carrier, Yankees baseball cap in snooze position, we did our deal with Ernie who turned out to be a New York escapee who had decided that a more relaxed life style in the Caribbean was more to his liking and had moved to Puerto Rico ten years before.

For 70$ Ernie was prepared to take us on a four hour trip around the city with full commentary – pretty good deal we thought when the cruise ship tour would have been 50$ each in an overcrowded minibus.    The island has huge areas of rain forest but we only had time to visit the main town of San Juan known as “La Ciuda Amurallada” the walled city and the original settlement was in 1508. The next year the original position was abandoned and moved to the current site which is still known as Old San Juan the second oldest European founded city in the Caribbean after San Domingo in 1498. Old San Juan is a 465-year-old neighbourhood originally conceived as a military stronghold. Its 7-square-block area has evolved into a charming residential and commercial district. The streets here are paved with cobbles of adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships and time and moisture have lent them their characteristic colour.

The city is awash with plazas and there are five separate forts and a melange of different architecture styles although predominantly Spanish. The city has a plethora of restaurants but seemed to be mainly a version of the Italian/French/Chinese that any city has to offer along with the usual selection of fast food outlets. We eventually managed to break into Ernie’s non stop New York running commentary drawl and ask about local food restaurants of which he informed us there were maybe two in the city which served the nearest think to a local dish which was a kind of spicy jambalaya –and what was more he didn’t recommend it so we decided to return to the ship for dinner. The check in queue snaked back and forth through the departure hall while we sauntered back through the transit lounge – this was good stuff!

In the morning we arrived at St Thomas Island –just around the corner as it were unusually the skies were overcast and threatening. The cruise line knew their business and St Thomas as a next port of call was a good plan because as another US governed territory we did not need to go through all the immigration procedures again. Like most of the Caribbean, St. Thomas Island was first settled by South American natives. The Taino Indians were on St. Thomas island when Christopher Columbus reached what would become the US and British Virgin Islands in 1493. Columbus' observation of the area's many curving quays prompted him to name St. Thomas Island and the others after Ursula and her 11,000 virgins.

The Spanish didn't stay long leaving it sparsely defended allowing a mix of European settlers to stake claim there throughout the seventeenth century. Along with its neighbours St. John and St. Croix, St Thomas was bought by the Danish government in 1733 from the Danish West India Company. As its soil was poor St. Thomas became a bustling economic port through which the rest of the Caribbean were traded, and was renowned for its easily accessible harbour of Charlotte Amalie. Because Denmark remained neutral during many European conflicts, St. Thomas flourished. A prosperous merchant class grew during this time, a legacy that remains on St. Thomas Island in the form of its well-developed shipyards.

St. Thomas remained under Danish rule until 1917, when it was bought as a precaution by an American government that was fearful of German infiltration in the Caribbean during World War I. The names of St. John, St. Croix, and St. Thomas Island were kept but, from that point on, they were known collectively as the US Virgin Islands. There is still a strong Danish influence to be seen in the architecture of the island. One of the greatest idiosyncrasies is to be seen on the roads where although most of the vehicles are of American origin with steering wheels on the left the traffic on the island drives on the left as in the UK and Cyprus!

Just where we dock there are a quite attractive group of shops and cafes much nicer than those normally found in a docks area and a collection of modified 4x4s  that seat anything up to 20 people in rows take tourists around the sights. For the first time since we had been on the cruise the skies looked threatening so we strolled the few hundred yards to the cable car which takes you 700 feet above sea level to the most spectacular views on the island. At the top of the ride there are a number of gift shops (great prices to pick up your highly coloured scarves and skirts and some shirts to outshine the sun) and a café as well as a great fun parrot show. Close to the bottom of the cable car is a butterfly park also well worth a visit but for us, just as we reached the bottom, the first spots of heavy duty rain hit us and by the time we scurried to the ship the skies opened up.

According to the guidebook there was a lot more to see apparently including Bluebeard's Castle & Frederiksberg local stories state that the structure was built by the pirate Bluebeard for his love Mercedita, however this is no more than a story. The Danes actually built the stone tower around 1689 as a supplementary watchtower to aid the defences of Fort . Drake's Seat where British privateer Sir Francis Drake, commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I, is said to have used the spot to spy on enemy ships of the Spanish Fleet passing through what is now called Drake's Passage. You can pull off the road and enjoy the same view from this lookout point. There is actually a bench on the spot... thus the name Drake's seat.

Tillett Gardens once an old Danish farm. While it has been largely changed in order to incorporate present uses; it is one of the few old farm buildings on St. Thomas that is open to the public. It was transformed into a centre for local artists and performers by Jim Tillett, an English silkscreen artist, who arrived on St. Thomas in 1959.

Frenchtown is located about a half-mile southwest of Charlotte Amalie. It is popular with tourists and locals for its restaurants and bars. Frenchtown was settled by immigrants from the French Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy in the late 1800's through mid-1900's. Many of the men were fishermen and so the area became a fishing village and is still today. In the early morning you can watch fishermen coming in with their small fishing boats, or cleaning and selling their catches from the jetties and from the Quetel Fish Market. Many of the older French people still speak Creole, a French dialect. In the middle of Frenchtown is a hill crowned by St. Ann's Catholic Church.

We settled for a quiet afternoon watching TV in between the odd rest of eyelids while the rain lashed down outside. With our second to last dinner on board we dressed to the nines for the “elegant” choice lost a few dollars in the casino and took in the show which was headed up by an American comedian whose “jokes’ seemed to consist mainly of insulting the audience and all ethnic minorities – must have got something right though because the rest of the audience found it all hilarious. The funniest it seems was the “don’t you hate it when you go to the can and there’s no paper” . I guess we were missing something.

Finally our last stop before returning to Barbados, Dominica, breakfast in cabin –well silly not to – still trying to get the jokes. As we looked from the cabin window we could see a very busy main street running alongside the harbour, brightly coloured awnings and stalls running the length. Encouraged by our finding our own tour in Puerto Rico we decided to try it again. The ship was offering a tour for 100$ a head so when we got down to the taxi rank an offer of 75$ a head seemd like a bargain –until that is we were ushered to a rickety minibus that not only had seen better days but was already packed with other tourists –we politely declined and a little further away found Mr Prince Smith (yes that was his name really) in just as rickety a minibus but offering us a three hour tour for 50$ a head in splendid roomy luxury - only the two of us in a ten seater bus – much more like it!

Dominica (pronounced Dom-in-eek-a) sits midway along the Eastern Caribbean archipelago, just a few miles from Martinique to the south and Guadeloupe to the north. The island's official name is the Commonwealth of Dominica, which is mostly referenced in official communiqué and to distinguish the island from its northerly Caribbean sister, the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Carib Indians named the island Waitukubuli which means "tall is her body".

The island is thinly populated with around 70,000 people inhabiting its 289.5 square miles. A significant portion of the population lives in and around the capital city, Roseau. Dominica is unspoiled nature. Tropical forest coats two thirds of the island, with 1,200 plant species. Rivers, lakes, streams, and waterfalls abound, fed by the islands high annual rainfall. Its volcanic origins are plain from extensive geothermal activity above and below sea level. From the ship we could see plumes of smoke rising all over the island which we found were not fires but the result of the surface volcanic activity..

The island is one of only a couple in the Caribbean still with populations of the pre-Columbian Carib Indians. About 80% of the population is Roman Catholic.  English is the official language, spoken with a melodic French lilt, but a large portion of the population speaks Kwèyòl (Creole), with a few northern villages speaking Kokoy. As soon as we left the dock the roads detriorated rapidly and Prince Smith negotiatied his way around some pretty serious pot holes that looked as if they could burst into volcanic activity themselves. 

The interior of the island is virtually all unspoiled with just occasional settlements so many flowers and different shrubs many of which were very recognizable as the house plants that can be seen in our European homes.  We stopped several times at sulphur springs and spectacular waterfalls. Those with more time can spend spa days in hot springs and mud and as with all the islands snorkeling, diving and all manner of water sorts are on offer. But our time was up and back on the ship we leaned over the rail for the last departure – not really quite sure if we were glad or sorry to be on our way back home to family friends and our adopted home of Cyprus.

It had been quite an adventure.

Barbados (Part 1 of the Caribbean Odyssey) - Click Here to view the article.

Caribbean Continued (Part 2 of the Caribbean Odyssey) - Click Here to view the article.

Caribbean Continued (Part 3 of the Caribbean Odyssey) - Click Here to view the article.

Ross Pays is the Chairman of The FAA based in Cyprus. FAA offer advice on wills, tax registration services, home, health and car insurance and tax planning, including Inheritance Tax Planning, together with full accounting services.

Visit Ross Pays website at www.rosspays.com, Telephone 00 357 25 82 58 76, Fax 00 357 25 33 35 93 or e-mail ross@rosspays.com
Initial consultations are free and no obligation and fee quotations will be provided in advance for all services.