Bermuda and my Birthday

Two days off, an overnight in Bermuda, no work, and one quiet night when there is no show.  Yippee!!!!  And, today is my birthday.  

We anchored at Hamilton Bermuda, which is located off the Carolina coast.  There isn't much to this 21 square miles atoll that is shaped like a fishhook.  Over 95% of the land is developed with a population of 65,000 residents, making this one very crowded place.  There are over 400 recorded shipwrecks around the island -- ooohhhh, the dreaded Bermuda Triangle ( Michael bought a souvenir t-shirt of this).  First settled in 1609, it offers a unique blend of British tradition and colorful island charm.  Decorative pastel homes are perched upon the limestone hills that only top 250 feet, many of them lovingly restored to their former glory.  The old homes were built with many windows for ventilation, and limestone roof tops were terraced in order to collect rainfall as there is no water on the island.  The climate is tropical, and the national flower is mildew -- hahaha.  

There are numerous bays and inlets, perfect for idling away a sunny afternoon.  Mangroves abound.  And here is a piece of trivia for you:  one parrot fish produces one ton of sand a year (that's its poop).  It is a protected fish here.  Bermuda is know for its pink sand beaches, which I never got to see.  

There is only one export from Bermuda, and that is Gosslin Rum.  The big business here is the reinsurance business.  Everything here, including water, is imported.  Tariffs on imports is skyhigh, with a 100% tax on cars. Thus, living here is extremely expensive.  Due to inadequate roads, families are only allowed on car.  With the import tax on cars, who can afford more than one anyway?  There are some very old and wealthy families here, dating from the early 1800s.  Gas is $8.50 per gallon, so you see a lot of motorscooters.  

I escorted an excursion by boat around The Great Sound.   It was partly cloudy and the air was quite pleasant and it wasn't too humid (thank goodness).  We took a local ferry from the ship to town as ship tenders were not allowed.  This was approximately a 45 minutes ride.  I saw Michael on shore and I waved to him, noticing that there were no packages in his hands.  A girl can hope for a little bauble for her birthday, can't she?  He had gone over to town earlier as he did not have a tour.   I'll forgive him as I guess a Mediterranean cruise is a pretty nice deal.  

We spent two hours viewing some beautiful homes and pretty aqua water.  And that's about it.  Here is a picture of one of the nice houses we saw.  Notice the roof that is used for collecting water.

The pictures I will be using in this blog will be pretty low resolution as I don't have unlimited internet, and it is very slow.  I will replace them when I get home.  As I write this, sitting in my cabin, I am listenig to the drummer banging away.  sigh....

I didn't have time to walk around town as we had dinner reservations at the Prego restaurant on the ship so I immediately returned and dressed for dinner.  We have met some very nice and interesting people on board, so the cocktail hour was enjoyable.  It seems as though people do read the Reflections newsletter; my name was listed today under the birthday wishes column.  Many people came up to me and wished me a happy birthday.  

We had a very nice Italian dinner with Barry and Christine.  They arranged for a birthday cake, and the entire restaurant sang happy birthday.  What a nice way to end the day.