At sea between Barbados and Devil's Island, French Guiana: I have to say that I enjoyed Barbados, but it is less prosperous looking than Trinidad. We had an excellent guide, whose specialty is photography.
We were informed that Barbados is the only significant Caribbean island that is not volcanic. It has mountains - big hills really - but no peaks. It's the result of upthrust as two continental plates come together.
We learned about "chattel" houses, houses designed to be disassembled, loaded on a truck and taken elsewhere to be reassembled. These were built on plantation land owned by the big land owner and when that owner needed the land, the more-or-less squatters had to move on, taking their dwelling with them.
We also learned a poem which contains the recipe for rum punch.
One sour,
Two sweet,
Three strong, and
Four weak.
Translation: 1 measure of lime juice, 2 measures of simple syrup, 3 measures of rum, and 4 measures of fruit juice, orange for example. Add several dashes of Angostura bitters and store in the refrigerator overnight or longer, several days is ideal. We sampled the result - it is excellent, smooth and tasty, with a kick.
On another topic entirely, the U.S. just finished an extremely consequential election. We elected a controversial man as our next president. You would expect much political talk aboard our cruise ship, at least two-thirds of the passengers are U.S. citizens. You would, however, be wrong.
In a week on board, I've heard no political discussion on deck or over dinner. I suspect we all fear the topic would pierce the superficial geniality which is the behavioral norm on such ships.
It is known to the group at dinner that we are retired university faculty. They may suppose we are as liberal as most such, a supposition which would be incorrect.
President-elect Trump is the elephant in our table's conversational room, entirely unmentioned. I find this amusing, as does the other DrC. On our last night at sea, I may bring it up just to see if I've gotten the players on each team identified correctly.
