Saltfish and goat and okra oh my!

Saint Thomas! Today, we have a two hour walking tour called the Tasting and Cultural tour. We were told to be at the Ft. Christian entrance for a 10:00 tour, and to be 15 minutes early. We figured it was about a 40 minute walk, and I had google map printouts of the route. So at about 9am we left the ship. It was very hot, so we opted to take the shared taxi to downtown. It was 4.00 each. So, everything I googled and printed said Ft. Christian. I told the taxi service I wanted the Courthouse. No idea why I did that. I'm sure the driver was surprised why anyone would want to go there.

When we got there, we checked the voucher and then realized it was Ft. Christian. Fortunately we were 20 minutes early. We asked at the Courthouse they said to turn right and it was the big red building a block away. Needless to say, we arrived in plenty of time.

Just before 10, Gerard, our guide arrived. Turned out we were the only two people on the tour today, so we set out. The tour was a tasting and cultural tour of the downtown area. We learned about the US purchase of the Virgin Islands, how Charlotte Amalie was built up, slave revolts and other fun facts. We visited a tea shop for hibiscus tea, saltfish quiche and a small salad. The next stop was for Rum Cake at a bakery owned by a nonprofit that helps at risk kids get job training. They opened a very good back for those kids to work at. Next stop was Gladys's cafe - a well known cafe featuring local favorites - a conch fritter, a cornmeal and okra mix and callaloo soup. Beth pointed out that there was a Cosby episode about Callaloo soup. Our final food stop was at a place called Cuzzins, where we were served goat stew, rice and beans and a plantain. The plantain was the best I've ever had. We finished the tour at a bar, and were served a bushwacker a local drink with about 5 kinds of liquor in it. Google it for a recipe.

Following that, we decided to see the building where Camile Pressaro, the father of modern impressionism was born. It turns out, while it's called the Pressaro building, it's pretty much retail with a lawyer and doctors office. There is a plaque indicating that's where he was born, but that's about it. After that, we went to the synagogue - the oldest in North America, and one of three with a sand floor. They have a small museum and we learned a bit about it's history. Pressaro's family were members back in the 19th century.

We also went to a craft shop run by a retired english teacher, and Beth bought a Moko Jumbie for her doll collection (that's a Carnivale stilt walker). I also bought a pair of earrings with a local stone. After that, we decided to head back to the ship. Our guide had told us that to get a shared cab back, we should cross the main street on the beach (they drive British side but with American left side drive, driver in the weeds) and find an indent in the road. I thought we were at a taxi stop, because it said Taxi parking only, but Beth thought it wasn't indented enough. An open air taxi stopped, but by the time we asked how much, he drove on because the light changed. About 5 minutes later a closed van taxi came by, and told us it was 4.00 each back. He told us to hurry in, so we did and back to the port we went.

It was a zoo when we got to the port, probably because the Allure of Seas (nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Seas by some of us when it was new) and it was dumping over 5000 people. It had been docked for a couple of hours, but I suspect that people had lunch and then left. An hour later it was quiet again.

We didn't want lunch, so went to Cafe Bacio for coffee, and then sailaway. After that, we didn't do much until dinner.

It was great going back to our regular table for dinner. The dinner was the usual good, and featured the menu we thought we'd have the prior night. All was well in the food world. We enjoyed our dinner, and pretty much closed out the dining room. We wanted to keep the conversation going, so we decided to go to the sky lounge up on deck 14. Once we got there we discovered it was Latin Night with the DJ and impossibly loud. So we decided to move to the Ensemble lounge on deck 5. Back down we went. We ordered drinks, and then a subset of the orchestra, the jazz ensemble, started playing jazz loudly. Too loud to talk, so decided the library would be good. The library is on the 10th floor, and opens up to the atrium. There was a party going on in the atrium and the music was very loud, and carried up all floors. That wasn't going to work. Finally we settled on going outside to the back of the ship. We found a table, chatted for a while and finally around midnight called it a night. Quick facetime to Glen and then bed.