I almost forgot. This is the ceramic tile I did on the cruise. I’ve taken to trying to figure out my own logo for the cruises, and I decided to go with the basics for this one. I figured I was bound to see parrots and monkeys and lizards and rum, and bingo! I got that right. So hooray for craftsmanship.

Other last thoughts before leaving the islands:

Pirates — It didn’t even occur to me that you could look into the pirate history on almost any one of the islands we visited. Somehow I always thought pirate action must’ve happened in a different hemisphere from whatever one I’m in. Somewhere where a unit of exchange might conceivably be a doubloon. Portugal, probably. But anyway, I’m wrong. A guide told us that the highest point in San Juan was used to keep an eye on the port in case Captain Morgan thought he’d come into town to do some frolicking. Yes, that Captain Morgan. And by the way, there was a Blackbeard the Pirate as well, though he sounds like a bit of a thickie. Ate gunpowder with his breakfast because he thought it would make him tough — ended up making him insane. (More reading here for those pirate fans.)

What’s in a name? — It only occurred to me recently that I’d been hearing the name West Indies bandied about on the trip. And a quick Wikipedia search reveals that yes, that whole region can be called that. And that name hearkens back to the whole enormous mistake Columbus and others made, thinking that in finding the New World, they had found a shortcut to the real hot property of the time — the East Indies. In fact, looking at how the East Indies was divvied up by Spain, France, England and the Netherlands makes it obvious that the game just moved to a new venue when the Caribbean islands were colonized. Good grief, these guys must’ve thought a lot of their indigo, cotten and spices. They discovered a whole hemisphere they didn’t know about, and all they could figure out to do for the first century or two was fight over who got to plant paprika first. (Or whatever. What spices were they on about anyway? There’s something for another Wikipedia search.) By the way, you could also call this area the Antilles, but I’m not likely to do that because it sounds like a silly word.

Okay, that’s it. I think I can leave off now.