Day 5- St. Kitts

Greetings from warm St. Kitts! Today was the day for our sole excursion on the trip, a 4-5 hour hike through the rain forest. We woke up extra excited (and extra tired for me, since I accidentally slept for 90 minutes after yesterday's walking) and extra early. We headed off the boat and Maureen was accosted by a 6' (fake) parakeet looking thing. Apparently Royal Caribbean thinks that guests would like to get their pictures taken with a big fake human-mascot bird that has nothing to do with the island. And, they had a "Jamacian" stand where you could get your picture taken too. I don't get it- do people at Royal Caribbean know that we're not going to Jamacia? Should I start steering the ship?

Maureen escaped the bird and we got into line for our excursion- where I immediately started counting fanny packs again.

"1...2....3-4-5... holy crap, that's a double decker one!"

We got onto a bus with our tour guide, who took us to the rain forest and botanical gardens. On the drive, the tour guide stopped and let a guy with a monkey onto the van. A. Monkey. Guess who got to hold said monkey?? YESSSSS.

The drive continued and we made it to the botanical gardens and met with the rest of our group under a 400-year old Selmon (pronounced "salmon" like the fish) tree. We walked through the rain forest, learning about natural remedies such as teas that cured everything from neck pain to teething children. We also got to walk *across* the natural spring water multiple times to get to the other side of the forest. My favorite part was the ficus tree. This huge, "Communication Tree" was almost hollowed out and curled around most of the river. You could stand inside of the tree (well, kind of - the tree was more wrapped around you) and see everything.

The trip ended with a "small snack" of ginger beer spiked with the island's local CLR rum, some fresh coconut, and some fresh raisin and coconut bread. Then, the rain hit. We were stormed on pretty hard for the next 10 minutes- thankfully the storm didn't hit while we were walking through the forest- it would have made the rocks that much more slippery!

"Is that ANOTHER fanny pack?? And he's wearing a UM hat? Ohh, poor guy must've dressed himself in the dark."

We returned to the ship for lunch and dry clothes, then went back onto the island to enjoy a drink at a local bar- with free Wi-Fi :-)

Current fanny pack count- 15-- and we're only at 3:30 (local time)....

Oh, and I started counting our steps for each day, just to see how many we've taken. Today we're already at 8760. About 2000 = 1 mile, so we're doing pretty well. Guess that means that I can have an extra dessert tonight...!