Island Hopping in the Lands of Sea and Sun

 

I have always had reservations about cruises, because of their environmental impact and the way they enable tourists to take up space without contributing to local economies. Spoiler alert: I just went on a cruise.

 

A heron in St. Kitts. A local pointed it out 
and said with confidence, "That's a pelican."

Because competing with those reservations has always been my love for being on boats and my lifelong desire to visit the Caribbean. Plus, I didn’t want to go by myself. So my parents and I reached a compromise: we would take a cruise, but it would be on a small ship, to minimize the environmental and social impact on the places we visited. So a few weeks ago, we boarded the beautiful Wind Spirit (by Windstar) and set sail—literally!—for the windward islands of the Caribbean.

 

The Wind Spirit carries fewer than 150 passengers
and uses sails to reduce its fuel use.

The great irony of my obsession with the sea is that I’m not actually much of a beach person. For one thing, I burn like a lobster, even in the shade (which I did on the very first day). Second, I’m not a huge fan of being in the water: the shock of the cold, the push and pull of the surf, the squishy/poky/spiky things you step on. I did go for a swim a couple of times, but for the most part, I wanted to go to the Caribbean for the same reason I want to travel anywhere: to learn about another corner of the world.

So here’s a little of what I learned:

1. I love being on a ship under sail—as long as I have a steady supply of meclizine.

 

The view from our cabin, just above the water line.
The highest swells we got were about 8 feet, but
on a small ship, even that will toss you around a bit!

2. Nevis is the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, who was disappointingly very little like the character in the musical.

 

Our local guide proudly sang us the 
St. Kitts and Nevis national anthem at 
the foot of this symbol of colonialism.

3. You can, occasionally, find yourself practically alone on a Caribbean white-sand beach.

 

Pinney Beach on Nevis

Jolly Beach in Antigua. Antigua has 365 beaches,
one for every day of the year, so it's perhaps no
wonder that they're not always packed with people!

 4. The 180-degree rainbow does exist.

 

St. John's, Antigua. Featuring a tugboat.

5. The houses on Terre-de-Haut (Guadeloupe) open right onto the sea.

 

This adorable little town full of red-roofed houses
and golf carts would be a great place to have 
a writer’s retreat.

 

6. Hummingbirds like the Caribbean as much as tourists do!

 

Not a very clear picture, you say?
You're welcome to try to do better
with just a cell phone!

7. Dominica is less “white-sand beaches” and more “jungles and waterfalls.” Also, the current president is the first woman and the first Indigenous (Kaligano) person to hold that office.

 

Trafalgar Falls in Dominica. It's pronounced
"Domin-EE-ca," by the way. Our guide begged
us to stop confusing it with the Dominican Republic.

8. Hot spring changing rooms don’t bother to heat their showers; they figure you can warm up in the springs.

 

A sign at Tia's Hot Springs in Dominica.

9. The tiny island of Mayreau (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) is still recovering from Hurricane Beryl, which stripped the roofs off the houses and flattened the local church in 2024.

 

What's left of the Church of the
Immaculate Conception. 

9(b). But the local goats aren’t concerned.

Observe the look of bliss on the goat's face!

 

10. Martinique is the place to go for an honest history of colonization and slavery. La Savane des Esclaves, an open-air museum, is the brainchild of one remarkable man, Gilbert Larose, who decided in 2003 to tell the history of the Black and Indigenous inhabitants of Martinique. Without government funding, he built the museum from proceeds of books he wrote about Martinique history. Naturally, I bought one. You know me and books.

 

Romain, the enslaved man who spurred 
the riots that led to emancipation in 1848.

11. Barbados isn’t actually in the Caribbean. It’s a coral island, not part of the volcanic chain that formed its neighbors, and it’s technically in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

A Mushroom Rock in Bathsheba, Barbados. The rock 
has been carved into that shape by centuries of surf.

12. There is so much life on these islands! Human, plant, and animal—I couldn’t get over the vitality and beauty of these places. I hope to return to each of them someday, to spend more than just a few hours getting to know these remarkable islands and their remarkable people.

 

Visit the smaller towns. Buy the locally made souvenirs. 
Pay the local guides. It's more fun that way.

 

Also, wear sunscreen. Just make sure it's reef friendly!

Morocco: The Land of Sun and Sand?

 

Three years ago, I was lucky enough to spend New Years in Egypt with friends. This year, I got to do the same thing, with the same friends, but in Morocco! 

Jemaa el-Fnaa square in Marrakech

 

We saw beautiful cities, ate amazing meals, and had unforgettable experiences, but to avoid trying anyone’s patience, I’ll try to highlight just a few of them. (I should note, by the way, that almost everything I’m going to highlight is Old Stuff. Morocco has many perfectly modern cities full of things like grocery stores and gas stations, but who’s interested in gas stations? So get ready to see a post almost entirely dedicated to Old Stuff.)

Nod to New Stuff: Ketchup-flavored Pringles at, yes, a gas station

 

We started in Marrakech, where the streets of the medina (old town) are so narrow that the airport taxi has to drop you off outside, where you wait for a porter to come, throw your bags into a cart, and lead you through labyrinthine passageways (where motorbikes nevertheless manage to navigate) to your riad.

My porter leading me into the medina

Over the course of the trip, we saw more palaces, mosques, and madrasas (Quranic schools) than you can shake a fist at. Each was fascinating and unique, with hand-tiled mosaics, sculpted plaster, and carved cedar-wood ceilings.

Koutoubia Mosque (12th century), Marrakech; the square minaret is typical in Morocco

Jardin Secret (rebuilt 2008), Marrakech

Dar el Bacha (the pasha's house, 1910), Marrakech

Badi Palace (16th century), Marrakech

Bahia Palace (1860s), Marrakech

 

Cherratine Madrasa (17th century), Fes

Al Attarine Madrasa (14th century), Fes

Hassan II Mosque (1993), Casablanca

But the other unique aspect of our trip was that it rained. A lot. One local told us he hadn’t seen rain like this in ten years, and temps were fully ten degrees below normal. I had waterproofs and lots of layers, so no complaints from me, but I do have a lot of pictures of people with puff jackets and umbrellas!

A mule in the rain, Marrakech

My travel companions in the rain, Bahia Palace

Plus, almost every building is built with either the roof or a wall open to let in fresh air. Some of the windows in our riads didn’t have glass, just shutters. This is aesthetically charming and no doubt welcome in the sweltering summers, but it did make things a bit drafty in a cold spell!

Planks laid down on a flooded walkway at the Saadi tombs. Hopefully all the tourists practiced their balance beam footwork in gym class!

 

But a little rain wasn’t going to put a damper on our trip. We enjoyed the souks (markets) of Marrakech and Rabat…

A spice and oil shop in Rabat

More spices!

 

…marveled at the blue city of Chefchaouen…

Why is it blue, you ask? Answers vary. The most likely answer is that it attracts tourists!

Yes, I took a lot of pictures of cats.

Chefchaouen has souks as well!

…visited the workshops of craftsmen in Fes…

Mosaic tile workers

Coppersmiths

The (incredibly malodorous) tannery

Leather dyers

Weavers

 

…celebrated New Year at the Riad Fes…

As we all know from Doctor Who, "Fezes are cool."

…and then got off the beaten trail a bit. At Merzouga, we rode camels into the desert. This was purely for the fun of it, by the way: a 4x4 brought our luggage to the camp and could just have easily have taken us too. But we came to watch the sun set over the dunes of the Sahara. And we were not disappointed!

Camel, unimpressed by the Sahara

Sunset with camels!

Cards on the table, I am not a camper. The Golden Camp, where we stayed, was absolutely a glamping experience: full meal service, hot water, plumbing, electricity, even wifi! The only sign that we were sleeping in a tent and not a riad was the sound of the walls flapping in the night wind.

The only kind of tent I will voluntarily sleep in

The last day of our trip was a real highlight for a film buff like me. In Ouarzazate, we toured Atlas Studios, the largest film studio in Africa, where they filmed, among many others, the Mummy films (the Brendan Fraser ones), Gladiator, and Passion of the Christ.

A rare example of a tourist photo without tourists in it!

Presumably it was not this muddy when they filmed Passion of the Christ here

Then we visited Ait Ben Haddou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has also hosted the filming of everything from Gladiator II to Game of Thrones. Cities like this are probably what most people think of when they think of Morocco, and even though a majority of Moroccans now live in modern cities like Rabat, I was delighted to see such a beautiful site being inhabited and preserved. I was also delighted we had one of our few sunny days to enjoy the red brick colors!

Old city in the foreground, new city in the background

The gates of Ait Ben Haddou

 

For a complete change of scene, we then drove over the High Atlas Mountains, where the snow was up to our shins, and arrived that night back in Marrakech for our flight home in the morning.

The High Atlas Mountains 

Our last riad in Marrakech, and, coincidentally, the last picture I took on the trip.

So, yes, we got our sun and our sand, but we also got pretty much every other weather condition too. But that’s the fun of travel. I mean, everybody sees Morocco in the sunshine. How many people can say they saw it in a rainstorm?

 

No, I'm not posting pictures of me in my rain gear!