Caribbean Running Cruise Day 7 - Haiti Relays

Today was a GREAT day.

We could have slept in ... of course, getting so much sleep yesterday meant I woke up bright and early... and surprisingly bushy tailed.

We went upstairs to grab breakfast, but discovered this scene by the pool:

It seems the housekeeping staff got very busy (and advertised their towel animal class for the following day) by decorating the pool deck with dozens and dozens of towel animals.

We took advantage of the quiet morning to take some pictures of the pool area:

We especially loved the "H20Zone" -- the kids' splash area, which was usually empty, and was a great "post race" destination to cool off in.

We also made a stop in the hot tubs after breakfast -- did I mention that they're cantilevered off the edge of the ship?

Our briefing was at 9 -- but in a dining room, which made it difficult to hear and difficult to fit in the space. John was told he couldn't have a microphone -- so that we didn't disturb people dining on the other levels... so we *might* have made sure to CHEER LOUDLY on occasion....

It also meant it was a little rough to get off the boat early, and we crammed in with hoi polloi for 15 minutes or so.

We arrived in Labadee -- Royal Caribbean's "private paradise" on a small peninsula in Haiti.

Today we would be running a relay -- 2-4 miles each in teams of 2 ... but, more importantly, today we would be helping a great charity called Street Hearts.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

We found our meeting place, took our big group photo, and met Linsey, the founder of Street Hearts. She told us about how she moved to Haiti several years ago, and met young boys living on the street.

She encouraged them to run with her, and if they did a certain number of runs, they could "buy" things from her. It has since grown into a large charity, helping hundreds of boys. We had brought shoes and clothes and toiletries for the boys, and had been told that if we could raise $5000, we could help them buy another house so they could help more kids.

Today eight of her boys came to meet us in Labadee to run with us and spend the day with us. It's making me tear up just typing this -- but it was so great to watch these amazing kids take so much pleasure in the day. A bunch of us brought shoes and gear and other items for the boys... and Justin really went above and beyond to bring enough toiletries and supplies to 50 boys. So awesome.

photo by Brook D

(Love seeing that gear go to good use!)

The run was pretty simple -- a half mile out, a half mile back. One runner holds the watch, the other runs. When the first runner comes in, he takes the watch while the other person runs. Sort of a reverse baton.

The lead runners lined up ...

And then took off. Look at the StreetHearts boys -- you can tell they've been training for this!

photo by Jenny Hadfield

The day was hot hot hot and crazy humid. Wil went out for his leg while I stayed behind and cheered. When it was my turn, I ran out through the "town", along the main drag, dodging shuttles and tourists, past the art market, through the "artists village", and out to the far beach to the turnaround. By the time I came back in, my shirt was soaked, my fingers were tingling, and I felt woozy. OOF. I chatted with John and said I might want to make a race-day decision to cut it off at two miles each, rather than four.

Linsey had made a sign for each of the boys, so we took turns holding them so they'd see them when they came in.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

photo by Jenny Hadfield

Wil came back from his leg 2, and I headed out again. I needed to walk a bit this leg -- up the little hill both ways. Still, it was great to be able to see everyone ... including the StreetHearts boys ... running their hearts out, cheering for each other.

I came back in and said to Wil, "How about we stop now?" -- but he wouldn't hear of it... and went out for his third leg. Luckily (ha) the heat was getting to him too... so I had a little more time to rest before it was my turn to run again. This time I walked even more, but I certainly wasn't alone. Still, I ran it in for the end of my leg 3. Wil proposed we walk ... together ... for our final mile. That seemed like a pretty good compromise, so we headed out together, Wil plying me with water (aah!). We walked out to the turnaround and back, running the last little bit. We managed not to actually capture our time. Oops.

We stood and cheered for a little longer, but I was in pretty desperate need of liquid so we went to our "private party" site. Soon I had some water and a Diet Coke in my hand, and felt much better. I also managed to try the famous "Labadoozie", which was amusing because the bartender made it by pouring rum in a glass and then scooping pink slush out of a cooler.

We also had lunch, the boys sang a song, and we got to watch the boys get their first ever buffet lunch. We also celebrated everyone completing the staged marathon / half marathon.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

photo by Jenny Hadfield

photo by Jenny Hadfield

Eventually Wil and I decided to go for a swim -- first just walking in to the water at the closest beach, then changing into our suits and walking out to the far beach (by the run turnaround). We also stopped at one of the art markets and I picked up a Labadee Christmas ornament. (Note to Royal Caribbean: if you had sold an "Independence of the Seas" ornament, sticker, charm, badge, postcard, etc., I would have bought them. Seriously.)

We spent an hour or so in the water and lounging on the beach, but we were pretty much done. Even finding ourselves with Wil Wheaton (ha ha) didn't hold much allure.

(Spotting Wil Wheaton, who was one of the featured speakers/entertainers on the JoCo Cruise, because a running gag with our group... )

We headed back to the ship, marveling at the "little" ship that had also come into Labadee ... and how tiny it looked next to our behemoth:

We got cleaned up, had a nap (hooray!), relaxed on the balcony, did some reading and writing, and spent a little more time poking around the ship -- we couldn't believe our week was almost over.


Every time I think about those sweet boys it just makes me smile. Huge thanks to John and Jenny for introducing us to Linsey and her boys and arranging this wonderful day.

photo by Jenny Hadfield

Caribbean Running Cruise Day 6 - San Juan Amazing (Pirate) Race

Today was the pirate=themed Amazing Race / scavenger hunt around San Juan -- which was the perfect way to poke around the city.

We had our race briefing and breakfast at 6am, with Jon handing out maps and stressing that we should use the MAP as the authority, rather than the descriptions... that some skullduggery might be afoot.

Being pirate day, we had originally planned to run in our velvet skeleton tops ... but after the previous days' head we knew that wouldn't be a great idea. So we fell back on our skeleton Foska jerseys, which were still a big hit.

Some people really went above and beyond, costume-wise, the the totally amazing Bud and Claudia Johnson:

We managed, again, to get off the boat quickly -- 7am docking times tend to keep the crowds down a little! But we got onto the pier and took a nice group running photo.

We soon met the local running group who helped arrange the run -- they were selling some very handsome gear printed with their club logo, but of course, the last thing in the world I need is another running shirt.

During the meeting we had studied the map and had NO IDEA of where to start -- especially since we hadn't noticed at first that there was a page 2 with the first two stops on it... But for us this race is always about taking good photos and seeing San Juan, so that was our main focus.

After a little while -- and a reminder to trust the map, not the descriptions, we set out. I think Wil and I ran about half a mile before deciding it was too stinking hot for us northern types! But we did see a lot of San Juan...

 The task at hand was to visit all of the checkpoints IN ORDER and take a photo documenting the stop. Checkpoint one was at Casa Cuna, a government-run children's home:

Checkpoint 2 -- SKULLDUGGERY ALERT!!! -- was listed as the Capitolio: "The Capitol of Puetro Rico is located on the Islet of San Juan just outside the walls of Old San Juan. HOWEVER, the map clearly showed that the actual checkpoint was at Capitolio Plaza... a shopping center near the cruiseport.

Checkpoint 3 -- SKULLDUGGERY ALERT!!? -- was listed as the Centro de Recepciones del Gobierno de Puerto Rico... but on the map Teatro Tapia was circled. So we trusted the map.

Checkpoint 4 was the Cementerio Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis -- a colonial-era cemetery that is the final resting place of many of Puerto Rico's most prominent residents. I would have loved to poke around in there, but the clock was ticking!!!

Just after leaving the cemetery, we bumped into John -- who told us that we weren't gonna win (ha!) so we should stop and pose for a picture.

Checkpoint 5 was the Iglesia de San Jose -- what would have been a gorgeous sight, except that they were renovating the exterior. So we posed in front of the sign.

Checkpoint 6 was Castillo San Felipe del Morro -- a 16th-century citadel. It wasn't yet open when we arrived, but it was quite a sight.

We liked it so much that we took two photos there:

En route to the next checkpoint, we spotted the John "The Penguin" Bingham Cruise Monument, which surely should have been worth extra credit:

Then we headed off to find Checkpoint 7, La Fortaleza -- the official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico. I'm sure the armed guards were very amused by all the weirdos taking selfies in front of the mansion...

Checkpoint 8 -- SKULLDUGGERY ALERT??? Okay, the description was simple - the statue of Abraham Lincoln outside of the Escuela Abraham Lincoln. But the spot circled on the map was a block off ... and happened to be a corner with a very handsome little cafe/bar with a painting on the outside. To be honest, this did seem a little too sneaky... but we still took a picture there.

But for good measure, we also took a picture in front of the Abraham Lincoln statue... even though we weren't sure it was right.

Checkpoint 8 was the Plaza de Armas, where we snapped a quick picture before bumping into Belinda and Rick, who were drinking coffee... which made Wil want a coffee...

We poked our head into the coffee shop, but Wil really wanted an iced coffee (did I mention it was HOT?) so we moved on. We were headed back to the start/finish line when Wil spotted another coffee shop -- a very handsome, old cafe. So we hurried in and ordered an iced coffee to go... and spent twenty minutes while the baristo lovingly hand-shaved ice and ground the beans with a mortar and pestle... Okay, not really. But it did take two minutes to get an iced coffee. (Though it did look very, very nice.)

Then down the hill to the finish line and Checkpoint 10!

We stood around for a bit, cheering in other runners, but our extended coffee break meant that most people were already done. We had planned on just heading into town, but since we were right at the ship, we went in and got a little cleaned up before heading back to town.

For the record, here's our run map from the San Juan Amazing Race:

We went back into town to walk around. Again, shopping wasn't very interesting to us, but we walked up to the cathedral and that cute part of town. Which is where Wil spotted this:

I *may* have "silent screamed" -- it was pretty astonishing to see a caterpillar this big... moving around. We stood and watched it for a while, and a lady came out of her house to chat about the worm. She said that these worms eat all the leaves off her trees (sure enough, the tree was bare twigs). I asked if the "worms" turn into butterflies, but she said that these ones don't -- but it's because there isn't the right soil for them to do their transformation. Imagine how big that butterfly or moth would be???

A bit later we ran into Ralph, Colleen, Tony, and a bunch of other folks, who had turned the "race" into a pub crawl. :) We took their advice and went to La Tortuga for a pitcher of sparkling sangria. For $12 we were presented with a massive pitcher of surprisingly tasty sangria... probably not the best idea for two semi-dehydrated thirsty runners.

Being at something of a loss as to what to do with the rest of our day, I remembered John mentioning that there is a bar in San Juan that claims to be the place where the piña colada was invented... so we looked up the place and decided to pay a visit to Barrachina.

Here's what I didn't know.

Piña coladas can be Very Strong.

We were directed to the bar at Barrachina where we, of course, ordered two piña coladas. The bartender asked us if we wanted alcohol, to which we replied, "Yes. Lots."

The bartender proceeded to pour ... and pour ... and pour 151 rum into a large "fountain" glass, and then dispensed a frozen / slushy mix into the glass so that some of the rum actually floated on top. He slid them across the bar to us and said, "You'll want to stir these."

  One was really good. Delicious. We chatted with our fellow barflies, all of whom, of course, were drinking piña coladas. And all of whom said, "Yes, lots." in response to the alcohol question.

We got a little caught up in it ... it was a glorious day, we had a couple of hours to kill, and when else would we be in San Juan, Puerto Rico?

So we ordered another round. Another delicious, tasty, boozy round.

why, yes, I did take a picture with the bartender... and a bottle of rum...

It really wasn't until about 2/3rds of the way through the second round that I thought, oh dear, this is gonna be rough. But we gathered ourselves up and headed back to the boat... stopping for some handsome photos with the plaque outside:

(the picture on the right is definitely a "this is gonna hurt")

We headed back to the ship, poured ourselves aboard, went up to the Windjammer for some lunch (finally!), burbled at a few of our gang, and then went to the cabin, where we promptly slept through dinner. 

Ah, well, that's vacation, right?

Eventually we got up and got some dinner at the buffet, but the evening was prety shot, so we wandered back to our cabin to relax. Oh, except for when I was threatened by a towel orangutan!