Reaching home: Our journey in numbers and lists

We are pleased to report that on arrival at Santander ferry terminal,  Brittany ferries already had a plan for what to offer us. We boarded a coach,  travelling overnight to France and then caught a different ferry which got us into Portsmouth actually 1 hour EARLIER than originally planned.  Steve's parents were there to meet us on arrival and after a night's stay at their place,  we've headed North on the train towards Leicester,  pausing in London for a cup of tea with Mel's Mum.  

As our journey reaches its end,  we thought we would share some trip lists with you!

Our trip in numbers:

0 transatlantic flights

1 short flight in a turbo-prop plane

2 clipper ships

3 months in Puerto Rico

4 organic farming projects

5 weeks of sailing on the Atlantic 

6 'Workaway' placements

7 areas of Puerto Rico stayed in

8 substantial train journeys 

9 ferry journeys

10 Caribbean islands visited

Things we'll miss...

The weather!

Our Caribbean family and friends

Tropical flora and fauna,  especially lizards, frogs, diving pelicans & sealife

Snorkelling

The sea

The bright stars

And things we (or at least one of us) are looking forward to...

Seeing our UK friends and family

Being around young people 

Unpacking and not having to re-pack for sometime

Less small talk

Being able to travel under our own steam (especially cycling which we only managed for 4 days out of the last 6+ months). 

Things we've learned about...

Caribbean history, culture and politics

Caribbean wildlife

The wide ranging effects of hurricanes

Organic growing techniques including companion planting

Sailing

Practical skills

How to find elusive coqui frogs

Un poco de espanol (including a song about coqui frogs)

And things we've shared...

Enthusiasm for composting 

Enthusiasm for reducing plastic waste

Educational expertise

Pond building skills

Presentations about slow travel and inspirational youth in the fight against climate change
Marmite!

Second time lucky! Arrival in Europe

We've finally arrived back in Europe after switching boats in St Maarten. On the boat,  Mel led a daily yoga practice which Steve and 8 other passengers regularly joined in with.  Steve became quite jealous at the delicious and abundant food Mel got served after she'd explained to the chefs what was needed for a balanced vegan diet! The delay and change of European arrival port (Lisbon instead of Malaga) meant missing out on some days with Steve's parents who were meeting us in Malaga. When we eventually arrived there,  we were surprised to find Steve's sister,  nephew and niece there too! Luckily we still had a few days to enjoy the beach together before they headed home. We are now on a train to Santander where we will catch the final boat of our journey - the Santander to Portsmouth ferry. Stop press! While writing this we received a text saying our ferry has been cancelled due to a technical problem! We'll keep you posted on the alternative route we take.

Annnnnnd...........back to sant maarten

Last Saturday we sailed away aboard the Star Flyer (shown below, dwarfed by other cruise ships) headed for Spain. The wind was blowing against us so we used the engine.  Unfortunately, 3 days out, something on the drive shaft broke.  After bobbing around for a bit, the engineers decided that they couldn't fix the problem at sea and, therefore, we had to hoist full sail and return to sant Maarten. So now, a week after leaving, we're back where we started! The Royal Clipper (the ship we came out to the Caribbean on) has been diverted to pick us up and take us to Portugal. Still, on the upside, we get an extra 2 days in the Caribbean. Everybody is in

good spirits and most people have chosen to switch over to the clipper (they could have had a flight home instead). Worse things happen at sea!

Sant Maarten/ Saint Martin

We have arrived safely in Saint Martin by sailing boat. The boat is owned and skippered by our new friend Marc. This time we even went on watch for most of the night, allowing Marc to sleep and getting us in a day earlier than otherwise. We also helped by cleaning the boat ready for his next (paying)

guests. We are biding our time in St. Martin until Saturday, when we will catch the 'Star Flyer' across the Atlantic. This island is unique because it is the smallest island in the world that is split between 2 nationalities. One half is an overseas territory of France and the other half is an autonomous part of the Netherlands. We had a hike along the small stone wall that separates the 2 halves. We have done a couple of hikes and visited some beaches. Steve was also pleased to encounter a museum run by a guy who has done lots of film special effects, including for 'Star Wars'!

Farming in Tortola

We're now reaching the end of our 2 weeks in Tortola. We've had good fun and learnt lots. We have weeded (and put the weeds in to the liquid compost tank as pictured), planted crops and harvested crops. We even got the chance to help our host, Aragorn, to sell the produce at a couple of local farmer's markets. In between all this, we've had a chance to explore the island a bit and to play in the sea! Today we are meeting up with one of Aragorn's friends who is kindly going to take us on his boat to St.  Martin.

On to Tortola

We have now left Puerto Rico.  We were lucky enough to get a ride on a cargo ship that steams between Puerto Rico and st. Thomas in the U.S. virgin islands. The shipping company is owned by friends of Mel's sister and we were able to make the 7 hour journey in the ships galley. We arrived into st.  Thomas at first light as evidenced by the photo below, which has the ship in the background. From st. Thomas we had breakfast and then caught the first ferry to Tortola. Once here, our good luck continued and we m

et up with an inspiring figure called Aragorn (named after the Tolkien character) who our good friend Charlotte once met. He runs an organic farm in the hills and has room for us to stay here.  The view from the farm is in the last photo. We are helping out on the farm until the 20th March when we already have another boat to St.  Martin. More news about what we're doing on the farm and on Tortola next time.

All Hands and Hearts

We are now in San Juan once again, enjoying our final week in Puerto Rico, before we head off on Sunday. We have spent the last week working hard on yabucoa, a small town on the south east  coast.  This is where Maria, the category 5 hurricane first made landfall just over a year ago. We were volunteering with the U.S. charity 'All hands and hearts' which does reconstruction work on the many houses and community centres that still remain damaged. We put on full protective gear to treat houses for mould, went on roofs to seal and paint them, as well as other repair and light construction work. We also had time to go out on the neighbourhood and collect litter. It was tiring but useful work and the enthusiasm and energy from the other volunteers was great to see. There were about 80 volunteers and staff, varying from day volunteers to those who have been here for months. You can check out the organisation at www.allhandsandhearts.org if you're interested.

Trees we love

We've moved down from the mountains to the small town of Yabucoa, in the south east of Puerto Rico, where we are helping repair the hurricane damaged houses of local people. We'll blog more about that next time. In the meantime, we wanted to share some photos of some of the tropical trees that we encounter here. Quite a difference to the trees back home in Leicester! Almost all trees here are evergreen broadleaf. Last time we blogged a photo of a pea bush. This variety of pea is called 'pigeon pea' and grows in tropical areas. The first photo here is of a 'primordial' fern tree which have been on earth since the time of the dinosaurs. Second is a tree covered in bromeliads. These, and other epiphytes, are very common. The local frog species, called a coqui, loves to live in them.  Some epiphytes don't have roots and can even be found living on overhead wires. Finally, many of the trees here have beautiful flowers like the one below which looks like a firework.

Farming

We now have less than a week in this placement in the mountains of central Puerto Rico. We have been working hard each day. Steve has mostly been clearing land that has grown over since the hurricane and above is a photo of him in his fetching 'strimming outfit'. Mel has mostly been helping Kuka, who is an employee here. They have been sifting soil and planting out seeds and seedlings. We also  have helped in other places. For example, Steve helped at the nursery of La Para Naturaleza, which is a conservation group. We both helped out in the community garden of a  group in the nearby city of Caguas. They are called 'Urbe Apie' and above is a photo of us harvesting peas.

Hurricane effects really hit home

We've now arrived in Guayama district in the mountains of southern Puerto Rico. Here we are helping Cesar, whose farm and home were seriously damaged by the 2 hurricanes. Despite happening over a year ago, there is still lots of reconstruction to do. The water tank that you see here was filled with 800 gallons  of water and was thrown  from the roof of the house in the background. 5 rooms, that were to be a home for adults with Downs syndrome, had their roof blown off. Perhaps worst of all, for a farm, most of the fruit trees were swept away. We have started work planting new seedlings in buckets and clearing debris ready for planting. We've also taken some time to explore the local area, with Cesar and fellow volunteer Cecilia. Celsa, Cesar's wife has just arrived and has been shocked by the changes. Not only the farm but the whole community has changed with entire roads, shops and other community centres no longer existing.

A pond across the pond

We have just returned from the small island of Vieques which lies off the east coast of Puerto Rico. Here Steve was sharing knowledge gained from the uk in building a pond on the grounds of a small holding and guest house. The site was destroyed by the hurricanes last year and is being rebuilt but this is the first time that they have had a pond. 
We stayed in a tent with a fantastic view over jungle to the sea. The pond required levelling (not easy as it was on a hill!), lining and landscaping with suitable tropical plants  such as bromeliads. In the tropics you need to be careful because ponds breed mosquitoes so we needed to find fish to eat the mosquito larvae
Luckily we found some native fish in another pond nearby and caught some with fish traps made from  old bottles. Everyone gathered round for the releasing of the fish. Dragonflies, water beetles and other wildlife arrived on their own. We hope that the pond will be a source of interest for humans and wildlife for years to come.

Mel's family and other animals!

We hope that you had a lovely Christmas and that it wasn't too much of 'a let down' (like for the Santa and snowmen in our picture!). You may feel 'let down' because you didn't receive a Christmas card from us - the cards we sent from Antigua haven't arrived :-( .



We spent the Christmas period with Mel's family (2nd photo) and other animals (3rd and 4th photos). We enjoyed all the animal company we had - human, other land animals and sea animals too!



There are two types of iguana in Puerto Rico. Here is a beautiful live example of one. On a walk in San Juan with Mel's Mum, we saw the gruesome sight of a dog eating one of these creatures. Mel's nephew, Cy, was sorry to have missed that sight!



Mel and Cy also went on a 'coqui' hunt one evening while we were all staying in the far West of the island in a place called Rincon. The coquis are tiny nocturnal native Puerto Rican frogs named after the really loud song that they make. They are very shy but love hanging out in bromeliad plants. If you look carefully you can see a coqui looking up from the centre of the plant in this photo.



Other wildlife highlights have been spotting an endangered 'manatee' in a lagoon in San Juan and seeing a huge variety of fish when snorkelling on Cy's birthday trip including the trumpet fish which is one of his favourites.

Mel is staying a few more days with her family on the Puerto Rican main island while Steve has headed off to another Puerto Rican island called Vieques. Steve (and later Mel) will be learning about permaculture and building a pond on an eco-farm / guesthouse there which will hopefully be a great place for local wildlife to hang out.

Two more boats and Puerto Rico landing!

After just one night in St Thomas, we were lucky enough to be introduced to a lovely American family who agreed to take us on the 4-5 hour journey to Puerto Rico. As you can see from the photo,  we were led by our youngest Captain yet! ;-).

As luck would have it, the family were heading to the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra - a place with fantastic snorkelling and an excellent ferry service to the main island.  As we had two clear days before needing to meet Mel's family there, we relaxed and snorkelled, seeing amazing large corals, two species of turtles and much more.

Cause and effect

After another night sleeping on the sail boat in Tortola harbour, we have taken a ferry to St Thomas.  We managed to get accommodation in a downstairs room in a hotel that was largely destroyed by the recent hurricanes and a hurricane related fire(in the second photo). It is the increasing severity of these hurricanes which made us more determined to travel here in as low carbon way as possible. The links between the changing climate and deadly hurricanes has not been lost on the islanders. In Antigua we visited this government establishment where electric vehicles, solar power and wind turbines are being adopted and promoted. Also, there was a nursery where various tree species are being grown and distributed to schools and parks.  This not only helps combat the causes of climate change but will, hopefully, make the island more self sufficient in the likely event of increasing climate catastrophe.