Hot, Hot, Hot

Hottest place you’ve traveled to:  Half Moon Cay

I have never liked summer.  Well, that's not true.  I loved having the time off from school and I loved being able to go swimming, and I even loved spending summers at my grandmother's house as a kid.  But I have never loved being hot.  I have always hated being sweaty.  That's the worst part of being hot to me, that sticky, sweaty, salty, icky, grainy, dirty feeling that comes from not being able to get cool.  And it's only worse when there is no relief from the unrelenting tropical sun.

The hottest place I have ever traveled was hands down the Holland America Private Island in the Bahamas.  Holland America calls it Half Moon Cay, but is actually Little San Salvador Island.  In truth I know neither the actual air temperature nor the feels-like temperature for the day I spent roughly an hour on the island desperately seeking shade or relief from the sun.  I was unlucky enough to be on the island about a month after it had re-opened to visitors following a hurricane passing over it.  The hurricane caused major damage due to wind, but the far worse damage was due to salt water intrusion.  The parts of the island Holland America uses as a base for its passengers were flooded with sea water.  As a result of that salty sea water nearly 95% of the vegetation in the built-up areas died.  With the exception of three large umbrellas over tables, and the awnings on the buildings there was no shade on the island.  I managed to have just enough shade to take off my sunglasses to get a good look at the post card I was buying.  But there was no way anyone at the tables was going to give up their place so after mailing the postcard and less than 60 minutes ashore, I was in line on the tender dock to head back to the air conditioned comfort of my cabin.

It may not have been literally the hottest place I've ever visited, but it certainly felt like it.  And it may be unfair to judge it as such, due to the hurricane damage.  And I know I'll be on another cruise that will call at the private island, and maybe in the intervening years the vegetation has come back or improvements have been made to provide more shade and relief from the Caribbean heat, but the truth is I am no hurry to find out.  I can live perfectly happy staying on the ship.