Hello troops, Well here we are 5 months later preparing to return home from our Caribbean trip! This trip was all about Caribbean Islands and finding the best way to visit them. We started off with 2 X 10 day "Princess" cruises of the Eastern and Western Caribbean. The trip the week before Christmas was half the price of the Christmas trip, with no kids, compared to the Christmas trip with lots of kids running around pressing every button in the elevator! Valuable lesson for you all! Cruising is the ultimate way to see the Caribbean as you wake up on a different island most days with no flights to book, accommodation, transport etc to arrange, but you only get up to 8 hours to check it out. With small islands that is fine, in fact perfect. They have formal nights on cruises, so you do need to have the right clothes, which might be a challenge to other bikers as it was for us! Our solution was to go to the Salvation Army "Family Store" in the main street in Fort Lauderdale and buy a second hand suit, shoes, shirt, tie, belt for Pat; dress, jacket, shoes, handbag for Bin, all for the grand price of $55 on 1/2 price Wacky Wednesday and give it away to the crew at the end of the cruise. Win-win for everyone! Our son Johnathan joined us on the first cruise! We spent the next 3 months flying from island to island, staying in airbnb homes and hiring cars, buses or taxi's as our transport. We cant imagine how difficult it would be to arrange shipping of a motorbike from island to island! Respect to Peter and Kay Forward! Our favorite island was Jamaica, particularly the non touristy west and east coast. There is a real chilled vibe there and we didn't ever feel unsafe. Grand Cayman was picture postcard perfect, but very expensive! Cuba was amazing and some of the most carefree travelling we have ever done. We stayed in "Casa Particulars" and one would book the next one and arrange a taxi to the next place for us, so door to door travel at cheap prices! US$25 per night for accommodation in a Cuban house in the centre of town. The Cubans are really friendly and have an amazing story to tell. Dominican Republic has some beautiful beaches; we hired a car there for 3 weeks and saw it all! The traffic was pretty crazy and the hire car people tried to rip us off, (always check the car thoroughly and the condition of the tyres before driving off!) and a corrupt policeman tried to con us out some money, but it was all done with a smile!! Our secret enemy with the corrupt policeman was to take a photo of him, but hang onto your camera as he will try and take it off you! He knows the game is up when you have digital evidence and all of a sudden you are innocent after all and free to go! Puerto Rico we rented a car, which was expensive, but the only option, so we went right around the island in 10 days, very nice, but our least preferred island. Sometimes it is cheaper to fly back to Miami and onto another island, so we had the opportunity of joining our friends from Venezuela, now living in Miami, to ride a motorbike to Daytona Bike Week. It was so unlike Horizon Unlimited meetings, but also amazing to experience! Thanks heaps to Carlos Salazar and his lovely wife Yuddy for arranging the bike, gear, everything for us! Next, we went cruising again from Fort Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles (15 day cruise)... simply amazing and highly recommended. We booked it last minute (one month in advance), we searched cruises on seascanner.com and booked on cruise.com. The Fort Lauderdale Family Store Manager remembered us as we emerged with yet another suit and dress outfit and gave it all away to the crew at the end! We are now in Canada visiting family and friends, then Brisbane and finally home to Cairns May 3. In summary The Caribbean is a fantastic, very scenic destination, but definitely not cheap or easy to get around. The best time to visit is November to March, when it is not too hot and humid. Where to go next Cairns wet season??