I would have liked to connected sooner but the technology had defeated me… the ship’s internet connection had been fragile at best and non existent at worst. The cruise has been wonderful… great weather, calm seas, and a great ship… (Celebrity Century)
We have made port calls in Ocho Rios Jamaica and George Town Grand Caymans… We went ashore in both…
But that isn’t what this post is about… (by now some of you may have noticed that my posts tend to pay homage to a song by Arlo Guthrie…) This post is about tourism…
We didn’t see Jamaica or the Caymans… we saw a tourist version of each… much closer to Disney than to the place… There were two ships in Ocho Rios… a cruise port with a bad reputation… If you believe the rumors the locals are waiting to sell you drugs, lure you into a taxi to take you to their brother’s bar, or some other nefarious reason, in order to separate you from your money. According to the undefined THEY, they are all Rastafarians, which should explain everything.
In fact it’s a beautiful but poor country, with a rich heritage. It is a country which is primarily black, which can scare many… It shouldn’t. I had been here before… It seemed scarier then…
We arrived early… we had previously arranged for a ship’s excursion, kayaking to Dunn’s River Falls, then climbing the falls and a boat back to the ship…. The excursion didn’t leave until 1:00, so I took a walk about… off the ship, away from the security forces surrounding it, and into town,.. past the “official” tourist village with a Margaritaville, (I like Jimmy Buffett, I just didn't need his bar here...) cute safe stores, and lots of security, past the men hawking taxis, both official and unofficial, and along the streets… Yes, there were men trying to get you into their shop, there were beggars and at least one offer of “party”… Others in our group were offered other things, both legal and illegal, but generally it just wasn’t that bad… Several from our group rented a taxi for the day and had a grand time sightseeing, and visiting local markets away from the port. We booked a ships excursion, Kayak to Dunn’s River Falls, climb the falls, then a boat back to the ship… a great time…
From there we were off to Grand Cayman… There were 5 ships in port…. We were the smallest at about 1500 passengers. Let me tell you about the port of Georgetown Grand Cayman where this is all happening… It has a population of about 21,000 people… the 5 ships carried somewhere over 13,000 passengers, and probably 5,000 crew, nearly the population of the town… This changes the place… Instead of locals we see other tourists… we see Diamond’s International stores, tee shirt shops and oh, yes, a Margaritaville (I don't need Jimmy's bar here either)and a Senior Frog’s…
There is still the clean blue Caribbean water, the great weather and the endless beaches… There are still stingrays out at Stingray city, but beyond that it is more about the tourists which overwhelm than about the Caymans…
Sorry, no picture this time...
Randy
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