Jamaica ~

Montego Bay, Jamaica was our first port of call on this cruise. I wasn't quite so excited, mostly because when we went to the Shopping Talks onboard, the speaker never even mentioned Jamaica. We heard it was a rather rough place, wide-spread poverty, not so safe to navigate around town. And I'm thinking...no shopping...not so safe...um, check please!! But oh well, it would be my first steps out of the country, so I might was well go. We had to just walk off the ship since The Conquest docked there. A few formalities, and we were...not in America anymore.


Our excursion for the day was Jungle River Tubing. I had seen a segment on the travel channel where the host did this, and it did look easy enough. We rode a bus through town and around to the river. Then we got ready to tube. Our 2 Jamaican guides were interesting, big strong guys. I did feel fairly secure with them. One tried mightily to get a spider that dropped onto Lou Ellen, but it got away. We think. She's still here, so it's all good.


They talked to us all the way down the river, mostly about life there. They called me and all of the women, M'lady. I rather liked that. And they sang...of course Lou Ellen & I picked up the lyrics and sang a few bars too ("You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille..."). They asked about our life back here. One offered to let me adopt him. They said their dream was to have a house made of bricks, so when the hurricane comes, it will not blow away. After the tubing, we went back to the Outpost and had lunch on picnic tables. That's when I discovered that I love, LOVE Jerk Chicken!!! All in all, the tubing adventure was fun!


We left for a very rough ride back to town, and then headed to the beach. We'd been told that the nicest beach was Doctor's Cave Beach. And it was beautiful!!! Not free, but beautiful. And the weather was perfect, 80° and sunny, in February. Forget the snow, forget the cold...if I go somewhere in winter, I want Jamaica weather. ;)



These two tried hard to stay out of trouble. Wasn't easy.


Lou Ellen and I in our sunglasses. We got bling, yes we do...








We walked through town a little and we were OK, but without Don & Charles, I might not have. I bought some Jerk Seasoning at the terminal and then we were back at sea. And looking for the yogurt machine. That was our deal...get in, go get some diet coke and yogurt for me & Lou Ellen and ice cream for Don & Charles. Oh yea, mon.