Because of Hurricane Paloma, our stop in Jamaica was switched from
Ochos Rios to
Montego Bay. It didn't make much difference though because most of the trips are available from either port. When we looked through the excursions booklet, we couldn't decide what to choose, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 3+ hours on a 'bus'. We watched the Excursions channel on TV, and one immediately said we had to choose it. A day of off-
roading!! You don't get to drive the trucks (I don't think there are any Royal Caribbean excursions where you can drive yourself and actually go 4x4
ing; there are some that are 'off road' but not
our idea of 'off road'). It was an early meeting time, and even with having to go back on the ship for money (after not having any money when we went on the excursion in Cozumel and then not being able to buy lunch....), and shop for sunscreen in the port terminal building, we were still early. We talked with a couple in line in front of us, from the San Francisco area. They were interesting. Then our 'driver' met us.
Keisha was a tall, solidly built young lady, and guided us out to our trucks. It was nice seeing all the 'bus' and taxi drivers dressed in 'uniform' of black pants and white shirts, although I felt sorry for the ladies wearing nylons (pantyhose)! There were 16 people, and two trucks that each held 8. We headed for the first truck, Rob suddenly wanted the other one, it was full, so we ended up being the last two on Keisha's truck (and we had been the last two to purchase the excursion too). We left the port terminal area, and this was the view as we drove away.
Click on any picture to enlarge it, then Back Arrow to get back here.
The top railing is the jogging track, deck 12. The next level down, with the blueish glass is deck 11, where the pools, hot tubs, and the Windjammer Cafe is. Yes, it is the biggest cruise ship currently on the seas!
It was a long drive out of
Montego Bay during morning rush hour. The traffic lights are set so that in-coming traffic as the right of way, and we waited a long time. So long is the wait, that people walk among stopped traffic selling newspapers and drinks. We learned a bit about
Montego Bay, included a further explanation of the "No Problem" saying. There are 'no problems in Jamaica; only "situations" '.
LOL. We also learned that just because they don't drive on the right, doesn't mean they "drive on the
wrong side".
We finally made it out of
Montego Bay proper, and Keisha took us on a detour on the old main highway, past the Red Stripe distribution center. The reason they had to re-route the highway?
Jamaica is full of underground springs, and there was one large one next to the highway which caused considerable flooding frequently.
Keisha drove us up a hilly, curvy area (
OMG. "Situations" everywhere!), and showed us large homes that were being built, either for foreigners or
Montego rich people. Many old plantations are being cleared, cleaned up, rehabilitated, and 'planted' with vacation villas and timeshares.
We drove up a very steep hill on one plantation (there were men working very hard repairing the old sidewalk up the hill. Who would walk up that hill?!) and had our first stop at a scenic viewpoint. We also had a lesson on Patois (the local French/Creole/English dialect) and rum punch.
That white ship in front of the girl in the middle is our cruise ship. The girl in the middle is a Dutch girl, travelling with her parents, and they were on the second truck in our convoy. We'll see her again later.
Pretty much the same view of
Montego Bay. The islands in the bay are protected nature reserves.
We drove from the ship on the far left, through the flat area, past the squarish ponds (water/sewage treatment), around to the right, and up this big hill. It took about 45 minutes including the nearly 15 minute stop to allow rush hour traffic into
Montego Bay. While we were near the water treatment ponds, we were stopped on a busy 4-6 lane road. On one side was a field (and a sidewalk), but no fences. In the field were a few horses, cows, and goats. Either they were very smart, or there was Invisible Fencing!
The view going down the hill, seen while we enjoyed rum punch and Rob examined the tread wear on the tires. He proclaimed the tires entirely unsuitable for a Canadian winter, and perhaps a little scary for the trip down the hill. Notice the sidewalk on the right? Despite it being fixed up, we weren't given the option of a little exercise.
On our way up the hill, we saw this
dumptruck that had just been towed out of the ravine. The driver had lost brakes on the way a few days before, and I think he first tried to put it into the shoulder on the right (remember, they drive on the left!), then he bailed out, it crossed the road again and over the side....because we were in the covered back of the Land Rover, the picture turned out too dark, so I tried to lighten it up, but some details were lost. That hand is the Californian man,
LOL.
This is an important church from the time of the slave uprisings. I think it was a Baptist church, perhaps in the Anchovy or
Trelawny area, and it had been extensively updated. The architecture of the area was interesting. Shipping containers were used as roadside shops and sometimes homes. Homes were built in stages, out of cement blocks and re-bar, as time and money allowed--meaning that a lot of homes looked abandoned, but were merely waiting.
We entered the Montpelier Citrus Orchards. I had no idea that oranges were such a huge crop in Jamaica.
View of the Blue Mountains, where the best Jamaican coffee is grown.
We entered a former plantation. This tree is called a silk cotton tree, and is the largest/oldest tree species on plantations. They were planted at the
entrance to plantations and were used to hang slaves caught trying to escape.
This is another old, important church. I think it's St. John's Anglican Church (although it could be St. James as that was the area we were in). Keisha, our very knowledgeable guide, told me that 7
th Day Adventist is probably the most popular religion in Jamaica (which explains the vegetarianism), along with Baptists and Anglicans. There was a couple from Atlanta in our truck, and she said 7
th Day is very popular in their area. Rob grew up near the provincial and federal headquarters of the Canadian 7
th Day Adventist Church, but I don't think I know a single member.
While we were looking at the church and getting a religion lesson, the Dutch girl came darting around the side of the church, flapping her arms and slightly shocked. We asked what was wrong, and she tried to explain, and then simply cried "
BAAAA!!
BAAA!!!". This fellow followed her around the corner:
Goats were everywhere in Jamaica.
The corner stone of the church. The revolutions were in 1836, I think. The church has walls 3 feet thick, built from ballast stones. It was wonderfully cool inside.
The inside was also interestingly surprisingly universally Anglican/United. The hymnal board
and the baptismal font were the same as every other one I've seen in Canada. That pew beside the font is an original one from 1847. Notice how straight the back is?
LOL. The lovely stain glass windows pivot open on a center rod so they can get the breeze from any angle, and the thick walls keep the heat out. I also believe that the blocks absorb moisture from the rain and that helps to keep them cool.
Supposedly the grout is made from molasses and....something.
It was a beautiful area. The people and children looked happy and healthy and adorable in their school uniforms (a federal law). It was mentioned by
Regna and her husband at dinner that while they might not be wealthy, the people rarely lack for what they need. Obesity was uncommon and ailments were treated with a visit to the garden.
We got back in the Land Rovers and headed through the citrus orchards. This is when the 'off
roading' started. It wasn't as 'off road' as we would have liked,
LOL, but it was scenic and out-
doorsy and fun.
We stopped at a spot in the orchard for some more rum punch and a trip to a waterfall. We had originally thought about going to see Dunn's Falls, but after seeing it on the TV, and the number of people there, we chose this trip instead. It was a slippery walk down into a ravine, and the second guide brought some bug spray. Keisha was staying with our vehicles to make sure they were secure (earlier, another employee travelling with us in a car had done that job).
At first we passed this small waterfall, lots of
ooohing and
aaahing. Further along the path was some bamboo
I think it had been brought to Jamaica after the slaves were freed and the plantation owners brought over Chinese and Indian workers. It can grow several inches a day when it's in the sun.
After a tricky spot through some running water, we came upon
the waterfall. It wasn't huge, or terribly high (and the volume was increased by the overflow pipe near the upper left), but for a short while, it was OURS (and now it's the desktop picture on our computer!).
At first, I was eager to go in, but a little cautious. You couldn't see the bottom, but the guide walked right in and it was about waist deep (and he was short). We had been advised to wear water shoes or sandals, so I went in my sports sandals. Rob asked why we didn't have places at home. I said because if it's not dammed up by Hydro One, it'd be too cold to actually swim.
LOL. This was refreshing, but not cold.
The guide had a hard time figuring out our waterproof camera; I had a hard time keeping my top up.
LOL. The Dutch girl had a hard time understanding just about everything, and Rob had to help her out for her photo shoot.
Off to the right was another waterfall. A bunch of us bobbed around the river and had a lovely time. Some people came in for a couple minutes, and others didn't come in at all. Turns out the lady from Atlanta is a nurse and said she sees the 'aftermath' of swimming in places like that. The guy from California said "A little giardia won't kill you". OMG. LOL. I piped up that while it didn't kill me, it was a very unpleasant six weeks. I hadn't even thought about those sorts of things in the water; I was more concerned with crayfish, leeches, water snakes....LOL.
These are the trucks we rode in, two rows of 4 seats on the edges faced inwards. We had seatbelts. LOL.
Once we emerged and trekked back up the hill, we finished off the rum punch, and they got out some orange juice made by the company that owned the orchard we were in. It was the best orange juice I had ever had, and I don't really like orange juice. It was sweet, and refreshing, and not too thick. It tasted like an orange!
We chatted with Keisha for awhile. When we first met, she had asked everyone where they were from, and she seemed thoughtful when we replied "Canada, Ontario, north of Toronto". She asked again, and then told us about her one and only trip off the island. Last year she had a couple on a tour who seemed very interested in her. They asked a lot of interesting questions, about Jamaica, the company she works for, and even her. A little while later, on the fourth anniversary of her employement with Chukka Tours (I"m not sure that's the proper, full name), they came back, and presented her with completed papers and tickets for a trip to visit them in Ontario, partway between St. Catherines and Hamilton. She was able to go in April/May for three weeks and had a great time (esp. when they went to the Niagra River and threw rocks onto the US side, LOL). She seemed to really enjoy her job, and could answer just about anything we asked.
This little flowering plant is a mimosa plant. When you touch it it will suddenly 'wilt', but refresh in about 15-20 minutes. The plantation owners used these plants to be able to tell if a slave had just tried to escape. However, the slaves soon learned that the plants also wilted in the rain!
They grew along the roadway and around houses and especially the important buildings. We saw the ruins of old mills, banks, and other plantation buildings.
Then we saw this interesting sign:
"Trelawny Gun Club; No Shooting". LOL.
We were shown a traditional Jamaican garden, complete with a sugar cane plant and Jamaica's national fruit which is cooked to be their national dish.
Then we headed through the plantation towards the "Outpost". This is a small cluster of buildings owned by the tour operator. There is a gift shop, washrooms (ladybugs for "Ladies" and Anacondas for "Men"), a BBQ stand selling jerk chicken, beer, out-dated Lays, and Jamaican patties. Rob wouldn't buy any food except the chips. There was also lockers and supplies for some of the other tours.
Most of the buses had 'snorkel' intakes.
We had considered some of the tubing/rafting options, and if we ever go back I definately want to. Rafting and tubing is actually government regulated here.
Some of the off roading:
I'm sure it would have been much more boring if we had had 'better' tires, LOL.
THe drive back was a little scary---and it
wasn't off-road! It was a very twisty, hilly road, bordered often by deep ravines....and their guardrails are about the equivalent of our parking curbs. And we were on the
wrong side of the road, facing the wrong way. I was surprised to see (while we had been in rush hour) that most people wore seatbelts and didn't overload vehicles, but apparently speed and passing at questionable times is still an issue. You know when your 'native' drivers gasps and says "Now THAT was almost a
situation!" that someone was truely being extreme, but most of the time it was just us gasping, LOL. I could see the speedometer, and we were travelling up to 70km/hour on these roads.
One other thing we really noticed again, was the car honking. Apparently, honking is not used as a warning, it's a friendly greeting! The Atlanta couple said that you're only supposed to use the horn in extreme situations there as it's a noise violation. Not in Jamaica!
Back on the ship I took my standard pictures of the port area. I was trying to figure out where we had gone.
THese last three photos travel from the right edge of the port to the left edge.
After leaving port it was surprisingly rough, although the water didn't show it.
We learned from Keisha what "KFC" really stands for (notice the tall KFC bucket below). "Keep From Cooking". LOL!
Apparently the tall hotel on the left is
the place to stay in Montego Bay. We learned that from Dale. Dale found a taxi driver to drive him around most of the day, bar to bar; he seems especially fond of Jimmy Buffet's "Margharita Villes".
"Margharita Ville" is the place right in the center with a tube slide.
We were all aboard at 2:15, and the ship left awhile later. THe show this night was another production show; actually a magic show starring Drew Thomas and backed by the Royal Caribben Singers and Dancers. I think this ship is the only one that has 3 nights of productions shows. It was a neat show, but it started (for us) at 10:45pm. It was a little hard to stay awake!
This little fellow was in our room, and there were also two Crown and Anchor baseball hats, which I really appreciated as I had forgotten my hat again for this trip. And surprisingly, these hats were small and I could actually wear one!
Our day in Jamaica was awesome. We hadn't really wanted to go to Jamaica; thinking it would be too commercial and perhaps 'dangerous'. While we didn't really see the 'real' Montego Bay, I truely enjoyed getting into the countryside and seeing the 'real' Jamaica. Keisha was an excellent driver and guide, the weather was great, our private waterfall was lovely, and it turned out to be one of our favourite things we've done on the two cruises!
There is NOT a lot of room, and some of the costumes were hanging up. This one is from one of the parades the dancers do on the Royal Promenade at night.
This is a backdrop from one of the stage shows.
This is a harness that is worn during a wall climbing act at the start of the magic show. The 'dancer' can spin 360 degrees within the harness. It is NOT very light!!
This is the view of the theater, from the stage. It's quite large, but I'm not sure how many it holds. There's about 3600 guests, and most shows have two show times to accommodate the two different dinner seating times.
We went directly from the theater to the ice rink. Even at the end of our second cruise, we still had trouble remembering which way to get into the rink. You can't walk end-to-end on our deck (2) or the ice rink floor (3), and we just could never remember which way to go, LOL. The skate time is only 45 minutes, but those rental skates were hurting me!
I would have liked to skate every day, but it just wasn't possible with shore trips. There wasn't skating in the evenings, and there were other things going on.
After lunch (and possibly a 'rest' LOL) we headed up to the pool deck. This is my great cover up that I made. Hopefully someday I'll make something that involved on the Singer 327 again.
Sadly, I don't recall what we did, except maybe just lounge around and relax. The sun was gearing up for a great sunset....but at the last minute, a cloud appeared out of no where!! We were surprised at how early the sun set, it was only about 30 minutes later than at home. There was a Farewell Show in the theater at 7pm, it was great, and once again, I wish we had bought the DVD of our trip! The rest of the evening was spent packing (bags have to be out by 11pm) and settling the bill (once again they changed how we wanted the charges changed to Canadian! And this time they wouldn't fix it, so it cost us something like 2% extra, even though we had made certain to check the right box!!)
This is our waitress, Huny, and Dale's mother. Never learned her name, LOL.
And this is Dale. He says people think he looks like Bruce Willis, I thought he looked like Billy Joel, LOL.
These pictures are actually from the last morning while we waited to disembark. 
This is our waitress, Huny, and Dale's mother. Never learned her name, LOL.
And this is Dale. He says people think he looks like Bruce Willis, I thought he looked like Billy Joel, LOL.
These pictures are actually from the last morning while we waited to disembark. 
This picture is from the first trip. On the right is the beach we were at. I think. Mmmm....I didn't think we were that close to the building. When we were in the water, and looked to the shore, we could see a lot of rocks on the right side of the beach, and the construction to the left, so I'm thinking we were at the smaller beach on the left. Okay, Rob agrees. The first year was the right beach, this year was the left beach. Oh what a life, to not be able to remember which Caribbean beach we swam at :) The construction hadn't started in this picture, but it was off to the left.
Going more to the left, that little pier is where they're building the new pier. The red roof is I think one of the bbq locations, and that beach at the back is the beach we walked along. There was also a crafter's market and flea market building, a children's supervised play/water splash pad, and an area with Haitian women doing hair braiding. It was all much smaller than we were expecting!
Going around the point, you can see the zip line tower, and the rocks sticking out are the Dragon's Breath, I think.
Last year, when we left Labadee, we went up to the pool deck for pictures. Everyday, both trips, there was live music at the pools in the afternoon. It was always very loud. Rob still managed to fall asleep though! I couldn't stand it, so I went for a walk.
The evening entertainment was a Production show "Once Upon a Time" We were pretty certain it was the show we saw last year as their dress rehearsal, so we didn't go (and we were busy getting ready for dinner; it was a 7pm show). After dinner was "The Quest" adult game show. It's held in the ice rink (boarded over). Each section is a team, and the cruise director guy tells something the team captains have to obtain and bring to him....like....a RC pen, or a lady's bra, or shoe, or lipstick (the men always put the lipstick ON!), and other wild things. It's funny, but we sat at the top and didn't contribute anything. The show didn't start till 10:30pm so we were pretty tired anyway. Last year, one of the items was a tattoo on a lady, and our tablemate ran up so excited she had one to share...and then realized she was wearing a dress, and it was somewhere on her bikini line. She flipped up the dress anyway! 
