Ausflug 36

A MAN A P LAN A C A NAL P A NAM A

December 08

Day 9
December 7th: Ochos Rios, Jamaica

Bob:

When we awoke our ship had already docked at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, for the day. Our excursion did not start until 10:00 a.m., so after breakfast we circled the walkway on Deck 15 to get a good overall view of the harbor and the island. The harbor had one large pier where our cruise ship was docked. There was one other pier over to our right, but it looked like it was a commercial pier, possibly for exporting bauxite ore from which aluminum is made. Bauxite is one of the main exports of Jamaica, and on Wanderung 18 we learned that they were building a refining plant in Iceland where they could take advantage of the cheap electricity there to convert the bauxite to aluminum.

To our left was a beautiful semi-circular beach with the small city (or large town) of Ocho Rios behind it. We saw a couple of medium-sized high-rise condominiums near the seaward end of the beach, but most of the town consisted of 1-3 story buildings, surprisingly low density for a resort area. The gently sloped mountains rose right in back of the town and they were entirely clothed in a rich, verdant green that looked like rain forest, jungle, or some similar kind of vegetation. Very pretty.

Monika:

We had discussed what to do in Ocho Rios. We had climbed up Dunns River Falls on our previous trip, and although that was a lot of fun, we really wanted to do something different. We had all our snorkeling gear, but had not snorkeled, so we decided that the sail and snorkel tour on a catamaran would be just the right thing to do. The tour did not start until 10:30, so we could sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast, very important after last night's late to bed. We did go up on deck and take some pictures. There did not seem to be much there. The ship was docked on an old pier way out in the bay, with a long pier going towards the city.

Bob:

Returning to our cabin shortly before 10:00 a.m. to grab our masks, snorkel, sun block, towels, and all that sort of thing, we checked out of the ship and walked down the pier to the marshalling point for our tour, which turned out to be a small dock right next to the large cruise ship pier. The large catamaran for our tour was already docked there, so we all hopped aboard, waited 10 minutes for any stragglers, and then set off for our snorkeling expedition.

It turned out that we motored about 500 feet across the mouth of the harbor and then anchored right beside the spit of land where it ended in a coral reef. Gosh, if they had let us swim from the ship I probably could have just swum over and saved myself the boat tour! Still, it was fun to put our gear on, get in the water, and slowly work our way along the edge of the reef.

Monika:

We dressed for our excursion in swimsuit and T-shirt. We decided to take our own snorkeling gear, only leaving the fins since they were rather awkward. We had to walk to the end of the pier to go to the meeting point. The catamaran was just docking and it was a rather nice picture of the small catamaran with the large Coral Princess in back. On board the cat, we were fitted with fins and took a small trip to the breakwater at the end of the bay. The catamaran dropped anchor, lowered steps and we could go into the water. I guess there were some instructions for newbies, but we old hands were allowed to swim off. No warning, about not stepping on or touching the coral. I was very curious how may new camera would perform, because one of the reasons I got this model was that it could take underwater pictures. Bob and I alternated taking pictures.


 

Bob:

Unfortunately, the reef looked to me like it was either dead or dying. I didn't see any really healthy looking coral plants, and many of the formations I did see where bleached white and kind of disintegrating. I'm not sure whether the cause was pollution from the town, higher sea temperatures, or the direct effect of humans on that ecosystem, but I saw people from our tour standing on the coral and that surely made the situation worse. In Bermuda, for example, our snorkeling expedition had included a movie that emphasized not touching or standing on the coral, but our Jamaican crew didn't give any such warnings, unfortunately.

Still, we did see a lot of fish living on the reef, and I hope that was a good sign. We were trying out Monika's new waterproof camera, so we took turns getting pictures of the coral formations, the fish, and each other swimming. It was good to put that camera through an acid test, so to speak, and I hoped that some of the pictures would convey the wonderful sense of floating along while looking at the ever-changing underwater scene that we had while we were there.

Monika:

The first we saw when swimming away from the ship, was a lot of seagrass, but then there were some individual corals and finally a coral field. It was rather shallow and at places I really had to watch out not to run into the coral. With the coral also came the fish and there really was a great variety of them. Unfortunately, they did not stop to pose for a picture, and they did seem to swim rather fast. So it was challenging getting good pictures, but lots of fun.

The advantage of my new camera over the one-time disposable underwater cameras, is that you have a rather large viewing area to check what you are taking, and you don't have to put it in front of your eye. So the time went fast with each of us chasing fish for pictures and looking at the beautiful coral. Unfortunately, some of the coral actually looked dead and others stressed. Too many tourists with too little sense and maybe dirty water from the city. What a shame.


 

Bob:

We snorkeled for about an hour and were one of the last ones back on board the catamaran. After pulling up the anchor, our Captain took us maybe a mile or so down the coast to Dunns River Falls, a site we had visited on our previous visit to Jamaica. We came in close enough that we could easily have swum to shore, but our Captain refused that request and instead sailed us out to sea for a final swim.

I know it's partly psychological and probably due to watching "Jaws" too often, but I feel much safer swimming in shallow waters near a beach than swimming out in the deep blue sea. But partly it requires a lot more energy to keep my negatively-buoyant body on top of the swells out in the ocean than it does in the calmer water near shore. Monika, on the other hand, floats like a cork and she went merrily bobbing away over the ocean waves. Still, the ocean water was a bit cooler than the reef water had been, so our final swim was a nice and refreshing way to end our excursion.

Monika:

After we had swum around for over an hour we saw that everyone else was back on board, so we reluctantly got back too. There we were served fruit- and rumpunch, and the rumpunch really had rum. After two glasses, I decided that was enough for me. We started sailing along the coast until we were just off Dunns River Falls and we saw the people forming a line at the bottom and started climbing up. We were not allowed to stop, so we sailed on into the Atlantic. A little while later, we stopped and were allowed to swim in the ocean. This cooled us down and really was a lot of fun. After this we headed back to town.

Bob:

Back onshore we walked into town, looking for $1 beer or $1 an hour internet access like we had found in Nicaragua. Instead we found jewelry stores, "Hemp Heaven", expensive-looking bars, and $8 per hour Internet access (at the Taj Mahal shopping center). Even the stores at the shopping center, however, come across as tawdry, tacky, and/or dingy. Finally we gave up and returned to the ship for a late lunch, but as we were wandering back down the pier a Jamaican security guard nabbed us and proceeded to thoroughly search Monika's purse. Given "Hemp Heaven" at the shopping mall and the drug vendors populating the city streets, it seemed like a fine exercise in hypocrisy to have the police searching tourists reboarding the ship. Like those 25 mph speed traps I encountered 5-10 miles outside the city limits in the South a few years back, the Jamaican drug law enforcement seems to have nothing to do with morality or the public welfare but everything to do with making a buck from unsuspecting visitors. Once back on board we rested a bit, and then went back on deck to watch the Coral Princess depart Ocho Rios. Up on deck I talked with a fellow passenger who had avoided setting foot in Jamaica since his honeymoon there 25 years ago, and I can well understand his aversion.

Monika:

We decided to see what there was to see in Ocho Rios, and the answer was not much. We walked around one of the shopping malls, since we had been told it had internet access. The stores were mainly jewelry and watch stores with something called "Hemp Heaven" in the middle. The internet cafe was $1 for 15 minutes and looked dingy. We decided it was not that important, after all, we would be back in civilization in a few days. So we just walked back to the ship. We are used to having to show our shipcard and picture ID before getting back into the safe zone Princess establishes around a ship when docked. But to my great surprise, this time a Jamaican official asked to see my backpack and searched it thoroughly. All I can surmise is that she was looking for drugs. It seems that in Jamaica it is tolerated for Jamaicans to sell drugs but not for tourists to have them. Of course, we did not have any and she had to let us go, but I was glad getting back on a nice predictable ship.

Bob:

That evening we saw the ship's song and dance troupe perform in the Universe Lounge aft. The total seating capacity and the stage were much smaller than in the Princess Theater forward, but curiously enough the Universe lounge had a nice loge or balcony with a few seats. We thought those upper level seats might be nice for photography, so we parked ourselves in a pair of chairs next to the railing and watched the performance, entitled "Tribute".

The first three sections of "Tribute" were song and dance routines dedicated to The Beatles, The Beachboys, and The Rat Pack. That was in reverse chronological order, but at least it kind of made sense and the actual song and dance performances were very good considering the limitations of the stage area. But then the performance shifted to some female vocalists who we had never heard of at all, which made it rather hard to follow. That was puzzling since there are so many really good and quite popular female vocalists or vocal groups (e.g. Aretha Franklin, The Supremes,...) to choose from in any given decade. Why did they go with unknowns vocalists and songs we had never heard? Overall, though, it was an entertaining way to end our day in Jamaica.

Monika:

After dinner the production ensemble performed in the Universe Lounge instead of the Princess Theater. It has one large stage and two smaller ones with rotating platforms. The show was called "Tribute" and they did songs from the Beatles, Beach Boys, and the Rat Pack. It was again well choreographed, well sung and danced. We thoroughly enjoyed the show and again tried to recognize Crystal among the dancers.

Copyright 2009 by Robert W. Holt and Elsbeth Monika Holt

Prolog: Thanksgiving

Map of our Cruise

Epilog: Flying Home

Day 1
Getting to Acapulco
Day 2
The Coral Princess
Day 3
Guatemala
Day 4
Nicuragua
Day 5
Costa Rica
Day 6
At Sea
Day 7
The Panama Canal
Day 8
At Sea
Day 9
Jamaica
Day 10
Sailing Home

Return to the Wanderungs Homepage.
Sign the Guestbook or Read the Guestbook.
Comments about this site? Email the Webmaster.
Contact Bob and Monika at bob_monika@hotmail.com.