PORT EXCURSIONS

WARNING: This is another picture intensive blog

 

Since Mr. W takes care of all our routes and reservations on our land trips, he told me that I would have to take care of booking excursions or deciding what we were going to do at each port of call.  Man, the pressure!  So, I started reading about each available excursion, reading reviews on each, reading physical limitations, reading time limits, etc., etc.  Finally, after about 2 weeks of all that studying, I made my decision.

First stop – Falmouth, Jamaica – Phrase I learned: Yea, Mon!

I have heard for a very long time about all the “hawkers” in Jamaica.  From some of the reviews I read, they really do exist and some of them border on harassing you to the point of frustration.  Most people said that if you do not take a cruise line sponsored excursion, do not leave the cruise line compound on the dock.  There was plenty of shopping available in the compound.  Not only were there the shops that the cruise lines sponsor but there were also locals set up with their goods and some local Mom & Pop stores.  The locals and the Mom & Pop stores would bargain with you.  Of course, the more you bought, the better the price you got on everything.  I bought a necklace, bracelet, and coffee cup from one of the locals.  What are the 2 things that Jamaica is known for?  OK, one is an easy guess and you got it – rum.  But, do you know the other?  Nope, not that.  Oh wait, did you say coffee?  Yep, coffee.  So, when in Jamaica, buy what they are known for. 

I had also arranged for us to take a bamboo raft ride down the Martha Brae River.  So, we were transported in a van to the property where we would start out raft trip.  They had really pretty gardens and an herb garden on the property.  Of course they were running behind schedule, so we were going to have at least a 30 minute wait before we started the raft trip. 

 

We finally got to board and the “captain” of our raft was Joseph.  Joseph is 65 years old and hopes to retire in a couple of years.  He has been working for this company and doing raft trips for 32 years.  He has already cut back on his hours.  Most of the younger guys do 3 trips down the river per day.  Joseph only does 2 and he does not work but a couple of days a week.  Joseph was in no hurry and took his time getting down the river.  That was really nice for us.  We got to sit back and just enjoy without feeling like we were being herded in and out.  Several rafts passed us and their captains weren’t talking to the passengers and telling stories like Joseph was.  He was even singing to us.  Joseph was Seventh Day Adventist and sang hymns as well as popular songs.  He said that the other “captains” call him Preacher.  I can think of a whole lot worse things to be called can’t you? He talked to us about Jesus being his Redeemer and that God was in control of everything so he had learned not to worry.

This is Joseph's raft.  He made it himself.

Jamaica has had a lot of rain this year so the river is up and more muddy than usual.

This is a couple from the Netherlands that we met on day two.  Just by coincidence, they had signed up for all the same excursions as we did.

Bamboo that has been cut down.  Once it turns mostly tan, they will make it into a raft.

One of the many "concession stands" along the river.  Everyone would call out to you telling you what they were selling and asking if you wanted to buy.

 

When we left the river, we went to a combination zoo/safari tourist attraction to have lunch.  I don't even want to think about what that could possibly mean.  Anyway, they had picnic tables under a cover and evidently, all the tour buses came by here for lunch.  We did have a good lunch.

We ended up talking to a couple who dined next to us each evening.  They had gone outside the compound that day.  Someone took them to the old church in the city and gave them a “tour” and told them about the history.  After the tour, they wanted money for the “tour.”  After the “tour”, they had tried to go shopping in the local market.  The lady said that it became a little scary so she insisted they return to the compound.  I’m not sure what she meant by a little scary.  But, I know it could get uncomfortable.

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at Jamaica.  It was beautiful, had mountains and we didn’t have any problems with hawkers.  When we said no thank you, the peddlers on the river were very nice.

 

Sailing away from Jamaica

 Second stop – Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands – Phrase I learned:  No problem

First of all, Georgetown does not have a dock for the cruise ships.  So, the ships have to anchor off and ferry boats tender all the passengers to the shore and back.  That was kind of interesting.  You step out of the door of the cruise ship onto the other boat that is pulled up next to the cruise ship.  I sure didn’t want the boat to rock away from the ship right about the time I was trying to step into it! It really was secure and I didn’t have anything to worry about.

I had booked the excursion that set sail on a big catamaran and sailed to Stingray City.  Here’s the story on Stingray City.  A long time ago, most of the people on Grand Cayman fished for food and for a living.  When the fisherman would return, they would clean the fish on the shore.  The flies and mosquitoes were so bad that they couldn’t clean the fish without being covered in both.  So, they started anchoring off their boats about ½ mile from shore, opening a bottle of rum, and cleaning the fish on their boat.  They would throw the fish heads and guts overboard and the stingrays would eat them.  Before long, the stingrays knew it meant food when the boats would come.  So, there are many, many, many stingrays still in the area.  Of course, when all the boats get there and all the people get off the boats into the water with the stingrays, we feed them squid so boat still means food.  We were given some instructions on touching them, feeding them, walking around them, etc. before we got in.  They really are pretty remarkable and they like to have the underneath side of their “wings” rubbed gently.  Who knew?  We were standing on a sandbar that is out there in the middle of the Caribbean and the water was absolutely gorgeous.  It looked like swimming pool water.  After we played for a while with the stingrays, we loaded back on the boat and went back to the dock.

This is Stan.  He was our guide on the catamaran.

This is only a couple of the MANY boats in the area.  This is a huge attraction.

Everyone congregates around their guide for the first stingray.  No one is brave enough to be the first one to grab a stingray.

This really was pretty cool.  They feel very velvety and not slimy or scaly.

Here’s an interesting fact.  Back in the late 1700’s, one of the queen’s ships starting sinking off the coast of the Cayman Islands.  The people of the island swam out and rescued almost all the crew.  The queen was so grateful that she declared that the Cayman Islands would be tax-free for life.  No property taxes, no sales tax, no income tax.  Needless to say, there is a lot of banking and a lot of money coming into the Cayman Islands.  Supposedly, there are many famous, wealthy people who own homes on Grand Cayman.  I bet there are.  Here are some of the homes.

Supposedly this is Sylvester Stallone's home.  You notice we couldn't get very close.

The highest point on the island is 60 ft. above sea level.  I’m not sure where that is because everything I saw looked like it wasn’t much more than about 10 ft. above sea level.  Don’t be there during a hurricane.

Grand Cayman was pretty much exactly what I expected.  The water and beaches were beautiful.

A sign on the sidewalk back in the town.

Third stop – Cozumel, Mexico – phrase I learned:  It’s all cheaper in my store.  Come check it out.

There were 5 cruise ships in port that day.  Can you say crowded? We are talking around 2,000 per ship.  I know not everyone gets off the ship, but still.  That is a lot of people.  One thing I have figured out, it doesn’t matter where you go in Mexico, Mexico is the same all over.  Things aren’t very organized.  There really is no concept of being on a time schedule.  Everything you purchase there is a bargaining experience.

Looking off our balcony onto the pier and at Freedom of the Seas.

Looking back at both ships.  The water was really pretty here.

I had booked an excursion that went to Playa Mia Beach Resort.  It is a water resort on one of the beaches.  There are hundreds of lounge chairs lined up along the beach.  You can rent an umbrella for $6 for the day if you want shade.  Or, you can move to chairs under the few trees as the shade moves depending on availability.  It had 2 really nice pools.  One pool is located next to a small water park made mainly for kids.  There was a blow up platform out in the water that you could swim to.  You could jump/bounce on it and off of it.  Only kids went out there though.  Included in the excursion was the use of their water bicycle, paddle boats, kayaks, and if you knew how to sail already, you could use one of their small 2 person sail boats.  They had an international buffet which was all you could eat.  They had plenty of cold bottled water.  Beer and some mixed drinks were also free.

Mr. W relaxing on one of the lounge chairs.

The blow up island

This is the pool by the water park.

This is one side of the buffet.  Not the best of food.

This guy was walking around with this giant lizard "thingy".  Of course if you wanted your picture made with it or just a picture of it without strangers in your picture, it was going to cost you.

You know, you see all kinds of people on these excursions.  A family (Dad, Mom, teenage son, almost teenage daughter, and young son) walked up and put their stuff down on the chairs in front of us and over to the side a little bit.  The mom immediately takes off her shorts and runs to the water and sits down.  OK, we all know what she is doing, right?  She is in her white, see through PANTIES! She calmly walks back to her chair not at all concerned that she is in wet, see through panties. OMG! When she gets back to her chair, she wraps a towel around her waist, pulls off her panties and starts putting on her swim suit bottoms.  She is having trouble getting these on because her bottom is wet.  So, we get a show of part of her bare bottom.  P-E-O-P-L-E! What are you doing???? Why do you think this is OK???

The water here was murky and full of seaweed.  The beach was not sandy.  It was rocky.  Because no one wanted to brave the rocks to swim in the murky beach water, the pools were overcrowded.  To say that I was disappointed in Cozumel is really an understatement. 

A sister ship, Freedom of the Seas, was at each port with us.  We met some really nice people on the excursions from Freedom of the Seas.  That was a nice little bonus.  All in all, I think I did pretty good on the excursions and Mr. W seemed to enjoy himself.  It was nice to see some places we had not seen before and meet some of the local people at each port.  We also went at the right time of the year.  The weather and the temperature of the water was perfect. 

Sailing away from Cozumel