Jamaica is the 3rd largest island in the Caribbean. Cuba and Hispaniola are the largest. The island of Jamaica is 146 miles long, and is slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut. There are 2.7 million people living here, with 800,000 of them living in Kingston, the capital. This city also has the most English-speaking citizens south of Miami.
Our port of call today was the city of Ocho Rios, located on the north coast between Port Antonio and Montego Bay. There are several all- inclusive resorts here where the folks can explore the waterfalls, roads shaded by ferns, rivers, and beaches. Some are even "clothes optional".
Jamaicans are famous for the native dish of jerk pork and beef. "Jerk" is a seasoning consisting of allspice, pimento, cloves, garlic, onion, ginger, cinnamon, thyme and pepper. Jerk dishes can be served with breadfruit, rice and peas. A popular soup is called callalou, consisting of firey spicy,okra, and salt pork or beef.
Music is big here, and Bob Marley, the Reggae artist, was raised here, and is now buried here. A big event here is the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival held in June.
Things to do and see here are tours of Dunn's River and lunch, a cooking class with lunch, or a chair lift, bobsled, and zipline excursion. One can raft on the Martha Brae River, have a dolphin encounter, or take the ho-ho bus. Not sure this was operating today, due to Covid restrictions.
The ship docked at the pier in Ocho Rios Bay. We know we have been here before, but little of it was looking familiar. Taking our time getting off, we expected not to be able to access town, according to the information we got yesterday. However, that was not the case. It was a fairly long walk from the ship to the start of town, far enough for locals to offer wheelchair transfers to shore. Many took up on the opportunity. Government taxis were gathered at the gate, where we were told that was the only way out of the terminal.
For the first time this trip, besides the mandatory mask requirement, we had our temps taken by local authorities, then an orange band was placed on our wrists. Now we were free to walk through the closed gate. Purell stations were set up everywhere we went. Available to us were the Margarita White
Sand Beach at Island Village, the Harbour Shops, and the Taj Mahal Shopping Center. The latter one did look familiar. There was nothing to stop us from continuing on towards town, although we chose not to go further. By the way, more taxi drivers were outside the gate.
Crossing Main Street, we went into a few shops, but first being stopped at the door for another temperature check, and forced Purell. The prices of souvenirs seemed to have gone way up since we were here. But we have to say the vendors were willing to bargain. We did buy a visor and a t-shirt like top from a few of the smaller shops. On the way back, we strolled through Island Village, a property with more shopping, entertainment, jewelry stores, restaurants and bars. Starbucks also. One of the biggest restaurants here was Margaritaville, like we saw in Grand Turk. It might have been a suitable place for burgers and beers, but it was still too early for us. We just took pictures of the few birds we saw here. At the port gate, we showed our room key, and were allowed back in. We must have used Purell at least one dozen times by the time we got to this point. Our attitude was," no problem, mon". Cruises ships are just beginning to come back, according to a vendor. This particular lady called most of the passengers "cheap Charlies", as they were not buying much today. Her cost to set up her souvenir table costs her $25 a day, which she claimed she had not reached her rent money yet. Of course, many people were on tours, and would be back later. There were some nice wood carvings of bowls. However, we have to keep in mind that we have a luggage weight limit going back, so have to refrain from buying heavy items.
Passing through the terminal building, we were stopped for a vote on how wefound the island today. There were four Emoji faces, but we pushed the happy face. The guard was pleased. Back on the ship, we relaxed on our veranda, while watching the boat tours come and go. At 2pm, we headed for a Lido/Grand Dutch Cafe lunch, and ended up coming back by 5pm. All aboard was 5:30pm, and we wanted to be on the veranda for the sailing out of the harbor. Needless to say, having this veranda has been really nice. And having the opportunity to get a lot of fresh air sure doesn't hurt.
We are still experiencing problems with sending the blog with the photos attached. Bear with us as we try to figure out the glitch in the process. Earlier in the cruise, it worked fine, but now, not so good. In addition, our incoming emails have been piling up, and not coming through. For that reason, we have been going to the Front Desk area where it seems to work better.
The sun set early, and we did have some scenic sailing as the ship followed the northern coastline of Jamaica, passing several smaller towns, as well as going past Montego Bay. Once clear of the tip of the island, the ship headed west towards our next stop in Cozumel, Mexico.
Dinner for us was in the Tamarind Restaurant, which was fairly busy at 8pm. The food and service was good, but we did experience a longer wait for our entrees. At the beginning of this cruise, Presty had mentioned that about 28 dining room stewards were going home, and being replaced with 28 new crew. This new set of wait staff would have to be quarantined before beingvable to work. That tells us that they are short-staffed for a while, and that could be part of the reason our meal service was slower than usual. Not that we were in any hurry to go somewhere, they did apologize profusely. Once again, we said no problem mon!
Looking forward to a relaxing day at sea tomorrow.
Bill & Mary Ann
