March 16 - Ocho Rios

Next stop... Jamaica! It was love at first sight. Unlike the other port views, the topography was a lush green with some hills! The other places had been so flat. It was another beautiful day and we hung our hats on the plan of visiting Dunn's River Falls.

As you can see from the pictures, we made it. The trip there was pleasantly uneventful. We tagged along with some others from our group, negotiating a $4 one-way trip instead of a $16 round trip. We walked into the park and were blown away by the beauty.

The trip up was quite precarious. There were SO many people walking hand-in-hand in groups. (The guides preferred it that way so they could all reach the top together and he could get his tips.) We shook off our wannabe guide (I told him we'd be fine) and braved it alone. CaraLee was a remarkable climber! She was especially good at the most difficult parts! Originally, we had thought about trying to do the climb in our bare feet - to save the $5 each for boots - but we were glad that we didn't. It was all so beautiful and tropical. It was a wonderful excursion.
Our return trip was a little scarier. Our driver suffered from a little case of road rage and picked the wrong combatant. Just as it was about to come to blows, our guy peeled out and we were off ot the ship. We arrived safely and went straight to the beach to calm our nerves.

The beach was amazing. You can see the white sand and crystal blue water. That's our ship in the background... home. :) We relaxed for a little while - I was more restless than CaraLee, she seemed content to lay there longer - and then went for another walk.

This time, we ventured to the Island Village, close to port. There, we wandered through some very commercial-looking storefronts and bought a little snack to tide us over until supper.

Back at the boat, we were getting geared up for "Tropical Night". Our waiters put on a little dance for us. This picture is not of our waiter, but there's a funny story that goes with it. When they were all doing their conga line around the room, our waiter leaned over and said to us, giggling, "He's a REAL GAY!" It was so un-PC that it reminded us just how far from home we were.

Later in the evening, we went to the Theatre for a Variety show which was amazing. Then, we got good seats to watch everybody dance to the tropical rhythms of the ship's raggae band. CaraLee confessed later that her ideal husband would have taken her out to the dance floor to be fun... I was too content to be boring.