Erynn and I thought we'd experience a cruise. Neither of us had traveled much and thought a cruise would be a good opportunity to sample the Caribbean Sea. We chose an itinerary on Carnival that stopped in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. It was a 7-day cruise on the Paradise. All in all, we had a fantastic time, but we felt a bit limited by our choices and time on land. Even though we were cruising for seven days, we only had a few hours in each port. Typically, we like to immerse ourselves as much as possible, and the cruise-style didn't lend itself to that pursuit. Also, the cruise ship was neat, but it was the only non-smoking ship in the fleet. We don't smoke so we thought it was a good deal, but so did a bunch of other families with a zillion kids. We don't have children, don't drink too much, don't gamble, and we couldn't wake up early enough to stake out a deck chair so we found ourselves walking around and eating for days on end. Fun once, but we don't have a burning desire to repeat the experience.
Every night the ship put on a feast for it's guests. Here we are pictured with our waiters, Miguel and Mario. Miguel was from Haiti and Mario was from the Dominican Republic. They were really entertaining, and when we couldn't make up our mind as to which entrée to order, they recommended we get both. Two thumbs up!
The staff that cleaned the rooms would always leave us with cute sculptures made out of towels, and in this case, our sunglasses.
Our first stop was in the port at Cozumel, Mexico. We took a short boat ride to Playa Del Carmen and then from there a bus ride to the Mayan ruins at Tulum. Here's a picture of Erynn and I near The Castle with the Cove and Temple of the Wind behind us. The picture on the right shows The Castle (where we were sitting) from the opposite direction.
On the left is a photo of the front of The Castle from the courtyard. To the left of The Castle is the Temple of the Descending God, which is in the right-hand picture.
Here's a couple pictures of Erynn. The picture on the left shows her on the beach in the Cove, and the right-hand pic shows her in front of The Castle.
Not to be outdone, Erynn also took some photos of me. On the left you can see me in The Castle courtyard. On the right, I'm in front of the House of the Halach Uinic.
Here's a photo of our cruise ship in Cozumel Harbor along with a bunch of others. Cozumel is an island off the coast of Mexico. Therefore, in order to get to the mainland and to Tulum, we had to take a little boat across the channel. It was one of the roughest boat rides we've ever been on. Even my stomach got a little upset, which means Erynn was positively green. Now, any hint of a small boat ride on the ocean makes Erynn think twice.
We loved Grand Cayman. we were there for only a few hours, but we've made a promise to ourselves to make it back. It was beautiful, laid back, and we didn't get hassled by anyone wanting a hand out like we have so many other places. Even the people in the shops wouldn't approach you unless you actually walked into the store. The per capita GDP is higher than the US so everything was well maintained and we didn't see any vagrants. Above are a couple photos I took while walking along the harbor in Georgetown.
One of the coolest activities we've done was to go to Stingray City and pet the stingrays. In the middle of the North Sound is a sand bar where stingrays hang out waiting for people to feed them. Traditionally, this sand bar was used by returning fisherman to clean their day's catch. The stingrays associated this place with food and became fairly docile. Then an enterprising person began selling tours, and now playing with stingrays is one of THE things to do on Grand Cayman. Above are a couple photos of our guides holding stingrays for on lookers to pet.
These photos were not easy to get. We burned a couple rolls of film, and really didn't get any good ones. The water is waist high and turbulent. Plus, the stingrays float along the bottom and sting if you step on them. Getting stung was something our guides recommended against. As a result, Erynn ended up holding my ankles as I tried to submerge enough to snap a photo. But because of the turbulence and our general fear of getting hurt, it was a challenge getting a decent photo.
Our final stop was in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I snapped this photo of a guy hanging from a plank off the bow of the ship. One of the benefits of operating in a different country is the apparent lack of requirements for safety gear. No life jacket nor safety harness. The right-hand photo shows Ocho Rios from the deck of the ship. The cruise director recommended not leaving the company of any ship staff or the tour operators. When we left the ship, we landed into a fenced-in compound for fear of being accosted by the locals. Completely the opposite experience from Cayman.
2005 Update: While attending the GSB in 2005, I had a classmate from Jamaica. I told him of my impression of Jamaica and the apparent security we were afforded during our stop in Jamaica. He mentioned that at one point the government had an ad campaign imploring the locals not to harass the tourists. We both were amused. My best goes out to Chad.
One of the quick tours we took while in Jamaica was of the Brimmer Hall Estate. It's a working plantation, and we were given a taste of what used to be grown in Jamaica and some traditional methods. The picture on the left shows the guide climbing a tree to retrieve a coconut. He used an ingenious little strap between his feet to give him enough leverage to climb the tree like a cat. The picture on the right shows him with a bunch of bananas on his head.
The second trip we took was to Dunns River Falls. It's basically a natural water park. You go in groups, lead by a guide, up the falls holding each other's hands. It was actually quite fun.
The climbing ability of people is not entirely equal. I got a little restless from waiting so long and holding a stranger's hand so I decided to grab the bull by the horns. You can see me in the left picture climbing one stretch of the falls by myself. It really wasn't as dangerous as it looks.
Our guide snapped the photo of the two of us in the falls. He then followed us to our bus to get his tip. None of us had brought any money in our bathing suits. There was also a series of souvenir stands at the top where couldn't buy anything either due to the lack of money. Poor design in my opinion. More importantly, the people were really aggressive, which led Erynn and I to dub the souvenir stands "The Gauntlet", and we didn't return once we got dry clothes on. Our tour guide also walked with us while we window shopped then walked onto the tour bus uninvited to get his money.
Generally on cruises, and specifically on Carnival cruises, you are expected to tip your wait staff. The tips are generally hundreds of dollars. The ship had an ATM so Erynn and I had expected to just take out some money when the time came. However, after leaving Jamaica we cruised around Cuba. There is a communications blackout around Cuba because the US apparently doesn't want Fidel to get Sportscenter. Well, the ATM connected to the network through satellites, and we couldn't get any money. After some frantic questioning of staff, we found out the casino really didn't need to communicate with the mainland in order to extend some credit on our credit cards. Therefore, we got a few hundred dollars worth of chips and quarters, gambled for about five minutes then cashed in. Problem solved.
© 2000-2005 Doug Rathburn