Wednesday Feb 26 – Falmouth Jamaica

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Hello from Jamaica. Ya-man! We had a morning excursion, so we set the alarm and got up sharply at 7:00. Since this is Ash Wednesday, we had a meatless breakfast in the Horizon Court. We missed the bacon and ham, but that’s what you are supposed to do today - Monseigneur Mitas would be proud of us.

We went to the Medical Center promptly at 8:00, when they opened. This was because our excursion ticket said there was an 800-yard walk between the ship and the buses, and that would have just been too far for Janet using her walker. So, we rented a wheelchair and David was able to push her all the way. It’s also good to have done this because most of those 800 yards were over cobblestones which would have been impossible with a walker.

Jim and Kathy were on the same excursion with us, so we waited for them to join us on the same bus. However, we got the reserved front row seats and they were in the back of the bus (insert Jim Siebert wise-crack here). We had a 90-minute drive from Falmouth to the Konoko Falls and Park, we drove along the coast road and our guide gave us lots of information. We stopped about mid-way for a rest break at a small snack shop. Janet was able to navigate this location using her walker. When everyone was back on the bus we headed toward and through Ocho Rios (8 Rivers in Spanish - because that is how many come together here). As we drove along the guide pointed out points of interest and explained some of the history of the island. We drove by several churches but could not stop because Ash Wednesday is a holy day and most were having services. The weekly open market which is normally held on Wednesday was held yesterday because of today’s holy day.

We drove up to the Konoko Park and Janet was able to see almost everything using the wheelchair – it would have been too difficult to get around with the walker. Even at that David had to push her up and down a few steep ramps and she got out and walked a few times. As it was she missed the actual viewing of the Falls, but frankly we have already seen some much more impressive Falls elsewhere in the world. We did see a lot of interesting fauna (trees and flowers) and some interesting birds/animals too. We will insert a couple of pictures for you to see a few of them.

After boarding the bus again, we drove through an area called Fern Galley. There are over 300 species of ferns growing on the side of the road almost creating a tunnel effect. Then we drove down to the Ocho Rios main shopping district where we were given an hour to shop. Janet successfully managed with the walker again – so she did a lot on her own two feet. We primarily visited a tourist gift shop, and we did buy a few things. One of the items was a bottle of Jamaican Rum Cream – Chocolate flavored. There were a lot of different choices, but they were only giving samples of the Original and the Chocolate, so that’s the one we got – the Original tasted exactly like Bailey’s Irish Cream. They also had a Rum and Raisin flavor, or an Orange flavor, or several others, but those weren’t being served when we were there.

We got back on the bus one last time and headed back to the port – 90 minutes away. Unfortunately, there was a large accident on the road which choked all the traffic into one single lane, so we were more like 2 hours getting back. We offloaded from the bus and wheeled Janet back to the ship and straight into the International Café. We all had Tuna Fish sandwiches. We have been eating on a very frequent schedule lately and were quite hungry by this time.

Here is a weather update. It was nice and sunny today with a high about 84 degrees. Janet read on her phone that there was 2.4 inches of snow in St Peters Missouri, so we hope nobody missed another day of school. Tonight the temperature is supposed to go down to 72 on the ship. There is some kind of cold front moving through so it is expected to only be 77 in Grand Cayman tomorrow.

We all went back to our respective cabins to rest for a few hours before real dinner began. At 4:30 the Medical Center opened, and David was able to return our wheelchair. We feel that this was a good investment because the alternative would have prevented Janet from going on the excursion completely.

We met with the Sieberts at 5:15 and went to dinner. David tried to make a reservation when we first got back to the ship, but all that was remaining were walk-up tables. However we got seated very quickly, had a nice table for four, and the waiter was very efficient and personable. In a couple of days when we are back in the dining room, we may try to make reservations for table 59. Anyway we each had something different as our appetizer, and then they served a sorbet as a palate cleanser and then we had seafood for dinner. Jim had the Trout and the rest of us had Sea Scallops. For dessert we all had different things, but each of us enjoyed their food.

We returned to our cabin before 7:30. We could have gone to the Princess Theater for a comedian, but we have a 6:45 gathering time tomorrow and the Sieberts are just a little later than that. So we have settled down to rest up before another adventure tomorrow. David did go and refill our water bottles for tomorrow, but that’s all for tonight

Good night!

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