Nerve Endings Firing Away

This is the fourth in the series of our Honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean. I talked about the delectable food options and variety of entertainment and activities on board earlier this week. In this post, I’ll focus on the offshore excursions that you go out on when you are at a port-of-call. I may make three different posts on the three excursions we did so as to not make this post too long.

Our ports-of-call were Montego Bay (Jamaica), Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel (Mexico). You often choose a cruise based on the ports it stops at and depending on the port, you choose various offshore excursions either offered by the cruise or independent operators at the ports. These offshore excursion are not included in the price of the cruise and you have to pay extra. Costs can range from $60 to $120 per person depending upon the activity you choose. The activities range from scuba-diving to visit to places of historical importance. You don’t have to go on an excursion. You can simply disembark and roam around the island on your own. Since the Caribbean cruises are known for their excellent beaches and friendly seas, there is a plethora of water-related activities like snorkeling, deep-sea diving, beach resorts, submarine rides, and waterfall walks. Although independent operators are slightly cheaper, if you get delayed with them at any port due to vehicle breakdown the ship sails without you. But with a cruise-organized tour, they tend to wait for you or at least will make arrangements for you to catch up.

Since these offshore excursions are in countries other than United States and often in three different countries as in our case, it is extremely important to take your passport and other immigration documents wherever you go. We bought a waterproof fanny pack that contained our passports (and my I-20) and other personal items. I strapped it on my waist even when I was in water. You don’t want to get stranded in a foreign country with no immigration papers. In such cases, travel insurance such as Travel Guard is a must at least for your peace of mind. Typically you do not need visas when you go to these places with a cruise but it is always better to ask. Ash and I surfed around a lot and mailed the three consulates to make sure we didn’t need visas especially because we are non-U.S. citizens. Americans usually have no problems. We carried documentation of our correspondence with the consulates in case there was a problem.

Montego Bay, Jamaica

After nearly two and a half days at sea, we approached Jamaica which was the furthest we would sail on our cruise. We were supposed to disembark at 8am and thus had an early breakfast. The sight of the island bathed in morning sunlight as we pulled in the port was simply breathtaking. A solitary cloud nestled among the mountains epitomized the image of a paradise in the Caribbean. Jamaica is an island country that has both golden beaches and mountain peaks covered with lush greenery. It might have looked like that island from Cast Away except for the evident signs of civilization to the extent of rampant commercialization (which still looks beautiful in the morning). Or probably we were glad to see land after spending more than two days at sea (imagine the plight of Columbus and his crew).

Sunrise at Sea with Jamaica in the distance [photo by Ash].

Approaching Montego Bay, Jamaica

Sailing into the port at Montego Bay, Jamaica

View from the Pier atop the Lido Deck

We had chosen to go to Dunn Waterfalls on our offshore excursion. In hindsight, this was probably our least memorable excursion but that is only relatively speaking. Jamaica is a beautiful place and you almost instantly get the feeling of the typical Caribbean spirit and sense of place. We disembarked from the lower deck to the cruise terminal and were instantly escorted to our mini bus that would take us to Dunn Falls. In the Cruise Critic forums, Jamaica is often panned as being an unruly dirty place full of traffic going berserk and rude people trying to sell you crap artifacts and even weed. While it may be true but after visiting the place, we feel that all that animosity comes from a superior sense of living in a developed country and not understanding the limitations of a developing country. Of course, the traffic is unruly and people drive on the left side of the road but considering India’s traffic, it was almost like being super-organized. The roads were great and the hour-long drive wasn’t a bumpy one. Our guide was friendly and gave a non-stop commentary on Jamaica. She showed us the free hotels aka jails where we could live in for a long time if we were caught buying weed. She introduced us to three essential Jamaican phrases – Ya Mon (ya, man! You’ve heard this a lot, right?), No Problem (response to what’s up? kinda a national attitude) and Wa Gwan (what’s going on?). We were also told that Jamaica had no ‘problems’ but just ‘small situations’ like the one accident we saw on our way. Driving through Jamaica, you get the feeling of being in Goa – laid back, friendly yet wary, lots of greenery, plenty of sun, tropical food, and the omnipresent calm of the sea.

A Natural Pier at Jamaica

A boat out at sea off the coast of Jamaica

Dunn River Falls located near the town of Ocho Rios (Eight Rivers) is a waterfall that runs directly into the sea at a beach; one of the few that actually does that. Wikipedia tells me that this was the beach that Ursula Andress walked on to the beach from the sea in that memorable scene from the James Bond movie, Dr. No. Now if I had known that earlier, I would have kept an eye out for Ursula. Anyway, I couldn’t take my camera along and we just had a piddly portable waterproof camera that you get in Walmart (hence no pictures of the actual falls). Wearing special water shoes, we were supposed to walk up the waterfall forming a human chair and get dunked in the water occasionally. We were accompanied by guides which told us where to step which didn’t exactly make it exciting. And there were crowds of people possibly from other cruises as well since it was a predominantly white crowd with black guides and helpers. A local who possibly knows every nook and cranny of the falls accompanied us with a video camera making us wave at him and shout Ya Mon so many times that I think we probably exceeded the Jamaican average. I wouldn’t be surprised if the native don’t say that anymore and it is just a touristy thing to do. The video we found later on was ridiculously priced at $40. Who would want to buy it to only ignore it like you do with your home videos when you get home? But couple of families did so the business continues. The water wasn’t deep at all and in places it was only about waist deep but if you have been waterfall-hopping in the Western Ghats during the monsoons, this whole exercise seems a bit lame. But we nevertheless played along and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit getting completely drenched in the process.

As we read in the forums, we did run into those roadside vendors who pestered you to buy their crappy wooden wares. The person who accosted us hit us with a new one by playing the racial emotional guilt trip card by first asking us if we were Indians and then claiming that we Indians never bought anything although they bought stuff from Indians all the time (Indians are the primary traders and merchants in Jamaica). He even went to the extent of suggesting that it was probably a cultural thing that made us not buy stuff from Black people. I laughed it off and refused to fall into his trap. The ride back was peaceful and we stopped on our way at a roadside cafe and helped ourselves to some local Jerk Chicken. We also made a perfunctory stop at a shopping arcade where we could pick up Jamaican tees, rum cake, and other outrageously-priced souvenirs. We picked up one rum cake for us and the other for Sampada-Rajith and our regular fridge magnets. As expected, all shops were owned by desis who predictably focused more on the white customers but that’s ok, we didn’t mind not being conned into buying stuff that we would regret later.

Not really a meeting place for jerks

Tired and hungry, we reached in time just before the lunch buffet on the ship closed. Guess what was on the menu? Yup, Jerk Chicken.