Ocho Rios, Jamaica

This was for us, a bit of a learning experience, one that taught us that some folks will do ANYTHING for a buck. We sailed to Jamaica aboard Victory, and had scheduled an excursion Through Carnival that included A trip up Fern valley, stopped at a botanical garden, did some shopping, and ended at Dunn's River Falls. For this excursion, our guide was a wonderful young lady named Natasha. She was an excellent guide, and very knowledgeable. Our tour started up the road to Fern Valley, a windy 2-lane roadway up to the top of a mountain just outside Ocho Rios. Along the way, Natasha showed us one of the places that was used in the James Bond movie, Dr. No. Anyway, drove up toward the summit, and saw some things that were very strange, such as openings cut into the hillsides that held old ratty tin shacks that some of the residents lived in. Weird thing was, that outside of these shacks was usually a clean shiny car. Hmm... To continue, the road eventually led to a beautiful garden where we were guided by a gentleman who called himself "Happy". The garden was very interesting, and after about an hour, we were taken back to town for a bit of shopping. Here's where things got strange. the "shopping areas" were very obviously NOT for the locals. Gated, with armed guards, and dogs. Hmm... the tour ended at Dunn's River Falls. We were taken to the entrance of the park and told to "walk over there". The path led to a beautiful waterfall that a line of folks were actually walking through! there was a natural set of steps winding back and forth through the falls leading from the bottom to the top. We didn't participate in the walk through the falls, so we decided to go ahead and head back to the entrance to catch the bus. When we tried to use the same walkway we used to get down to the falls, we were told in no uncertain terms that we should take another pathway that lay nearby. This path has come to be known by Crystal & I as "The Gauntlet". A narrow convoluted trail, it wound among scores of small tents and stands with people that were hawking various gifts and such. we had learned by this time that if one doesn't want anything, one should be firm and keep moving. An unfortunate family in front of us had not learned this and was literally herded into a tent by some particularly aggressive Jamaicans. I wasn't really concerned for our safety, but one could see how this situation could easily degenerate into a real problem.  The tour ended a bit later and as we were leaving we remembered that there is one of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritavilles nearby. We stopped in and had a Cheeseburger in Paradise, and a drink. We learned another thing as this point, that alcohol served in other countries is normally WAY stronger that equivalent American brands. Crystal had a Margarita, and I had decided to sample the local beer, Red Stripe. Crystal Margarita came with the rum in a test tube-looking container on the side. Hmmm... She poured all of the container into her drink and proceeded to drink it. , on the other hand noticed that the bottle the Red Stripe came in was identical to the kind our local beer, Iron City comes in. I took a swig, and thought, "This even tastes like Iron city". What we were to both realize was that the alcohol content of both drinks was MUCH higher than we expected. Apparently, the rum in Crys' Margarita was about 150 proof, and the Red Stripe was NOT Iron City strength, more like 10 percent alcohol, not the 2.5 percent we as Americans are used to. To make a long story somewhat shorter, we both had a pretty fair buzz going as we left Margaritaville.

It turns out that Ocho Rios isn't one of our favorite stops in the Caribbean, and we don't plan on going back.