We arrived in Port Antonio, Jamaica after a day at sea on board the
Prince Albert II. The overnight stays in Miami and La Romana,
Dominican Republic were quite pleasant with a wonderful Cuban dinner
with old friend Neil (N3DF) and spooky respectively since the Case de
Campo resort isn't in La Romana but kind of the other way around. It's
on 7000 acres (that's 4,974.3 hectares, I believe), so big that every
room comes with a gasoline golf cart and a map that dissolves in high
humidity. We rode all over a small corner of the resort in a downpour,
found a bar with a small amount of shelter but high amount of pesos
per glass of wine and had a nice dinner before embarking the next day
with less money but memories that will last a week or so.
I visited Port Antonio in 1968 during a trip with the Bell Labs
Holiday Club. At that time I didn't take the "world famous" raft trip
on the Rio Grande. Now I did. The rafts are about 20 feet long but
made entirely of bamboo held together by ants. The float to the
Caribbean takes 2 hours during which the guide said nothing other
than, "We work for tips". The ride was said to be very safe except for
the rumor that circulated after the trip that another guide fell off
and was now being searched for, presumed drowned. We were told at the
most annoying and mandatory evening "briefing" that the rumor was
absolutely true. Yikes.
Nevertheless, the ship's food and service is even better than the
standard Silversea product (which is unbelievable fantastic anyway), the
crew includes many old friends, and the Expedition Staff aren't completely
annoying. We saw a Rasta fisherman as we sailed away that evening to a
nice sunset while hoping that we wouldn't see the lost raft captain
float by.
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