That Ill Fated Cruise and Roatan island

What should have been a wonderful vacation, turned out to be really tragic. Not for me and my family,  thank heavens but for the family of the lady who jumped overboard. 

You know, when I heard the announcement "man overboard" I thought it was a hoax. This is because some years ago on another Carnival cruise, just outside of Dominica there was a similar announcement and not only did we spend some four hours circling and looking for the body but so did a British frigate. It had been on some training mission in Dominica and came to assist. 

After a long search, they did an inventory and found no one missing. Coincidentally, it was  the 1st April so the captain concluded that the anonymous call they had received was some idiot's idea of an April fools joke! It was no joke however, just stupid and wasteful.

View from the manually operated swing bridge

In this case it was deathly serious though as a lady who was about 65 years old I hear, did jump to her death. I never  knew her or even see when her body was being recovered, but I know the grief that comes with  losing a loved one and as her son and daughter were there, I can just imagine how traumatic it is for them. Our discomfort only came from the fact that after the boat had to circle for about three hours searching for the body, they were low on fuel so had to turn back to Cozumel and bypass the Cayman visit. 

This was  especially annoying for me at first, for my friends were waiting there to take me on  a tour of that island which I had not visited in over 30 years and was looking forward to seeing them and the developments which I hear taking place there. We were all sooooo disappointed but as I said, our loss was not as great as that of the mourning family so we would just have to arrange for a future visit.

This cruise should have taken us to Cozumel, which I had visited twice before, Belize which I had visited at least 5 times but wanted to see the developments which had taken place. The other ports of call were Mahogany Cay  on Roatan island. I had never been there before and have now put the island on my bucket list for it appears to be quite attractive with lush mountains and white sands beaches. 

It has a population of some 70,000 I hear and a rich history similar to most former slave colonies. Although they had car rental agencies at the dock there and the island is really small,  because when I tour I like to stop and take in every thing, I did not try to get a car this time as I didn't want to rush.

My curiosity about Belize city was well placed as not much has changed in that city at all except there are people on the streets harassing tourists now. One man with locks whose teeth looked like Bully Bop's told us to stay on the main street as we could assaulted by gangs. When we asked others about the crime situation there they assured us that his was not true. As we walked back, he asked us to give him money for helping us and when I told him no, he shouted that I was mean and should not return to Belize. 

This made me feel so at home!

 We arrived there on the 18th August and another man tried to sell us a flag as he said it was their Independence Day. I never believed him anyway for had it been,  it would have been a holiday and signs of celebrations. I later researched it and discovered their Independence day is September 21. 

So be warned.

My main reason for visiting the town though was to look at the Swing Bridge as I thought that by now they must have moved from manual labour to machinery to move it. I could not believe they hadn't! 

I remember the many days I was rudely aroused from my sleep while staying at a hotel nearby, for the noise from the men pushing the bridge at 6 am to let the boats through was really horrendous!  I guess it is still a pestilence to those who have to reside nearby.

 I really could not believe the country had not progressed from that point some 15 years later! 

My one regret was that I was not able to visit San Pedro. This is a town in the southern part of the  Ambergris Cay. According to 2012 mid-year estimates, the town has a population of about 13,381 as is the second largest town in the Belize District.

I hear it is beautiful there but unfortunately during all the years I used to visit that country for work, I never heard about it so did not visit. I only subsequently heard about it from a cousin who lives in Canada but who spent many years there with her ex- husband who managed a hotel there, how fabulous it was. The water taxis did not leave till 1.30 pm  though which would have me returning too late for the ship. So next time.

The place I was really looking really really forward to was Cayman but fate intervened. The experience in Cozumel made up for everything else though. We had a really fabulous guide who took us to a Mayan holy site. His name was Angel and he was a proud Mayan. He was not only extremely informative but really passionate about his culture. This is never something you see in tour guides as they normally recite what is popular for tourists to hear. This guy spoke about how his culture was being adulterated by the Mexican establishment and insisted that his native language was not Spanish but Mayan.  He did the tour in English but we were all so impressed with him.

When we returned to Cozumel to drop off the body as a result of the suicide, we just walked around the town which is pleasant and touristy.

In Miami, I really had a great time with friends Joseph and Jackie and it was a good thing Jackie dropped me off early at the airport, for it was quite a drama, but not unpleasant. 

According to the security, they detected, wait for it........explosive residue on my hand luggage! 

A nice young man with locks (which he admitted it was for style not religion!) then went through my things piece by piece, rubbing everything on a strip then testing it on the machine.

Before a lady body searched me, she wanted to know if I had any aches or pains anywhere. I told her everywhere hurt as I had chic v which is partly true since the stupid pains from that virus do come back on occasion. The entire process took about 45 minutes but I feel better that security there is thorough. It certainly isn't in Jamaica for on a Jet Blue flight the next day, two women from here got into a fight and one drew out a razor and the other had pepper spray!

Man that is really disgraceful.

Never a Dull Moment

I could just see the "Star" headline 'Well Known Bridge Champion Caught With Stolen Car" or better yet "Wife of Criminal Attorney Heads Car Stealing Ring".  

Seriously though, sometimes we forget we live in Jamaica and take these things for a joke when they could be lethal, for had that the "stolen" car not being driven by a lady  but instead by one one of the regular male drivers  the the headline could most likely read  read "Car Thief Shot After Attacking Police with bicycle Pump". So we need to thank god for small mercies and that all ended well.

This was the potential dramatic ending to a wonderful weekend of riding, swimming, eating and frolicking as the members of "Fun and Thrills Adventure Club" rode out in search of fun over the Emancipendence Holidays.

On Emancipation Day, we the sane ones, rode to Caymanas river while the crazies pushed their bikes up to Hollywell.
lol (based on the pictures I saw!)

Caymanas ride was easy and uneventful. I was at Dunrobin at 6.30am as arranged only to see poor Nicole Thompson there as she had been told to meet the other riders at 6.15am.

I had to remind her that there is Jamaica time and then there is Fun and Thrills time. As we waited, up drove Neville anxiously asking if we had seen his sister Lisa as their father Ayatollah had sent him to find her. (Lisa only recently started riding).

Although Nicole assured him she had not passed, full of anxiety, he drove off searching for her. About fifteen minutes later she arrived, amply protected under Pat's riding wing.

All went well until we got to the river where there was rope across the gate and a young man thought he should shake me down for an entry fee of $150.00. When I informed him that the fee was for parking and I was riding, he told me things had changed and we had to pay to swim.

As I started to enter, he tried to block me, but I had to warn him that if he touched me it would be assault, so he sullenly stepped aside. Then he stepped aside for Sheriff but kept the other eight or ten rides who came up after, sweating at the gate.

They eventually got in without paying and all went well at the river although, because of the drought, it was quite shallow.

That suited Theresa fine however as despite all her attempts at diving, she never went below the surface of the water!                                                                                                                       I had actually decided to ride back to Kingston but when I was ready, I discovered that my back tire was punctured. The Ayatollah loaned me his bicycle, but the seat was a bit low and although I did manage to ride to as far as New Haven, when Neville drove up, I jumped into his support vehicle.                                                                                                                                    Being out of it, I only heard the next day that poor Aswaria had an accident and have to get 7 stitches on her foot. She is a good sport so I hope she will be back on her bike soon.

On Sunday we had a more difficult ride, this time to Mountain River Cave. 

As usual, the group was late so when Chully and Chuck rode up, I took off with them. Chuck stopped off at Jose Marti round-about to wait for the others, but we continued until we got to just below Dovecot and saw David waiting with a support vehicle and Grace all saddled up and ready to ride.

I later had her eating crow as she swore to Chully that it would be a flat ride all the way as "She drove that route every day for one term."

Flat ride my foot, it was mostly hill and it is the first time in recent history that I went thorough 4 containers of water.

Chully with his macho-self, rode away and left me just outside Kitson town and as we neared Guanabo Vale, Donovan caught up with me and I stayed with him. We were running out of water then Larry and his sister drove up and gave us a little, just enough to take us to the bottom of Cudjoe hill where Delroy,  a former tenant of mine, lives.

He loaded us up with water and to tell the truth, as the sun was really billowing down, had he not told me it was just a mile left 'and not a country mile either," to our destination, I might have given in to my normal inclination and jumped into an air-conditioned auto.

But I kept struggling up the hill. When we were almost at the top, Donovan's vehicle drove up and he headed to get his fluids then changed his mind and jumped into the vehicle although I assured him that we had less than quarter mile to go.

Alrick and I suspect, Maurice (aka RIBI,) lost money off me as they had expected to see me arriving in a vehicle, but I rode up in fine style only to find out that Chully who had left me in the dust did not ride up the hill, neither did Sean who has become quite a strong rider although he rides infrequently.

After a good breakfast, a lot of clothing material (claats!) were being described by Ayatollah for Barry had taken away his vehicle to go to his farm and it had the swimming clothes for Chully and Fatman.

 I left him ranting and raving and walked down the treacherous path to the river, followed by Alrick and RIBI. I actually had hoped to take the easy route to the river which is beyond the huge rocks that others relish climbing down, but unfortunately the easy route is now overgrown and I was attacked by burrs and insects and had to return with my tail between my legs to where we have to climb down over the huge rocks.

I must admit though, F&T has some real gentlemen, so all was well but (rider) Stanford refused to climb down the rocks so missed a great swim and frolic in the water, which was again quite shallow because of the drought.

As we enjoyed the water and camaraderie, the air was pierced by a blood curdling scream as Bernadette had gone into the cave behind the waterfall and encountered some little 2 inch fish and let out such a scream that would have led a man from Mars to think she had been attacked by a dinosaur!

It was a really great day and I couldn't even remember the woman I had cursed off on the previous visit when she sought to denigrate us with her constant reference to what the "white people' did and how they reacted as opposed to how we did. Typical house slave. Anyway, I don't even know if she was there on Sunday.

As usual, RIBI and a few mad ones rode back whereas most of the us simply got our revenge on the hill by riding down until we got to the flat area then piled into the support vehicles.

On Independence Day the ride was also great, especially when we got to the cool, peaceful Bog Walk Gorge with the Rio Cobre river flowing peacefully beside the road.

Before we got to the Gorge, we were joined by Andrew at Angels, as he had left out early to make a stop. We were running a bit late as Ayatollah had gotten a puncture in Kingston and Charles the second got one at Jose Marti round-about. It was there I saw Barry and was quite surprised as I had assumed he would have ridden with the A team over the hills but he admitted he wasn't a hill rider. (The A team had wanted to ride up to Clydesdale but compromised by joining us but via the difficult route.)

I rode mostly alone but by the time we got to the end of the Gorge, I was dying of thirst as my second bottle was in Chuck's vehicle. Luckily, Carolyn came along and saved my life then when we got to the first coconut stall, everyone stopped, and Maurice treated me to a cool nut.

This was at the back of Jucci Patty where a number of persons had already gathered. We waited a while for the A team but when they failed to arrive, we headed to our final destination. They never arrived till we had headed to the river and were enjoying a wonderful swim as the Rio Cobre which was beautiful and clean this time, unlike the red water we encountered on our first trip there.

When we went up for breakfast, the drama unfolded, for up drove Betty in Bernadette's vehicle closely followed by two severe, no-nonsense looking policemen.

As it unfolded, Bernadette has had tracking equipment in her vehicle for five years and had recently complained to the security company that they were not doing their job properly as her vehicle had gone to all sorts of remote and strange places and they had never called to ask her if she was with the vehicle.

Today was therefore their day of revenge, for Betty had gone to buy gas and couldn't find the switch to unlock the gas tank so the helpful attendant had gone into the car and pressed a button which turned out to be the panic button!

So finally, Bernie's alarm company got some work to do and quickly called the police to let them know a possible kidnapping or car theft had taken place!

 Although Betty said she did not think it was she the police wanted when she first heard the siren, when she finally stopped, it was the clicking sound of the guns that brought her down to earth!

One policeman admitted that it was because she was a lady why they bought the story she told, so they followed her to verify that the owner did in fact give her permission to be in the vehicle. We had a good laugh when it was all over, but I shudder at what might have happened had one of our male counterparts been driving, for the trigger happiness of our police often ends in tragedy for poor young men.

I had to leave early so after breakfast did not even get the opportunity to return that twelve love Carolyn

had given me in St. Mary as I jumped in the first vehicle leaving which was Chuck's, for you know Caymanas racing cannot survive without him!

Breakfast was not too great as I cannot eat our national dish of ackee and saltfish as it makes me sick and there was no mackerel. So I had to settle for liver which I don't really like. The Guinep juice was fantastic though and it was overall, a good day with all ending well.

As Chuck was in a hurry, Maurice and I rode from his home, me downhill all the way and Maurice uphill most of the way, but what the heck, he is a man so he must work!

Incidentally, on my way down, I saw about four or five police vehicles at Wickam Avenue and wondered what major crime had taken place, only to hear on this morning's news that it was a ganja find at an unoccupied house.

As we enjoy our various forays into the countryside however, we must give tremendous thanks to people like Omar, Brian, Sheriff, Donovan, Charles, Ayatollah, Chuck, Mark and the ever-present Howie (except this weekend) and all the other people who have made their vehicles available to us on all these rides and all the people who put up with the boring feat of driving at 5 miles per hour behind us so we can enjoy ourselves. None of this would have been possible without all these great guys and girls who give of their possessions and time so willingly for our pleasure.