Being quarantined is no fun

As a joke, on the 21st February 2020, I put a post on my Facebook page asking if anyone wanted a free cruise. I was absolutely shocked by the number of persons who replied yes, considering that the horror stories about people being quarantined on cruises ships and ports of call refusing them landing, had started to surface.

I don't think anyone in the world loves cruising more than I do. Or just travelling for that matter.

I got my first cruise when I was 14 years old and was so excited about the experience that the first job I applied for on leaving high school was to work on a cruise ship.

Thank god I never got the job for I learnt later in life that working on these floating hotels is no fun.

For the workers seem to work almost 24 hours per day. Also, they live in cramped quarters on the bottom of the ship and have to be nice to all sorts of assholes.

Not getting that job was probably my best luck in life for apart from the horrible conditions under which cruise ship employees work, lots of them pick up dangerous viruses.

But back to quarantines.

I am claustrophobic so being quarantined is a fate worse than death.

 I have been quarantined twice and thank god it was for short periods of time.

The first time was when I developed a fever after returning to Jamaica from vacation in Guyana. On that trip I did the exciting trek through the forest by minibus over to Brazil.

When I went to the doctor after developing a fever shortly after returning home, it created panic with the damn doctor who swore I had developed dengue, malaria or yellow fever, mosquito borne diseases that were no longer in Jamaica at that time.

That's when she said I must be quarantined in a hospital, public or private.

At least I could go on my balcony

 I had never heard about the process before so called a friend who was a GP, to find out what would happen if I refused to turn myself in. He soberly advised me that they would send the police to bodily take  me in. That was enough for me so reluctantly I checked into a private hospital and was confined to bed under a mosquito net for three whole boring days.

It turned out to be a colossal waste of money as nothing was  wrong with me except some ordinary damn flu.

The second time was in 2018 when a group of us went on a cruise of the Canal zone. The  night before we arrived in Old Cartagena, Colombia,  I had gone to watch the show on board and had to comment how a man behind me was coughing non stop.

The next day we took a tour of the old city and after we had finished  visiting the square, I stood on the sidewalk waiting on my friends when Bam, I collapsed on the sidewalk. nearly bashing my head on raised section. Maybe I was temporarily out as when I came to, a crowd was standing over me with everyone offering to help. My friends secured my belongings and put me in a taxi back to the boat.

I had not been feeling ill but when  they took my temperature it was 104 degrees. Long story short, I was then quarantined to my room for two days. It was so boring. I did not really want to come off in Limon, Costa Rica as I have visited it quite a few times, neither did I want to come off in Colon as I had also visited that town once and did not like it.

That's all I could see of Colon from my balcony

But being confined to my room while everyone else was out having fun was a killer.
I later learnt that 40% of the passengers on that ship had gotten the flu and some even had to be airlifted off.

I recall all this as I listen to the horror  stories of people being quarantined on cruise ships for up to fourteen days during  this corona outbreak and I sympathize with them as I think I  would die if I was confined to a cabin for such long periods!

 I really love taking cruises and was looking forward to doing the river cruise down the Rhine later this year, stopping in Northern and central Europe on the way, but I think I might just give cruises a break for a while.

For while cruises are fun, quarantine is hell.

That Holland America cruise

I have been on some 14 cruises, but the Holland American cruise line is the worst I have ever used, or rather, the Zuiderdam ship was by far the worst ever.

The thing is though, we had a wonderful cruise IN SPITE OF THEM, when at  the end of December  2017, I headed out with eight adult friends and five kids.

It was the camaraderie that did it.

Great travel partners

What I found as a really horrible first impression from we embarked was the fact that they never even had a small welcome package in the staterooms. They remind me ever so much of Spirit airlines, for once you pay your fare, you have to pay for almost every single thing. For example, I have never been on a cruise where you go to the gym and pay to even cycle! Dinners in certain dining rooms you had to pay for and in some recreation areas, you had to pay to even enter! Yuck.

To make matters worse, the new year's eve party music was terrible and they even started the countdown almost 2 minutes after midnight and only gave out free champagne after people grumbled loudly.

Anyway their saving grace is their staff, all of whom were wonderful and also their entertainment, especially the Trinidadian steel bank Island Music.

Half Moon bay, Bahamas

I liked the choice of ports of call too, Bahamas, Aruba, Curacao, Cartagena, Panama Canal and Limon, but that is what attracted me in the first place and caused me to take that particular cruise.

I started out enjoying wonderful tours all the way to Cartagena, then because a man had sneezed on me for about 15 minutes non-stop at a show the night after news year's day, boom, I was hit down with an influenza virus.

First I went through it was a coughing spell for an entire day, for which I took lozenges. Then feeling better, went on the tour of the "Walled city in Cartagena," when bam I  fainted on a sidewalk with 103 degree fever.

What a shock.

However, having friends around was what saved my life as in no time they secured my belongings and had me back on the shuttle to the boat and right to the hospital doctor. I was in isolation for two days but was happy and animated after that and enjoyed the rest of the cruise, thanks to the great company.

Back to the tours before the drama.

The first stop was at Half Moon Bay, one of the 700 "islands" of the Bahamas. This one is owned by Carnival Cruise but its just a small cay surrounded by a white sand beach. I swam but the water was cold brrr. Then the rain poured.

That was a forgettable port stop.

A section of the scenic Arikok National Park

ARUBA

I liked Aruba which reminds me a lot of Antigua,.......flat, lovely beaches all around and hot.  As it is a very dry island, they grow very little and import much.

Apart from tourism the only other industry they have is aloe vera farming, processing and export.

What  really caught me though were the caves and the fabulous rock garden.

The best caves are  in Arikok national park. That area reminds me of our own Hellshire in Jamaica.

The Guadirikiri  cave was very impressive  with its fabulous  stalagmites and stalactites and interesting formations which challenge the imagination.

The other cave we stopped at was Fontein but because of the delicate bat population, we couldn't take photos inside.

The island itself is tiny and  less than seventy miles from Venezuela and they take tourism seriously, even giving us helmets and flashlights to tour the Fontein cave. It is unique  too with a population of just over one hundred thousand but made up of ninety six nationalities. They also have a high literacy rate as education is compulsory and most people speak a minimum of four languages.

They remain part of the kingdom of Holland and have an ambitious green program to go totally renewable by 2020. To achieve this the airport is covered with solar panels and they have quite a large wind farm and are serious about recycling.

What I really fell for though was  the Rock Park at Ayo which was once a sacred ground for the indigenous Arawaks.

This area is close to the town of Santa Cruz in the center of the island. I have seen really spectacular rock foundations in my time in Nevada, Utah, Colorado etc, but this was even more awesome.

The backdrop to this Rock park was mount Jamananota, only 620 feet high, but when you are on a really flat island, even a little hill like that looks high!

To get to this point we had driven through an eerie, deserted area where the guide said the French had murdered a number of Indians and according to him, at nights, if you drive though that area alone at nights, ghosts enter your vehicle!

Obviously bunkum but a timely constant reminder of how vicious the European invaders were towards the indigenous people throughout the western world when they arrived.

Curacao

Curacao is also part of the Dutch kingdom and interestingly, like Aruba, it also has a female governor. The governors have to be locally born people though.

It is however larger and more industrialized than is sister island Aruba, even being a banking haven,. It also has the deepest deep sea harbor in the Caribbean, so does a great deal of trade, especially with its neighbor Venezuela.

Venezuela is currently being devastated by a socialist experiment which has led to chronic shortages so people from that large, powerful neighbor, visit in droves and work in Curacao to send money back to their relatives.

 

The Venezuelans even operate a floating market at the port in Curacao where you can buy any agricultural product from the barges then they load up on scarce imported goods to take home.

In general Curacao is a shoppers haven for all its Caribbean neighbors. Because it has so much going for it, tourism does not appear to be as well developed as over in Aruba.

We took the island tour and visited  the Hato cave  near Willemstad but it was nothing close to those in Aruba although better lit.

Cartagena

My first impression of  Cartagena was that  it is  not only a dirty city but also unsafe as most homes are grilled. Unfortunately because during the tour of the walled city  I collapsed I never really got  to see much, so that’s a lasting impression.

The "walled city" is  an old district full of impressive colonial architecture and heritage sites and surrounded by thick stone walls. It was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century after an attack by Francis Drake. It took two centuries  to be  completed, as the city faced frequent damage from storms and pirate attacks.

Today hundreds of people make their living selling wares and offering services there. Some women even dress in  traditional costumes and charge to take photos. You can also get a horse drawn tour of the city. I was really enjoying this outing until I had to be unceremoniously evacuated, but that's life.

After that, I stayed on ship after coming out of isolation, but really enjoyed the rest of the cruise hanging out with my group of dear friends, the Simmons, Simmonds and Green and even getting beaten badly in drafts.

The entertainment on the ship was really good, especially the magician and Island Music steel band from Trinidad. They really enjoy entertaining guests and it is by far the best steel band I have even seen in my life.

So despite the flu setback I enjoyed myself immensely for the company, the tours, he entertainment, the workers made up for the lousy cruise line!

Think I am going to give Central and South America a break for a while though. For about two years ago when I returned from Brazil, Guyana and Surinam  I also had a fever and was isolated at Medical Associates in Jamaica as they thought I had brought back malaria to the island!
Fevers and I are not doing too well with Latin American travel somehow!

SCENES FROM MY BALCONY DURING ISLOLATION. THIS WAS JUST OUTSIDE THE PANAMA CANAL

SCENES INSIDE THE WALLED CITY BEFORE MY DEMISE!

 

Essay 4; Jamaicans are "world builders"

I do not think there is a place on earth you can travel to and not find a Jamaican! And sometimes we turn up in the most unusual places. In fact, my own brother even took his family on a tour of the pyramids of Egypt only to end up with an Arabic-speaking tour guide from Montego Bay, Jamaica!

For years politicians of all stripes have complained that a problem the country faces is that when taxpayers subsidize the tertiary education of many Jamaican professions, the country ends up losing as those professional immediately migrate and do not give anything back to their country. Yes that is a real problem but could the penchant for Jamaicans to migrate be in our DNA? I am no scientist but ask the question due to the conditions under which the migratory habit of generations of Jamaicans seem to have arisen.

As far as I can discern, the necessity to migrate came with the  abolition of slavery in 1834. For the freed slaves had no money, no jobs, no land, no food and in many instances, not even family in the country to which they had been forcefully transported

. Things were so bad for the freed slaves that in order to avoid starving to death some had to even return to their wicked slave masters and request that they employ them just to get  food to eat.

It was the lucky ones  therefore who could find a little boat or some means of migrating to anywhere where they as free people they could earn a living.

Monument in Cuba

In the late 1800's to the turn of the century, Cuba was recognized as the powerhouse of the region due to the industries that were flourishing based on "king sugar." News  of their need for labour spread rapidly throughout Jamaica and indeed other Caribbean islands which also faced a similar dilemma as we did, and migration to Cuba started in droves. So today when you go to the southern provinces like Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin, the descends of Jamaican and other former West Indian people are everywhere.

Fortunately too, in 1903 the construction of the Panama Canal begun and despite the fact that the project was extremely dangerous and many people lost their lives (including my maternal grandfather), Panama became a major drawing card for Jamaicans in need of employment. When  the project was completed and opened in 1914, there was still a need for workers there as the economy was booming, so instead of returning home, thousands of Jamaicans remained there, most settling in the city of Colon.

However others decided to go north in search of economic opportunities, as the Jamaican economy was still struggling and blacks had very little means of survival. Many went to Honduras, and even more went to Nicaragua, settling on the Caribbean coast and naming their new home Bluefields after a seaside village on south western side of  Jamaica.

Inside Irazu volcano, Costa Rica

Still others moved to the province of Limon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and today the descendants  of Jamaicans play an important role in that country, even producing  the very first black congresswoman in Costa Rica , a lady who was always proud to boast about her Jamaican roots.

During the 30's and 40's because of the massive toll the two major  European wars took on British men, the then colonial master England, was forced to open its doors to workers from their colonies to do their menial and labour intensive jobs. Jamaicans therefore  migrated to Britain in hordes up to the  late 1960's when the USA and Canada also opened their doors and the trek to those countries there took off in earnest.

Before the 70's, the majority of  Jamaican who left home, were in search of economic opportunities and their remittances to assist their family left back at home became critical to the economy.

The great migration that took place between 1972-1980 harmed the Jamaican economy unlike the net effect of previous migrations. This was because it was widely perceived that the then government was introducing communism and taking Jamaica into the USSR/Cuban sphere of influence. So the  better off Jamaicans and professionals voted with their feet. They went mainly to the USA and Canada and it set the Jamaican economy back for decades, as not only did they take their capital with them but also their skills. The Jamaican economy is still struggling to recover from that outflow!

While there have been periods when Jamaican migrated in droves, individual Jamaicans have always on their own steam, found other places to go, even as far as cold Alaska in search of opportunities. However the overall picture is that by being a migratory people,  we have contributed a great deal to the building of just about every nation in the world including our own and migration remains strong in our DNA.