Thursday 3th Dec. Ocho Rios

We were docked in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. when we awoke. No rush as our tour didn't start till 10.50am so we had a leisurely breakfast. I read over the notes I had made about the destination from the presentation the day before. Columbus probably stepped ashore in Ocho Rios, seems he got everywhere in the Caribbean. But in 1655 Oliver Cromwell drove the Spanish out, not sure that's right but that's what the guide said, and Jamaica became a colony. Although it is now independent and they have a woman prime minister, they still recognise Elizabeth as their queen. The name means 8 rivers but it's probably a corruption of the Spanish word for waterfalls because there aren't 8 rivers.  The falls are actually part of Dunnes River and are 600 feet high.

We headed off the ship to pick up a minibus and were fitted with a blue wristband to let us into the falls and Dolphin Cove which we visited first.  On the way down to the sea, we met 2 parrots who lay like babies in our arms. Sandra was not 100% comfortable.  Her face reminds me of this emoticon 😬

Then in a group of 8 we were fitted with life jackets and after a bit of hanging around, when we got to see some local boys handling sharks, I think they were nurse sharks, we headed down to the dolphin area.

 It was part of the gorgeous sea, turquoise blue, but with pontoons for the trainers to stand on. We got in the water and were shown what signals to make with our hands to let the dolphin know what we wanted.  Then we saw her, Misty, and she swam slowly past us and allowed us to stroke her as she glided by.  She was like lovely soft leather.

  Then each of us in turn put our arms out in front and patted the water with our hands.  Suddenly Misty rose up out of the water right in front,

facing me and let me hold her flippers while she swam back to the pontoon on her back, pulling me along with her.

 Such a huge thrill. Then I had to put my hands up on my chest and she came alongside and kissed my cheek

and let me kiss her nose and hold her flippers.

All this was photographed and I have it on a DVD.  I will upload a couple of photos when I get home.  Misty did lots of other thing for us.  When we waved our hands she came right up and made laughing noises and sticking her tongue out, then when we turned round in the water, so did she as if she were dancing.

She made clicking noises with her blowhole and screeching noises when she wanted a fish.  I absolutely loved this morning. One of the biggest thrills of my life and I will always remember it.

We had to wait for the DVDs to be burned so we had a Red Stripe and I had a swim in the sea and found some rocks and coral for my garden collection. By this time it was after 2pm and we were worried that we may not have enough time to see the falls at Dunnes River. It was literally across the road and then up a short hill but the security guard wouldn't let us walk so we waited for a minibus. We were on Caribbean time and no one was rushing. Yeah mon. So by the time we got there we had about 20 minutes. Such a shame as we could have spent several hours there. We did get in the water for photos but didn't have time to do the climb,

Sandra meets a nice young man, sadly not quite Johnny Depp

And today's re enactment song is "I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts"

A lady asked me if I would like my hair braiding, (I told you it was a mess, she probably felt sorry for me). "No thanks" I said, "too old".  "You not hold, you yong". Yeah mon!

So sorry that we didn't have longer to spend here, it really was lovely but the ship was due to leave at 3.30pm and it's a long swim back to the UK.  Bye Jamaica.

Tonight is the 50th anniversary of Princess Cruise line so there is a reception in the atrium with a golden balloon drop. Can't miss that.  

We had dinner after leaving the theatre early as the comedian was not too funny. Well we didn't think so anyway

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Dinner was great and we found out that we have been missing the petits fours every day so we had two each to make up for that.  On to the atrium where the balloons were poised

Look a bit like frog spawn. Great dancing music so we did our stuff for 40 mins until the balloons descended and we all went silly 

Flagging a bit now so off to the buffet to get our usual tea and hope that Danny and friend are not there.  It was such a balmy evening that we decided to watch the movie under the stars while we drank our tea.  Ant Man.  Have you seen it?  Don't bother.  We agreed it was the worst film we have ever seen but it was great to lie on sun beds under the stars on a warm evening.  We met a man from Romford tonight, now living in LA.  Small world