The Summit and some ports of the Caribbean

So as I said in my last blog I explained that as a photographer it was always too easy to find the nearest bar and perhaps I was extremely naive and didn’t appreciate where I was.
It was stupidly simple to start taking places like Mexico for granted as everyone was doing the same thing as I was.

So yeah when we called into Cozumel there were a few things that as a group you did, I was still a relative pup when it came to ships don’t forget but I was already growing tired of actually having to deal with passengers.
So plans were made for the following days when after leaving Florida and dealing with a long formal night day at sea, you wanted to escape, so a group would head to the mini golf where you could get hammered play a round, and then head to the internet cafe to catch up on the football scores.

So to elaborate a little more the mini golf in Cozumel was like no other I have ever been to. Sure the sun was shining, and a putter is still a putter, but here your given a radio so when your beer is empty they will send you more to whatever hole your on.

Of course the more you drink the slower you play, and well it’s just a good crack. After a few too many there and a bite to eat in one of the many burger places then depending on the time you sail or if your working or not later (and even that didn’t always matter) you’d head back to the pier bars, Carlos and Charlies or Fat Tuesdays.

This was pretty much the pattern of the time onboard the summit. I suppose my one regret from all my time as a photographer is, and more so since I was where I was, is not even checking out if we could escort tours. Especially since after leaving Festival where we went to Marrakech and the Granada Palace and a whole host of other tours.

So I think then you have to look at maybe St. Kitts where thankfully I was lucky enough to revisit later in my career at sea now there is lot of things you can do in St. Kitts but as with everywhere else because the food had become so mundane onboard then that’s usually what we decided to look for usually in this case I think KFC or Subway was probably the most likely destination.

Since re-visiting though on the Braemar I’ve been on the sugar cane train and then on the prince arranged a crew tour to go quad biking. I think in the end though it’s all about perspectives and if you only have one perspective you can’t look at something from another.

There were a couple of friends that took me to a beach on the Island of St. John, It’s called Hawksnest beach and it’s a short ferry ride from Redhook on the Island of St. Thomas. It was absolute paradise and in all my life I’d never seen anything quite like it. Aqua blue see through water, white sand and there was nobody else for miles. The cabbie took us and picked us up just as he said he would, If I remember rightly though we almost missed the ship, something which any crew member would dread.

It’s strange because since leaving home when I was just shy of my 18th birthday all I wanted to do was explore, but in truth I didn’t really know how to. I think this is something without doubt I learned to do as I got older.

Anyway I just wanted to say a little about a few of the ports, so I’ll finish with the disappointing ports of Ocho Rios, Limon and Colon. You see I think by comparison Cartagena, Columbia would have been a blessing.

Ocho Rios to start with, the port, was generally the same all the time, there was pretty much one thing to do if you were a passenger, and that was to head to Dunns River Falls. There were taxi’s waiting at the port but no real places of interest to go to that I can remember (I might be wrong). Now the distinct memory of this particular port is the masses of drugs being sold right at the port gates.

I think most of the time here I shot gangway and got back on board.

I did venture out a couple of times literally to escape for a whilst, there was a shopping mall called the Taj Mahal, small with some local shops but it was nice just to get out of the port and away from the ship.

Next up there was Limon, Costa Rica, which there were things to see and do further away from the port but within it and in the town, nada, nothing one of the biggest dives I’ve visited.

Finally and I’ve left Colon until last, quite possibly one of the worst places I’ve been to. Mainly because of the lack of safety for tourists, but just generally not many of us could really comprehend why it was on the itinerary at all.

So that’s pretty much that as far as our Caribbean run goes, I’m going to end this short and sweet blog off for the time being and start a new one for the next part of my summit adventure.