AIDA Caribbean 2018 · Page 4

After a relaxing and lovely sea day, we reached Ocho Rios in Jamaica on Friday. Here we had already booked an excursion with Willydoo in advance. Right after docking we left the ship and, after a bit of searching, found Willydoo in the port. The "small" group turned out to be a group of 26 people – not as small as we had thought, but a pleasant size.

Willydoo is a very warm-hearted person, and at around 9 a.m. the bus set off. Payment of 40 dollars per person was made in cash on the bus.

Our first stop was Dunn's River Falls – 180-metre-high terraced waterfalls with lagoon pools.

Here you could climb the waterfalls and explore the grounds. Very beautiful grounds, and the admission fee of 23 dollars is OK – but you should get there very early in the morning.

After almost two hours we continued by bus through Ocho Rios and on along the Fern Gully road, lined with ferns in all sorts of colours. Long ago this road was a river, which has since dried up.

Then up into the mountains. At the top we made a short stop for photos and to taste some rum. Willydoo told us a lot about Jamaica along the way.

We continued through the mountains towards St. Ann and its market there – an experience in itself. It smelled of weed everywhere.

After a short time at the market, we drove on to a small restaurant to eat. Luckily we didn't eat anything here, as our fellow travellers' verdict on the food was very poor.

After the meal the famous Willydoo rum punch was prepared and tasted right at the bus. After a few cups, we went back to the ship in a good mood, with lots of singing led by Willydoo.