Yah mon, chukka!

[Sorry about that. Somehow I published a draft yesterday, sans editing and sans photos. I know because one of my readers offered me a jade plant, thus proving she had read what I had not intended her to read. Please bear with me as I continue to sort out the technology.]

Welcome to Jamaica, where the air was sultry and the skies threatened rain most of the day but didn’t. Half day off the ship at two attractions: Dunn’s River Falls, the site of a British victory over the Spanish in 1657, where we watched other tourists climb the ‘falls’ and snog.

Then on to Coyaba Gardens, three acres of rain forest filled with native flora including tree-high hibiscus, bird of paradise, lobster claw plant, plus flora I had as houseplants in the 70s, like dieffenbachia, jade tree, and miles and miles of philodendron.

Coyaba also offered native fauna, including turtles, boas, iguanas, and lots of macaws, cockatiels, parakeets. This macaw discovered my bead bracelet and tried to eat it.

The fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, ‘Xaymaca, as the original inhabitants called it, was discovered by Columbus in 1494. The Spanish proceeded to enslave the native Taino, who were so ravaged by foreign diseases, the tribe was nearly extinct by 1600. To make up for it, the Spanish started bringing in West African slaves. The English invaded in 1655, and brought in hundreds of thousands of slaves. The Brits built the city of Port Royal, which became the HQ of Henry Morgan — not the actor on M*A*S*H, the famous pirate whose name is on bottles of rum. In 1962, Jamaica gained independence from England. Over the years the economy was fueled first by piracy, then sugar cane and then bananas, both dependent on slave labor. The object on the right was invented to trap bears, then repurposed to trap escaped slaves.