Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

We were docked when we woke up. This is Jamaica's flag. This island was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1494 -  settled by the Spanish early in the 16th century. The native Taino, who had inhabited it were Arawak native to South America.

Wikipedia says:
The Spanish settled in Jamaica in 1509. In 1655 Jamaica was conquered by the English and became a base of operations for privateers, including Captain Henry Morgan, operating from the main English settlement Port Royal. Until slavery was abolished by Parliament in 1833, the island sugar plantations were highly dependent on slave labor, based on Africans who initially were captured, kidnapped, and sold into slavery from peoples of West and Central Africa. By the eighteenth century, sugarcane became the most important export of the island.
Many slaves arrived in Jamaica via the Atlantic slave trade during the early seventeenth century, the same period when the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America. By the early nineteenth century, people of African descent greatly outnumbered ethnic Europeans.
After the British Crown abolished slavery in 1834, the Jamaicans began working toward independence which they achieved  in 1962.
This is the beach to the right of the dock.
Jimmy Buffet's Margarita bars are common. The Christmas tree are colorful with bright yellow native flowers and blue painted margarita glasses.
 Jamaican rum is a big seller here.

You could have spent a week here, with Bob Marley's Museum.
Dunn's River Falls, which you can climb up.
Snorkeling, horse riding on the beach, ATVing and everything else.




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