I had never been to Jamaica until last cruise. Isn’t that weird? Jamaica is a pretty popular island in my opinion, but for some reason my travels had never taken me there.
I started my day there by just milling around the port area to see what the shops had to offer me. I just wanted off the ship to get some fresh air, lunch, and some internet. A Quiznos and Nathan’s Hot Dog combo location just opened up so I stopped in there to get some food. However, I promptly turned around and left when I saw that a corn dog combo would cost me $14. Now I really like corn dogs and I haven’t had one since I visited a Sonic somewhere in Nevada or California last spring, but I am not about to pay $14 for a corn dog unless it can feed my whole family.
I could see there was a fairly large town outside of the gate to the port area, but I had been cautioned against heading out there. However, I got directions to a place with internet from one of my colleagues and was prepared to take his advice of not speaking to anyone on my way there. I found the place no problem and no one gave me a hard time. Aside on port city life: If you haven’t been to the islands before, the street culture there is hard to understand. Everyone is trying to sell you something- tours, jewelry, pirated movies, drugs, reggae music, etc. As you walk down the street they will call out to you with whatever they have or they will just start talking to you trying to lure you into conversation to make you stop so they can sell you something. I think I’m a fairly polite individual and I was lured into many conversations and stores when I first came down here. I have a hard time ignoring people that are talking to me and I find it rude not to reciprocate when someone says hello. However, not saying anything and walking with purpose is the best way I have found to navigate these situations.
Anyway, I got to the spot I had been told of and one of the singers from the ship was there. I don’t really know him, but we’ve said hello before and have a had a brief conversation in port so we are acquaintances. He talked to me like we were friends so the people at the bar knew that I wasn’t alone. But he left soon after I got there. I wasn’t at all concerned for myself, I had a table near other crew members, no strangers were trying to talk to me, no one was walking up and selling me things, everyone was minding their own business…it was fine. If I had felt unsafe during any of this, I would have went back the ship. However, I was a little worried for my acquaintance. When he left, one of the locals he had been talking to at the bar left with him which I found odd. (This guy from the bar tried to sell me some reggae music, by the way. My exact response was, “No thanks. I’m all reggaed out.”) Later that night I saw my new friend onboard and he told me that guy basically robbed him. He walked him the whole way back through town to the gate to the port and then said, “You need to give me $40.” My new friend admitted to laughing out loud in the middle of the street when that happened. But he looked around and there was no one nearby so he said, “I’ve only got $20.” His escort countered with, “Alright then $30.” Friend: “No really, I only have $20.” Escort: “Fine.” and he took the twenty dollars and left.
In hindsight I feel a bit bad for not accepting my new friend’s offer of walking back to the ship with him. However, if I had I suppose we both may have been robbed. I also feel a bit bad for laughing at him as he recounted this story to me. On the upside, I would now consider us friends- we’ve eaten dinner together since. I make friends in the weirdest ways- nothing like a robbery to help break the ice. In addition, I have now relearned that it is a bad idea to leave the port area alone- no matter how expensive the corn dogs.
