Kari and Jonathan's Story: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Wow, Jamaica. What a different world. The people there are so happy. Maybe part of that is because 1 American dollar is 86 Jamaican dollars, so if you let them braid your hair for $40 they make $3440. Wow. Maybe that's only the people that know what attractions the cruisers visit because the rest of the city seemed very poor. They have a way of making money off Americans in a very sneaky way. As soon and Jonathan and I stepped off our tour bus they said, "Welcome to Jamaica! Here are some complimentary necklaces, beautiful, free for the ladies.." and then turned to Jonathan and said "We would greatly appreciate a contribution." As if we could take off the necklace and say "Oh no thanks, never mind." Also, when we went to Dunn's River Falls, which, let me just take a minute to explain that place.
Before we went on this cruise I was looking online at the shore excursions, and about 9 out of 10 in Jamaica included Dunn's River Falls, but in the fine print at the bottom of the page it said that pregnant women couldn't climb the falls. So, while we were on the ship we went to customer service and asked which excursions pregnant women could do and she said, "pretty much you can go shopping." Awesome. Then she went on to explain that I could go to Dunn's and climb the steps on the side and take pictures of Jonathan climbing the falls. Good enough for me. Once we get to the falls I had to separate from Jonathan because we learned you couldn't just jump in the falls, climb up them and be done; it was a whole production where they group you together and you hold hands with the person in front and behind you and they video tape your group all the way up and blah blah blah. By the way, you could purchase "your group" DVD at the end for the low price of $40. Haha. So there I am, wandering around alone, hauling our big ol' beach bag packed full of snacks, lol, and I have a great idea that I'll walk down the stairs and follow him every step of the way. Well, they should also mention that climbing the stairs is as physically exhausting as climbing the falls!! Geez, I was tired!! Anyway~ It's a beautiful place, I'm glad we went, and it ended up being Jonathan's favorite thing we did! :)
Back to the money.. At the falls there were tons of people that chose not to climb, standing on the stairs, like me. Then some random guy would come up and ask you if you wanted him to take a picture of the 2 (or whatever) of you and when you handed him YOUR OWN CAMERA he would take the picture and ask for a contribution. Really?? It's a snapshot on YOUR OWN CAMERA. I don't imagine those Jamaicans are very poor.
Lets get to the Pictures.
Here is our tour guide on the plantation doing the sugarcane demonstration