If the Cruz tapes came from Abby Grossberg,

[marble falls]

29. Other than the worst traffic jam I've ever seen in Kingston during the afternoons, I never had a ...

... a bad moment in Jamaica.

One of our best trips was we'd never use the cruise line recommended guides. We'd walk way down the line and this once got a guide who had to go borrow a van to take us around. And take us around he did. Wonderful, one of the best calm, laid back days of my life. We'd done the same in Belize. We'd get guides who used their personal cars and no van. They'd take us though local neighborhoods and to restaurants no tourist showed up in.

In Belize, we've just walked through the ripoff cruise "village" and go right downtown. I do not want to see how the expats live. I want to see what's going on with the people and read their newspapers and listen to their music. I don't want to be shilled into an overprice tourist stores.

The one that really set me off is Roatan, where it used to be the ship anchored off on a long dock built in WWII by USN Sea Bees. You'd walk right up the beach and there'd be citizens working crafts and selling food they made right there. It was great, but the last time there, the stay was very short and very difficult to get away from the cruise companies' village. We bought some vanilla and it wasn't till we got back on ship that we saw it was Mexican vanilla produced in Mexico.

Sometime we "tourists" are overly safe. If I weren't ancient, I think I could be happy in Jamaica.