Greetings from Jamaica! Today we arrived in Falmouth where we had high tea 1700's style at the Good Hope Plantation.
Although the plantation was established in 1774, it did not get the name Good Hope unitl later in the 18th century when Johh Tharp became the owner. Mr. Tharp's slaves gave the plantation its name as a tribute to him for being such a good man that gave hope to people. While John Tharp had over 3,000 slaves, he was known for being a good and fair man. When slaves would run away from other plantations due to the poor treatment, he would take them in and protect them from their previous owners. Good Hope was orginally a sugar estate and grew into a village to support the workers after emancipation.
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| Cedar Shingle Roofs when the shingles get wet, they expand and therefore no water gets into the house |
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| In his later years, Mr. Tharp had rheumatism so he installed a bath tub. The tub was leadlined and unbeknownst to him, lead was poisonous and the tub that was meant to heal him actually sped up his death. |
On the drive back to the ship, I sat shot gun to the driver. The roads of Jamaica are pretty bad and he told us he was a PHD...pot hole dodger. You know how everyone in Jamaica says "no problem man"? Well that's because in Jamaica there are no problems...just situations.
I have always heard that if you go to Jamaica to stay at the resort and do not venture off the grounds. From the sights we saw on the drive from Good Hope, I can understand why. It is truly amazing the dichotomy between the tourist spots and where the locals live.
After the excursion, we walked around the market and picked up a few little trinkets for ourselves and folks back home. Total tourist trap but some cute purchase nevertheless.
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