9/1/04- Ocho Rios w/Phil Lafayette

[raelee34]

Booked tour with Phil Lafayette for this day.

Ship was docked and we left a little after 9am to meet Phil Lafayette at the end of the pier. No problem finding him as they had helpers directing people as to where to go. We stood under sign #12- Independent Tour Operators- and Phil joined us about 5 minutes later to take us to his blissfully cool bus.

One thing I appreciated right off was that Phil rearranged the order of our tour when he noticed that Dunns River was very crowded (A Carnival ship had docked an hour before us). Instead of dropping us off to fight the crowds, he took us on our city tour and intertubing first and then to the Falls.

The city tour was very, very informative. I enjoyed learning about the national symbols of Jamaica and about some of the native flora and fauna. Phil knows so much about his country and loves answering questions. The day we toured was school registration day, so he told us a bit about the educational system in Jamaica.... Stuff like this you might not hear on other tours.

Intertubing was very fun; the tubes are like large tire inner tubes with a floor in the hole so that you aren't hanging through. The water felt cold at first, but we soon got used to it. There were just enough rapids going down to be fun, but not too many to be scary for the kids. As we watched the banks we could see tons of really big, blue-colored crabs about. Our tubing guides told us that at night or after a rain the really big ones come out and they catch and eat them. Again, tubing was really fun; we only wish it could have lasted longer. BTW, bring some ones to tip the guides (if you'd like).

Phil picked us up at the end of the tubing and we headed for Dunn's River Falls. While at the bottom, we saw a couple from Phil's tour (and our ship), so we decided to climb together. Thank you to all who recommended doing this without glomming on to those long chains of people. Our group, myself, hubby, Sam, Danny and the wonderful, Dave and Alicia (hello to you both) seemed like a perfect size. We didn't make a chain, just went up one after another and offered hands where help was needed. We really enjoyed this climb; the boys had a blast.

Afterwards, all went back out the way we came- avoiding the market- and met Phil at his bus. He drove us to an outdoor restaurant for a yummy lunch and then back to the ship.

I have to say that Phil did a wonderful job for us; a nicer, more personable man I have yet to meet. His pride in and his knowledge about his country were obvious and we were so glad that he chose to share this with us.

Also, I was very pleasantly suprised to find that Phil had taken the time to e-mail me on Sunday to make sure that our family had made it home safely. Boy was he suprised when I told him we were still on the ship. Anyway, we recommend Phil very highly.

[nosnobunny]

How do you get in touch with him?

 

Beth

[cupidbaby99]

http://www.phil-lafayette-tours.com/Tours.html

[gramshup]

We were agroup of 7 and used Phil last April.He was super and we all enjoyed his tour. We're all hoping he and his family are OK after Ivan. You won't get a better tour !!!

[imatarb]

Ditto to all of the above...Phil is great!!

 

Lisa :)