Victim of Reputation

Some time ago, an individual that I worked with decided to take his family on a Caribbean cruise and one of the stops was Jamaica. From the moment he told announced his plans I was filled with dismay. Not that I did not love my country and did not want to share what I loved with others, but Jamaica whether we like it or not has that horrific reputation as a tourist destination and I suspected that he would feed right into that "travel to Jamaica is a nightmare" bubble. Worst than that I just knew that he would actively pursue a bad experience (if that is possible) so that he could have his own incident or encounter to lament over.

Well can I tell you, so said so done. The minute he came through the door that fateful day after his vacation ended the first thing he said was, " did they tell you?" I did not even have to enquire as to what he was referring, I already knew what was coming. "Why didn't you tell me that Jamaica had such a bad reputation with tourists?" I bowed my head in disappointment and prepared for the onslaught of just bad news, why couldn't my countrymen have proved the legendary (I use this word in the most flippant of terms because legend in the genre of the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley it is not) reputation to be wrong.

Then he regaled me with stories of getting on the cruise ship and being warned about Jamaica and of his fellow travelers relating their own bad experiences. This of course was his preamble because his big story was coming up and it was baad! I braced myself.

To my surprise after listening carefully to his harrowing account, what he actually had was a pleasant time but he was so predisposed to having a bad experience that he thought (or maybe exaggerated) that he was being hijacked!! Ridiculous quadruped genus Leporidae, deceptions are for children. Fern Gully is a tourist attraction not a point at which to be "jacked up."

Jamaica got its own back at him though because his tour on an unlicensed robot taxi took him to what was supposed to be Dunns River Falls but what he actually got was to peer through a barbed wire fence over a bridge at running water! I held back my giggle as I ooohed and aaahed at his photos.

Score 1 for Yard...Yaaay!!