In the Spring of 1999, my wife (Becky) and I went on a Caribbean Cruise with friends, (Mike and Lisa Stevens). Imaged below, was our itinerary.

Our first stop was a small island called Cozumel. We planned our shore excursion to include a morning scuba diving episode and an afternoon trip to the Mexican mainland to explore El Parque Xcaret, (imaged below).

Cozumel is considered as one of the best scuba-diving sites on earth. We couldn’t miss it. It had perfect visibility of turquoise water that reaches up to 50m.

While scuba-divine, Becky and I explored stunning coral formations, fascinating walls, slopes and many swim throughs. Pictured below, we saw very colorful coral and abundant growth of sponges. Multicolored and spectacular marine flora and fauna bursts with sea life. Cozumel is home to around 500 species of fish, 60 species of coral, 350 mollusks and marine mammals, algaes, and seagrasses.

Our dive-site of choice was the Santa Rosa Wall.  This dive site had characteristic tunnels that cut through the entire reef chest at 30m and it made the dive spectacular.

After doing a Scuba excursion, we joined another excursion with our friends, that took a ferry to the mainland near Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Our main destination was to explore “El Parque Xcaret”.

Pictured above, Xcaret was a Maya civilization archaeological site. It was occupied by the pre-Columbian Maya and functioned as a port for navigation and an important Maya trading center. However, Xcaret was privately owned and turned into an amusement park in 1999.

What attracted me to this park was the underground river the went from one side of the park to the other, with just enough light seeping into the tunnel through cracks and holes in the rocks. For a fee, we bought a ticket to float through the entire tunnel.

I assumed that these holes in the ceiling were created by the Mayans to retrieve water. The water was crystal clear, clean and refreshing. The river lightly pushed us along so that there was no actual swimming required. We happily and peacefully bobbed along the river slowly, wearing life jackets, soaking up every moment. Other than the underground river, there were dozens of jungle trails to explore, different animals to see, and different white-sand beaches to experience at Xcaret. I was amazed.

Our next destination was the Grand Cayman Island. I was particularly interested in exploring the famous “Stingray City”. On a sand spit just a short 20-minute boat ride from the Grand Cayman, hundreds of bathnat-sized stingrays come to meet people and to get fed. 

Imaged above, “Stingray City” was in the shallow waters off the northwest corner of Grand Cayman’s North Sound. It was just inside a natural channel that passes through the barrier reef and consisted of a string of sandbars crossing the North Sound from Morgan Harbor to Rum Point. There, the sting rays seem to fly through the water, propelling themselves with wing-like pectoral fins.

Stingray City was very crowded with tourists and getting a picture without human legs, was very difficult. There were a wide variety of companies that offered Stingray City excursions. We disembarked and entered the chest-high water to interact with the stingrays. The boats’ proprietors brought along pails of chunked-up squid meat, which they dispense by hand to the animals, thus attracting dozens of the creatures to the feeding spot. They behaved like “pet” stingrays, hugging us, while we stood in only 1 meter of water feeding them. It felt strange to feed these wild animals, when I was always taught that they were dangerous with their whip-like venomous-tails. Apparently, the rays have been “tamed” after many years of being fed by hand, and the Grand Cayman is the only place in the world where you can meet them this way. 

Our last destination, for our 1999 Caribbean Cruise, was the Ocho Rios Ports of Jamaica. There, we planned to trek-to and explore the Dunn’s River Falls.

The Ocho Rios cruise ship ports, (near Falmouth) were about 3-4 km, from Dunn’s River Falls.  The falls were about 60m high and about 200m long. That made the climb 313m.

Jamaica has limestone formations and a humid, tropical climate. This is a recipe for an exciting geological process called karst-formation. Rainwater seeps through the small fractures in the limestone and dissolves the lime on its way. Fractures in the rock become larger and turn into underground streams and caves.

Pictured below, as the water leaves the limestone and comes to the open air, it precipitates the dissolved lime. Thus along the spring bed and river stream is precipitated light-colored material called “tufa”.

Pictured below, the precipitation and characteristics of the stream often causes another phenomenon called “tufa-terracing”. These terraces look like shallow basins in the rock. When the water reaches the rim of this basin, it falls down along a small waterfall into the next basin or pan.

Water in the falls was pleasant and the tropical vegetation created a likable shadow. Becky chose not to join us for a swim. She felt that the falls looked slippery and dangerous. She didn’t want to risk a catastrophic-fall but trekked up the side of the falls on the provided stairway.

Dunn’s River Falls were recorded in the very first James Bond movie “Dr. No” (1962). In fact, this is one of the most memorable moments of these movies; [He seduces Honey Ryder (played by Ursula Andress) as she walks out of the sea on the beautiful white sand beach, below the falls].

Overall, Dunn’s River Falls is spring fed and has water that is rich in calcium carbonate and travertine deposits. It is one of the World’s Natural Wonders.