World Ventures Travel

tNo - I don’t mean the “Pirates of the Caribbean” -
I mean Capt. Henry Morgan the famous pirate master.

He has been long gone (died in 1688) but some of his life is still left in Jamaica at Morgan’s Point. He was one of the most ruthless and brutal pirates of all time. He was smart and commanded so many ships that the was a force to be reckoned with in the Caribbean. He was eventually “knighted” (1674 by King Charles II) in Jamaica and thereafter was referred to as Sir Capt. Henry Morgan.

My time in Jamaica came as a result of my acceptance of an airline Captain contract to fly the country’s newly acquired Boeing 727 aircraft. I was joined by a number of other gentleman pilots from all over the world, but first a little more about the pirate Morgan.

Captain Morgan’s greatest feat occurred on January 19, 1670 when he led a fleet of 36 pirate ships against the City of Panama. At the time, the city was rumored to be the richest in the world; along with Cartagena, it was a main jumping-off point for Spanish gold on its way to Europe. Morgan sailed into port and decimated a significantly larger force led by the local governor. He burned the city to the ground and made off with 400,000 pieces of eight, later stealing much of it from his own men. Throughout his career, Morgan roamed the islands of the Bahamas, allegedly wreaking much havoc and burying plenty of treasure

Under Morgan’s watch Port Royal was lined with warehouses, goldsmiths, taverns and brothels and house rentals were said to be as high as any in London’s finest neighborhoods.

By 1690, there were between 8,000 and 10,000 permanent inhabitants at Port Royal. Some houses were three or four storys high. Everything was available including bars, taverns, restaurants, coffee houses and brothels. Capt. Morgan founded a city that lived despite his death.

In 1692, an earthquake devastated Port Royal, taking the cemetery and Morgan’s grave with it. A huge tidal wave destroyed ships in the harbor and carried one of the ships into the middle of the town. Many of the buildings were destroyed and most of the city disappeared into the sea.

Going back to where I left off about my reason for being in Jamaica. I was saying about the fellow pilots that joined me on this contract. We had a few from the famed Air America that operated as a CIA company in Vietnam. They carried out all kinds of clandestine missions for the U.S. Government. The crews were all mostly non-Jamaican. There was a Jamaica Chief Pilot and a Jamaican Flight Operation Director.

Prior to arriving in Jamaica I had been flying in the Dominican Republic with Dominicana the government airline. I had purchased a 65 foot Alden schooner in St. Thomas and had sailed it to Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic. When the Jamaica contract presented itself I sailed old Primrose IV to Jamaica and docked in the Royal Jamaica Yacht Club 10 miles from Port Royal. Now you know how I got there. Let’s continue with what Port Royal is all about.

The sunken city has bee preserved almost exactly like it was in its heyday. Fort Carlisle was constructed in 1678 on the harbour side. It was destroyed by the earthquake as well. When I was there in 1974, there was only one hotel, Morgan’s Harbour Hotel and it was at the very end of the island. The hotel at that time was is bad shape. I stayed the and the window air conditioners were so noisy that they prevented a sound sleep. The hotel actually overlooks the sunken city of Port Royal. It is rumored that the building survived the 1692 earthquake and had been a 18th century storehouse.

Fort Charles still remains much as it appeared in 1692. It did sink a few feet as a result of the earthquake. It was rebuilt but some of the old original pre-1692 stonework can still be seen.

Over 2,000 people died and more than 3,000 had serious injuries. Many of the victims were swallowed up by the earth. The town started its slow death. A fire in 1703 almost sealed the fate of Morgan Town, but a hurricane in 1722 pretty finished it off. The fort contains a small museum with artifacts brought up from the sunken city of Port Royal.

There is a possibility that there may be a underwater museum of the site of the sunken city. This is a very ambitious project but who knows it may actually happen sometime in the future.

Anyway it is interesting to walk the the streets of Port Royal, have a drink in the old grog shop, dinner at Buccaneer’s Roost with the cry of “Let’s Have Another Red Stipe”, the local Jamaican beer. Quite good actually.

I consumed many a Red Stripe at the Royal Jamaica Yacht Club bar. Being a guest member of the club I participated in some of the regatta’s that they had. After a year my contract was up and the Jamaicans had been training to take over the B727 flight operations, my and most of my colleagues services were no longer needed. I made arrangement to sail to Miami where I would search for another B727 Captain seat.

I was doing a makeover on the boat so I took a Jamaican boat right with me to Miami, found an apartment in the Miami river and docked the boat right behind the apartment. This was 1975. In those days that could be done, not anymore. 911, Homeland Security and many more restrictions on the movement of Americans in our country.

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Located a little more than half way down the chain of islands from Puerto Rico to Trinidad, just north of the Venezuela coast, lies an island that at one time belonged to the United Kingdom. It is volcanic and has the highest mountain in the island chain. I spent a lot of time there.

Actually I had just completed about 3 years of flying for Trans Caribbean Airways in New York and my routes were to Puerto Rico and St. Thomas. In my off days I had the capability of traveling free aboard almost any air carrier because I was a working pilot. They called us jump seat riders as our seat was in the cockpit. I was always going somewhere in my time off as in those days I was a single man. This was before Home Land Security and all the restrictions. I am grateful to have been able to live through those wonderful days. America did not control its citizens like is does in these times. Those days of free choice will probably never return.

I have always been looking for opportunity where ever I am and I thought I saw some opportunity in the islands from St. Maarten, N.L. all the way to St. Vincent. The major hotels and resorts were in need of fresh produce to feed their guests and there was no reliable supply as the islands themselves could not produce enough to fill the requirement. To make the story a bit shorter, I arranged for trailer loads of produce to be shipped by sea to Puerto Rico, then loaded aboard charter cargo aircraft and flown to the islands. The stops were St. Maarten, the French side, Guadeloupe, Antigua, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. Since the aircraft was returning empty to Puerto Rico, I got the bright idea to stop at Dominica and pick up local fruit and vegetables that would be in demand in Puerto Rico. That is how I got acquainted with Dominica.

I met a local plantation owner near the airport on the northeast side of the island. He arranged a load of plantain, mango, banana, avocado, yucca, and dasheen (a local root vegetable) - 4 tons worth! Roseau the capital city of Dominica was located on the south west side of the island and the drive from the airport was about 2+ hours over barely a 2-lane road. In fact at time the car had to stop way off the side of the road to let a bus buy. The first time was a hair raising ride, but you got used to it.

Dominica is the only place left in the Caribbean where some of the descendants of the original Carib Indians make their home. I came to know the island well, but it has so very few beaches that I would not care to permanently live there.

That business lasted a couple of years. The end came when I decided to bring lobster from St. Lucia to Puerto Rico. I did not know that I was stepping on someone’s foot, a local, that had been exporting lobster for many years. I carried a lot of lobster 2-3,000 lbs. which did not leave much for him. The next trip I made with my product for the local hotels as met by the local agriculture dept. They fraudently condemned all the fruit and vegetables on the aircraft. I unknowingly upset someone and he took his vengeance out on me. That ended my trips to St. Lucia, the hotels would have to resort to local supply again. Poor hotel residents.

Well I think I have said enough of how I found Dominica; let me tell you a little about the island and why I fell in love with it. Some say that they can trace the first humans on the island back to 3000BC. Some say the Igneri tribe (stone age) first populated the island. Then believe it or not that a year after Columbus discovered America, he visited Dominica in 1493, so Dominica and America are sister countries, you might say, LOL. The British took over the island in the early 1600’s, but France by virtue of a treaty took over the island around 1750, 15 years later the British took it back. Then the French took it back around 1775, but the British were able to gain control again about 5-8 years later. So as a result the population of the island speak several languages: the King’s English, French, local patois, and many Indian dialects.

Governments, ownership or maybe a better word “control” went back and forth until the late 1960’s when Dominica gained its full independence from the United Kingdom, but made a deal to continue to have military protection. Dominica got it’s first Premier, Constitution and Legislature, now at last Dominica became an independent country. I discovered Dominica shortly after this independence in 1971.

The landscapes of Dominica are out of this world. As I mentioned above, it is a volcanic island and has volcanic mudpots, you can boil your eggs in natural hot water steam and how about a natural hot tub. In fact the island is so unique that 2 Pirates of the Caribbean movies and also Mark Burnett’s “Pirate Master!” were filmed there.

Really, Dominica is the place to go if you would rather hike than site in a disco. The time is takes to drive from one place to another is not a short one because of the narrow roads and the mountains. Pick a spot or two and explore instead of bouncing around. Dominica forest covered mountains are green, green and more green. The grandeur and majesty is not like anything else in the world. Some of the things to do, and I have done a few, are “off the beaten trail” jeep tours. These are great as there is a guide that was born there. Do some planning to see some the breath taking waterfalls, lagoons, ocean caves, secluded very small beaches. Go tubing on some of the mountain rivers.

I am definitely going back soon for a stay of about 14 days. I will probably move 4 times with 2-3 days in each area. You have to allow one day just for the trip from one area to another.
See ya in a few days for my next adventure.

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In fact there is no crowd at all, what a relief. My wife and I had decided to take some time and walk down a different road, a very slow and relaxed one. We decided to revisit the Dominican Republic, the country where we first met. I’ll tell that story someday in another post.

The east part of the island had been the location of Club Med Punta Cana. Along a turquoise lagoon, Punta Cana snuggles between 400 metres of beach and a magnificent coconut grove. The Club Med Spa has a thatched roof to complete the feeling of total relaxation. It was and still is a fantastic place. Once upon a time over 30 years ago it was the only resort in the area, today there are hundreds. In fact the area has its own airport now.

Instead we wanted to explore the “off the beaten” track beaches and villages. We found such a location at Bayahibe.

These beaches are reason enough to spend time in this part of the country. Denying yourself a trip to this piece of paradise would be a mistake. Fortunately, there is still easily accessible public beach space available at both. Playa Bayahibe (right in the town of Bayahibe), with its white sand, has restaurants and food stands overlooking the beach, so you don’t have to go far.

This is a small fishing village so the resorts have not taken over and there no hotels right on the beach. We were in the exploring mood, not laying on the beach all day, so we found a nice, air conditioned (rare in this village) owned by a German couple that had settled there many years ago and built a 15-unit facility for income to support themselves.

We rented a car at the main airport serving Santo Domingo, the capital city, and drove about 3 hours east, arriving about 3pm. That particular day it was rainy, so we settled in a cozy beachfront bar and had a couple of beers, before looking over the town on foot. We found out place to stay for a few days and went out to find a nice restaurant.

It only took about 15 minutes of walking until we found a great, open air, thatched roof restaurant on pilings (actually stilts about eight feed above ground) that gave a great view of the beach and Caribbean. Owned by two sisters we totally enjoyed the great food and wine they prepared for us. What a great finish to another day in paradise.

The next morning we were afoot again looking for breakfast. That was found on the beach in a very small bar with rustic tables on a veranda overlooking the water. My wife speaks spanish fluently so we quickly got acquainted with the manager Rosie. We has some traditional Dominican breakfast called Gallo Pinto. Beans and rice topped with two fried eggs. Really quite tasty. Later we found out that Rosie actually leased the location from an American living in La Romana.

It kinda made me look back and remember the time I was living in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands on a 65′ Alden Schooner that I had purchased to fix up and sail the Caribbean. That still is another story. Reason I mention St. Thomas is because while in the yacht club there I met a fellow arriving from Boston in his sailboat intending to do charters among the islands. He asked if I wanted to cook for him when he booked charters. I said yes. I was just bumming out on the boat at that time. One of the ports of call was Jost Van Dyke, a small island of the British Virgin Island group. There was this couple, she was white, he was a black islander, that had a barefoot bar on the beach.

We would drop anchor off the beach and we would take our 4-person charter group ashore to spend the evening in this bar, eating drinking and dancing. The young lady, companion of the bar owner would swing in a hammock all evening. We named her “Queenie”. After that I always thought it would be fun to have a bar like that on the beach and name it Gringo Loco as I am sometimes called.

Back to Bayahibe. We spent the next several days exploring up to an hour from Bayahibe and marvelled how much the area had grown. We took a trip across a small bay to spend the day on Saona Island and I treated my wife to her first jet ski ride. She loved it.

We hated to leave and vowed to return soon.

A great cooking blog to check out

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As just about everybody knows the Vietnam war ended in 1975 if you want to call it that. Anyway I just wanted to put my arrival in Singapore in prospective and by referencing  Vietnam I thought was a good way to do it.

Why was I in Singapore? During my time in Malta, it came to my attention that there was a possibility of a flying job with Singapore Airlines in the Boeing 747. I had recently received an Air Transport Rating (ATR) in the B-747 from United Airlines and was looking for a seat to fly. Singapore Air was hiring Boeing 727 Captains so to get my foot in the door I accepted that position with my eye on Big Albert.

Singapore has quite a history as a crossroads point for world travel. In ‘77 when I arrived all was calm and there appeared to be no leftover effect from the Vietnam era. The one-party government of Singapore had the reputation of being very strict. Singapore gained sovereignty in 1965 and Lee Kuan Yew was the man in control as Prime Minister and remained in power until 1990.  There was a President (Yusof bin Ishak), but the position was basically for show as the Prime Minister had the control.

Singapore belonged to the British Empire until 1963, so everything there was typically "British". They have a Cricket Club, but because of the Vietnam era they also have an American Club. Raffles Hotel was an old throwback to the the "English" era and they still had "high tea" at 4pm in the afternoon.

The wife and I found an apartment in the Katong area and settled in to the same routine in another area of the world. It was different, that’s for sure.

One thing that was great were the street markets. Four or five times a week we visited the markets for our "fried mee", "satay", or curry chicken. Of course, Singapore is primarily an Asian culture with the population about 80% Chinese. Walking down the market streets you could always see ducks hanging by their necks waiting to be purchased for someones lunch.

Another unique thing about Singapore was the open sewer canals, the smells were strong and would make your eyes water. Probably by now, 30years later, the government has resolved that issue. LOL

I was a ham radio operator in those days, H8MFH, and I enjoyed talking to others around the world both from my radio shack in Singapore and the aircraft at 30,000 feet, when time permitted. My trips took me to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Jakarta and many other points in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Notable points about Singapore are its shopping malls, its food and the cleanliness of the city, except for the smell! On our free time we traveled to nearby destinations like Tioman in Malaysia. Tioman is one of 60+ islands in the South China Sea with white sand beaches and millions of mosquitoes. And when they attack it looks like a cloud is descending on you. Not fun. Tioman was the movie set for "Bali Hai" in the film South Pacific so it was worth a visit and I might add one that will always be remembered because of the mosquitoes.

I used to stay overnight in Jakarta and to pass the time I visited the local casinos. This was another experience as the almost all Asians smoke cigarettes, but the Indonesians smoke a cigarette spiced with cloves. After about 20 minutes your eyes start to burn. Needless to say, being a non-smoker, that was my first and last casino visit in Jakarta.

Well that’s about it for Singapore for now. If I remember other interesting things about my time in Southeast Asia, I will tell you about them. Till next time. Regards.

By the way, Margie (wife) picked up some excellent recipies from Sngapore and if you are intested you can visit her blog at

Great Cooking…

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I spent time on Malta in the mid-70’s. The reason I was there is because I had a contract for Captain of Boeing 727 for the country of Libya. I commuted from Malta to Tripoli every week to put in my 3 days of work.

Malta is a fantastic country. The history goes back to the 1500’s. I rented a house in the north part of the island for $100 a month. The area is called Xemxija Bay and it is pronounced (chem-shia). Very near to St. Paul’s Bay. The house was actually on the side of a steep hill overlooking the bay. Windy and cold in the winter, you wouldn’t believe. The wife and I lived there for about 2 1/2 years. She loved the island and when I was off flying she would tour the island on the local bus. She called the buses “Frekunas” as this word means “turtle” in the maltese language. These buses are a story into themselves. There were old then, very slow, maybe 15-20 mph max. It took forever to get any place, but why be in a hurry - right?

We had a rental car by the month, but she chose to rid the bus. She loved it. It was like a self guided tour and she learned a bit of the maltese language in the process. The language is a mix between Italian and Arabic as the islands (there are 3) are located between Sicily and North Africa.

The United Kingdom has a army base on Malta. It had been there for many years. In fact Malta was heavily attacked during World War II, but never surrendered. The British closed the base while I was there.

A couple of things that stand out in my memory is the Dragonora Hotel and Casino. This was where all the ‘elite’ of Malta went to have dinner and gamble. European gambling is very different than Las Vegas, what I might call “refined” gambling. LOL.

The island is just one big rock, not many fields to grow fruits and vegetables, so the local agriculture was done in greenhouses. Since the Maltese people has existed for hundreds of years they learned how to survive on what was available. We lacked nothing, in fact of the places to live in this world, Malta would be one of my choices. The people are very friendly, the women are beautiful and quite well built, if you know what I mean, the food is great with an Italian flavor and it those days it was very economical to live.

When I totally retire the wife and I plan a visit to see how it has changed in 30 years. I might talk more about Malta in another post some day.
Check out my wife’s blog at Great Cooking Is Not Complicated

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Wedged into the northeastern corner of Central America between Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and the forests of Guatemala, Belize offers some of the most breathtaking scenery anywhere in the Caribbean.

The country actually consists of marginally more sea than land, with the dazzling turquoise shallows and cobalt depths of the longest barrier reef in the Americas just offshore. Here, beneath the surface, a brilliant, technicolour world of fish and corals awaits divers and snorkellers. Scattered along the reef, a chain of islands known as cayes protect the mainland from the ocean swell and offer more than a hint of tropical paradise. Beyond the reef lie the real jewels in Belize’s natural crown three of only four coral atolls in the Caribbean.Belizeans recognize the importance of conservation and their country boasts a higher proportion of protected land (over 45 percent) than any other.

This has allowed the densely forested interior to remain relatively untouched, home to abundant natural attractions, including the highest waterfall in Central America and the world’s only jaguar reserve. Rich tropical forests support a tremendous range of wildlife, including howler and spider monkeys, tapirs and pumas, jabiru storks and scarlet macaws; spend any time inland and you’re sure to see the national bird, the very visible keel-billed toucan.Despite being the only Central American country without a volcano, Belize does have some rugged uplands in the south-central region, where the Maya Mountains rise to over 1100m.

The country’s main rivers rise here, flowing north or east to the Caribbean, forming along the way some of the largest cave systems in the Americas, few of which have been fully explored. These caves often bear traces of the Maya civilization that dominated the area from around 2000 BC until the arrival of the Spanish. The most obvious remains of this fascinating culture are the remains of dozens of ancient cities rising out of the rainforest.Officially English-speaking, and only gaining full independence from Britain in 1981.

Belize is as much a Caribbean nation as a Latin one, but one with plenty of distinctively Central American features, above all a blend of cultures and races that includes Maya, mestizo, African and European. Spanish is at least as widely spoken as English, but the rich, lilting Creole is the spoken language understood and used by almost every Belizean, whatever their first tongue. You’ll hear this everywhere and though based on English, it’s less comprehensible to outsiders than you might expect.With far less of a language barrier to overcome than elsewhere in the region, uncrowded Belize is the ideal first stop on a tour of the isthmus.

And, although it’s the second-smallest country in Central America (slightly larger than El Salvador), the wealth of national parks and reserves, the numerous small hotels and restaurants, together with plenty of reliable public transport make Belize an ideal place to travel independently, giving visitors plenty of scope to explore little-visited Caribbean islands as well as the heartland of the ancient Maya. 2

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