Day 6: Port Royal, The Submerged City - Andrew
For the last day of our weekend trip we left Kingston, went to Port Royal, and swam at Dunn's River Falls at Ocho Rios. In Ocho Rios, we swam at the beach, and a couple people went up the waterfall.
We had a great learning experience in Port Royal and had some very interesting site reports given by our students. Port Royal was one of my favorite historical places we visited so far and it was very interesting. Port Royal was once was a trading port home to pirates and a naval base, but an earthquake in 1692 killed a large portion of the population and parts of the town sunk into the water. The town was partially rebuilt but was destroyed once again by earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes. What was particularly interesting to me is that Port Royal seemed so desolate despite its rich history and many historical buildings. It is also considered one of the most important historical sites in Jamaica, but it still sits being forgotten. We had a very enthusiastic tour guide who taught us a lot about Port Royal and how many locals hope for the town to be revitalized. Disney allegedly planned to turn the area into a pirate-themed area, but they wanted to push the locals out of the town. The locals objected to this and the town remained as it is.
In our seminar after dinner we discussed our ideas on how the town could be revitalized and bring in some of the people who don't venture out of the commercialized tourist areas. The general idea we came up with is that the area still needs to be preserved, but there needs to be an interesting draw for tourists that would not damage the historical value.
We had a great learning experience in Port Royal and had some very interesting site reports given by our students. Port Royal was one of my favorite historical places we visited so far and it was very interesting. Port Royal was once was a trading port home to pirates and a naval base, but an earthquake in 1692 killed a large portion of the population and parts of the town sunk into the water. The town was partially rebuilt but was destroyed once again by earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes. What was particularly interesting to me is that Port Royal seemed so desolate despite its rich history and many historical buildings. It is also considered one of the most important historical sites in Jamaica, but it still sits being forgotten. We had a very enthusiastic tour guide who taught us a lot about Port Royal and how many locals hope for the town to be revitalized. Disney allegedly planned to turn the area into a pirate-themed area, but they wanted to push the locals out of the town. The locals objected to this and the town remained as it is.
In our seminar after dinner we discussed our ideas on how the town could be revitalized and bring in some of the people who don't venture out of the commercialized tourist areas. The general idea we came up with is that the area still needs to be preserved, but there needs to be an interesting draw for tourists that would not damage the historical value.
Interesting stuff. I can only imagine how they felt about the place they considered home being turned into a Disney-theme park. bleh.
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