As I mentioned before, we had been to Ocho Rios on a previous cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas in 2008.  I had found out about the Enchanted Gardens online and we also had to do the touristy things – Dunns River Falls and the market.  We DIY’d the day.  We took a bus to and from the falls.  Then we hired a taxi to Enchanted Gardens and kept the driver for the return trip and had him drop us off at the market.  We walked through the town and visited some small shops as well, then had the traditional jerk chicken in a local non-touristy restaurant, then hit the Margaritaville and back to the ship.  Very few cruisers DIY in this port but being experienced travelers we had no problems at all!

Dunn’s River Falls

Enchanted Gardens

The little Olive-throated Conure on the end was the one I named Tiki.  The guide said he didn’t have a name so I gave him one!

Ocho Rios Market

Parking $100 per hour!  Glad we walked!

Local restaurant – great jerk chicken!

Shopping center near the cruise ship and Margaritaville

Adding to our collection of parrot t-shirts!  This was a huge ship, at the time it was one of the largest cruise ships in the world but it has since been surpassed.

This was our second time visiting Ocho Rios on a cruise ship.  On the first visit (which will be covered on a separate post) we did all the touristy things – Dunns River Falls, the market and finished at the Enchanted Gardens which has a beautiful walk-in aviary.

Princess Cruises has a number of shore excursions but none of them are suitable for birders.  We arranged a private tour with top birding guide Wendy Lee.  She can be contacted by email at wendylee@cwjamaica.com and you can see another review of a land based birding tour with her on Trip Advisor.

We disembarked with trepidation as the weather was already drizzly.  Wendy was right there waiting for us and said she would do her best in spite of the weather.  I was prioritizing the 2 endemic parrot species – Yellow-billed Parrot and Black-billed Parrot.  Wendy took us to a grove of trees and sure enough the parrots were there, albeit very soggy parrots!  I did my best with the photos but I kept having to cover my camera from the rain.

Wendy had planned to take us somewhere else after the parrots but she said the road would be very dodgy because of the rain and the birds would be hiding anyways.  She offered to take us to her wildlife rescue instead to show us some birds rescued from poachers.  We saw a Cattle Egret along the road.

The rain had eased off a bit as we headed back to port, getting a glimpse of the ship as we went over a hill.  The final stop was the Enchanted Gardens with the fabulous walk-in aviary.  This seems to be the best-kept secret of Ocho Rios as hardly anyone ever goes there.  The guide showed us around and since we had limited time due to the ship schedule, we only wanted to see the aviary.  We spent some quality time playing with the birds.  They give you food and the birds will climb all over you.  I think it was around $20pp to visit the gardens.

I think this little guy is the same Olive-throated Parakeet I had named “Tiki” back in 2008!

After the tour, Wendy dropped us at the shopping centre near the cruise ship dock so we could visit the Jimmy Buffets and grab some parrot themed t-shirts.  We then walked back to the ship.  It turned out to be a great day in spite of the rainy morning!

Bad photo of some jerk chicken we shared at Margaritaville.

Two of these Dr Bird paintings are now gracing the hall between the kitchen and our home aviary!

Somebody else on the ship bought this – wish I had seen it first!