A day off from sailing the high seas and instead a river boat trip with our new best friend Alexis.

Alexis had the tourist patter down to a fine art. He had two main lines at which we laughed uproariously for the first few occasions he used them but over time, oddly, even though our laughter had faded, the funnier he found it. The two lines were: 1. Everything tasted like chicken and 2. The more mature the grape, the sweeter the wine which was a clear reference to John and myself having recently passed 50. He was great company. He rowed us up the swamp river on which they had filmed a big scene from Pirates of the Caribbean involving a mystic Calypso. Here is the very spot where her lair was built:

The highlight of the tour was on the face of it much more prosaic. He took us on to his brother's plantation where we pretty much sampled his every produce.

We tried his beautifully sweet grapefruit; we sucked on the outside of a cocoa bean (pictured); 

he gave us a massive root of ginger and a clutch of passion fruit for juicing; he sliced the bark from a cinnamon tree; explained how they grew bananas; and finally of, of course, all roads ended at the bar where we were able to try his rums which included coconut, passion fruit and the one of which he was proudest , dynamite! It was here we saw the dark green jacko parrots, unfortunately too far away to photograph so you'll have to make do with this rather beautiful humming bird (or bee eater?):