Jamaican Vacation Part 2

I'm back for another installment!

Forgotten tidbits..

Sunday March 13. We also took a walk on the 'Hip Strip' on this day. Our resort was basically on Hip Strip which had souvenir shops, some restaurants and night clubs. We started walking down it in the afternoon and got lots of stares, honks and "Hey Babbbbyyy!" as we went along. In addition to that, every shop owner along the street came off to try to hassle us into our shop to buy their stuff or braid our hair. Then you also have the drug dealers asking if you need Real good weed, chronic, to relax or a hook up. We firmly but pleasantly ignored/ quashed these various offers. We were definitely a great target..3 young females walking around alone, so we repeated a lot of thanks but no thanks. Most of the locals were happy to leave it at that and some merely just smiled and said "Welcome to Jamaica!" There were a few more interesting parties that yelled some pretty hilarious/offensive things depending on who you are. I would repeat them, but my blog has mixed company, so I will just leave it at: They liked me. They liked me a lot.

Monday March 14. Today was the day we visited Dolphin cove and Dunn's River falls. This was also the first of many terrifying bus rides. They drive on the left side of the road "The left side is the right side and the right side is suicide" and our guide told us if we got scared at any time, "...just close your eyes and say 'No problem mon!" I definitely did NOT close my eyes but instead nervously watched and swore. There is very little sense of a speed limit or regard for rules of the road, and it makes driving in downtown Toronto or Montreal a breeze!

After we arrived at Dunn's River falls, we suited up and climbed the 600 ft waterfall. The guide held my hand and took me up most of the way (perhaps he guessed at my clumsiness?) and they let us stop to pose for pictures. It was actually quite the workout since you are climbing up slippery rocks against rushing water. We all wore water shoes but our guides did it in bare feet. No problem Mon! After we climbed the waterfall we went back to Dolphin's cove where we saw some live swimming with shark shows, Jamaican pirates (one actually only had one leg! I think they totally searched him out..) and then on to the dolphins. One thing to be said about being in Jamaica is learn to relax and just let things come as they will. They got us all set up and into our life jackets and then we sat there for like 30 minutes while they got their shit figured out with names and groups. I was anxious to get in and see Tatiana (our dolphin) so I was less patient than normal here.

We finally got in and we watched our dolphin dance, sing, catch a ring on her nose, and she gave us a kiss, pulled us along and we rubbed her belly. It was a very neat experience and I bought one picture that I will scan and put up soon of my dolphin kiss. They are really the most adorable mammals, and so smart too! We ate lunch there and hung out a little while, then headed back to our resort for dinner. That evening we just drank and hung out, enjoying the summery air.

Tuesday March 15. This was another day of beach relaxing. We went snorkelling as well which was really cool, right off the shore of our resort. We took a lot of underwater pictures, so be sure to check those out on facebook. It's really neat and also quite freaky to see what's in the ocean. Luckily the waters were fairly shallow so no man-eating octopus or sharks from what I saw :) This evening we went to Luminous Lagoon which is a lagoon that combines salt and fresh water which in turn grows a bacteria that glows when you disturb it. The only issue here was the mud! Have you ever eaten Sauce N' Cake? It was a popular dessert option in my house as a kid cause it comes from a box and you just add water! Anyways...there is sauce in the middle of it that erupts out when you eat it. Well...sticking my feet into this mud basically felt like standing in cold, wet, Sauce N' Cake. So there was a fair bit of screaming and ewwing that happened.

After we got back from Luminous Lagoon, we hit up the tourist night club called Margaritaville. There are 3 of them in Jamaica and they play familiar music and the bar even has a waterslide. The water part was closed when we were there because it shoots you out into the ocean, but it was still fun nonetheless. It was full of 19 year old yelling spring breakers so we didn't stay too long.

Stay tuned...