My Vacay Is Better Than Yours

Sooo....we arrived back from Jamaica last night. Probably some of you are going to hate me for saying this, but we couldn't wait to come back. We found "relaxing" made us stir crazy and often bored. However, being in another country was quite an experience so I wish to share it with you all.

Day 1
We arrived in Jamaica around 1:00 p.m. central time, went through a long line at customs and as we were leaving to find our transportation services we were overloaded with Jamaician drivers offering as all types of services including ganga, twice. This was not the first and the last of course. Throughout the trip we were offered all sorts of drugs including hash and cocaine. We were offered a red stripe aka the famous Jamaican beer by our driver. The first thing we learned about Jamaican culture was that they honk a lot. It's their way of greeting eachother. They don't do it in fits of rage or to be rude like us Americans. An hour and a half later we arrived at our resort.


It took less than fifteen minutes to get check into our room. After about another fifteen minutes of getting settled in we wanted to grab a quick bite to eat. At that time only the beach grill was open. This is where Lance fell in love with their Jerk Chicken and when we got our first glance of the beach and it's turquiose waters.


After an 11 hour flight including our layover in Atlanta we were in much need of a nap so we retired back to our room and fell fast asleep on our platform bed and woke up just in time for dinner at the buffet. The buffet had something different everyday and they always had a variety of fruit and cheeses.


The resort had a band play at the pool bar every night. So we changed into our swim suits and went out for a swim at the bar and listened to the one man band aka a guy with a keyboard.


Day 2
We woke up the next morning around 9:00 and went out to grab a quick bite at the breakfast buffet. At breakfast the hightlight was the fresh squeeze juice and not just orange juice, it included watermelon and papaya.


After breakfast we got changed into our swimsuit and went out to the beach to lounge around before our highlights tour.


Around 12:30 we came back to grab some lunch and watched about thirty minutes of MTV before we got ready to leave for our highlights tour. Our tour driver picked us up around 2:30. His name was David and he was from Talk of The Town Tours. He went with another family from the resort called Beaches. The first place David took us was the market place. I got some really good bargins because I'm good at that kind stuff. It's also called being cheap. Haha. However, Lance got ripped off by a guy who sold him some aligator thing for like $40.00. Lance is not good at bargining, mainly because he doesn't know how to say no or doesn't know how to be mean to people.



After buying about $130.00 worth of stuff at the craft market we got back into our tour van and David took us on a tour to see how the people in Jamaica live. Take the size of the smallest room in your house, add the smallest bathroom to your house in it, add a porch. That is the size of an average Jamaican home. Most of the homes were poorly built and sat on concrete blocks. Some of them were half finished and people still living in them. In the U.S. we're use to having built a house for us and we go check it out and if we like it we buy the house. In Jamaica they have to buy a plot of land, buy the materials they need and build their own house. Some of the houses on the top of the hill were huge and they are usually owned by big time drug dealers or foreigners who moved to the country.


Afterwards we went to the famous lighthouse and saw some interesting rocks that use to be coral.


Then it was on to Rick's Cafe to watch the Cliff Divers.


We came back from our tour and had some dinner and retired to our room to catch Alexander on HBO. That ran on little bit before midnight and called it a night afterwards.

Day 3
We thought Day 3 would be a good day to relax. Before our trip all Lance wanted to do was "pitch a tent and lay on the beach the whole day". So we did. Well at least did the laying on the beach part. Oh yeah, we saw a crab too. One of the many. There was a another one on our resort that was much bigger than this one.


After a couple of hours of laying around and having a couple of drinks we went on a short walk down Bloody Bay. It's called Bloody Bay because of something about pirates and killing whales on the beach. Our resort was in between the two Riu Resorts and at the far end was Couples Negril. During our walk we saw someone get married. On our way back we picked up a lot of shells to take home.


Afterwards, we went swimming and went Jet Sking for a little bit. Then, we got bored and went back to our room, busted out our DVD player and watched Domino. It was perfect timing too because a small thunder storm was rolling through and we sat outside on our balcony to watch the movie and the rain.


After the movie and the rain went away we got ready to go to the cooking class at 6:30. The cooking class was pretty lame because it wasn't really a cooking class at all. We went and snacked on some Jamaican versions of sushi and watched some guy make Jerk Fish. So we both had a pina colada instead.


We ditched the lame cooking class early and did our own private tour of our whole resort. We saw some very interesting flowers.


And of course we had dinner! We felt like we ate all the time. It cured our boredome. They always had a cart full of desert. They almost put cinnamon in everything. Like if you thought something was chocolate it might turn out to be like blackberries and cinnamon. I was craving a snickers so badly by the end of the trip.


Day 4
The highlight of Day 4 was taking a tour down the famous seven mile beach. Most of the resorts in Negril are on that beach and since a lot of tourist are there so is a lot of venders. We only brought money to duck into a small shop quickly and grab some Jamaican coffee and a soda. When approached by some vendors we clearly stated that we didn't have any money, but they were so determined that we buy something that it was pretty sad when their desperation showed and I felt so bad for not being able to buy anything when they did that. Seven mile beach is also where someone said "Konichiwa" to me and when I said I wasn't Japanese he responded with, "Oh really, you look like you are." Oh, gee thanks. Of course, we also saw the well talked about margaritaville.


Tonight the A la Carte Restaurant at the resort was open so we decided to eat there.


After dinner we went to catch another bank. Some guys with a guatiar. He was surprisely better than any of the other bands we seen before.

Day 5
At last minute we booked a tour to go to Mayfields Falls. It's like a two to three hour hike up this River with Many Mini Waterfalls in it. It was pretty fun. Plus it was included with a Meal. We had curry chicken and it was pretty good as well. The trip there was an hour and a half and that was the worse part. Another tour guide who saw me said, "Oh look, a lady from Tokyo" and once again I had to say that I wasn't Japanese and they seemed really disappointed. At the end of the trip I figured out that they thought I was Japanese because they were so surrounded by Japanese products like cars that it must of been the only asian culture they knew.


Aterwards our Mayfield Falls' tour guides took up the hill and showed us all the fruits that grew up there including bananas, coffee beans, and curry. We also saw some huge snails and there are always goats everywhere in Jamaica. Also they introduced us to a fern that can give you a temporary tatoo by slapping the back of it onto your skin.


Day 6
On our last day of the resort we did some more "relaxing" and swimming.


Lance threw around some seaweed and we dug a hole and sat in it for fun.


So anyway that was our vacation. You can check out my trip report for our resort Sunset At the Palms on www.tripadvisor.com. Whenever I get a chance to put it up that is. I'm tired of the computer now. So maybe tomorrow.