Today we flew to Jamaica!! I haven't been there in 17 years. While we were in the airport at Orlando there was a lady (don't recall her name) with lots of baggage and a a little girl name Sky she was a little less than 2 years old. Sky kept fussing and since the lady had lots of bags my brother decided to be a gentleman and help her. she was appreciative of the help and we got to play a bit with Sky at a distance while she sat across from us waiting on the plane. After what seemed like a 1/2 hour of waiting we were off. I remember being excited and looking forward to the trip. We boarded the plane and was greeted by a friendly Jamaican stewardess with a nice Jamaican accent it was really nice to here the accent, I knew that I was headed for fun in the sun. Our captain had dreadlocks how cool… most of the folks on the plane was Jamaican also. After waiting on the ground for a while for some items to clear customs were were on our way.
We arrived in Jamaica with a fairly smooth ride sometime after 6PM UST. It was nice to view the mountains from the air and I snapped a few photos from the plane. Drats the wing was kinda in the way a little. After landing at Sangster Airport in Montego Bay we checked in with our travel agent and some guy came and loaded our baggage and dropped them off under a tent. We gave him some $ for tip and he complained so we gave him some more. We didn't think that carrying our bags a few feet warranted a $1000 JA which was the next highest bills we had. He didn't even explain to us why we were under a tent. We quickly figured out that this was where a bus was to pick us up for the hotel. We stood under this tent waiting for a bus to pick us up for at least 30 minutes. To make matters worst we were hungry and tired since they didn't feed us anything substantial on the plane and we were up early. After we inquired as to where the bus was and when it was coming we were told one was on the way. In Jamaica on the way could mean 10 minutes or another hour. After another 30 minutes the bus showed up and a young man came out and loaded our bags. By this time a few other folks had made it to the tent and playing the same waiting game we were. The driver remarked that he wasn't supposed to be there at all he just happened to show up and there we were. I was glad that he just happened to show up to say the least. By the time we loaded up and headed out it was dusk. We were on our way to the hotel in Ocho Rios which would take us almost 2 hours to reach. The first things that I noticed were all the hills with the large houses scattered on top of them, the blue water on my left, a nice golf course, a couple jogging by and some really beautiful overhanging trees. I also noticed the bumpy roads which our driver warned us about and referred to as a free massage. Apparently, a new road had been milled but not completed yet so we had to drive on this stuff for miles. Reminded me of Ithaca just a little bit in this regard.
After more scenic views and free massages and a few drop offs at hotels with the names Sandals, Pebbles and Riu we finally arrived at our hotel (Rooms on the Beach) and checked in. We were all very tired and hungry at this point but wanted to unload our stuff and go hunting for something to eat so we proceeded to the rooms. Upon entering the room I was greeted by a slight odor. It smelled like chlorine mixed with must of some kind. My Mom and I decided to check out my brother's room and that smelled like a guy's dorm room that had dirty socks all over it. It was stuffy and musty. My brother decided that he needed his room cleaned or changed so he reported this to the front desk who gave him a bit of a hard time. They didn't really confirm that they would switch his room. He got frustrated and simply left in search of food. All in-all the place smelled more like a camp that had not been aired out properly rater than a hotel. The building itself was nice though and the views of the beach was quite nice.
For food we met up with some relatives we had also staying at the same hotel who took us to this street vendor in the town of Ocho Rios. We paid about $300 JA for the food and although it wasn't what we wanted to order it was very good. The spices there are just so much more flavorful than here. We had rice and peas (kidney beans) with brown stew chicken. We wanted some fish but they had ran out. I also had some ginger drink that was quite refreshing. We took all this back to the hotel and ate on the patio are next to the pool and the nice ocean view. We rounded off our meal with a few mangoes from the relatives. We stayed there talking and enjoying the view until about 11:30 then I went up to prepare to go to sleep. We were scheduled to visit relatives the next morning so I wanted to get some sleep before then. I don't remember getting that much sleep first of all my bed had that camp like odor and i was a bit stuffy and second there was a lot of reggae music coming from downstairs until well after 3AM in the morning. Somehow I woke up and wasn't feeling all that tired though. I also have to admit that it felt good to here reggae music playing into the night again.
I just got back from a canoe trip in the Adirondacks. OK got back on Monday night but it took me a while to recover and now I’ve finally gotten back the sleep I missed and my muscles are all OK now. I was a bit reluctant to go having had the canoe I was in capsize the first time I went I didn’t want to do that again. A friend’s digital camera fell in the water and got ruined and I had to fork over a lot of money so on top of having to pay for the trip I had to pay a chunk to replace the camera. Anyway, I felt that I needed to get over the bad experience so I packed up my bags and went. We canoed to and camped at a place called Round Lake. Its was quite round and quite nice. I felt at times that I was in Fangorn Forest. See we camped in a nice glade of trees that kept the rain mostly off our stuff while we enjoyed beautiful views of the lake. The ground was also quite soft and spongy feeling except for my last night there. It was a great time out in the wild, enjoying nature and discovering once again how creative God is and enjoying some of the things he has made. I was also in fine company. I’ve posted up a few pictures from my camera check them out.
