Jamaica was THE most beautiful place we have ever been. The people, the country...it was fantastic. Jamaicans are so friendly and just aim to please. I have never had so many hand shakes/fist bumps in my entire life. :) The sunsets were absolutely the most amazing thing we've ever seen, however, they disappear in just a few minutes, I swear. One minute you're looking at it and the next minute, it's gone.
We arrived to the Montego Bay airport Sunday, the 14th around 10:30 in the morning. We immediately found our bus and were on our way. I was very nervous riding to our hotel on the first day because they are crazy drivers!!! I can say that because on one of our tours, our guide admitted that they are very bad drivers, but have fewer accidents than Americans. And they also drive on the opposite side of the road, so that took some getting used to.
We made a few stops along the way and arrived at our hotel in Negril, Jamaica, the Riu Palace Tropical Bay Resort. BEAUTIFUL. Our room was ready, we went and changed, then went directly to the beach. We didn't do too much the first day because we had been on a plane for the majority of the morning and just wanted to relax on the beach. The water was perfect.....warm and calm.
On Monday, Jason and I went down the road to a resort where they have horse back riding. We both had our own horse and rode up into the mountains and back down where we were able to ride in the ocean with our horses. I opted to not go swimming with my horse, but Jason did. It was neat to see him do this and will post pictures in another post.
Tuesday we relaxed and did nothing....that was our goal. Wednesday we went to many places. The first stop was to the Black River where we saw some crocodiles and various birds and trees. We then had lunch at the same place where the restaurant was about 100 degrees and I thought we were all going to pass out it was so hot. They finally turned on the air conditioning and then it was bearable. We got back on our bus and headed to YS Falls. You could walk and walk forever and see falls. Jason jumped from a rope into the falls and we went swimming in them. It was gorgeous. Then we took a scenic drive through the mountains on basically a one car road and drove to the Appleton Estates where they make rum. On our way, we saw where the people live up in the mountains and it was fascinating to see. We learned so much that day about their culture. As we were riding on buses, we'd see many houses that looked abandoned. Come to find out, the people buy the cement blocks (yes, this is how they build their houses), build what they can, buy more cement bricks, and once they have bought all of them, they can finish their house. They take the cement blocks, build their houses, then put mortar on top of them and their house is finished. Once it's finished, they own it. Also, we saw many sugar cane fields. We learned that when the sugar cane is ready to be harvested, they burn the fields to get rid of bugs and to soften the leaves, otherwise the leaves are very sharp and they will cut their hands. We actually saw a field on fire when we were on our way home that day. There were many little stands along the road way where they were selling fruits, jewelry, beer, t-shirts, really anything you wanted. Very interesting to see.
Thursday we went on a sunset catamaran tour where they took us to Rick's Cafe. Jason went cliff diving and I watched from the boat. It was beautiful and the rum punch was delicious. We also went snorkeling and saw the neatest sting ray. It was leopard print!
Friday we relaxed and didn't do much of anything. We went swimming, had some jerk chicken with red beans and rice, and just laid around in the sun. We were just taking it all in on our last day.
