Our Jamaica Story Part 1

(Please forgive me if this ends up super long.  I'm going to split it up since we took a ton of pictures and there is a lot to tell.)

Let me begin by apologizing, especially to family members, for not telling you that we were going.  I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about going and so I just kind of kept the trip to myself.  I was excited to go and spend a week with R and do fun new things but it seemed so extravagant that I was kind of embarrassed that we were going.  Some family members will not be surprised to know that at one point I was even in tears over trying to decide if this was the best thing to be doing.  Then a really good friend gave me some wonderful advice that reaffirmed what I was finally beginning to feel (after much thought, prayer, and deliberation.)  This friend had an Aunt and Uncle who saved, saved, and saved, and went without doing a lot of things so that they could save even more with the plan that one day they would retire and do all kinds of things together with the money they had saved.  Just shortly before retiring, my friend's Uncle passed away.  Now her Aunt is financially set with money to do what ever she wants but no one to do it with.  So, when ever I began to fret about the money this vacation cost us, my friend would always say "remember my Aunt and Uncle."

Our adventure began on Sunday evening.  Thanks to a dear friend, R and I stayed in a hotel near the airport Sunday night so that we could get a little bit of sleep before we had to be at the airport in time for our 6 am flight to Miami.  It was the fastest 3 hour flight since I slept for most of it.  After a short layer over in Miami, we had a 1 1/2 hour flight into Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Once there, we got our pass ports stamped (Yahh!!! stamp number 2 for me and about 5 million for R) and then made our way to the resort lounge to wait for the shuttle bus that would take us the 1.5 hour ride to the resort, just outside of Negril.... Couples Swept Away (Yes, the resort is just for couples.)

The bus ride was fun as we followed the coast...here is my first picture of the ocean.

We meandered through towns, villages,  and the countryside.

We saw lots of goats grazing in fields and yards and several along the side of the road.  Our bus driver called them Jamaican deer.  (He was just being silly.)  We even saw a couple of cows grazing beside the road, tied up eating the long grass.  It appears that people take them out in the morning, tie them up so they can graze, and then come back and get them later in the day.

For those who might be curious, they drive on the left side of the road which didn't seem too confusing except for when the bus would make a turn at an intersection.  With a few seconds to think about it, you can reason out what lane you should be turning into, but right there at the moment, I was totally confused.  And when we went around the traffic circle in a clockwise direction, it was also a little confusing.  Good thing I wasn't driving.

We were at the resort by 1:30 pm (2:30 pm our time).

Our room wasn't going to be ready until after 3 pm but we were able to go and do what ever we wanted to while we waited for our room.  We headed off to the pool side grill to get our first taste of Ting (yummy grapefruit soda) and our first taste of Jamaican food, a snapper sandwich.  We enjoyed some people watching and also took an orientation tour.  The weather was sunny and beautiful...and hot and humid.

Around 4pm we got checked into our room and unpacked.  We found this guy in our closet.

 We also found them running all over the resort and one day R was able to get pretty close to one on our porch.

 Our room was in a 4 plex, two rooms on the first floor and 2 on the second floor with an atrium between the rooms.  Consequently, we had tons of windows, some of which were just shutters and a screen, so you could hear all of the sounds of nature at night.  It was wonderful.  We were hoping that we would be able to sleep with the shutters open at night, but it was just too hot and we needed to keep them closed so our air conditioning could keep us cool.  The night creatures are loud enough that we still had a chorus singing us to sleep each night.

One of our favorite things about our room was the porch.

 We especially loved the hammock.  In the mornings or late in the evenings when the weather was pleasant, you could usually find one or both of us in the hammock.

If you looked closely through the trees, we even had a view of the ocean.

R loved the shower.  He's always wanted an outdoor shower so this was the next best thing, windows that opened so he could have the fresh air blowing on him while he showered.

The resort could accommodate about 400 guests when it was full.  It was not full while we were there.  There were several buildings like the one we stayed in and several other types of buildings as well.  They were randomly scattered all over with winding paths and lots of trees and greenery.  It was pretty easy to get disoriented when trying to find our room, and we did on more than one occasion.  We got pretty good at finding it from the beach but getting their from the lobby was harder.  Eventually this Koi pond became an important land mark when we traveled from the lobby to our room.

On our way to dinner on Monday night, we enjoyed our first Jamaican beach sunset.  It was just as beautiful as you see in magazine pictures.

 

(to be continued.....)