Day 1: Arrival
After a short (1.5 hour) flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Kingston and an even shorter (20 min) flight from Kingston to Montego Bay we boarded a shuttle to Club Ambiance, about 40 miles east of the airport in Runaway Bay. We took it easy the first day - wandered around the resort, booked our day trips for the week and helped ourselves to buffet dinner and drinks. It was after dinner that my mission for the week became clear - I had to try each of the drinks listed on the board above the bar (not in one day of course). Stay tuned for the result...
Day 2: Ocho Rios and Cranbrook
About 10 miles further east of Runaway Bay is the town of Ocho Rios. We spent the morning 'shopping' in there with a guide from the hotel, which started at a crappy tourist shop that at least offered free samples of rum along with racks of overpriced T-shirts and mugs shaped like boobs. I took care of my shot glass purchase (my only requirement for the trip) and kept my money in my pocket after that. Our next stop was at a row of roadside stands with craftier fare, which I thought I wanted, but I was not prepared for the pushy to downright obnoxious vendors. They took us by the hand, fought for our attention and would not leave us alone. We stopped to look at some awesome wooden shark carvings that Dom was interested in but moved along quickly to avoid the onslaught. One tactic many of them used was to offer small trinkets to us for free, because we're so pretty, and then ask for money to 'help a guy out'.
We decided we'd had enough and started back for the van but stopped again to look at the shark carvings. The guy there offered $100 for two, which we both scoffed at, and then went down to $50. Dom thought about it but decided not to get them. Once we got into the van she commented that she hoped she wouldn't regret passing them up and moments later another guy came over and banged on the window with the carvings in hand. This guy claimed to be the artist and insisted that we buy them, shoving them in the window towards us and begging us to hold them. He told us he'd give us a deal for $120 for both of them, to which we responded that the other guy had offered to give them to us for $50, which of course this guy scoffed at. After a few minutes of this, all the while with the guy reaching his arms into the van with the carvings, they both finally agreed on $50 for the two. Maybe we could have talked him lower but Dom was really happy to have them and $25 each isn't that bad. One of them Dom kept and the other she gave to Annie (who watched Carmen for us while we were gone and used to tag sharks with Dom). On our way to the next place we drove through Fern Gully, a really picturesque rainforest area.
Our final shopping stop in Ocho Rios was at a horrible strip mall where I'm sure they bring all the cruise passengers that come through, with rows of shops containing all the same crap. We wandered around for a bit but didn't buy anything. Then our tour guide took a 'scenic' way back, driving through some side streets and by produce and fish markets so we could see the town as the locals see it. While we may not have been into the shopping aspect of the day it was nice to drive around and see Ocho Rios. We drove by a statue of Christopher Colombus, who first landed in Jamaica in 1494, and a beautiful old Spanish church (they claimed Jamaica until the Brits kicked them out in 1655).
We stopped at the resort for a quick free lunch before heading to the gardens and nature preserve at Cranbrook. We walked around the gardens and took pictures and then decided we'd like to hike up to the waterfall at the head of the river. The woman there had recommended we use a guide for this so we went to go ask for one but we were told they had all gone home. Then she told us to wait and yelled for someone. Our guide came over and set off for our walk, soon realizing he was deaf and could not speak. We weren't sure about this at first but he turned out to be the greatest guide ever. He would point out interesting trees and flowers and showed us how to make whistles out of palm fronds. About halfway down the trail he stopped unexpectedly and we expected him to show us something along the path but to our surprise he had stopped to show us some dance moves. This happened every 10 minutes or so and was very entertaining. The walk was beautiful along the river in a dense green forest and it was surprising to see how small the waterfall was that filled the source pool to feed the whole river.
Day 3: Green Grotto Caves
We decided to go see the nearby caves and save the $10 shuttle ride by biking there. The hotel provided us with some clearly not new but functioning beach cruisers complete with bright orange flag on the back and a helmet for safety. We rode along the street with a guide about 10km to the caves but we noted the downhill slope the last leg of the journey. That will be uphill on the way back, crap. We joined a group for a tour of the caves and were required to don hairnets and hardhats before entering (to explain why we look like Post cereal ladies in the photos). The first 'room' of the cave had a stage and bar area built out of stone where a night club once was - I can only imagine how crazy it must have been in there packed with people and glow sticks and music. We continued into the cave, noticed the occasional clump of bats overhead, made a wish at the 'wishing well', and admired huge tree roots that dropped down from 30 feet above us.
After our tour we returned to the bikes and began huffing back uphill to the resort. It started raining of course and every time we stood up to power-pedal our seat would fall off. It was hilarious. That afternoon we passed on the buffet lunch and hit up the snack area instead for a cheeseburger and fish sandwich and then soaked our achy legs in the hot tub. For dinner it was Jamaica Night so we tried all sorts of local foods including curry goat (yum!) and ackee and saltfish (not yum).
Day 4: Diving!
We went out for a two-tank dive in Discovery Bay, which is said to have some of the best reefs in the country. Dom just got certified in December so this was her first time down without her instructor, and both dives were pretty deep (55-60ft) but she did great! We went down as a group of four, the two of us, a Canadian guy and the divemaster. The first site was called Spanish Anchor for obvious reasons (hint: a large abandoned nautical piece was involved) and we followed a reef wall along with huge sponges, a snake eel, a couple of spotted eels, peppermint shrimp, arrow crabs and a lionfish (invasive in the Caribbean)! Our second dive took us into a deep trench (that we couldn't see the bottom of as we held our depth around 55ft) which we swam through with a green sea turtle, barracuda, trumpet fish, and 3 more lionfish! Two great dives. After I dive two things happen - I am STARVING and dead tired. We took it easy for the rest of the day and never strayed far from the buffet.
Day 5: Dunn's River Falls
Spent the day at the most touristy spot in the area, but it draws in the crowds for good reason. Dunn's River Falls is a gorgeous waterfall cascading down to the clear blue Caribbean Sea. We joined hands with a group of about 20 strangers to climb up the falls, stopping for photo ops along the way.
I had seen some really great paintings at the hotel all week and had an eye out for one for myself. Both Dom and I picked one up from little vendors near the falls, which we had gotten much better at managing since our day in Ocho Rios. We spent the evening completing my drink mission (my favorite turned out to be the Hummingbird) and taking silly photos around the resort.
Day 6: Shipping Out
An early start for the airport and some window shopping during our downtime there. We had such a great time on the trip - so glad we went!
wrote a feature story for the web about a sea turtle stranding event in Texas. It is now posted on the OAR News page, and should soon be featured on the front NOAA page (in that rotation at the center of the page).
I've been here at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida for the past 3 months so I figure I should fill everyone in on what I've been doing. We work six days at a time with two days off in between - two sets of night patrols (two interns) followed by one set of day patrols (one intern at a time). Here's what a typical day patrol consists of...
Upon arrival at the border we had to exit the bus and see immigration for our departure. We then began a precarious walk across the border bridge (with all our stuff) complete with rickety old wooden planks and huge gaps great for viewing of the Sixaola River below. The locals passed by in both directions on probably a daily trip and must have laughed to themselves when they saw what silly touristas we were hobbling across watching each step like it could be our last.
