Blogging from my phone again…this time curled up in bed, watching Brandon sleep, wishing I had used a lot more sunscreen on the back side of my body yesterday. Word to the wise in Jamaica…if you think you have on enough sunblock, you don’t…add more!!!
Yesterday strated of with another delicious breakfast buffet & another yummy omlet. My favorite part about breakfast are the fruits I have never even heard of before…and the pineapple juice, too!! One unique fruit is “akee”…it looks like scrambled eggs & is part of a national Jamaican dish.
The other fruit I really liked was something that started with an n…and has the texture of a pear, a sweet, juicy flavor, and a purple color…with a long black seed in the middle.
Following breakfast, we went & fed mother nature’s aquarium some breakfast. Then Brandon let me use his snorkel set to explore. That didn’t last long because I quickly didn’t want to be out far by myself. Brandon convinced me to go get my own snorkel set, so we could snorkel together. A much better pcts.
We spent the bulk of the day snorkeling in the sea. It was amazing. It’s one of the most relaxing things I have ever done.
The sea grass beneath us looks like a big field…except it’s full of nature’s underwater treasures. We found a few more sea donuts, but they broke in Brandon’s pocket thanks to a wave as we were attempting to exit the sea.
For me, the excitement was the fish. Twice huge fish (perhaps tuna) swam past. Brandon found 2 puffer fish. He really wanted to make one puff up, so he chased it around the bottom of the sea, tapping it with his snorkel. Unfortunately it was to no avail.
The other cool sightings included lots of baby fish…including my favorite yellow and black striped fish, which I later learned are called Sgt. Majors. We also found some beautiful people & yellow fish & we were surrounded a few times by schools of silver colored fish with pink bellies. I missed it, but when Brandon went out of the water for a moment, he actually saw the fish jump a few times in groups.
After snorkeling was done, we decided to lay by the ocean. I made the mistake of not putting on additional sunblock & in less than 15 minutes I had a major burn on my entire backside…including the bottom quarter of my buttocks. Of course, I didn’t know this for several more hours. Ouchie! And there is no where on the resort to get aloe.
After sunbathing, we swam in the pool, hit the hot tub (a bad idea now that I know how badly I was burned), & then decided to go for a ride on a hobie. We had been told if we offered the guide a tip, we would get a much better trip. So we did, & it was worth every penny.
He took us to the Raging River Falls at the foot of where Ian Fleeming lived & wrote many of the James Bond movies. One movie was filmed there…Dr. No perhaps…where the Bond girl comes out of the water. And a movie where Tom Cruise is a bartender on the beach was also filmed there.
The falls were beautiful. The awesome thing was how they made the ocean ice cold. We walked out to where the waves broke & it was ice cold from the chest up & hot from the chest down. They call that area the ocean’s hot tub…compliments of, where the river meets the sea.
We spent the next part of the evening on the pier visiting with Javan Davis, the security guard. He goes by Sean for tourists who don’t understand his name. He told us a lot about Jamaica. He went to high school, but he has no diploma. In order to get it you must pay about $500 to take the final exam. He didn’t have the money. He said many people here have no diploma for the same reason.
He makes about $100 a week for 60 hours. He works 12 hour shifts and has no meal breaks. (We snuck him a burger from the resort). He said he is glad to have the job because they are hard to come by. He pays $40 a month to rent a 1 bedroom in Ocho Rios, where he lives with his wife & 9 month old baby. For about $50 a week they can buy groceries.
We wrapped up the evening with a dinner on the beach. The food sucked this time, but the ambience was breath taking. Dinner watching a sunset…can’t beat it. We were joined by a couple from Quebec, Canada…originally from Portugal. I enjoyed learning about both countries from them.
We spent the evening with Brandon applying lotion (what few mini-bottles I had packed) to my fried back side. I was asleep before 9:00.
I am not sure of our plans for today. I know we will snorkel a bit before the hot sun comes out. We want to kayak too…if my legs will allow me to sit & row. Then perhaps some mini-golf, some shuffleboard, and a game of chess.
Javan may know of a local remedy (fruit, extract, etc) that is good for sunburn – or one of the people from the resort. It’s worth a try, as you’re no doubt not the first blonde lobster to appear on their shores. Hope you have lots of fun today, too, despite the sun…and thank so much for letting us be a part of Jamaica – I plan to tell my students I travelled to Jamaica, using your descriptions, and then when the picture is painted thoroughly in their minds, I’m going to show them how much fun reading can be!! MISS YOU!!!