Jamacian Me Crazy Mon – Part II

I haven’t forgotten about y’all.

Last week was just a tad bit busy for me. I ended up being the only IT person in the department last week. The good news is that I managed to more or less complete the website I was working. I also stuck it to the BASF people and they were only here for one day instead of the two they had planned on. I ended up using my Auditor tactic and I buried them under documentation. Well that and taking them through belt floors where it stays between 120 and 150 degrees probably helped. Anyways, it should be smooth sailing for me with the exception of our Network Admin in Savannah leaving next week. Once again, we’re one less in IT with no sign of a replacement.

Joy.

Now on to the good stuff: Jamaican Me Crazy Mon – Part II

After a brief delay in Miami, we got to Jamaica in the late afternoon. We all boarded a rather nice tour-style bus and headed to the resort. Kari and I spent the rest of Wednesday and all of Thursday exploring the treasures of the resort and just being lazy (emphasis on the last part). The resort had a golf course, a ton of pools, water slides, a huge chess set, a nice beach, a game room, and club/bar/dance floor type room, and bars/places to eat everywhere. The best thing was all the food and most of the alcohol was included with the room. So as long as we had on our little green bracelets…we were set.

Friday we decided would be tour day. We had the option of going snorkeling, deep sea fishing, swimming with the dolphins (not cheap), horse back riding, visiting a bioluminescence lagoon at night, climbing Dunn’s River Falls at Ocho Rios, and I think a few more things I can’t remember. We decided to do the Falls since it included shopping at duty free stores, a trip to the straw market, lunch at an all-you-can-eat-jerk restaurant, and of course, the falls.

The duty free shops were ok. We actually went to two different strip mall type places and you could tell they were totally in cahoots with the tour people. Dad left me with some important advice about Jamaica: haggle. He wasn’t kidding either. I found the best way was to haggle them on a price, act unhappy, and say that you were leaving. They’ll follow you out the door lowering the price the whole time. Just as a side note FYI: we did find some of the best prices on alcohol in a little duty free shop in the air port. However, if you like t-shirts, most places have those 6 for $20!

The straw market was rather cool. Basically it’s like a Jamaican flea market where the locals try to sell arts and crafts. This was right up Kari’s alley. As for me, I just wondered around and until I found this old Jamaican dude with huge green coconuts. He took his machete and swiftly cut it open so I could drink the water inside. Seriously, it was dad’gum good. After that we went to the restaurant (can’t remember the name) for the Jerk. Most of the restaurant was open air and built around a nice sized waterfall. They also had a Jamaican band and “fashion show” to peddle some of their clothes. I got to try the jerk chicken, jerk pork, festival, ox tail, and a few other local foods. It was all good!

Afterwards, we went to the National Park to climb of the falls. Basically you start the bottom, form a Himalayan-style human chain, and work your way to the top. It was kinda funny since there we were, chained together wearing river shoes, and there were barefoot Jamaicans running up the falls. Showoffs. It water was very cold and there were some tight spots where someone had to help pull you up, but it was very fun. The only thing I didn’t like about the whole experience is that you can’t bring a camera with you unless its waterproof. If you do bring one, your guide keeps it with him in a plastic bag and takes your picture different spots. When we finally got to the top, we had to run the gauntlet of people selling stuff (a have a story about that for later). Then we got on the bus to begin our two hour drive back to the resort over ever type of road imaginable.

Well, that’s it for today. Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll rap up the trip tomorrow and hopefully resume my regular posting schedule.

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