Vacation in Jamaica. Nothing could be finer. I took a 6 am flight to Dallas on Wednesday June 24, 2009. From there I flew to Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was quite confusing at that airport as I tried to find my bags, find the hotel reps, keep track of my bags amongst all the porters, find the right bus going to the right place. I did end up sitting on a tour bus that was just about ready to pull out when I thought to ask, "Where is this bus going?" The driver said he was going to Ocho Rios. BEEP! Not where I needed to go. So I scurried out of that bus and scrambled around in the hot humid sun trying to find the right bus, out of 15 or so buses, that was going to Negril. Thankfully my bags had been tagged and were already on that bus and it hadn't left yet. Sigh....
Our bus driver gave us some running commentaries about the scenery as we drove the 90 minutes to Negril. We stopped at a little roadside shack where we were encouraged to buy a beer and some jerked chicken from the outdoor grill. Then onwards to Negril.
Finally at about 5 pm I arrived at the Grand Lido Hotel where I was ushered to one of the bars and offered some kind of rum drink. I had to wait a while before I was taken to my room. It was a lovely second floor room with patio doors opening out to the ocean. I washed up for dinner and the amenities of the resort were underway.
A list of firsts and otherwise notable happenings:
1. It dawned at about 5:30 am in Negril. Made for long days and short nights.
2. I took cooking classes and demonstrations.
3. I enjoyed a chocolate martini as the preface to a fabulous chocolate class taught by Jean Francois and his wife.
4. Bertrand taught a fabulous class where he demonstrated an elaborate carrot soup with poached shrimp.
5. I enjoyed the red snapper cook-off.
6. I ate an entire meal with chopsticks - A little incongruous to be at a Japanese Teppanyaki grill in Negril.
7. I ate very fresh Caribbean lobster on a small island. Our chef had a rudimentary stone grill set up on the beach and he used yesterday's Styrofoam plates to start the fire...
8. I certainly enjoyed my 3 trips out snorkeling in the deep reefs. Most excellent. Sting rays 5 feet across, starfish, incandescent fish of every color, eels, and big jellyfish which I learned to carefully push aside.
9. I enjoyed a couple fabulous massages on the beach.
10. I did the Fire Dance as an unsuspecting "volunteer". Crazy man with coat hangers bent into straight rods covered in rags, soaked in kerosene. Actually gave me the flaming hangers and I danced!
11. I enjoyed a fun Pirates on the Beach dinner show. The table was in the sand next to the surf. They had a most extensive buffet set out and lots of fun entertainment.
12. I ate fresh marlin. Yum.
13. I ate fresh swordfish. Yum.
14. I ate fresh snapper. Yum.
15. I ate fresh tuna. Yum
16. I ate the Jamaican national dish, Akee. Not so yum.
17. I had a most deliciously succulent suckling pig on a stick.
18. I had a most yucky yogurt one morning. I learned quickly not to eat any dairy products on an island with no cows.
19. I took a daily 3 mile stroll up and down the beach.
20. I got to experience a Jamaican resort doctor visit. I was very ill with fever and cough. He shot me up with 2 big injections of who knows what but I was better in 24 hours.
21. I enjoyed meeting and talking and sailing and snorkeling with Brad and Conrad, Water Sports employees extraordinaire.
22. I really enjoyed just floating on the warm and salty Caribbean.
23. I saw absolute poverty and joy in the midst of it all.
24. I saw lots of large homes that were half built and seemingly now abandoned.
25. I survived our trips to and fro the airport despite our driver's dodging of oncoming cars.
26. I certainly would like to go back again.
