Jamaica -- YA MON!!—by Shawn
What a great island to stop at first. We rushed to disembark from the boat as quickly as we could to find our way to the shore excursion meeting area. We had arrived later than planned and we were concerned that we may have missed the bus. We found a very friendly, cute and well put together Jamaican girl who seemed to be offering directions. Perfect, we needed help and I was determined to get us where we needed to be fast. She offered her help and actually led us to an information booth. She was great conversation during our long walk across the terminal. When we arrived at the information booth Kathy stopped me and proceeded to let me know that I had been mimicking a very poor Jamaican accent “at best” while talking to this girl and to cut it out. I’m not convinced she was annoyed by my accent.
She shouldn’t worry though. I learned that Jamaican girls are beautiful, but not as hot as my wife.
We waited at the information booth for about 10 minutes before our van arrived to collect us. Off we went, through the city, up the mountain side, into the jungle. During our van ride we were able to see different parts of the island, including industrial city areas, local schools, historical sites, jungle life, and goats. Lots of goats, and of course when we saw goats we made the driver pull over so we could take a few pictures. We couldn’t help but to think of Grandma and grandpa with the horses (and former goat). I’m sure our driver must have thought that my family was seriously entertainment deprived. We were riding with an older couple who were heading up to the top of the mountain. They were excited to embark on a zip line adventure consisting of 5 different zip lines that were several hundred feet high in some areas. Our excursion was not quite so daring. None the less we were excited to get to the river and begin our river tubing adventure. It was awesome. The water was cool, refreshing (and due to all the lime stone) SUPER CLEAR. We each had our own tubes that we had tied together. We enjoyed beautiful jungle scenery with the occasional rapids. Nick found a 10ft bamboo log (or totem in his mind) floating down the river. He had his heart set on dragging this thing with him and bringing it home. He made it a mile or two but just couldn’t manage to hang on to it. (Thank goodness).
Aside from the amazing jungle views we saw during our river run we saw some pretty nice homes and a few really humble homes as well. We enjoyed Sam’s club sodas that cost me $5.00 each (long story) and Nick received a lesson in anatomy. While we were pulled off to the side of the river sitting in our tubes awaiting our guide to return with our sodas, a girl in her early twenties decides to come down right next to us and pop off her shirt to take a little bath. It wasn’t easy but I was able to physically re-direct Nick’s attention by grabbing his head with my hands and turning it the other way. Our guide soon came back with the sodas and chased the girl off. We commenced with the river adventure. It was a great time for everyone. At the end point along the river where we climbed out, the local people had conveniently built a gift shop and bathrooms. Kathy and Savannah were in heaven. Time to shop! In fact Nick was happy too. He found a much more manageable totem to bring home with him. The van picked us up shortly thereafter. We headed back to the ship after picking up the older couple who completed their zip line tour. We swapped stories about the days adventures during the drive back.
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