Day 6 - Thursday December 19, 2013:
I
had booked a second excursion for today.
It was to leave the hotel by 9:30 am, but didn’t end up leaving till
close to 10. This one is called the
“Martha Brae River Rafting” adventure.
We left the hotel and proceeded through the city of Montego Bay in a van,
up through the mountain communities, and eventually, out of town. I knew we were going a fair way since the
Martha Brae River is really a mountain stream that starts high up in the
mountains and empties out into the Caribbean Sea. I’d guess it was a 50 – 60 km trip
one-way. We were also taken on a
mini-tour of a nearby Jamaican herb garden because Jamaicans are very health-conscious
people. After our river raft tour, we were
scheduled to go on a tour of the nearby small city of Falmouth, a Jamaican city
of about 10,000 or so. It’s a port
designed for the very largest cruise ships that sail on the Caribbean that
can’t dock anywhere else in Jamaica. And,
we got to see how the native Jamaicans live, something we wouldn’t have seen in
the resort.
The
river raft tour was something else. I’ve
never been on a bamboo raft, guided by a native Jamaican man, all by
myself. Other people on other rafts at
the same time, were also going down this long, but narrow fresh water river, spaced
apart. At some point, two or three rafts
all came together and I thought there would be a collision. Not so.
These river guides sure know what they’re doing! Except for certain high-water months, they
are doing this a majority of the year, so they are very good at it. It turned out to be a very relaxing and
comfortable time. I had never done
anything like this before in my life; from now on, when I think of river
rafting, I will always remember my wonderful experience on the Martha Brae
River.
After
the river raft tour and our subsequent tour of the city of Falmouth, we headed
back to Montego Bay (I thought).
Instead, we stopped at a rest stop that consisted of an informal
restaurant-bar and a gift shop. We were
told to have lunch there and go shopping if we wanted to and our driver-tour
guide would come back for us. He had to
go back to pick up some other people from the “Jamaican Swamp Safari”
excursion. Thus, there were four of us
stranded together – a really nice middle-aged Swedish mother and her teenaged
daughter and adult son. They were
visiting Jamaica from Stockholm, Sweden.
I had to actually borrow money from the mother (Cecilia) so that I could
eat lunch with them because I had not brought enough money with me for this
purpose. I had not anticipated lunch on
this trip – so much for budgeting for an excursion. I did buy a nifty multi-coloured muscle shirt
for Brent, a rather flashy T-shirt for James and a cute little blue bead
necklace for myself. But, after I had
tipped my raft guide on the river tour, I had no money left over. The vendors you meet in Jamaica usually deal
with cash – US dollars mostly and, of course, Jamaican dollars. The ratio of Jamaican dollars to US dollars
is about 10 to one (10 Jamaican dollars for every US dollar). So, you can always spend US dollars there and
Jamaican dollars, as well, but when you leave this country, only US dollars can
still be used.
By
the time we arrived back in Montego Bay at the resort, it was already 4:00
pm. I’d missed my departure time for the
Dreamer Catamaran Cruise for the second time in a row! So, I was really hoping I could rebook it
again, this time for the following morning, at about 9:30 am. This time, I could not miss it. This tour was really nice. The driver took a bunch of us from our hotel
– an American family and me – to the launch point of the four catamarans. Ours was called “Day Dreamer” and it was
white and yellow and big enough to hold up to 30 people. There were only about 15 of us altogether on
this trip, so we knew there’d be lots of room.
The tour included sailing along the coastline of Montego Bay, stopping
at a designated place to do some snorkelling (which I’ve never done before) and
then stopping at the seaside town of Margaritaville for a light lunch and/or a
drink. You could also slide down this
very steep waterslide if you had the nerve.
It emptied you into the sea, but I chose not to participate. The others I was with told me that, when they
tried it, it shot them out like a cannon into the sea and was very hair-raising
for that reason. This tour took a total
of about four hours, from 9:30 till about 1:30.
I think it might’ve gone a bit overtime.
I liked this particular excursion a lot since I’ve never been on a
catamaran. It’s a very large sailboat
and sometimes it takes a while to get your “sea-legs” on a choppy sea – it did
for me today. The Caribbean Sea is very
clean and clear and there are some interesting looking fish in it and, of
course, the coral reefs. I would love to
do some more snorkelling the next time I visit Jamaica!
Last,
but not least, I took a full body massage at about 3:00 pm for forty-five
minutes at the Health Spa. Donna did my
massage. She used hot oil and spread it
over my body, first on my back and legs then I flipped over and she did the
front of my body. It was a very soothing
and relaxing experience – something I definitely should do more of in the
future. I need to start looking after my
health better since I am getting older and the only way to slow down the aging
process is to take better care of yourself – body, mind and soul. Being in Jamaica for this week has been a
truly rejuvenating and adventurous time for me!
We
will have to book our seats on the return flight home. We can only do this 24 hours in advance of
the flight, which leaves at 8:15 pm tomorrow night. So, Dave and Brent are going to book our
seats in the Internet café off the main lobby tonight.
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