Day 1 - Saturday December 14, 2013:
Today
is the first day of the rest of my adult life!
I am leaving Canada for a wonderful week in Jamaica for the first time
in about 30 years! On my first flight
south, I went to Acapulco, Mexico in November 1980 for a week. That was before I moved to Calgary, Alberta,
before I got re-married, before my son was even a thought in my head, and before
I experienced some of the most unusual things anyone could experience in one’s
life.While still living in Toronto, I got another later opportunity to go to
Europe in June 1981 on a budget tour of 10 countries and it was absolutely
marvelous! My last flight south was to
Palm Springs, California for my honeymoon after I got married in Calgary,
Alberta for the second time in my young life.
But, this coming week is something I have looked forward to like no
other trip since my trip to Europe. The
four of us are all prepared with passports, necessary documents, vaccinations,
swimsuits, summer wear and lots of sunscreen!
The whole trip has been booked (by our travel agent) and the necessary
documents printed out and packaged for us.
We are ready to go to Jamaica!
Geographically
speaking, Jamaica is situated in the northernpart of the Caribbean Sea, due
south of Cuba, north of Panama and Columbia, east of southern Mexico and Belize
and west of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The furthest south I have ever travelled in my life previously is
probably Acapulco, Mexico, on the Pacific coast, but could also be Key West in
Florida, USA. These two places are
almost as far south as Jamaican. I was
in my 20s then. Obviously, I’ve never
been to Jamaica, but I am open to visiting new countries and regions whenever
the opportunity arises. The thing that
will be different this time will be the stronger presence of the sun. None of us is used to that kind of weather;
still, we are looking forward to this vacation like you wouldn’t believe so
that we can lounge around in the lovely warm weather and enjoy the ocean, the
pools, the waterpark, the night life and everything else wonderful that’s being
offered there.
I
haven’t been near an ocean other than on a brief visit in the 1980s to
Vancouver, BC, situated on the Pacific Ocean, but that is hardly the same thing
as swimming in it. The part of the
Atlantic Oceanthat is the Caribbean Seawill be very warm and inviting – it’s
far enough south that the sun’s warmth will make it very pleasant to wade in
and swim a little. I’m not sure yet how
I’ll experience it, but I sure am looking forward to finding out.
I
planned this trip to Jamaica with my roommate Dave, my son Brent, and my
grandson James. I really wanted to go
with all of them because it means a lot to me to spend good quality time with
the people I love the most. Dave happens
to be a person who is not actually related to me, but who was in my life from
1991-93. I met him late in 1990 and we
were close for a time, then we went our separate ways, but we became close
again later on in the early part of the new millennium. Suffice it to say, he is now like a family
member, a great friend to me, and we both like it that way. Besides, my son regards Dave like a father,
since his own father chose not to have any significant part in his life from
the time Brent was about 7 years of age.
The
very first thing that was supposed to be happening is that we would drive to
the Valet Park ‘n Fly place near the airport to drop off the car and board a
shuttle bus that would take us to the airport.
The car would be parked for us while we were away and then warmed up for
us when we returned. This is one of the
perks offered to all CAA members whenever they travel by air. Dave, Brent and I are all CAA members. This
experience alone would be something totally new for all of us; but, actually,
as it happened, we discovered that we could not take advantage of this
wonderful perk. Why not? My younger roommate, Kyle, needs Dave’s Grand Prix to
pick up his two little girls from their mother’s home for one of the weekends
we are going to be away, so he offered to drive us to the airport and pick us
up when we return.
The
grand plan is for us to get to Toronto’sPearson International Airport with lots
of time to spare. We’ll check our bags
in, take our carry-on bags with us and go through customs, then go get
something to eat and talk excitedly about our coming flight on WestJet
Airlines. This will be a direct flight of about 4 hours’ duration. That might seem like a long trip to some, but
to me, it’s not. I’ve spent a lot longer
than that on my numerous 11-hour Greyhound bus trips up north to Sault Ste.
Marie, Ontario in the summertime. Brent
has been on an airplane before, but can’t remember what it was like, since he
was a young child at the time. This
happened when the two of us would fly to Toronto from Calgary and back again on
occasional trips home to see my family.
James has never been on an airplane before, but he is prone to travel
sickness, especially in a car. To make
sure he enjoys this airplane ride now, we are giving him a Gravol pill beforehand
so there is no chance he will experience air sickness on the plane.I personally
love air travel anytime. However, it’s
been so long since I’ve been on an airplane that I think that I may have almost
forgotten what the experience was like.
We’re
supposed to be leaving Toronto at 10:15 am and flying due south at least 2,000
miles. We will arrive at about 2:26 pm
in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We should be
there in time for maybe a light lunch, and then we’ll change into our swimsuits
right afterward and start doing some serious lounging in the pool. Our hotel is a multi-storied building near
the pool area, so we will not have to walk any great distances. There is an awesome waterpark at Sunset Beach
Resort, which is where our hotel is located.
We purposely picked a resort with a waterpark so that James could play
all day long, along with his dad, and be delightfully occupied while we’re on
vacation there. He and his dad will have
blast together, to be sure! Dave and I
will, no doubt, spend an endless amount of time in one of the pools where a bar
is located. For me, that will be
wonderful! Though I am not planning to
get drunk, it might happen and I’ll deal with it if it does. Dave can’t drink alcohol at all, so he’ll
just drink soft drinks; however, he says he will enjoy just being in the pool
watching all the people walk by. He’s a
people-watcher, you see.
The
first day we’ll all have to be very careful not to get sunburned. The sun is hotter and much more intense than
we are used to in Canada. Sunburn is a
real risk in tropical countries when you’re not used to a hot climate, and must
be avoided. Dave has taken trips down
south before, to the Dominican Republic, and told me that, despite taking
precautions, he once got a wicked sunburn, a very painful one. We will all have to wear hats and T-shirts in
and around the pool area, in fact, whenever we are outside. I have no problem with that. I’m also bringing some sunscreen (SPF 50),
which will have to be liberally applied, especially to James’s skin, several
times a day. James is very fair and he’s
only 9 years old – his skin would burn like nothing else; in fact, we’ll all
have to wear sunscreen and be vigilant about applying it regularly.
According
to Dave, the food is usually spectacular down south and the meals include an
incredible variety of food. You do not
have to eat spicy, Jamaican food unless you like that kind. I’m not a great fan of spicy anything, which
means I think I will have to eatmostly mildly-spiced food. However, if I get the chance to experiment
with eating new foods, I won’t avoid it.
I like doing different things whenever I’m on vacation. After all, a change is as good as a
vacation. It’s my chance to do something
I don’t normally do and that includes eating new foods. I’m told that tourists who stay at the
resorts have access to many different foods from different countries of the
world. I like that very much about
travelling.
The
accommodations at the hotel should be good, we thought. We chose to have two connected hotel rooms.
Everyone wants to have their own bed and 2 rooms would give us that. But, we got 2 bedroom suites that are not
connected instead. Each suite has a
bedroom (with a king-sized bed – hopefully, to be replaced by 2 double beds), a
living room, a large bathroom with a Jacuzzi, a refrigerator (with drinks), a
coffee maker, a hair dryer, Wi-Fi Internet access (if you have your own
computer) and a 53-inch TV. As it turned
out, the king bed would not be replaced by two double beds and the Jacuzzi was
no good because Dave said only cold water could be run into it.
Truth
to tell, even though we went through Dave’s CAA travel agent, Pamela McLeod, to
book the vacation of our dreams, we won’t know until we get to Jamaica what
it’s really going to be like there.
Other people can tell you and you can read about it or look at pictures
of it, but direct experience is absolutely the best and maybe the only way to
learn about different places you want to visit.
Travel is one of those adventures that sometimes take you in unexpected
directions – not necessarily bad, just new and untried ones. But, that’s what I love most about travel –
the unexpected things that can cross your path and make your life richer and
more rounded as a result. I am going to
do my best to be a “Jamaican-in-the-makin’” by doing some of the things the
natives do, try to appreciate their daily lifestyle, and, most of all,
appreciate my own normally Canadian way of life. There is nothing like travelling abroad to
make a Canadian appreciate that fact!
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