Jamaica Trip - Dec '14

Much like our trip to South Africa, my wife wrote in a travel journal each night we were there. I had decided that instead of using it as a reference like last time, I would instead just copy it. About halfway through writing day one, Jillian stopped me and insisted that I create a 'cliff notes' version. So, the following will be version two of this post.

12-26-14 (Day 1):
Our flight from Mobile to Atlanta departed at 6:15am which meant a very early start for us. The alarm sounded at 2:45am the morning after Christmas day. That may seem unnecessarily early, but we wanted to leave plenty of time for showers, dressing and any possible bad traffic scenario. Jillian had basically packed us a week in advance so getting out of the house was a fairly smooth affair. We did have a bit of difficulty finding a parking spot at the airport though.
After getting to our gate, Jillian spotted an Auburn football player eating breakfast. After he finished eating I ask him if he was willing to take a picture with Jillian. After we spotted him, I was pretty sure he was #30, LB Tre' Williams from Mobile, AL, but we did some cell phone research to verify. He was on our flight to ATL and we have hypothesized that he came home to visit his family for Christmas and was now making his way to Tampa, FL for the Outback Bowl. Auburn will be facing Wisconsin on January 1st. It was a cool start to the morning.

After landing in Atlanta and with only a 47 minute layover, we knew we had to book it to get to our next gate. We hustled and sure enough, by the time we got to our next gate, they were already at the 'now boarding all passengers, all rows' stage. We made it safely on board and were officially Jamaica bound! Next stop... Montego Bay. Our biggest fears at that point were that our checked bag wouldn't make it to Jamaica with us and that the three young children sitting behind us wouldn't act like the spawn of Satan for the next three hours.

Luckily, we landed after a relatively uneventful flight. The three kids sitting behind us were pretty well behaved and the man next to us with the window seat was nice enough to take some video of the island during our decent. The process of getting through customs was pretty smooth. We found the Hyatt shuttle waiting area but were reluctant to leave our luggage outside the room as instructed.

 

The woman who assisted us there was very nice; offering us cold towels and a beverage, but it was difficult to enjoy while we constantly glanced out at our suitcases though the glass doors. After waiting about ten minutes, and after the arrival of one other family, our shuttle arrived.

Jillian and I were both pretty glad we didn't rent a car on this trip because people here seem to drive like "they are in labor and constantly searching for a hospital". Jillian's words. So once we were dropped at the Hyatt Zilara, we took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. (Side Note: Not mentioned earlier was how this hotel was getting reviews online about not being completed and turning people away. It made the several weeks before our flight pretty stressful) When we arrived, we were immediately offered cocktails but told that our room wasn't ready (which was fair b/c we arrived two hours before check-in) so we grabbed lunch at the nearest restaurant; 'Flavorz'. I had some kind of duck appetizer & a lamb sandwich. Both awesome. Jillian struck out with a not-so-delicious sausage wrapped egg and a soggy salad. I verified their ... inedible-ness...?
Nevertheless, after lunch (still one hour before check-in) we were told our room was ready. Now, Jillian, being the big spender that she is, made sure that she had reserved the cheapest room available; an 'ocean view king'. So when the concierge escorted us to a 'swim up junior suite', we were pleasantly surprised. We'd been provided a room that evidently had been reserved by the 'Rosenbaum's', according to the private butler next door. Not to take advantage of the mistake, we made it abundantly clear that we had not reserved this very expensive room, nor were we the Rosenbaums. They basically told us not to worry about it and if the front desk had made an error, it was their problem. That wasn't entirely reassuring so we didn't unpack for over an hour. No one ever came to move us out though.

Just so I don't make this whole post a downer I'll condense the problems we had with our room, which was the only negative of our trip. It took 3 hours to get our room safe reset, 6 hours to get our air conditioner working and close to 7 hours to get pillows that didn't stink. I'd say that was it, but our shower had trouble draining, the steam from the bathroom had nowhere to vent so our room was muggy the entire time we were there and the air conditioner that was "fixed" never got the room to a temperature lower than 72. The late night noise in the hall and our door basically being made of paper mache was also a drawback. Other than that... great room experience....
Back to the positive. Since we were all checked in, Jillian and I took turns exploring the resort grounds and visiting the bar while we waited on the safe to be opened. It was time for dinner when we finally stored away our valuables and we agreed to check out the food at the sports bar. I guess I hadn't passed the complaining like I thought, b/c the food there was awful. We had wings and a hamburger and they were both obviously pulled out of the freezer and cooked with a warming lamp. It had been a long day so we decided to wrap it up and go to bed... our luke warm bed.
Jillian slept surprisingly well. I on the other hand spent half the night hunting a cricket hiding in the curtains. Just so it's known, I've determined that Jamaican crickets have been genetically modified to have the volume of a car alarm. I'll also admit that I did eventually kill it with extreme prejudice. May it burn in cricket hell forever.

12-27-14 (Day 2):
Day two started out a lot better. Mainly because it wasn't 2:45 am when we awoke, we were on a caribbean island and it was going to be 82 degrees outside; not 42 like back home. Quick showers and we were off to breakfast; opting to return to Flavorz again. Jillian struck out once again with her continental breakfast. It was at this point that she began to worry that all the food there was awful. I had a giant plate of french toast and bacon... so naturally there were no complaints.

 It was still pretty early so we walked to the beach, but the staff had yet to clean up the seaweed that had washed up over night. From that point we basically hung around the pool drinking run and strawberry daiquiris. The pool was freezing so we only got in long enough to cool off and take a couple pictures to prove that we had indeed used it. Soaking up rays was only interrupted by our desire for food. Jillian really wanted some jerk chicken so we hit up the lone shack on the beach with a guy manning two grills. We both agree that this was easily the best food on the resort.

What was left of our daylight, we filled with afternoon naps. Jillian decided to make use of the chairs in our swim up pool while I stuck to the dry safety of our patio couch. A few hours of rest, some cleaning up and we were ready for our second dinner experience.
In an attempt to take a step up from bar cuisine, we chose to try 'De Roza'; the Italian restaurant. We split a four cheese pizza, gnocchi a la gorganzola and lasagna. The lasagna was no Stouffers but the rest was great. We considered it a success and finished the evening up by running off with some desert plates from a nearby buffet restaurant aptly named 'Choices'; Unknowingly starting a nightly ritual.
12-28-14 (Day 3):
Though I probably won't write much about it, our third day in Jamaica was one of my favorites. It was one of the few times that we left our resort to really see the island; the good and bad. Jillian had booked an excursion to a place called the Blue Hole somewhere near Ocho Rios through a company she read about on Tripadvisor.com.
Our private tour started at 10am, so we had plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast.  Our driver Andel showed up a little late, but we filled that time talking to another one of the tour guide/drivers with the same company who was there to pick up another couple.
The drive to Blue Hole from Montego Bay took about an hour and a half because of a few stops and Andel was pretty informative. Our hotel was in the Rose Hall area, so we first got a little history lesson on the Witch of Rose Hall, who killed her first three husbands and was then cleverly poisoned by her fourth. We saw where Jamaican superstar/sprinter Usain Bolt went to primary school. We stopped on the side of the road overlooking St. Ann's bay to take a picture and then learned about bauxite mining and it's importance to Jamaica's economy and politics. The most interesting part of the trip was actually seeing all the "unfinished" buildings and goats on the side of the road. So many goats.

The closer we got to our destination, the more sketchy it became, but seeing a guy with a marijuana brownies sign actually made me more comfortable. No one makes brownies for people they want to kidnap or murder... is my assumption.
The blue hole itself was a lot of fun. So much so that it makes up a large chunk of the highlight video we put together. Even when you're surrounded by a sizable group of tourists, there's something special about being in a "jungle" and jumping from waterfalls. Very happy with myself for bringing all the GoPro equipment despite the room it took up in my bag.
After the Blue Hole we were both pretty spent, which made the drive back seem twice as long. Unfortunately, there were also three stops on the way. All three scheduled stops were food related; a fruit stand to drink from a coconut, a restaurant called 'Scotchies' for smoked Jerk Chicken and then a street vendor for some kind of sweet potato bread pudding for desert. I would have settled for lunch and a quick ride home, but it was part of the package.

Our trip officially ended at 3:30pm when Andel dropped us off. We got cleaned up and then enjoyed a little live music from our patio. I especially enjoyed a special Jamaican rendition of  "Africa" by Toto. Afterward, we hit up the Asian themed restaurant called 'Fusion'. Food was great and the Sake was cold but difficult to swallow. We filled our bellies and headed back over to choices for our desert plate-to-go.
12-29-14 (Day 4):
Chocolate chip, banana pancakes was our first meal of the day at yet another new restaurant called 'Calypso'. It was this morning that we started thinking about souvenirs and got to work immediately by grabbing a box of Fruit Loops (my brother Jonathan's favorite cereal) and a Sharpy. After a short discussion, we determined that we would make it a unique gift by scratching through "Kellogg's Fruit" and replacing it with "Jamaica's Ganga". Step two was praying that a small box with "Jamaican's Ganga Loops" would make it through US Customs without incident. As a side note, there was no issue.
Between breakfast and our standard lunch at the jerk chicken stand, we managed to make use of our snorkeling gear at the small cinder block reef that the hotel had made just off shore. It wasn't anything like you see naturally, but there were a few pieces of coral and a handful of tropical fish; including a little pufferfish. It was so close to the shore that the visibility was low so good pictures were not an option. Afterward, we hit up the pool bar for some daiquiris and people watching.
Earlier in our trip we had checked out the hotel's gift shop but, as with most hotel gift shops, it was lacking in many areas. Jillian and I wanted some authentic trinkets for our trip so we booked an afternoon shopping excursion through the hotel's front office. This one, unlike the one to the blue hole, was not expensive; $20/person for gas + driver. This appeared to be a popular idea for the day as we shared this ride with about 20 other people. What was intended to be a short drive to the markets was extended when our driver decided to let everyone get a glimpse of real life in Montego Bay by driving through downtown during what must have been rush hour. This was definitely not a tourist area. Thankfully, it also wasn't our first stop. Down the road there was a craft market, of which we had been warned was full of "touristy crap". The good news was that we were both literally and figuratively in the market for touristy crap. We had to be as equally pushy as the vendors for the half hour that we were there and it paid off. We got a few wooden carvings; the crown jewel being the only wooden goat in the market that we promptly named 'Gangaloops the goat'. I even got a beer mug made out of bamboo for my pint glass display case.
Our second and last stop was far less difficult on the bargaining front. It was an area called the Hip Strip and was a number of shops owned by middle-eastern immigrants. It was humorous to listen to them call out the deals they would give you for items that had obviously been marked up 200%. Who is honestly going to buy a T-shirt for 50 dollars? "Special price, just for you today. $18." Oh, only $18 just for me? You shouldn't have. We did end up buying a couple of those special price shirts though. Along with a flag from a street vendor and other various items. It was a successful shopping trip overall. Right before we left the area, Jillian spotted a necklace that she really like and asked the salesperson for the price. She started off with $225 and quickly dropped the price to $50 when we started to leave. Quite a drop, but not enough for us to buy it.

That night we had dinner at some weird steakhouse called "Brazil" where they bring a variety of meats to your table on skewers and cut off pieces based on how you liked it cooked. I wasn't a huge fan. Just give me a steak. I didn't order a sampler platter slowly brought to me in sections over the course of an hour. Having been to all but one of the resort restaurants at this point, we both decided that our last night would take us back to the Italian place and then we went to get our customary desert plate.
12-30-14 (Day 5):
SURPRISE! 5:50am fire alarm! Good thing it was a false alarm b/c only Jillian, I and one other couple bothered getting out of bed to exit the building. Surprisingly, we were both able to get back to sleep and didn't get back up until 9am.
It had been our plan to get up and take advantage of the sail boats, but the wind of previous days had temporarily been replaced by a light sprinkle, so we ate breakfast and took advantage of the pool bar for a few hours.
As soon as the wind picked back up and Jillian noticed a sail being lifted we took off for the sign-up booth. Oddly enough, similar to what happened in South Africa, Jillian ran into a guy who was a dentist from Pennsylvania and had a mutual, professional acquaintance. We talked with him for a while until a young Jamaican named Omar came to get us for our trip.
Our sailing adventure was short but very enjoyable. He took us well beyond swimming distance for us to the resort and then had us jump off the boat for a swim while he turned around. I'm not sure if it was before or after the trip that we were informed that there are very rarely any sharks off the coast. Either way, I was void of such concerns until I got back to shore.
After our sail, it was back to Barefoot Jerkz for some chicken and sausage. Jillian joked with the cook that she wanted the recipe and he said if we came back the next day, he would give it to us. I bet he tells all the girls that. Another nap was in order so Jillian returned to her lounge chair in the pool by our room and I watched some random bowl game on our room tv from the couch on the patio.
Around 5pm we showered up and went back to the Italian place as planned. For some reason, the dining experience wasn't as fun for me. The food wasn't quite as good and, with a smaller crowd, it wasn't as entertaining. One last trip for late night deserts and we went back to our rooms to pack up.
12-30-14 (Day 6):
Last day in Jamaica was mostly uneventful. Our check out was about an hour earlier than we expected so we packed up our remaining items, went to eat breakfast and then hung out for a little while on the beach; collecting rocks/coral and relaxing. After we checked out of our room, we left our larger bags at the front with the bell hops and took our backpacks with us to our last lunch at barefoot jerkz. Because of the airport shuttle schedule, it was a quick lunch.

 The shuttle ride was short but getting through security and waiting for our flight was quite the opposite. The line for security was ridiculous and had numerous, unnecessary steps. An hour after getting in line we were through and the wait continued at the gate. Jillian burned a little time shopping and then, knowing we would miss dinner, we made room for a little food from a Jimmy Buffet's Margarittaville. Another side note: For some reason, there were two Margarittaville restaurants in that small airport. Why? who knows.

Oh, here's a diagram Jillian drew of the security lines:

The flights to Atlanta and then to Mobile were smooth. Jillian even saw some early new years fireworks going off as we left Atlanta. It was difficult adjusting to the 40 degree temperature drop so we had a foot race back to our car. A 45 minute drive and we were home. Another great trip down. Scratch Jamaica off the travel list.