We've been Jammin in Jamaica

Tuesday 10th January 2006

We have been to Jamaica before so we know what to expect. The weather is perfect, the sea warm and everyone is so laid back you just can't help feeling happy & relaxed. You can tell it's a poor country though but the people have such a fabulous outlook on life, the answer you get from any local - 'You're in Jamaica mon, there's no problem'.

So, we got up on the Tuesday morning at 5:15am as the taxi was coming to pick us up and take us to the Ryde Pier to catch the Catamaran at 6:15 (No trains run here at that time in the morning). Surprise, surprise the taxi didn't turn up! We left it as late as poss and then all piled into the Bus (Nissan Serena) and hightailed it to Ryde. There was a diversion along the seafront and if we had followed it we would have missed the Cat. So we drove the wrong way up the road and headed for the pier. Talk about hair raising, we don't go over any speed limits normally so to us this was pretty daring (lol). We parked up at the top of the pier, caught the Cat and picked up the taxi in Portsmouth to take us to Gatwick. We have used Terry's taxi firm many times and they have never let us down. We spent the 2 hour taxi ride discussing how we were going to get the bus home before the parking ticket ran out and laughing at what we had just done. (Gemma's boyfriend, Matt, did the honors and picked up the bus for us). Just after 11:00am we were sat on the Boeing 747 with a 10 hour flight in front of us to Sangster airport - Montego Bay, Jamaica.
We arrived at 4:00pm Jamaican time (they are 5 hours behind us) and got to the Rose Hall Estate & Country Club an hour or so later. The road from the airport has not improved any, still full of potholes but hey, that's Jamaica. It had been raining and parts of the road were actually flooded. 20 minutes later we passed the 'Rose Hall Great House' on our right and turned into the resort on our left. It had once been a sugar plantation and Rose Hall had been the owners house. We visited the house last time we came and is well worth a look.
We checked in, put our stuff in the rooms and went down to the Terrace restaurant for tea. By this time it was dark and the crickets were out. We were back :O)

Wednesday 11th January 2006

It was not very warm when we went down to breakfast and by the time we had found some sunbeds next to the lazy river it was raining. We decided to go and sit in the hot tub and talking to lad from England learned that the weather had been awful especially over the last few days, cold and very wet. It's surprising how much a good holiday depends on the weather. As we sat there the rain got steadily harder until we had to cover our eyes with our hands, you couldn't see anything. We gave up and went back to our hotel room and played scattergories. Later we tried again and although the rain had stopped the weather was not very good.

Thursday 12thJanuary 2006

The weather had improved dramatically overnight and although it was partly cloudy the sun soon warmed everything up enough to swim in the sea and pool, floating around the lazy river on big yellow rings. We walked up the sugar mill falls and came down the floom on the yellow ring like the Jamaicans on cool runnings - going for gold. The flatter you lay the faster you go. Walking to the Terrace for lunch we spotted Rolando, a pool attandant who we had made friends with on our last visit. He recognised us and seemed very pleased to see us all. We spent the afternoon chillin, drinking, swimming, reading and doing sudoku puzzles.

Friday 13th January 2006

There are lots of activities at the resort so we tried the 2 man kayak. We rowed around the bay, the sea was warm and extremely clear. We did our daily activities - swimming in the sea, pool, floating around the lazy river, big slide, 3 little slides and having a drink at the swim up bar. Cherry cokes all round and a fruit carnival for Gemma. Sitting in the hot tub & sun bathing the list goes on. One thing I had been looking forward to was having Jerk Chicken for lunch. I went to the Pool Grille and ordered one with rice & peas and coleslaw on the side - gorgeous. Everyone else went to the Mangoes for burgers & fries and ceaser salad. Another thing I had always wanted to was to try a fresh coconut so I was delighted at tea time to find they had some. The chef cut the top off with his machetti knife and put a couple of straws inside so we could drink the coconut juice. During tea the Time Band were playing so we walked around the grounds, came back and found a seat to watch the show. A guy came on stage and started singing Bob Marley songs, he was incredible. He looked and danced like Bob too. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The evening was lovely and warm and the stars were out, Orions Belt twinkling overhead and the light of the full moon dancing on the sea.