Saturday, May 19, 2012

Jamaica


View from the plane flying in to Montego Bay.  We got to fly first class all the way which was NICE! (Thank you Amy!!)
Here is our room.  It was small and had paper thin walls, but it was clean and had air conditioning!
This is a pic of the view from our hotel's beach area close to sunset time.
This is looking out down the beach where I ran every morning.
I mean who could complain about running here??


Our hotel's swimming/beach area.  The water was the most pretty blue color!
I didn't drink a bunch, but I sure enjoyed Red Stripe's which I had never had before!

Our First "tour" to the Blue Hole & Rick's
Our hotel was offering a cheap "tour" to Blue Hole and then to the infamous Rick's after for $20.00.  Since we didn't have anything planned that day we decided to go.  It was about an hour drive up in the mountains/boondocks up to this Blue Hole attraction.  So, the Blue Hole itself was really pretty.  Just an opening in the ground that you can jump in to.  The water is supposedly very cool and refreshing.  We opted not to jump in as they wanted $10 each.  We just couldn't justify it since we both weren't too eager to jump in any way. It was a weird place.  There were about 10 men just hanging out there getting drunk and stoned listening to really loud Justin Beiber music.  We stayed there for about an hour and a half and watched people jump in and just tried to avoid the creepy old Jamaican guy that fell in love with me.  Bottom line...creepy guys, lots of pot, and Justin Beiber...OH and the mosquitoes!!!





Rick's

2nd Tour to YS Falls and Pelican Bar
(courtesy of Juju Tours)
I don't even know where to begin on this amazing day.  I had done some research on tour companies before going to Jamaica and found Juju Tours.  They were excellent!  It was just Amy and I on a private tour for most the day.  George our tour guide was a local Jamaican and super knowledgeable and friendly!  YS Falls was AMAZING and one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  And the Pelican Bar is this bar built out in the ocean off shore.  It too was very unique and pretty.  We ate at local restaurants, learned about Jamaican culture, and got to see a lot of the Jamaican countryside.  It was a perfect day!





This is our tour guide as well as personal picture taker George
We went and ate some local food


Pelican Bar
We got on a small boat in a river mouth to head out to the infamous Pelican Bar.  A bar out to sea on a sand bar.
This is the first thing we encountered....

Typical Tourists :)




Like I said it was a GREAT relaxing fun filled day.
If you ever go to Jamaica, please look up Juju Tours...they are the best!

Our last day was spent just like this....


I read 2 books.
Yep, I joined the Shades of Grey bandwagon...the first book was pretty good, hard to put down.
And I read Amanda Beard's biography which was also a great read!
(Thank you Erin :)

I was so worried about not having the motivation to get up early and exercise.  But I guess that was one of the benefits of travelling with my pregnant friend...no late nights drinking.  We were literally in bed by 9 each night.  Which was perfect, because it made it easy to wake up at dawn each morning and go running!  The beaches were empty and the weather was cool and perfect...Each morning I would have local dogs join me on my run.  It was so cool.  They would run with me the whole time right by my side.  They were so friendly and sweet.  My morning runs, alone on the beach were the favorite part of my whole trip.  Plus I had zero pain, I am assuming from the low impact of the sand. I would get finished with my run, take off my shoes and immediately get in the water and float around.  It was SO relaxing!  If only I could run on the beach every morning!

Here are some pics of my running partners.  One day the brown dog ran 4 miles with me and curled up under my beach chair for the remainder of the day.  As you can see they weren't shy about wanting to be pet and enjoying it.  In typical tourist fashion I SO wanted to bring one of them home!



What an amazing vacation I was provided!  Thank you Amy, I won't soon be forgetting our days in Jamaica, and your smiling pregnant face!

4 comments:

  1. I don't know what's more awesome...the awesome pics that you posted or the fact that you kept up with your running schedule while on vacation in Jamaica, hahaha...I LOVE your new running partners!!! Thank you for sharing these, I'll admit I was slightly green with envy, but you so deserved this vacation!!! I'm taking notes from you on this one!

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  2. Love the pictures! You look nice and tan. I'm reading Shades of Grey now - it is hard to put down!

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  3. My pleasure!! <3

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  4. These pictures look awesome!!! It makes me want a beach vacation! Glad you had a good trip!

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