Jamaica Mon!

We were in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on Tuesday for our 2nd and last shore excursion.

It. Was. Amazing.

I was absolutely in heaven. Everything was beautiful, the people there were hysterical and so nice, and I didn't want to leave at all! Now let me say this also: I have heard horror stories about Jamaica, but we never left the area around our port so it was all very touristy, so we didn't get into the truly local area. They definitely warned us about staying together and not getting too far out. That said...I still want to go back! All the hills....wayyyy different from Grand Cayman!

Once again, we got up really early to leave the boat. We got to get directly off the boat this time (shown in the picture above), and immediately jumped onto buses to take us to our shore excursion: Dunn's River Falls and Bamboo Beach Club! Everyone that I've talked to has highly recommended we do the Falls. This is a 600 foot waterfall that we climbed up. Absolutely amazing. The guides took our cameras (so they wouldn't get wet) and took pictures for us, so here are some pictures we took before, and then the ones the guides took. We took a few with the waterproof camera, so again, if/when I scan the pictures, I'll add them also.

Us on the bus to Dunn's River Falls

About to climb up!

This was as we were climbing down and a quick shot of the Falls.

I love this picture because you can see the jungle, the waterfall and the beach and ocean!

Now as we're climbing...the water was so cold!!

We had an amazing time, and we didn't totally wipe out too many times...those rocks were so slippery! They also had a guy following us with a camcorder, so we bought the DVD of the hike up, too.

After we were done and had dried off, I saw this guy and took a picture of him, because I (stupidly, apparently) thought it was just a cool, local guy with a donkey. Nope! He immediately said "I work for donation!" So he insisted that I take a picture with the donkey. Hysterical...and slightly awkward...

We got back on our bus and went to the other half of the shore excursion...the Bamboo Beach Club. This was so nice and relaxing, because it was a private beach and they gave us all the food and drinks we could want.

And this was our view.

After we were quite full, we decided to go do some shopping at Taj Mahal...and spent far too much money on knock-off purses, dresses, jewelry and just about everything else you could imagine. I guess that's what happens when the people are nice and continue to bargain (good bargains, too!) with you! Quite different from Grand Cayman, we waited until just about the last minute before we went back to the boat. Here we are, waiting in line to go back through security with lovely Jamaica behind us.

Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was our first port of call and shore excursion on Monday. We woke up really early that morning and went through security and got on our tender boat. The Cayman Islands are surrounded by a huge coral reef, and since coral is an endangered species, cruise ships have to stay further out and smaller boats carry us in groups to the island. Here we are on our tender boat, and then here's our ship with the tender boat beside it....look at that size difference!!

Here is the coast line of Grand Cayman as we got there. Oh I LOVE that beautiful, blue water! Isn't the land so flat though?

When we got to shore, we went directly to our shore excursion. Lindsey was the only one of the 3 of us who had ever been snorkeling, so we decided to try a "beginner level" snorkel...so we chose the Grand Cayman Shore Snorkel. (**We used our waterproof cameras for that, and not many of the pictures turned out very great, but hopefully I'll be able to scan a few and add them in later.**) We got our locker and our gear and everything, and listened closely to what the people were telling us. The woman said, "When you get in, you'll see some big fish, but they don't have teeth. They're my babies and won't hurt you. You can go out as far as that marker and can stay as long as you like. The water will only be about 6-7 feet deep."

Ok, so clearly this woman isn't aware of the fear of 2 young girls who have never been swimming with "big fish." Nor did she have any concept of the depth. First of all, I'm not really afraid of much...especially in the water...and I'm pretty much willing to try anything. I was one of the first to waddle (and I do mean waddle...walking in flippers isn't an easy task) out to the little pier we were supposed to jump off and into the water. Well, I get there with all this get up and nothing but this little guy grinning from ear to ear and Caley and Lindsey behind me to hear me shriek when those "big fish with no teeth" came straight to where I was going to go in. There was a line already forming behind us, so I just had to lunge. These "big fish" were gigantic and the ugliest, meanest things I've ever seen in my life. That was not what I wanted to see first off, let me tell ya. I must have gotten them scared off or something, because they were nowhere to be seen when Caley and Lindsey bailed in after me. I didn't even look down...I just closed my eyes and swam as fast as my gigantic flippers could carry me. Fortunately this was the only run in with the big fish (no pictures to vouch for how big or ugly they were...although they were as long as I am...we were to scared to stay around long enough to take a picture), with the exception of having to get back through them to get out of the water. Dumb smiling boy kept throwing them fish food...I'm sure we were the highlight of his day.

Anyway, so we swim around and see lots of coral and several pretty fish and we decide that the 'good' coral is deeper out in the "6-7 feet deep" water. When we got all the way to the marker, that water was no less than 30 feet. No biggie...it was actually really cool...but she could have accurately warned us. There were these cute little black and white fish that would swim all the way up to us (until we shot out of the water because we were scared again...) and would surround us in their schools. It was really cool! What I thought was even more weird was the fact that these fish would come so close, and we'd go above water and talk about it, and we'd look back below and there would be tons around us, and we didn't even realize it. Makes me wonder how much else I miss that I'm not aware of...

And I must say that I was apprehensive about snorkeling, because I tend to inhale the water when I've used one in the pool, but I think I only got about 3 mouth fulls of sea water. Not too shabby! After snorkeling for about an hour or so, we were pretty worn out and decided to go dry off and have lunch. Here is where we were snorkeling (look closely for the little specks of yellow...those are the other snorklers in their life jackets).

We were going to eat there, but the owner was a little on the rude side (we seemed to have that running trend in Grand Cayman...the locals weren't exactly friendly...), so we went to Margaritaville instead! That was an excellent choice, because we had a great time and incredible food (3 cheeseburgers in paradise - - my favorite!!!)...so much fun!!!

We did a little bit of shopping the rest of the day, and it was incredibly hot there...no breeze, so we took a few more pictures and then went back on the boat early to get some ice cream and cool off by the pool!