Why YOU should go to Jamaica!

Why should you go to Jamaica for your vacation? Jamaica is a beautiful place to spend time with family, relax, and learn. It is just overall a good experience. Everyone in Jamaica always has a smile on their faces and puts the effort into making everyday the best as possible.  For example the music that is being played constantly just gives you "that" happy, joyful feeling. The nature of Jamaica socially, just makes you feel belonged. When you leave Jamaica, it feels like you are leaving home forever. Also, the beauty of the ocean and plants and animals is phenomenal.  We were able to see our feet when we stood in the clear water, unlike most of the oceans in America.  The culture, way of life, and nature of Jamaica is extremely neat and interesting to take a deep look into. You will feel like family and feel belonged when you are in Jamaica and never be let down by anyone. Your smile will never leave you until it is time to leave. If you want to get away for awhile, Jamaica is the perfect place to stay!

Day Fourteen: Friday May 29th, 2015

It is our last day here on the beautiful island of Jamaica. We all woke up at 7am, ate breakfast and then were off to the Kingston airport. Our flight wasn't until 9:45am, but we didn't want to risk not being on time so we got there at 8:30am. We checked in our bags, then went through security and made our way to gate F12. We waited about 45 minutes and then boarded the plane. Renee and Nicole sat in the window seats while Emily and Shannon sat in the middle seats. Emma sat on isle next to Shannon. Emily had to sit to a huge, sweaty man for the duration of our flight. Good thing it was only an hour and a half! Once our flight landed in Miami, we ate lunch at Chipotle then headed to the gate for our connecting flight which was at 2:05pm. We arrived at the gate at about 1:15pm. Renee and Emma fell asleep on the ground while the others just sat on their phones which worked again since we are in the states again! Around 10 minutes until 2 the plane started the boarding process. Once we were seated and everything was put away, all five of us slept the whole way home. I think we all started sleeping before the plane even took off! 3 hours later we arrived back at RDU. We unboarded the plane and walked down to the luggage pick up on the bottom level. Once we had all 8 of our suitcases, we went to find our car. Renee drove us back home and on the way we stopped and grabbed some Cook-Out milkshakes! When we got home at about 6:30, we were all too tired to even unpack the car. We were just so happy to be able to sleep in our own beds after such an awesome 2 week trip!!

Day Thirteen: Thursday May 28th, 2015

Sporting Event

On the 13th day we woke up at around 9:30 except for Emma she woke up at 11:00. We hung out in the room until 12 and skipped breakfast. When it was time for lunch we all got into the car and went on the lookout for some were to eat. We finally found a little shack on the side of the road that served this chicken and bean soup. It was really well cooked. By the time we were done it was around 12:45 and our Cricket match was at 1:30. So we went on our 20 minute drive to the place and got into our seats. The seats were on the side of the Jamaican team. We were front and center. The game lasted around 2 hours. The Jamaican team won by just one point. It was a very fun and interesting game because none of us had ever seen one. After the match we all piled into the car and drove back to the hotel. At about 5:30 we all decided to order room service for just a nice relaxing dinner at the hotel. After dinner we all did our own thing till about 10 when everyone was passed out. 

Day Twelve: Wednesday May 27th, 2015

History/Jamaican Meal

On the 12^th day of our vacation we woke up around 11:00 for the busy day ahead of us.  Today we were going to the historical city of Port Royal.  We figured that we would just grab some yogurt from the loby on the way down to the car and take it to go.  On the way into Port Royal we took many moments to see all of the damage and poverty in the city.  While we were there we learned that it was originally colonized by the Spanish, but attacked and captured by the English in 1655. Because of its good natural harbor and key position, Port Royal quickly became a major haven for pirates and buccaneers, who were made welcome because of the need for defenders. Port Royal was never the same after a 1692 earthquake, but there is still a town there today.  The town has many damage done including buildings halfway into the ground. 

The link below has a video of the city that we would like to share…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUl4pgGA7Qs

After the interesting day at Port Royal we decided that before we left we needed a real taste of Jamaican food.  We stopped at Scotchies, in Kingston, to get dinner.  We all shared Jerk Pork, Jerk Fish, breadfruit and chicken soup.  We all really enjoyed the food, and most of all the culture of it.  We saw that the meals were made to look pleasant more than taste pleasant(even though it still was yummy!).  A common word for the waiters was “Yeah Mon!”.  It was an overall a great experience to see the different way of daily life than in the USA.  We were all extremely full, so we headed back to the hotel and watched a movie as we all fell asleep one by one.

Day Eleven: Tuesday May 26th, 2015

We woke up today and had a big day ahead of us. For breakfast we got room service in the hotel. We had pancakes, eggs and bacon. Once we were ready to go we drove to Reach Falls. We explored around and went into the waterfall. It was hard to get to the waterfall because we had go walk across slippery rocks. Emma fell in and when Renee tried to help her out Emma pulled her in too. While exploring Emma fell again and slipped down a hill. For lunch we had a picnic, we brought uncrustables and fruit. After we ate we went back into the waterfall. While driving back to the hotel stopped at a Jamaican food truck for some more Jerk chicken which cost about $20 total! When we got back to our hotel and hung out with some of our fellow tourist at the pool. At around 11 we decided to head back to the room and hit the sack.

Day Ten: Monday May 25, 2015

Natural Enviorment/EcosystemsWe woke up at 7 to eat breakfast, pack our bags and get ready for the day ahead of us. We had to be out of the hotel by 10 so we left at around 9:45to get to the national forest at 11. We had packed some sandwiches with turkey, provolone, and mayonnaise to eat at the forest. Half way through our tour we sat down and ate our lunch. We finished our tour after being amazed by all the liveliness in one area. We all very much enjoye this experience but it was then time to go  to our new hotel, Mockingbird Hill, which was right by the forest. We checked into there at around 3 and they had our room ready for us. We settled in and ordered room service to bring us macaroni and cheese and spaghetti to be brought to us. We ate our food while watching Finding Nemo and Bridesmaids along with a few other movies. It was around 2:30 am when we went to bed.

Day Nine: Sunday May 24th, 2015

Natural Enviorment

On the 9^th day of our trip, the plan was to go on a zipline tour to Mystic Mountains, and then at sunset, go down to the beach and horseback ride through the ocean.  Our reservations for ziplining was at 12:00 sharp.  Because of this, everybody slept in until 11:00 because of the tiring, busy day before.  We got dressed, and only drank a strawberry smoothy from the hotel.  At 11:30, we were on our way to Mystic Mountains.  It only took 10 minutes to get there so we drove around to see what we were in for.  When we got to our instructor, we climbed up to the top of the tree where we all got hooked up to our straps.  When Emma was hooked up safe, we all had planned to get revenge on her.  So, we pushed her off and she was off! After laughing for awhile, we all went next one by one.  During the cruise through the forest, we saw a view of the bright blue ocean and all of the pretty trees and plants/animals in the forest.  It was a great experience for us all.

When we got back to the hotel, we made sandwiches for lunch and got some water.  Then we walked down to the beach where our horses and instructors were waiting.  We all got on and stayed on the sand at first to get the hang of riding, and then started for the water.  The water was not to hot or cold, but perfect.  We got a nice slow look of the beauty of Jamaica while riding on the horses, which was on if the best experiences of our trip so far.

When we got back we went to the restaurant, Christopher’s, to eat dinner and then listened to music on the beach.  We all started to get tired to went back to the rooms and went to bed.

Day Eight: Saturday May 23rd, 2015

On day 8 we all woke up around 10:00am. We went downstairs to eat outside by the pool. Since it was Labor Day, we went to the front desk to  see if there were any celebration. The woman told us that the annual festival was being held in downtown Ochos Rios at 1pm. We all went back to our villa, got dressed and got in the car and went downtown. The streets were lined with vendors selling food, handmade goods and many other things. This was a neat experience to try all different foods, see the different ways they celebrate with music, dance, and tradition. It was very cool to experience a holiday we have here in American in a different country. We danced with the Jamaican people and learned how to also. We took a ton of samples from all the vendors to get a great taste of Jamaican culture. Next we watched a band perform on a stage singing about the country while everybody waved their black green and gold flags in the air. It was a very joyful day for everyone. We hung around there for a couple hours and then headed back to the hotel. By then it was almost 6pm and we all took a long walk on the beach. Next, we all got showered and cleaned up for dinner and ate at the buffet at the hotel. We sat around there for awhile and talked after we finished eating and hung out around our private dip pool. At around 11pm we all decided to head to bed since we have another big day of adventures!

Day Seven: Friday May 22nd, 2015

We woke up at around 8:00 and started to get ready for the day. Emma was still asleep by the time we all are dressed and ready to go for 8:30 yoga. Because Emma had a crazy night last night, we decided to let her sleep in while we went to yoga. When we arrived at yoga the instructor (Sue) helped us stretch out before we started. We did a total of 20 different poses in the time we had. Compared to yoga back home it was much different. Here they did much more difficult moves to really test your flexibility and balance. After an hour of that, we headed back to The Villa and Emma was still sleeping so we had to wake her up. In the afternoon we were going cliff diving so we had about 4 hours to waste. For that time we just hung out around The Villa and each did our own thing. Emma slept more. It was 3 o'clock when we all headed out for the cliff. When we arrived, it was 89 degrees and beautiful blue clear water. As we stood at the top of the cliff we all just stood there for a couple of minutes just to take in the beautiful view. After that, Emma ruined the silence and grabbed Renee's hand and jumped. After the landing Into the water safely, Nicole, Shannon, and Emily followed. After about an hour and a half of jumping we jumped in the car and headed back to The Villa. On the way home we stopped at a food truck on the side of the road for a traditional Jerk chicken kabobs. When we got home we all got coconut ice cream, cleaned up, and got ready for bed. By around 10 everyone was passed out.

Day Six: Thursday May 21st 2015

History, Culture and Food

On the 6^th day of vacation, we all woke up late, around 10:30, since we woke up early the day before.  The hotel provided us with a fancy breakfast of orange juice, Jamaican flatbread, and hand cut fruit.  It was good, but different.  Emma didn’t like it at all so she spit it up and went upstairs to her suitcase and got pop tarts and then came back down to the table.  Next, we took our pajamas off and got into casual clothes for a cultural day at the hotel.  The hotel provides Jamaican cooking, music, and woodcarving lessons. First up on the list was cooking.  We went down to the kitchen where the chef was setting up for the hour he had with us.   First we started to make Jerk chicken, which is very popular in Jamaica; almost like fried chicken in the USA.  “The seasoning and sauce that we dip the chicken in has to be just right”, said Chef Lang.  While the chicken was cooking, we all went outside and chopped down coconuts from the trees.  We brought them back into the kitchen and made coconut cups!  We put the straws into all of them and then drank them after taking the chicken out and slicing/eating it. 

Next up on the schedule was music!  We met Kurt by the ocean.  He had a setup of many musical instruments ready for us, such as the drums and maracas.  First he gave us each a drum and taught us the position it had to be in, which was between our legs.  Next, he told us to never hit the drum with your fingers, and only to hit it will the bottom of your palm to get a better beat. After we got some rhythms in, Emma’s ADHD kicked in so she decided to get the maracas and dance around with them and make noise that went well with our drums beat.  We finally made up our own musical and headed back up to the hotel for woodcarving lessons. 

We saw the carvers carving and headed over there.  They let us watch them a bit, to see how it is done.  Lloyd was carving a bear, and Harry was carving a Jamaican man.  We saw their strategies in order to make them nice and smooth.  After this, Emma carved a dog, Emily carved a turtle, Renee carved a hippo, Shannon carved a foot, and Nicole carved a bird.  They were all really bad, especially Emma’s, even though we tried our hardest.  We learned a lot that day about the culture of Jamaican and their different lifestyles than ours.

 We went up to happy hour at the hotel where we got drinks and chips and salsa.  After this we all went for a walk on the beach, except for Emma, because she fell asleep.  When we got back it was dark so we woke up Emma and went to our rooms, where we ordered room service for dinner.  We ate our Jerk chicken that we made earlier for free and some fruit cabobs.  We finished and then watched a movie and all fell asleep in the same room.

Day Five: Wednesday May 20th, 2015

Today on the fifth day we woke up at 8:00am. Everyone got ready to go eat a fast breakfast. After we ate waffles from the hotel we packed sandwiches for the road to Ochos Rios. After we made the sandwiches we packed everything up and were out of the hotel by 10. We ended up leaving at about 10:30 because Emma is always late. It was about a 3 and a half hour drive, because we had to stop for bathroom breaks and for snacks. We got to Dolphin Cove at about 2:45 for a reservation for 3:00. It took us awhile to put on our wet suits because Emma broke the zipper on hers. When we finally got into the water, the instructors went through all of the rules of what and what not to do. After that we roamed around in the water with the Dolphins, Emily, Kelly and Roy. Then after playing in the water for about an hour, the instructed, Karl, showed us all of the tricks that the Dolphins could do. Roy was like a professional. We got out of the water and got into the car and headed to our hotel. After driving only 10 to 15 minutes, we arrived to Hermosa Cove (Jamaicans villa hotel), "The Villa", where we were staying at. When we arrived, we unpacked and put on our swim suits and headed out to our private pool/hot tub for the rest of the day. At around 6 o'clock we cooked spaghetti using the food that was put into our fridge from the employees. After dinner we all took showers and one by one all fell asleep. 

Day Four: Tuesday May 19th, 2015

On day four we woke up at about 8:30 am so that we could get ready for our "Caribbean Spa experience" at the Red Lane spa in the resort at 9:15 am. For breakfast we ate some bananas, apples, strawberries, and oranges that had been delivered to our room. Our spa day started right after breakfast, so first we went down to the nail salon and got our nails done. After that we went and got massages, which were very relaxing. Then we went back to the resort where we got a Margarita pizza from Bella Napoli Pizzeria and took it out onto the beach to eat it. While on the beach we ate, tanned, and swam. Once we were done, went back up to the room to take showers. We got dressed up and went to eat at Bayside where we all split coconut shrimp, crab cakes, and lobster tails between he 5 of us. After dinner we had a laid back night where we walked on the beach until our feet got tired. We sat around our room and hung out for the remainder of the night.

Day Three: Monday May 18th, 2015

We woke up at around 7:30 and we ordered room service for breakfast. We each had two pancakes and two strips of bacon. Once everyone was done we got in our bathing suits and put our cover ups on and got in the car. We had reservations at the snorkeling place at 12:00. By the time we got there the instructor was waiting on us with our masks and wet suits. We all squeezed into the suits and put our masks on after 20 minutes of instructions on what and what not to do. Then we finally jumped in. The water was warm and we could see so many different animals and plants. After an hour of being in the water we finally dried off and got in the car. We got back to the hotel and ate at one of the restaurants at the hotel. When we were done we took our showers and headed off to bed. 

Day Two: Sunday May 17th, 2015

On the second day of our trip, which was our first full day at the resort, we had a fun day planned ahead for us. The plan was to walk down to the beach and do water activities with one of the resorts workers (inclusive). Everybody slept in because of the long trip we had yesterday, so we finally headed down to the lobby to eat breakfast at 11:00. The breakfast buffet was still up and running, so we all got a variety of food such as pancakes, cereal, muffins, and cinnamon rolls. We sat at our table for about a half an hour after clearing our plates to rest our stomachs and spare time before our activities reservations for 12:30. When we arrived on the beach, we saw our guide named Keaton preparing all of the equipment such as the boats flags, jet skis, the ropes, and the boat itself. He asked us what we would like to do first, and we all agreed to go wake boarding first. Emily went first, followed by Shannon. They both got up on their first try and had a blast with it. Next up was Nicole, who was scared, so Keaton was nice enough to hook up two boards at once to the boat. Renee went with Nicole. It took them a couple tries to get up, but they finally got the hang of it. They also enjoyed wake boarding.  Last, was Emma. She hopped right out into the water and was so excited that she didn't follow any of the tips Keaton gave her, so she fell face first into the water on the first time!  We all got a laugh at that. She gave in to following directions eventually and got up on the board and cruised around for a bit. It was nice to see the beauty of the bright blue Jamaican water while cruising around on top of it. After everyone had taken a turn, we went tubing next. Emily, Renee, and Shannon all went together first, and then Nicole and Emma. After this we switched it up so we could all get a share to go with everyone. After some fun wipe outs and jerks around, we moved on to the next activity! Next up was jet skiing!  We had three jet skis to use.  One person would always be on their own, and the other two jet skis had two people on them.  We took turns of partners, and jet skis.  We liked to go in circles a bunch of times which we called “donuts”, creating waves in the form of a circle and then going over them!  After speeding around the ocean, we were begging to get tired so we went parasailing.  Parasailing gave us all a nice breeze and a good chance to really examine the beautiful place we were. After finishing up and putting all equipment away, we went up to the resort and ate some inclusive/unlimited pizza and ice cream cones while sitting by the pool.   When we finished we all went up to the rooms and showered, relaxed, and got ready for dinner.  We ate at the Mexican restaurant in the resort called Arizona’s Mexican Cooking, followed by karaoke night at the resort. After a few long hours of fun our night came to an end where we went back up to the room, watched TV, and went to bed. 

Day One: Saturday May 16th, 2015

We woke up at 5:30am Saturday morning and all got ready to leave for the airport. After showering, eating a poptart or two, and getting dressed, we packed the car and left the house at 6:15am for Raleigh Durham International (RDU).  20 minutes later we arrived at the airport; after finally finding a parking spot, we went to check in our bags.  We then went through security, by then we had 45 minutes until we had to board the plane.  We then boarded our 8am flight to Miami.

We arrived in Miami a little after 10:15am.  As we walked to our next gate, we stopped and looked in some shops.  After buying lunch, we arrived at the gate for our 12:40 pm flight to Montego, Jamaica. About 30 minutes later we boarded our flight out of the United States.

When we got to Montego, we went through customs and retrieved our bags from baggage.  We then walked to the car rental to pick up our Suzuki Grand Vitara to drive to Negril.  Once we had checked out our car, we were finally on our way to the Beaches Resort!

An hour and a half later we arrived at our hotel for the week. We checked in and went to look at our room. Emma and Renee fell asleep, the other three went to go look at the beach. Once Emma and Renee woke up, we all started getting ready for dinner. We put on our nice dresses and began walking towards The Venelian for our 6:45 reservation. Once dinner had ended, we went back and changed into comfortable clothes. We then went for a walk on the beach and saw some crabs. Around 10 o/clock, we went back to the hotel after the long day and went to bed.

Click on the table to make it larger.