Jamaica, Mon.

Not to brag, but our wedding and honeymoon were the best. 

Of course I’m biased, but oh well.

We left SLC for Montego Bay, Jamaica on Sunday and were laying on a beach outside our resort around noon on Monday. We stayed at the all-inclusive Sunset Beach Resort and Spa which was on a small peninsula next to all the mainstream Secrets Resorts. Our hotel was beautiful, with a waterpark and an open lobby that stretched out to the many pools and private beaches. Most of Monday was spent sprawled on the beach, beside the pool, or exploring. That evening, we went through the main restaurant buffet and ate lots of yummy food, both American and native (which was so much better). We ate so much Jerk Chicken on this trip, I can’t even tell you. But I miss it, it was amazing. That evening, there was karaoke and fireworks.

Fun facts learned this day: Jamaica doesn’t have any poisonous snakes. They drive on the left side of the road because they use to be ruled by the British. Children attend mandatory school through grade 11 and must wear uniforms, those able to afford college afterwards go to a university or trade school. Their prime minister is a woman.

Tip: DO NOT EXCHANGE YOUR AMERICAN MONEY FOR JAMAICAN MONEY. Everywhere takes American money and it’s harder to judge how much American money you’re spending when tipping those constant “helpers" looking for tips.

Tuesday: We got touristy and did our first excursion, the most popular Jamaican attraction, Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios (which means 8 rivers). We got up early, ate breakfast, then met our tour shuttle booked through AmStar to start the journey to Ocho Rios. We had an awesome tour guide on the bus named Maxine who talked all about the landmarks, history, and Bob Marley. Apparently the Rockefellers and Johnny Cash put a lot of money into the Jamaican real estate industry back in the day and both families own large estates there. 

When we got to Ocho Rios, we stopped in town to look through some local shops and let people buy water shoes for the hike up the falls. At the falls, you walk down a long deck from the top of the falls to the bottom and end up on a beach by the ocean. From the beach, you hike back up the falls through the water up to the top. Our tour guide was super funny and there were multiple stops where they made us dip in the falls or trust fall backwards into the deep water. It was a blast!

When we got back to the  resort late-afternoon, we grabbed lunch at another resort restaurant called the Beach Grill which had amazing grilled jerk chicken and cheese fries (which became my staple lunch menu for the week) and took a nap by the pool. For dinner we went through the main buffet again… I don’t remember what exotic things we ate but I know I had more jerk pork and it was deeeeelish. After dinner we took a walk on the beach and watched an authentic steel drum show for the night’s entertainment.

More fun facts: Dolphins can sense when a woman is pregnant 2 weeks before modern technology (don’t worry, I didn’t discover this personally haha). Jamaica sees between 7-10 cruise ships a week. Tourism is their main source of revenue. China pays for a lot of roads to be built and in return, Jamaicans buy cars from them. Buildings can take 10-15 years to complete because they only build what they have funds for (America should take notes). Credit cards can have a 50% interest rate and banks charge 20-30%, so people don’t ever use them and live strictly within their means.

Wednesday: THE SECOND BEST DAY EVER. Wednesday morning we got up and went to the beach after breakfast for a few hours, then right before lunch, we headed out on another shuttle to go to Negril to swim with DOLPHINS!! On the way there, our driver hit a goat! There were herds of about 50 wild goats that wander all over the rustic parts of the island, and this herd was totally unavoidable as we barreled around a corner and they were all over the road. Anyway… We went to Dolphin Cove Negril, part of the largest Dolphin Encounter program in the entire Caribbean. We were put in small groups of about 8 people that shared a dolphin to touch, swim with, dance with, kiss, and play with. Our dolphin’s name was Wendy! She was a 9 year old bottlenose dolphin from Cuba! The best part by far was riding on her belly. We swam out into the middle of the cove which was a part of the ocean that has netting to keep the dolphins inside the big cove, and we just floated there with our arms straight out in front of us. Wendy would swim out to us and pop up in front of us. We would then reach out and put our hands on her flippers and she would lean and swim backwards while we rested on her belly and skimmed across the water! It was so much fun! I was so surprised at how smart she was and how many commands she understood! After swimming with Wendy, we watched some of the local trainers get into another roped off section of the cove with a shark. People could sit on the deck, hold the shark in their laps, take photos with, and feed the sharks. While it looked intriguing, it was also terrifying and we passed. We did go into a third section of the cove and play with a stingray named Renee. We got to pet her and hold her and feel her barbed back. It was such a cool experience! At one point, the stingray started getting upset being passed around to so many people and began to splash around. Her trainer took her back and lifted her up so she could see it was him and she immediately calmed down! I couldn’t believe it, it was like the stingray was trained too! That evening, we went back to the resort, got cleaned up, and went to dinner at this nice restaurant called La Bella Vita Restaurant and I ate snapping turtle for dinner! It was DELICIOUS! It was light, white, and flaky like fish, but it had a great flavor and didn’t taste fishy at all! Later that night we sat on the beach and watched floating lanterns being set off from the resort next door, then went to a show with authentic Jamaican dancers that can dance faster than I had ever seen. It was an awesome day!

Thursday was our last full day on the island, so it was well spent kayaking on the ocean, lounging by the pool and in the lazy river, with lots of jerk chicken and cheese fries, and multiple trips down the water slides. Friday we had smooth flights back, successfully navigated the monster that is Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and made it home in time to go see the new Hunger Games movie with Jessica Fox and friends for her birthday! I am so glad we went somewhere like Jamaica and stayed at a nice resort with more of an authentic feel. Being in Jamaica really helped us realize how fortunate we are for all our luxuries in the U.S. I will greatly miss the friendly people of Jamaica and all the yummy food, but we’ve already decided where we want to stay when we come back for a future anniversary! ;)