New Years Eve

I can't believe that today is already our last full day in Jamaica.

This morning Bryan and I slept a bit later (but, yes, he did get up early and grab our pool chairs before coming back to bed).

We ate breakfast at the tables outside of the buffet area. We had a bit of bad service, which frustrated Bryan more than me. But trust me, waiting 12 minutes for coffee and water is not something I prefer to do either. We both just needed to remind ourselves that the Jamaican lifestyle is more laid back. But when you need to ask 3 different people for a water it's hard to remember that.

Other than that we had a beautiful day. The sun was out, and it sure was gorgeous!

Our pool time was great but Bryan pushed his luck a little bit when it came to applying sunscreen. He's looking a bit red now.

We stayed down at the pool area mostly the rest of the day. When the sun went down we went up to the room to get ready for the gala dinner.

We had our reservation for the adults only buffet room. Everything has been really decorated and they had some extravagant foods like crab legs, sushi, oysters, bacon wrapped filet mignon, turkey, and so so so much more.

After dinner they handed out new year goodie bags for everyone. So we each had hats and head pieces, noise makers, etc.

The drink stations were set up everywhere even on the pool deck, but the main location was over by the shopping area where they had performers and a dj and balloon archways and all sorts of decorations.  They didn't get the countdown up on the screen fast enough but we didn't miss it.

From the top of the stage they lit up 'Happy New Year 2015' and dumped a ton of balloons off of the balcony. Someone set off one of those Chinese lanterns that floated out over the ocean.

It was a great way to ring in the new year and now we're off to bed. :)

Happy New Year everyone, here's to a great 2015!

Martha Brae, Green Grotto

Here's my post from yesterday (Tuesday the 30th), I couldn't get connected to the WiFi last night to get it posted.

This morning Bryan and I had an excursion to the Martha Brae River rafting.

We were picked up at 8:30 this morning by our driver Jimmy. He's the same driver we had from the airport.

Martha Brae River rafting was pretty cool. I've never done anything like it. We rode down the river on these bamboo rafts with a guide who navigated our way.

The river was almost blue or a cloudy emerald green. But pretty calm.  Our guide, James, said he's been doing this for 20 years. He was a great guide, and answered our many questions along the way.

The trip down the river was romantic and relaxing, except for getting eaten alive by some mosquitos. Of course I have about 20 bites and Bryan got none. :)

After rafting we had Jimmy bring us to the Green Grotto Caves.  It's a National Heritage Site located just a few miles outside our our resort.  We had the BEST guide ever, Chedd!

It was just Bryan and I with a family from Jamaica. But Chedd was so funny and did all sorts of impressions, such as the crocodile hunter, Arnold Schwarzenegger,  Shaggy, James Brown, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Gandolf and Sean Connery. In addition to making funny jokes like having one of the girls hold his flashlight and calling her the Chosen One the rest of the tour. He also made jokes like the bats only bite people in brown shirts which the youngest was wearing.  It probably doesn't sound that great the way I explain him, but he was so good.

We had to wear hard hats with hair nets and at one point he pointed out a snake that lived in the caves. We thought he was joking because of how he was the whole tour, but it was not a joke and Bryan ran away afraid. I guess I did too. :)
It was a great tour! And we were able to make it back to the resort for our lunch and a ton of sunshine at the pool!

We've met tons and tons of people from the Toronto area and it seems like everyone is here during our same dates.

Tonight we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant and it's been my favorite meal so far. We had a great chef at the hibachi grill, Wayne.  He was fun and engaging. We've had great luck with some of the people we've met.

After dinner I had a drink on the terrace and then we went over to the shopping area. I was looking for a Jamaica patch for my bag, and maybe a charm for my necklace. I found a patch but no luck on the charm yet. We also picked up the painting Bryan had done.  For Christmas Bryan gave me watercolor paintings of our dogs that my friend Melissa did. They turned out so well that he was so excited about the possibility of this turning out well.  I agree, it turned out well, but he can't have any more done or we'll start looking like those crazy dog owners that have shrines of their pets. ;)

We had a great and busy day, so we didn't stay up for much of the evening entertainment.  Our plan for tomorrow is going to be just to relax!

Relaxing, massage, and Italian dinner

Today was another one of our relaxing resort days.

Bryan reserved our spot and waited in the line to reserve our new years eve gala dinner.

When I met up with him he was done making our reservation and the line had become really long.

After we had breakfast, Bryan took a nap back in the room because he had a bit of a headache and I went to lay at the pool.

It was our first completely sunny day, not a cloud in the sky and basically no wind. So it became really hot really fast.

I love our spot by the pool because I can lay right in it without being completely in the pool. I ended up finishing my book and then sat there waiting for Bryan to come down. When he made it, we walked the whole pool area to check it all out.

The clouds started to come in around lunch so we went to the snack bar to eat.

Bryan scheduled me a massage at 3, so I went to the spa for that while he stayed at the pool. The massage was great, I've never had one before though so I didn't really know what to do.

We had our second nice dinner tonight at the Italian Restaurant.  The restaurant is down, further away from our room, but down on the beach. We had a late reservation,  9pm, and even then we sort of received some poor service.  We were there at least 10 min early and it took at least that much time to be greeted by our server. I also feel a bit bad for Bryan, because he doesn't drink he ordered a Coke but he didn't get it until our main dish showed up.

The appetizers and dessert were buffet style again, but at least they had different options. It still took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes for dinner though.

Now, it's late, and I'm exhausted!

Relaxing day and football for Bryan

This morning seemed to come quickly, which I suppose means that I slept like a rock. Our power went out in the middle of the night but luckily we had no where we needed to be.

Bryan was up at his usual early time and went to reserve our chairs at the pool before I woke up.

This morning we had arranged a tour with the people who managed the top level of the resort, Premier level or something like that.

We had to listen to their whole talk about how we could join in on their level to get benefits on worldwide travel and they gave us a full tour for some of the area that's restricted for us currently. Most of it was a bit ridiculous but it came down to spending about 10k and when we said no to that they changed the offer to 5k and when we said no to that they adjusted it some more to be about 2k. At that point we had enough and were less patient. We did get 2 goodie bags for listening to everything which included 3 coffee mugs, a keychain, a sarong, a dress, 2 t-shirts, a towel, a stuffed monkey, a cup, a big bottle of rum and Jerk sauce. So I suppose we don't have any shopping to do!

Plus we were still down at the pool before 11 am.  They always do little activities down on the pool deck. We don't really participate but Bryan totally should have done the trivia contest this morning. Yesterday we asked our driver all sorts of questions about Jamaica so he knew everything! But he would have just won another bottle of rum so I guess we didn't need it!

Bryan left the pool to go watch the Packers game about an hour and a half before it was going to start. Even I know that sitting outside by a pool with a drink in Jamaica is the smarter choice ;)

Bryan stayed wherever he was to watch the whole game and I enjoyed some relaxing time on the terrace with a yummy drink and my journal while I waited. Once Bryan found me, we sort of rushed through our buffet dinner because we were told by my good friend Dan, from my  Antarctica trip, that we shouldn't miss the steel drum band.

And he was right. They've been the best evening entertainment so far! We watched them play for 2 hours and they were great! They had people up there dancing.  And they even played a little Jingle Bells!

Here are a few pics, the one of me with the drink was from dinner last night. The drink was called a Bob Marley and had red, yellow, and green layered in the glass.

The others are from today!

Dunn River Falls

This morning we left for a tour at Dunn River Falls. We were picked up at 8:30 for our private tour.

Hiking the falls was a lot of fun. Because we were there so early it was just our small group.  I was really happy that we brought our water shoes with us, even though the water was really clear and you could see where the rocks were, the current in the falls could make you lose balance easily.

After climbing,  We made our way to the Blue Hole. This is a stop that's been growing in popularity, but there was this tiny dirt road and only one vehicle can go at a time. It was way up into the hills and there were various little vendors along the way selling a certain kind of brownie that wasn't offered at the hotel. Haha.

The Blue Hole was a lot of fun too. This time we just got to make our way down the river by a series of jumps off the top! They also had a big rope swing too!

Our driver for the day was great and we lucked out with 2 awesome guides. We were back at the resort by around 1:30.

So we caught the last of the sun for the day near the pool and we also had our 1st fancy dinner.

We ate at the grill and we were both a bit disappointed because both the appetizers and desserts were what you can have from the buffet! The main course we had was the Chef's Special. This included both some steak and shrimp.  Good flavor but small portions.

There was entertainment tonight but we didn't get to it. Too tired!

So long for now.

A full day at the pool

This morning, with not a lot of surprise, Bryan was up and awake so ridiculously early. But, he's great with letting me sleep in a little longer while he goes out with our pool towels and reserves us a spot.

Yesterday when we were walking around the grounds we had a plan of where we wanted to be.

The morning was partly cloudy and after breakfast at the buffet we made some plans for the week and then relaxed at the pool. It sprinkled for a little bit but other than those moments it was really hot! That sun is strong.

We had a nice walk along the beach and some good food throughout the day.

We had some more musical entertainment after dinner on the terrace, but I couldn't make it til the end. I'm feeling a bit exhausted right now, though.

Til next time.
Here's a view from our balcony this morning and one from the pool.

Jamaican Christmas mon

Bryan and I have arrived at our resort, Grand Bahia Principe, in Runaway Bay Jamaica.

It was a long day for us after being up late to celebrate Christmas back home with my family.  But we're here and having a great time.

We were at the airport with more than enough time to catch our flight. I looked for a bar serving Tom and Jerry's, but had no luck.

Our flight was direct, and flew into Montego Bay. Going through customs was different than how I expected it. Instead of talking to people and stamping our passports we had to use a kiosk that took our picture and print out a receipt. It wasn't working very well and they had 3 people there helping with the kiosks, which seemed silly because those 3 people could just sit in the little booths and process everyone just as quickly.

Our whole drive from the airport to the resort our driver was pointing out all of the "sites", like Usain Bolt's neighborhood and school, Bob Marley's neighborhood, the best place for Jerk chicken, and his favorite hangouts. In addition to all of the tourist stops.

Our resort itself is pretty big. After we checked in it was already dark. Our room is on the top floor with no other rooms near us and we have a view of the terrace, pool, and ocean. Which should look nice when we can see it in the daylight.

We had a bit of difficulty finding our way around at first but I think we'll be good now.

After dinner we sat outside to enjoy a Jamaican band and vocalist.  The music was good and the lead singer was very talented. But when she ended at 10 pm it was time for bed. Bryan's already asleep!

Here are a few pics from today.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful. And even though we may have actual warm temps, I hope the time spent with your family and friends has warmed all of your hearts.