My life is one long vacation - part 2 with Kathy and Gary
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 21/Feb/2011 17:06, 34 days ago
We wanted to give our friends, Kathy and Gary from Vancouver a vacation experience in Jamaica that was more typical of the Jamaica we have come to love, avoiding the all-inclusives which, interestingly, have their roots here in Jamaica. But an all-inclusive in Jamaica is no different from an all-inclusive in Mexico or Spain and the concept is as far from the reality of real Jamaica that we came up with an itinerary for them that took them to Jamaica's favourite vacation spots, avoiding the crowds of tourists and providing a cross-section of the island. It was an introductory trip to the lesser known tourist attractions. We gave them a vacation on the edge.Above is the beautiful blue lagoon where the water is between 150 to 180 feet deep and the water a magnificent turquoisy blue colour seen only in the lagoon made famous by the Brooke Shields movie of the same name. Actually, the Blue Lagoon was originally called the Blue Hole and renamed after the movie made it famous. George and I took our first dip in the lagoon as did Gary who climbed out at the end of his swim and commented on how much fun it was swimming in the combination of fresh and sea water. I've never seen anyone come out from a swim in the Blue Lagoon without a huge smile and Gary was no exception.At Boston Bay we encountered our first experience with surfers in Jamaica. Boston Bay is renown for its surfing and this weekend showed us its stuff.Below you can see Kathy and Gary's heads as they swam with the surfers. Kathy preferred diving into the waves while Gary rode over the top.George and I took life a little easier.At Trasure Beach we were entertained on my birthday by the remarkable drumming of the 17 year old Shane Twins. I believe their names are O'Shay and Roshaine.They in turn were joined by their protegy, a little girl with lots of charisma destined to become a drummer herself.On another evening we bumped into Stephanie, an intern with CIDA, who took us with her to Eggy's Bar on the beach to join Shem, another CIDA intern, and his family visiting from the Yukon. Proving it is a small world, it turned out Shem's dad recognized Gary from the Geography Department at Memorial University in Newfoundland 30 years earlier and they reminisced and caught up on mutual friends and acquaintances.Treasure Beach is a small town and we bumped into Shem and his dad again at Pelican Bar and under one of the big Canadian flags a day or two later.We travelled to Pelican Bar and the Black River to see the crocodiles with Captain Ted and his sidekick, Flora. Kathy recognized Flora on the beach as the dog she had seen earlier in the day on a postcard. Flora was excellent at spotting dolphins and sting rays in the water before any of us noticed them.Approaching Pelican Bar below. Pelican Bar is a hut which serves beverages and fresh fish caught by the fishermen guides. It's built on stilts on a sand bar off shore where pelicans while away the days.The boat ride to the bar was enjoyable, not too hot and Captain Ted successfully dodged the rain storm at Pelican Bar before heading out to the Black River.Below is part of the fires clearing the harvested sugar cane at the Appleton Rum estate. The sound from the fire with flames of about 20 to 30 feet high was intense. We were on the road and I could feel the heat from the fire in the fields about a kilometer away.But as always in Jamaica, the quintessential land of contrasts, we also passed through Bamboo Avenue a soothing stretch of road about 4 kms long.Instead of flowers, I've posted a few wildlife pics today. We saw lots of brightly coloured butterfies over the last ten days. At one point we drove for a few minutes through what almost resembled a swarm of yellow butterfies and on other days we saw one of a kinds, both large and small.This parrot at Great Huts in Boston Bay stole my lens cap. It bit me when I retrieved it while a larger parrot pecked my ankles. They seemed to be a team and worked in tandem.The large snail was at YS Falls. This is about his actual size. He may actually have been bigger.On our boat ride out to Pelican Bar we were lucky to spot a dozen or so dolphins which added to the pleasure of being out on the water in a fast moving boat.These two pelicans were swimming past the Bar. They seemed more interested in the humans than the humans in them.This crocodile at Black River spends most of his time lounging on the dock at the mouth of the Black River. Gary made the comment that he was on a leash. We did see a couple more swimming in the river on this trip which added to the enjoyment of the river.We watched the zipliners at YS Falls. Some of them seemed to stop short of the landing pads which I found a bit disconcerting. They had to pull themselves with their hands up the last little bit to the platform.The water level at the falls was much lower than it was last summer during the rainy season resulting in less assistance from the guides. In fact, we didn't need any assistance but the falls themselves were much less dramatic. To see photos from our first trip, go tohttp://mwapoleni-bunty.blogspot.com/2010/09/treasure-beach.html.I think we gave Kathy and Gary a unique adventure in Jamaica and I hope they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed showing them around, although I was a bit concerned when Gary started singing Day-O, Day-O, dalylight come and I wanna go home after 3 or 4 nights at Ital Rest Guest House without electricity in Treasure Beach.Our next tour will be totally different but in the meantime we have to head out and discover more new destinations and experiences. Tours by Bunty and George offering "paradise on the edge" and hopefully memorable travel experiences.