Jamaica!

Here's where we'll post all our terribly interesting experiences and photos from our time in Jamaica. Hope you enjoy following along!

Use these links to skip to a particular section:

Sunday, September 26

We arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica at 2:30 pm local time (Central), where we went through immigration and customs. Sandals had a welcome center at the airport where we got to hang out for about 3 minutes before our bus ride was ready to go to the resort. We were chugging the complimentary beer (which of course was Red Stripe) because we thought we couldn't take it out of the welcome center. But a Sandals employee saw us and said "Take the beer with you, in Jamaica, No Problem!" So we refilled our cups and boarded the bus.

The ride to the resort was about 1 hour and 40 minutes, but the scenery was awesome. We went through Usain Bolt's home town on the way. That was the only "guided" part of the tour, except for where the driver pointed out a few excursion locations close to the resort. When we got to the resort, we were greeted with cool, coconut scented hand towels to freshen up. We were then escorted inside to check in and were given "welcome punch" which was, of course, spiked. We dropped our stuff off at our villa house which has a semi-private pool that we share with the other 3 couples in our building. The resort is completely fenced by chain linked fences lined with barbed wire which is a little scary, but comforting at the same time. There are two parts to the resort: the Manor side which is where our villa house is along with the gigantic pool; and the Riviera Side which is where the beach is. There's a shuttle that runs between the two every 10 minutes or so.

After unpacking we went to the "Market Place" for dinner. Matt had a crab cake with mango salsa and jerk tilapia while Rachel had Jamaican beef stew and Kalbi-marinated pan seared steak. We finished it off with some chocolate mousse cake. Rachel ordered a glass of the complimentary Chardonnay while Matt asked what kind of beers were available. The waiter's response was "Red Stripe." So he replied in the affirmative. The waiter then turned to the bar and said, "One beer please."

We were pretty exhausted from having to get up so early, so we went to sleep incredibly early. That's it for Sunday; we'll post Monday's activities soon!

Monday, September 27

We started off Monday super early. Not because we meant to, but because we got the time change backwards. We thought we had lost an hour, when in fact, we had gained one; so we ended up getting up at 6:40 Jamaica time... luckily we didn't have to wait for breakfast, although we were the first ones there. We had refreshing Mimosa's at the breakfast buffet in the Market Place along with some omelettes and fruit. Since we had gotten up so early, we came back to our villa and took a dip in our private pool.

At 10 am we went to orientation at the concierge office where we booked our activities for the week. Fortunately, there was a massage slot open at 12 pm, so we headed to the Riviera spa. We enjoyed an hour long full body massage over the ocean. Jealous? You should be; it was amazing. We stayed on the Riviera side of the resort for lunch at the Bayside Restaurant. Lunch is also buffet style on the resort. We had various salads, samosas, couscous, and yellow curried chicken (along with a strawberry dacquiri of course). For dessert we raided the sweets table where we discovered creme brulee tarts! Absolutely fantastic.

After lunch we came back to the room and took a long, much deserved nap. We then went to dinner at the Monday night Street Jamboree! We were able to sample the local cuisine with jerk chicken, pork ribs, fried bammy, and various sweet potato dishes (Jamaican sweet potatoes are different from American sweet potatoes but still delicious). We spent some time watching some horrible guest dancing competitions (Matt could have won easily, but wasn't asked to participate) and then watched the resort managers demonstrate the progression of dance in Jamaica.

We are now sitting in our room recounting our extremely relaxing, Jamaican-paced Monday. Tomorrow morning we are headed on a bus tour of Dunn's River Falls. Come back tomorrow night to find out how much fun we had! Love you all!

Tuesday, September 28

We once again woke up at an impressively early hour as far as vacation standards go. This was due to Matt's excitement for the day's activities, not unlike that of a toddler faced with a trip to Disney World. Breakfast was a delight, and with our bellies full of hearty grub, we made our way to the bus stop for the Dunn's River Falls tour.

The Falls tour format is basically this: you arrive at the top of the falls and join up with a tour group and guide. The guide takes you via slopes and staircases down to the beach, where the falls end. You then line up man-woman-man-woman, holding hands, as the guide takes you back up the falls (this time in the water), stopping at various points for everyone to have an opportunity to slide, dunk, splash, or jump, whatever the case may be for that particular rapid.

After a nap that could have easily been confused with a coma, we spiffed ourselves up for dinner at Valentino's, one of the two fancy-pants restaurants at the resort (the other, Orchid's, will be graced with our presence tomorrow evening). Here's a shot of us standing outside waiting to be seated.

You'll notice that Matt's shirt is a bit wet; it's been raining for most of the day as a result of a tropical depression passing through the area. Apparently we're getting the better end of the deal, because the other side of the island is experiencing flash floods at the moment.

Dinner at Valentino's was pretty classy. Look at all those knives! There were five courses, which included antipasti, zuppe, insalate, le paste, and "i secondi piatti." The last two were served on the same plate, and were followed by dessert and cappuccino.

Matt's main course of shrimp-stuffed chicken with seafood fettuccine is on the left, and Rachel's plate of char grilled filet with penne bolognese is on the right. For dessert (not pictured), Rachel had panna cotta with strawberry sauce, and Matt had a "Babba' Napoletano," which was a napoleon with amaretto sauce and marscapone cheese.

Here's the view from our table. We got our massages under one of those huts on the pier, which is called the "promenade."

Tuesday evening we went to Nicole's Disco nightclub. It was supposed to be Disco night, but the music was mostly typical dance club tunes with a few older songs mixed in. We stayed there pretty late, and had a few Jamaican Delights. Not quite sure what comprises a Jamaican Delight, but they are pretty tasty. We went to bed pretty late, and Matt managed to "sleep in" until 8:30 Wednesday.

Wednesday, September 29

We braved the torential downpour, which was still relentlessly falling, to go to breakfast. We then made our way down to the beach area for our snorkeling appointment. We were told that the 11 am tour would be the last of the day due to the weather, so we were very glad we had made arrangements for that time. When we arrived, we got our gear and loaded up into the boat. Rachel had never snorkelled before and was a little nervous.

The boat took us out about 200 yards from the beach, and then they told us to jump in! There was a small reef that we were able to explore. We saw all kinds of fish: little blue ones, large zebra striped ones, big yellow ones, some long skinny gray ones with even longer noses, and even some sea urchins. We were swimming around another couple when they started laughing hysterically. When we looked over at them under water, we noticed a small striped algae-eater looking fishy trying to swim up the guy's shorts. That little fish tried the entire time we were in the water to swim up his shorts. We had only been in the water for about 15 minutes when the "dirty water" reached us. Due to the heavy rains, the river water from the island was heavily concentrated with sediment and reached the reef while we were out there. We couldn't see anything under the surface any longer, and the guides summoned us back to the boat. We were very lucky we got to go out at all.

We then came back to shore and waded in the ocean at the beach area until the cold rain and river water made it uncomfortable. We made our way to the hot tubs! When we were beyond pruny, we headed back to the Manor side of the resort to eat lunch. After lunch, there was a momentary repreive from rain so we made the most of it and sat out by the pool...for about 15 minutes until the rain started again. We are now in our room waiting for dinner time. We've decided to eat at "Arizona" tonight so as to separate our elegant nights. After dinner we are planning on going to "Chocolate Night" where we have to dress in all white! We'll post pictures and updates later!

Dinner at Arizona was our least favorite meal of the honeymoon so far. It's a tex-mex themed restaurant with a nacho bar and limited menu. Matt got beef fajitas, and Rachel got bbq skillet steak with baked potato. Both were of the quality we could've made at home, but the biggest disappointment was dessert. Matt got tres leche cake while Rachel had corn bread pudding. Matt's cake had at least day old meringue and was super dry. Rachel's pudding was supposed to come topped with ice cream, but only had a teaspoon worth of melted ice cream on the side. All in all, Arizona was a let down.

After dinner we made our way back to the room to change into our white outfits for chocolate night. Continuing with the theme of the honeymoon, it was practically a monsoon outside. Chocolate night was moved inside the ballroom due to the weather. The treats were plentiful and more than made up for the desserts at Arizona. We had chocolate mousse, candies with cream filled centers, and various chocolate cakes. A.J. Brown was the entertainment for the night. He's a Jamaican reggae star that's been around for 20 something years. He was awesome! He sang everything from traditional reggae to opera. We thoroughly enjoyed his performance. After chocolate night we headed off to bed.

Thursday, September 30

Thursday started off with breakfast in bed as part of our honeymoon package. We ordered all kinds of fruit, juice, coffee, eggs, and muffins. The staff brought the breakfast right to our bed! We watched some Jamaican TV while we ate. After breakfast, we noticed something we hadn't seen all week...THE SUN!!! We hurried to the pool where we enjoyed almost 3 full hours in the sun. Then we had to come back to our room to get ready for our outing of the day.

After a quick lunch at the Manor, we left for our Hooves Heritage Beach Horseback Ride! It's been a dream of Rachel's to ride on the beach her whole life, and Matt was kind enough to go along with it. We took a Sandals taxi to an historic sugar plantation where we learned about the history of Jamaica. We then went to the stables where we met our mounts for the day. Rachel was partnered with Piper, while Matt got a mare by the name of Rhythm. All of the horses at the stables are ex-racehorses that were rescued from slaughter. Both of our horses were thoroughbreds, but some of the others were quarter horse crosses. We rode down to the beach (about a 30 minute ride) learning about the history of Jamaica and the sugar plantation as we went. When we got down to the beach, we tried bread fruit, salted fish, and some fresh lemonade while our horses were preparing for the swim. After our refreshments, we stripped down to our bathing suits and remounted. Then we were led into the water where we went out until the water was up to the horses' backs. Then our guide told us to hold on tight, and he took off in the water. We were only trotting, but it felt a lot faster because of the current. We trotted back and forth in the water for about 30 minutes. The horses had to pick up their feet really high to be able to trot through the water, so it felt like riding a prancing parade horse! When our swim time was up, we went back to shore where we dried off and remounted for the ride back to the stables. We both had an amazing time, and Rachel was able to mark off riding in the ocean from her life goal list.

When we got back, we only had a few minutes to shower and get elegant for our night out at Orchid's. Orchid's is the 5 star asian restaurant on the resort. We ordered a little champagne before our food arrived to celebrate our fantastic day. Rachel ordered snapper spring rolls for her appetizer while Matt tried the shrimp and scallop skewers. We both had the lemon grass and chicken soup for our second course. For our entrees, Matt had Chinese braised chicken, and Rachel had Black pepper filet mignon on noodles. For dessert Matt had coconut custard cake, while Rachel had mango sticky rice pudding. Both of our meals were very delicious, but Valentino's wins the elegant eatery award for sure.

After dinner we came back to our room, because it was raining (of course). Rachel went to bed at 8 while Matt stayed up reading. We were both exhausted from our fun filled day of horseback riding.

Friday, October 1

Friday started off early since we went to bed so early. We noticed that for the second day in a row, it was sunny! We hurried to breakfast, and then went down to the beach where a craft fair was being held. We bargained with the local craft makers for a ceramic vase, and then spent the rest of the morning soaking up some much needed sunshine. At noon, we headed over to the water sports area because we had a reservation for a glass bottom boat ride! Right as we were donning our life jackets for the boat, it started pouring. We were told the boat would still go out, but due to the turbulence from the rain, and the leftover muddy river water in the bay, we wouldn't be able to see much through the glass bottom part of the boat. The guides still took us out and showed us some sites along the coast. When we got back from the tour, we decided to head up to the room to change into dry swimsuits and go to lunch.

Unfortunately, due to the rain and Rachel's flip flops with no traction, she took a spill in the lobby. Luckily, there were no serious injuries. What kind of trip would it have been if Rachel hadn't done something klutzy? So with a bruised ego and tail bone, we came back to the room and changed for lunch. After lunch, our plan was to sit out by the pool and try to get some sun through the heavy clouds. However, the rain had other ideas. So, here we are, sitting in our room while it continues to rain. Fortunately for you, we are now able to update our blog!

Our plans for tonight include going to Reef Terrace for dinner, a Caribbean themed restaurant, followed by attending the "farewell show" down on the beach: weather permitting. The show will have fire performers and live reggae music, so hopefully the rain will hold off. After the show, we have to come back to our room and pack up! We have to check out by 8:30 am tomorrow morning in order to catch our bus to the Montego Bay airport. We may post pictures from tonight, but if we don't, we will talk to you all when we're back in the U.S.!