Jamaica Part 1

April 15, 2015

Jamaica Part 1

We flew to Jamaica on one of these new planes below with Thomson holidays. A long 10 hours but well worth the journey. As we stepped off the plane the heat hit us.

We checked in at our hotel, The Riu Montego Bay (just 5 mins from the airport) they gave us a refreshing cold juice and within half an hour we were settled at the bar with a rum in our hands.

Sadly there was a bit of a tropical rainstorm outside, but we weren't gong to let that bother us. we went for dinner and had an early night praying the sunshine would come out for us in the morning. Everyone said it would!

The next day did bring sunshine all morning. Mum and I had an early breakfast and headed out to make the most of it because we did think it might rain again in the afternoon which was when we booked ourselves a spa treatment for.

I had my first jerk chicken from the beach barbecue. It was really good.

And that evening we went to the bar and chatted to some friends we'd made. Had an early night so we could be ready for our trip the next morning. The reggae Bob Marley tour.

The next morning was sunshiny for a while. We boarded the coach and Alex our guide started the trip off by telling us some brilliant stories about the local area. It was really him that made the whole trip as good as it was, from stories about Rastafari to tales about The Pirates of the Caribbean, he held my attention as we wound up the hills through towns and villages to get to Bob Marley's birth place.

We stopped here for a toilet and drink break, and as we got back in the coach and carried on up the hills, the skies got grey and we started to realise that it was a genius idea to do the tour on a slightly wet day as we weren't missing our tan time! Also meant we couldn't get too hot/burnt while standing outside listening to guides, unable to top up the sun cream.

I tried to snap photos of the towns as we drove through and it would have been nice to get out and see the markets and meet some locals. Sadly not this time.

Nearly at the birthplace of Bob, we stopped at the school his mum founded for some photos.

We got to the birthplace of Bob Marley, and after being shown where we could indulge in a smoke if we wanted (it is legal in Jamaica) we headed off on one of the maddest tours I think I've ever been on. If you can just imagine being with my mum on a minibus of stoned tourists of all ages who have never met before, and being taken round by a guy called Crazy. It was pretty fun though! You just had to be there.

You start off at the bar which has a balcony with this view.

Then you walk up some stairs and get to a room of memorabilia and artwork.

Come outside and these guys serenade you with Bob Marley songs.

Then you go through some gates and start waking up to his mother's tomb. But Crazy is still um, crazy and he takes a long time telling tales and stories about the Rastafarian way of life and Bob Marley, and to be honest, not a huge amount what he said made sense, but it was entertaining.

This is Bob Marley's bed below. I find it a bit odd just being allowed to go in there and touch things, not sure why, but it feels like an invasion of privacy, and plus, everyone keeps telling you about all the ladies he had in there!

Then Crazy demonstrated how Bob would mediate on his meditating rock. Told you it was a different tour. And after that, I took no more photos. Crazy picked on me to be his woman for the rest of the tour when he found out I was single and we saw the tomb, and there's not much else to say! Photos aren't allowed!

We moved onto lunch after this, and I think munchies were kicking in. We were taken to Christopher Columbus Park, which our tour guide Alex told us locals would never go to. Sadly, the food was crap and I can see why they wouldn't. But what a silly thing to do! Take us all somewhere with horrible food! On the bright side it had gorgeous views and good live music.