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Published: August 21st 2010
The peace and tranquility that Rachel and I have been enjoying was shattered on Sunday evening, with the arrival of parents, cousins, an Auntie and two children seemingly powered by Duracell! And what great fun it has been. Callum and Georgia are five and eight and to say they have kept us on our toes is an understatement!
Sunday 8th August started with a walk around Ocho Rios and the craft market where we bought the children a small welcome to Jamaica gift. It was a lovely day and we were soon back at the villa relaxing by the pool and learning the basics of dominoes from the grand master of the game... Floyd! We really enjoyed and have purchased ourselves a dominoes set for when we get home. So, if anyone fancies a game let me know. Rachel will win though as she put us both to shame with some great, if not a bit flukey games of dominoes. Floyd also showed me how to cook jerk chicken on a barbeque using jerk sauce, Red Stripe beer and pimento leaves. It smelt amazing!
Later on in the afternoon, in a flurry of hugs and kisses, everyone arrived and
our time in Jamaica wouldn't be the same again. In a good way of course! Within twenty minutes, my new father-in-law decided that he would push me in the pool, fully clothed of course, and with my mobile phone in my pocket. Thank goodness it was a rubbish, cheap one as it is now completely dead!
Monday was another beautiful day on this beautiful island and we spent it doing various things around the villa. We taught the children how to snorkel in the swimming pool (they were both better than me!), taught them how to play dominoes (they beat me every time although I'm sure Georgia was using some very advanced sleight of hand tricks to secure the best dominoes!), played table tennis, swam, sunbathed, kicked a football around, read and got battered by Callum and Georgia whilst playfighting in the pool! By dinner time I was shattered and ready for my bed, but Rachel and I in our infinite wisdom had decided to book a local reggae band as a welcome present to everyone, so there was no early night for me. The band were great fun and taught Rachel some crazy dancing, which she imitated with
varying levels of success! They sang some well known reggae songs and the female lead singer took a shine to Robert and made his night by singing a favourite song of his by Toots and The Maytals as their closing number! The new arrivals were jet lagged and the children fast asleep by 9pm so, it was an earlier night than we expected but still great fun.
The following day was easily the busiest we have had during our stay here (quite possibly during the past 3 months!) and we were up early for breakfast and snorkelling in the sea, before piling into two cars and heading for White River just down the road for a spot of "tubing" down the river. All nine of us picked up our large rubber rings and made our way, barefoot, to the launching point via a very stoney and painful path! The river is shaded by the trees so the water is really cold, especially compared to the baking temperatures we have got used to. Everyones faces were a picture, as we all dropped into our rubber rings in the water, arse first, and got a feel of how cold it was!
The trip down the river was great fun and and an equal balance between a slow and relaxing float down the river and the occasional rapid and manic paddling to stop ourselves hitting the bank. Although we have done it before it was a great way to spend an hour.
After lunch, we went to the world famous Dunns River Falls on the other side of Ocho Rios. It is the most visited tourist attraction in Jamaica and features a waterfall that can be climbed, a lovely beach, jetskis, craft stalls and various other bits and pieces. Carol, Matthew, Robert and myself climbed the Falls whilst everyone else was in the sea and on the beach. The falls are not steep but are very slippy in some places and quite a challenge to get to the top, especially without falling over and making a fool of yourself, which I am pleased to report none of us did! Rachel had a good time on the beach with her mum, Gwen and the children and we returned to the villa worn out but happy after a thoroughly enjoyable day.
The sun was beating down on Wednesday and the hour that
we spent in the craft market felt like the fires of hell were burning around us! I would urge any visitor to Ocho Rios to visit the craft market regardless of what you hear elsewhere. Yes you get hustled by the stall owners, yes it's very hot and sweaty and yes, there is a lot of worthless tat sold but it is a great experience, the bartering is fun and there is some good stuff to be had. We went last time we were here and I was not looking forward to going back, so tried to persuade Rachel that we shouldn't go but it was fun and we will go back there before we leave as there are some colourful paintings that we are interested in and maybe a souvenir or two for you lucky people back home! As I said earlier, I managed to procure a dominoes set after some haggling. The market stall owners enjoy the banter of bargaining with you and as long as we get what we want at a decent price and they make a bit of money, everyone is happy.
We made a much needed stop at Margaritaville in Island Village, Ocho
Excited new arrivals
Callum, Robert and GwenRios for a refreshing drink and a cooling dunk in their pool. They have a small waterslide which Callum and Georgia absolutely loved, closely followed by Matthew and Robert. My fun in the pool was ended due to an unfortunate collision with a ledge which left me nursing a dead leg and bruised ego! But, I'm 100% sure that suffering with a dead leg is more manageable in Ocho Rios than somewhere like Bognor Regis or sCunthorpe so I can't complain!
Thursday morning seemed to be even hotter than the day before and we made use of the pool to keep us cool in the morning after yet another delicious breakfast prepared by Junior and Carlene. Everytime we went in the pool to cool off, the two youngsters would make sure that relaxation wasn't on the menu! Between playing at sharks, fighting and throwing a ball around, they certainly kept us busy! The sun started to fade away as the afternoon began, so with Robert, Maria and Gwen all busy and away from the villa, the rest of us decided to take a trip to Prospect Plantation.
The plantation, which is just a two minute car drive away
Catching Up
With the father in law from the villa, gave us the chance to learn a bit more about the local area and its flora and fauna. We climbed aboard a "jitney" (a tractor with a covered trailer) and were driven around the grounds whilst Isaac our guide gave us an informative and humurous commentary. We were five minutes into the ride and midway through a description of the local Pimento trees and the fruit they bear when the tractor ran out of fuel (only in Jamaica could a tour bus run out of fuel but everyone still high spirited)! We walked for a little while whilst we awaited a replacement jitney, which soon arrived.
The plantation is an agricultural property with 1000 acres of land containing banana trees, coconut trees, allspice, sugar cane, pineapple plants and loads of idigenous trees and flowers. It is also the setting for the old home of the former owner of the plantation, Sir Harold Mitchell and offers some spectacular views of Ocho Rios and the White River Gorge (which we were tubing down earlier in the week.) We saw ostriches (their eggs are HUGE!) and also had pictures taken with camels as well as seeing one of the most
daredevil pest exterminators ever. Basically, there was a bloke up a ladder at the house wearing a vest and shorts spraying the wasps nest he had found with a can of wasp repellant. We made a swift exit once the wasps got angry! The plantation has a collection of various trees planted by famous people and dignitaries. We saw a Mahogany tree planted in the fifties by Winston Churchill, a tree planted by Henry Kissinger the famous dipomat, a local tree planted by an ex Jamaican Prime Minister and national hero Norman Manley and to top it all off, the tree planted by..... Shakira. Not quite in the same league but thrilling all the same!
Before we returned to the villa, we took the Gibson's (Matthew, Carol and children) for a drive through Fern Gully. This is a very scenic route through three miles or so of huge ferns and hardwood trees and gives the impression of a tropical rainforest. It is believed that the area originated as an underground river of which the bed is now a very winding road through a beautiful and eerie forest. There are around 600 varieties of fern and hardwood trees lining the
road and some of the roots were exposed and are twice the height of a man, and obviously need to be to hold the huge trees up above them.
The four youngest adults in our party spent Thursday evening living it up Jamaican style! And no that doesn't mean smoking a massive spliff! We had jerk chicken and pork at a local bar called Scotchies. It was mainly locals and the food was delicious. The kitchen was very basic and very smokey as the food cooked slowly on wood stoves with corrugated iron covers to keep the heat in. The resulting food was perfect, spicy, smokey and just delicious. Rachel, Carol and Matthew enjoyed the local rum punch and we had a lovely evening getting to know the Gibsons. We had a quick visit to the casino on the way home and it was very, very different to what we had experienced in Las Vegas! The machines looked on their last legs and the blackjack and roulette were played on video machines that looked like they were as old as we are!! On arrival you go to a window a put money on a playing card, the only chips
you buy are ones for the fruit machines (Carol & Rachel had a go at this but decided that having no idea what they were doing they changed their chips to a card). Whilst there Matthew thought he'd try his luck on the roulette. Having never played this before it could have been a challenge, however he was happy to find the locals were more than willing to help. 15minutes later, Matt was doing well and had decided to cash out so walked away from the table. Kelly (his helper) proceeded to follow Matthew explaining that as she had helped him he should share his winnings. She took his card off him, went to another machine and proceeded to exchange his winnings onto her card. Not knowing what to do Matt stood their patiently and was happy enough to go away with what he had started with!!
Our final stop on the way home was at a local bar called Bi Bi Bips. On entry we were advised there was a private party there tonight but we were more than welcome to join them. The music was ridiculously loud dancehall (which I am really growing to like, just not
At the foot of the Falls
The four of us who climbed it... Matt, Carol, Robert and Me at that volume!) and the clientele was us. Just us! Still, we had a drink and looked out into the darkness of the Caribbean Sea from their terrace and it was a good ending to a relaxed and enjoyable evening.
I'll get another blog up before we leave here with news on the weekend just gone and the rest of our time here in Jamaica before we make our way to Hawaii and our next chapter next Sunday.
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greg
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Jerk Chicken
watched a cookery lesson on TV the other day....Jerk Chicken....looked wonderful....also the falls too looks like a great experience, I'd like to photograph it....