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Published: July 31st 2010
We arrived in the beautiful Caribbean island of Jamaica on Tuesday evening after a very swift and simple flight from Miami to Montego Bay. After a brief hold up at the understaffed immigration desk, we collected our luggage and were soon making our way along the dark coastal roads of northern Jamaica. With the windows down and the cooling sea breeze blowing in our faces we relaxed for the hour and a half journey to the villa.
There wasn't much time left in the day or energy in our legs to do much more than have a quick look round and a drink before bed in somewhat nicer surroundings than the motels we have become accustomed to on our road trip in the U.S.A.
Breakfast was a delicious platter of fresh, tropical fruit including pineapple, papaya, bananas and mango followed by poached eggs and freshly baked bread and after that we were ready for a day of doing, well, nothing much really! And that is the beauty of this leg of our travels! We are in a laid back country, at a laid back villa, and we are both sporting very laid back attitudes at the moment! We unpacked
and then spent the day lounging around reading and enjoying the fresh breeze coming off the Caribbean Sea to cool the hot and humid air. We did manage to have a little walk around the garden and Rachel tested out the Hand Made Places equipment and gave it a resounding thumbs up, despite it being manufactured for schoolchildren!
It was early evening when one of my back teeth started to give me grief and it got worse as the evening went on (although it didn't dampen my enjoyment of the delicious Jamaican Barbecue Chicken and Pumpkin Rice we had for dinner!) so we emailed the villa manager to get the name of a dentist who I could visit the next day. Also, as the evening wore on, the mosquitoes were all over Rachel and I like a necrophiliac in a CSI morgue, and we woke up on Thursday morning covered in bites from the little blighters! Add to this a worsening pain in my mouth and paradise wasn't as idyllic as it could be!!
The visit to the dentist was a little more eventful than I would have liked. The dentist himself was great and took x-rays and
had a good look at my teeth, before diagnosing that I needed root canal treatment due to the fact the nerve in my tooth was infected and being pressed against by the inner canal of my tooth. Without treatment, apparently, gas can build in the tooth and be forced out into the jawbone! So, with it was with great trepidation that I allowed him to stick a huge needle into my gum and begin the 'procedure'. It took a further three injections to make my mouth completely numb, and those of you who know about my fear of needles can I understand why, by this point I was lying on the dentists chair with my feet tipped higher than my head and a cotton wall ball soaked in ammonia under my nose. (I hadn't fainted, they were just worried I would!) Whilst the procedure wasn't pleasant it wasn't painful thanks to the anaesthetic and all was going swimmingly until a large storm cut out the power and a couple of seconds later the generator kicked in and the drilling could continue! Soon after, when the dentist ploughed another power tool into my delicate mouth, his cry of "Lord Jesus" gave
me images of a massacred mouth, blood and stitches! Thankfully, his exclamation was only because the nurse had put "too much lubrication on the drill handle".
The rest of the day passed relatively incident free (sadly not insect free!) and as the feeling returned to my mouth, so did my enjoyment of our beautiful location.
Both Wednesday and Thursday had been fairly cloudy and with a few thunderstorms, but in a place like this, there is even something beautiful about the warm rain and loud rumbles of thunder rolling out into the seemingly endless sea all around us. Despite this, we were glad to see this morning dawn with beautiful sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. This meant sunbathing weather! Following on from another delicious breakfast, we slapped on the suncream and caught some rays. It was lovely to lie in the hot sun with a soundtrack of the waves crashing against the rocks below to help us coompletely relax.
As I type this blog, my view is of the sun dipping between clouds and below the horizon where the ocean meets the sky in the distance. It is producing the most amazing colours of
fiery red, gentle yellow and deep blues and purples. No description or photo can do the scene justice. All I can hear is the evening insects and birds starting up their nightly chorus and the waves gently lapping the shore. If this isn't paradise I would love someone to show me someplace better.
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The nard
non-member comment
Legend
Mr Cain. I know the game you're playing but your use of the word necrophiliac was absolutely superb! Almost pissed myself! Glad you're having a great time! The nard.