Blogs from Jamaica, Central America Caribbean - page 12

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 ... read more

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, ... read more

Today was a very long, but very fun day. We started off by waking up early, 8:30 am, slathering on some sunscreen, swimsuits, and beach towels, and heading down to meet our tour bus by 9. The bus left promptly and we were on our way to Ocho Rios for a long day. It took about an hour to an hour and forty five minutes by bus to get from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios, but this is only because the highway is two lane and the speed limit is 80 KPH aka 50 MPH aka SLOW. Once we arrived we went to two souvenir shopping centers and spent too much money. Then we went to a crafter's market, which was one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. These people live in extreme poverty here ... read more

Well, After a very long, and very tedious day, we have discovered that travel to Lima is impossible for the next 3 days. As Kenji's dad works for Continental, we are flying very cheap, and therefore we are on standby. Today the flight was extremly overbooked, due to weather conditions from yesterday, and as a result we missed the flight today. The problem is, the next 3 days are also really overbooked for the Lima flights. After sitting down for 3 hours today and exhausting all possabilities (Panama, New York, Los Angels, Bolivia, Columbia, etc) and then connecting flights, we realized there is no way to get us to Peru on standby in the next 4 days. Even if we paid full price for a ticket (1800$) there is a high chance we wouldn't make it ... read more

Yesterday, we spent the day being tourists, but not quite in a typical way. No, we didn't spend time hitting up Margaritaville or any of that sort of thing. We went to a sugar factory. The sugar industry is big in Jamaica, and we've spent a lot of the week watching the sugar cane fields burn (as part of the harvesting process, I think?). Yesterday, we got the chance to visit the Frome Sugar Factory in Westmoreland Parish (the same Parish as Petersfield). The tour was quite intense. It's indeed a factory, and it's loud, and it's hot, and there's sugar particles floating in the air everywhere, and it has this rotten-sweet smell about it, like spoiled fruit that might almost still be good enough to eat. We got the full tour of the place, all ... read more