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Published: December 28th 2007
Oh my goodness me! When it rains in the Carribean, it REALLY rains! 4 days non-stop! Luckily, festive cheer was in the air and I still had a fab time.
During our last day at Rocking Js the owner ´J´suggested that we leave our mark on the place by creating our own mosaics. Woo hoo! Craft city! I´d been getting creative withdrawl symptoms. We chose our tiles, hacked them to pieces with hammers then lay them in cement circles to be admired by future travellers to the hostel (or maybe to be puzzled over as they try to work out what the pictures are and what the words say!) Well anyway, it was grand fun and it kept us out of trouble for a good few hours!
After 2 nights of hammock and tent sleeping (didn´t get too much sleep the 2nd night) we moved to a posh place for 3 nights over xmas. Well I say posh, but I guess just having a bed is posh compared to a hammock! Well it had beds, our own bathroom (with hot water- a real treat!), a fridge and (oh joy!) a tv!!
However, on our first night there we still
Our 3 mosaics together forever!
Hannah´s had the demon monkey who we met on the jungle path, and Emma´s had her tattoo.ended up trundling down to Rocking J´s as they were holding a Christmas Eve dinner. It was absolutely delish! I don´t know how they did so well considering they were catering for over 80 people, but it was probably one of my best meals since being away! The evening was made all the more fun by the addition of ´jungle juice´. I´m not quite sure of the ingredients, but it cost 1 pound to buy a plastic cup that could be refilled at any time throughout the night and it tasted GOOD!!!
Add a few santa hats into the mix, and a fun night was had by all!
As you´d expect, our heads were a bit fuzzy on Christmas morning (thank goodness we´d left the hammocks and tents behind!) We swapped gifts (I´d accidently left my presents for the girls on a bus a few days previously, but that´s a whole other story!), phoned parents and then snoozed the morning away.
Christmas for us started properly in the afternoon as we made our way to a cabin even larger and posher than ours for a Christmas dinner with other people we´d met on our travels. There were 14
of us in all, and after a ´team meeting´ a few days previously, we all had dedicated roles to make the Christmas a success. Hannah and Emma worked miracles to produce soup and garlic bread that Delia Smith would have been impressed with (I was meant to be part of this team, but hey, too many cooks spoil the broth!), we had a team making Swedish meatballs, a BBQ chicken team, a salad team and a pudding girl. I slyly made my own role as craft co-ordinator and spent a few delightful hours making Christmas hats for everyone. The Swiss contingency thought it was a bit mad, but everyone was happy to wear them!
The highlight of the evening was the Secret Santa ceremony. There were new rules which allowed you to steal a present off someone else if they´d opened theirs and you prefered it. I started off with chocolate covered cashew nuts (yum!) and ended up with a bag of coffee beans in a hessian shopping bag after someone swiped my first pressie. Hmmmm... nice idea, but not very practical for carrying about for the next 6 months! (I ended up giving them to an old American
couple who had the room next to us.) Amongst the other gifts were maracas, a rasta-style hat, a child´s toy rifle with plastic ducks to shoot and Hannah received a gift that is too rude to mention on this blog! In fact it was so rude that none of us knew what it was until we´d read the instructions! I´ll have to leave it to your imagination! Needless to say, she won´t be taking that present home with her!
Anyway, although worlds apart from my normal Christmas with the family in Wales, I did actually have a really fun time. Thanks for all your Xmas messages everyone! Love you!
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Where the hell are Catherine and Matt
- - ?
Check out your tan!!!
Despite all the rain, you're looking very brown Miss Dyas! Your Christmas Day looks like it was lots of fun - I especially like the festive hats! xx