Made it to Jamaica

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I made it to Jamaica but not without adventure...

Keith (my travel buddy and fellow Intern) nearly missed our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Kingston -- I was planning on stalling the plane as long as possible. Then we are waiting to depart and are told that our plane has mechanical difficulties -- It's okay though, we're still going to fly! (Comforting!)
We land in Kingston, and are clearly directed to go to the "Visitors" side as we were two out of five white people on the flight. I get through customs fine and Keith on the other hand looks suspicious so they hold him there for a while. He finally gets through and we go to claim our bags only to find out they couldn't get one of the baggage compartments open so we don't get our bags...they said they would be delivered Sunday (hopefully).

We leave the airport and try to find a taxi -- we get shuffled from one driver to the next and are then driven to our gueshouse, through one very rough part of town to another, honking, changing lanes, almost hitting several people and cars. We arrive to a gated compound, double pad-locked and covered in bars. We are given 2 seperate rooms, with AIR CONDITIONING, and better cable than I have back in Denver.

We decide to grab dinner at the resturant across the street from our hotel -- we are warned before leaving to avoid the street right next to the resturant -- that we should NEVER go there at night, and that it MIGHT be okay during the day. Keith gets pizza -- I get Jerk Chicken -- Coldplay is playing over the speakers -- University of Miami baseball game is playing on 8 different tvs. We walk home, watch a movie and then go to sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night to porn on my tv -- the channel switches from movies to porn late at night. (Quite the surprise).

Get up the next morning for breakfast -- traditional Jamaican saltfish, a heavy doughnut that is not sweet, some sort of bananna, the most AMAZING coffee in the world, toast and watermelon. We walk around the city cautious of all of the areas and streets to avoid. We find the market, and look around as if it's a museum -- so many American brands. Walk around more. Get caught in the rain. Investigate the Hilton hotel. See KFC, Burger King and Wendy's. Get harrassed by kids for money. Talk to this guy that says we are "on turf" who discusses Ganja and other activities. Buy food from the market for dinner (no cooking facilities or fridge at our hotel). Come home. Watch tv. Read book. Sit outside. Watch a rain storm come in with dramatic anticipation... Eat dinner. Journal. Go to bed. Turn off tv before the porn comes on.

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