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Published: December 14th 2005
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Lime Cay
life\'s tough After a 9 hour flight with a dodgy touch down the plane broke into applause at the fact that we were on Jamaican soil in one piece! After extended customs and immigration, and a bizzare baggage retrieval system we managed to spot David in the crowd, leaping around and shouting "Welcome to Jamica mon!" David seemed to have embraced the Jamaican way of driving - dodging potholes, beeping his horn and cutting people off like a local. As if that wasn't scary enough Mark looked up only to see what looked like a gun being pointed at us by a local on the side of the road.
The following day was David's 60th Birthday, which he managed to extend to 3 nights of evening celebrations. On Friday we got a taxi for the day to take us up to the mountains to see the amazing view over Kingston and the bay. Unfortunately the weather came in and instead of a view we sat at the Gap Cafe watching the humming birds feed whilst having a cup of Blue Mountain coffee. After winding our way back down the mountain to downtown Kingston, we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the Bob
Marley Museum. They had loads of archive memoribillia, ranging from the triple platimun 'Legend' album to the blender he used to make fruit juice.
That evening the Birthday celebrations continued with Jamaican rum and David's Elvis Karoke dedicated to Karen, being the high points.
David's Saturday ritual of going to Lime Cay wasn't going to stop on our account. What better hangover cure than champagne and lobster on a desert island. Lime Cay is a coral atoll about a 20 minute boat ride from Kingston harbour. Jamaica seems to have a different view of life's essentials here - no toilets but a well stocked wooden beach bar with pumping sound system. The only things to worry about here was where to go snorkelling and keeping the salty sea water out of the rum punch as we bobbed around in the warm tropical waters.
The following morning the 3 of us set out early for our trip around Jamaica. We took the scenic route to Negril, on the western tip of the island, stopping off to see manatees at Alligator Pond (unfortunately no manatees) and Treasure Beach (unfortunately no treasure). In between the two, we stopped for lunch at a fishing
village called Little Ochi where we ate the most extravagant looking lobster meal we had ever seen.
After checking into our hotel in Negril we went straight to Rik's Cafe for a beer to watch the sunset and the cliff diving. We spent about half an hour watching lycra clad, muscle bound locals parade around, before climbing up and diving from trees overhanging the cliffs - about a 70 ft drop!! The following morning was spent at our cliff front hotel recreating the cliff diving display from shorter heights and without the lycra - although Karen could have done with the lycra, bikini bottoms just were not designed for cliff diving! In the afternoon we visited some local craft markets, and had pina colodas on the beach, all the while being hassled to buy "ganja" by the locals.
The next day we headed for Ocho Rios stopping for lunch at "Margaritaville" in Montego Bay. It was a great restaurant overhanging the water, with slides direct from the water onto the sea, and trampoline pontoons to play on. The "Hibiscus Lodge" in Ocho Rios had spectacular gardens and views over the coral seas, where the water was so clear
we could see a huge manta ray from way up on our balcony...sorry - suddenly got very distracted by the radio which is currently playing what can only be described as reggae versions of all the Christmas songs in a bizzare mega-mix that includes the Macarena song!
...Were were we....The next day we went to Dunn's River Falls. A stunning series of cascading waterfalls that takes about an hour to climb and wade through from bottom to top, right through the falls. We got there a bit late as all the cruise ship passengers had already arrived and we ended up traversing the falls sandwiched between super-sized Americans. Later that day we went on an adventure to find White River Valley where you can go tubing through the rapids. After getting various random directions from different people, we found ourselves on a well eroded dirt track in the jungle. Upon wondering whether we should turn back we came across a bizzare oasis from where the tubing was done. David almost had a baby after inquiring about the price, but was later told by friends he should have asked for the local rate which was about a third of the quoted
price. We kept pursuing the dirt track, which was only getting progressively worse, when we came to a beautifully arched bridge that wouldn't look out of place in the English countryside. We're not sure why it's called White River Valley as the water is a radioactive turquoise colour. A fantastic day was topped off by a sumptuous meal at an Italian restaurant called "Evitas". The walls were packed with photographic evidnce of celebrities who had eaten there, and the food was so good Mark wondered if it was rude to lick the plate.
The next day was pretty much the end of our little trip except for the drive back to Kingston through the winding mountain roads. Some of the rainforest scenery was spectacular as well as the hilltop views over Kingston and the surrounding bays.
The rest of our time in Jamaica was spent relaxing by the pool and playing golf. The Saturday Lime Cay was repeated and Karen got home to find an Elvis night on cable...back to back Elvis films for 24 hours! A near perfect day (for her anyway)
We are both really grateful to David for showing us an amazing time here and are now
in the process of packing for the flight to Mexico tomorrow. We are leaving very happy, tanned (well more an off beige really), a few pounds heavier and with slightly damaged livers having drunk enough rum to put a pirate to shame!!!
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ali
non-member comment
wow
G'day sheila and Bruce! Looks amazing, still in shock because this is far too organised for you Kazza! Needless to say it looks like the weather is similiar to here and we are all abusing our livers as well- same same really! Miss you xxxxxx