Day 3: Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Blogging is SUCH an excellent way to procrastinate. I should be organizing my clothes. I should be doing more laundry. I should be cleaning the kitchen. I should be making brownies (actually, that's not such a bad idea...)

But instead... I'm revisiting Jamaica :) And you can come along for the ride!

(Be warned - there are a ton of pictures in this post. I cut it way, WAY down from the number of pictures I took, but still ... how many times do you get to go to Jamaica? I wanted to document it.)

So Monday morning, we woke up, had our room service breakfast, and got ready to go.

This was our first look at the port of Jamaica after exiting the ship:


My baby on the dock :)


So excited to be here!


Our ship - the Carnival Destiny. It was HUGE.


So we hadn't actually booked an excursion on the ship, since Dunn's River Falls (where we wanted to go) is open to everybody. We figured we'd just take a bus or a cab or something and roll with things. We ended up being the only ones on our bus - apparently everybody else on the entire ship had booked with SOMEONE. Or walked. Or something. So our bus driver wasn't thrilled that he only had two customers to drive around. He was even less thrilled when we asked him when he was picking us up. But he did, and I tipped him really well :)

So we got to the Falls. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life.


We took the lazy route, and decided not to hike up the falls. We headed down the stairs and toward the beach, which was beautiful too :)


The bottom of Dunn's River Falls


Oh, so gorgeous. I wish that I had a better relationship with the sun - I would LIVE in the tropics.


So pretty :)


We found a nice shady picnic table, set our stuff down, and did some playing in the water.


Our picnic table :)


I took a turn - and got scared half to DEATH. As I was walking back toward the beach, I stepped on something - a t-shirt, or piece or cardboard, or something, and it wrapped around my foot. I thought I was a goner. Mark just laughed at me a lot.


Beach love :)


Mark buried my feet in the sand.


Boo-yah, he says :)


And then we headed back up the stairs, to try to find an entrance to the falls so we could play in the water. (I also peed in a rather nasty bathroom. And the lady who was sitting outside the bathroom doors wanted a TIP!)


Lots of pictures of the falls ... they were a lot bigger than I was expecting.





A Jamaican guy offered to take our picture - and then asked for some cash. They're all about the tipping, those Jamaicans :)


And then we finally found a way into the water!


It was cold


Some really sweet European girls offered to swap pictures - they'd take ours if we took theirs. Pretty sweet deal. I fell (really UNgracefully too, I might add) and cut my foot trying to get closer to the waterfall - so clumsy. But I do love this picture of us :)


After our adventures in the waterfall were over, our bus driver (chauffeur?) was kind enough to drop us off at Margaritaville, where we ate lunch


It was fun - not the best food I've ever had (not the worst though, either), but we can say we've been there, and it was highly amusing to watch all the drunk people try to do the electric slide.


Back on the ship, after a shower and a nap, I went up on deck to take pictures of us leaving the port.


Bye, bye, Jamaica!


That night, before dinner: Isn't my hubby a stud?


Ready to eat :)