Jamaica

Jamaica was a great time!  Lots of relaxing, snorkeling, reading, and catching up with folks.  Even a fishing trip, where we didn't catch any fish.  The weather was perfect, probably mid-70's and breezy.  Never really got hot.  I spent enough time snorkeling that my waterproof camera got water in it.  Oh well.  

The place we stayed at was amazing.  It was a house that we rented out.  In addition, there was a gardner (who spent most of his time raking seaweed off the beach), 3 cook/housecleaners, and 2 lazy "guard" dogs.  The ladies cooked some amazing stuff for us.  I think my favorite thing they made was grilled red snapper steaks (the fish was big enough to feed 14 people with leftovers), but we also had Caribbean lobster.  Both were caught fresh and brought to our place by the fisherman.  So good...  

I went snorkeling several times a day, right off the beach.  Even off the beach, there was more than I remember seeing in the Bahamas.  Then again, I didn't quite look as hard back then.  We also took a boat ride out to a reef that was full of crazy critters, including an eagle ray!  Really neat.  

Chrissy's uncle Bob is an avid fisherman, and he arranged a deep-sea fishing trip.  Got to see some pretty impressive tackle, but we never actually got a chance to use any of it.  Motored around for 7 hours and didn't have a hit.  None of the local fisherman did either.  No worries though, we did get to see a leatherback turtle out at sea and tons of flying fish.

Also took a trip (after a loooooong bus ride) to a cool waterfall.  Chrissy and her Aunt Kate and uncle Paul all went zip-lining down it.  Looked lots of fun.  Got to see lots of Jamaican countryside, and it's quite a pretty place.  The people seem to be pretty poor and the sanitation is not so good.  I wonder how they feel about tourists...  I guess they probably feel like most locals do about tourists...

It's also quite an expensive place and the money conversion is confusing.  The Jamaican dollar was supposed to be about 80 to 1 US.  So a $1,000 bill in Jamaican is about $12.50 US.  It was a little weird to take out $20,000 out of the ATM.  The taxi drivers seem to use a 100 to 1 conversion.  I'm not sure they did that because it's easier to calculate, or because they think we're stupid, or they think they can get away with it (which they did), or if they just really prefer American money.  In any case, American money works just fine down there, and you get more out of it.  

Came back home to 2 feet of snow and -10 degree weather this morning.  Not so bad though, at least I've got a bit of a tan!

For all the pictures, go here and here.  Here are some highlights:

Stef (L) and Chrissy (R) on the bus ride from the airport.  It's getting harder to tell them apart!

The view from the front porch.

Y.S. Falls.

Chrissy really excited about doing the zip-line down the falls.

Near the end of our unsuccessful fishing trip...

View of the place from the water.

Bar jack.

Peacock flounder.

Evan, Andrea, Stef and Gary snorkeling.

Spotted eagle ray.

Freedom Love.  Right on, mon!

Kentucky represent!  This was on the snorkeling boat.