Jamaica - Day 5

Our fifth day in Jamaica was a long one - a full day in Ocho Rios. We had breakfast early and then met up with our excursion group in the lobby of the hotel. It was a long drive to Ocho Rios, about an hour and a half away, but our wonderful tour guide, Nicola, filled up that time with all kinds of fascinating information about Jamaica. We learned about its recent history, the government, businesses, homes, daily life in Jamaica, the education system, etc,. and she even taught us a few phrases in Patwah, the Spanish/French/English/Creole mix that they speak on Jamaica.
About half way to Ocho Rios we stopped at a roadside stop to use the bathrooms and sample some of the local food. The weather was perfect and David and I both marveled at how much jungle there is in Jamaica!

David is going native - ya, mon!

Our morning was spent at Dunn's River Falls and I have absolutely ZERO pictures of our time there because of their stupid "no cameras" policy. It was stunningly beautiful though I would have loved to see it in ancient times before all the man-made stuff marred some of its natural beauty. We started at the beach and then hiked our way up over 900 feet of falls. The guides had us hold hands, making a long chain, which at times made it more difficult to climb, I think. But in some ways it was good because there was an older lady that David kinda took responsibility for and she would never have made it up without his help. The water was cold but we quickly got used to it. I tried not to laugh as this somewhat larger woman was trying to chase down her young son and full on biffed it face first into the water. It was pretty hilarious! My favorite spot was the lover's plunge where David and I got to kiss and then fall backwards into the water. Yipes! That was definitely refreshing, ha ha! There were a few times I slipped, which freaked me out a bit, and the spiders hanging all over the place were huge, but honestly it was so exhilarating! David and I can't wait to go back some day.

After the falls we headed 5 minutes up the road to our afternoon stop - Mystic Mountain.

David was cracking me up with his intentionally pointed toes!

We headed up the mountain on the Sky Explorer. My nerves were racing a bit at the beginning, especially when we had a few long stops...

but the view was breathtaking!!!

We took a ride on the Bobsled roller coaster!

David was in charge and got us going really fast!

Next we had lunch at their little restaurant overlooking the beach far, far below. It was my first time eating jerk chicken - can I just say totally yummy???

I loved the little bobsled condiment holder.

While waiting for the zip line, I wandered around the shops and read some information about the famous Jamaican Olympic bobsled team.

I am READY for some zip line action!!

I had never been zip lining before but we had three awesome guides, Michael, Shawn, and one other who's name I've forgotten, who made the experience such a great adventure. The whole group, about 8 of us, all got outfitted and then headed down an old wooden staircase to the first zip line.

And there he goes!

And here he comes!

I was a little nervous at first but, as I mentioned earlier, these guides were hilarious and made it so fun and easy. And it truly was a blast to zip line through the jungle.

All was going really great...until we got to the drop! As one can see from the next two pictures, the guides strapped a person in, the person had to step out into midair in a sitting pose, and then using the rope the guides would drop that individual to the ground, about 35 feet below. There was one girl in our group that had been talked into doing the zip line by her boyfriend who obviously was not a very good boyfriend because she was deathly terrified of heights and had been hyperventilating almost the entire time we were zip lining. The guides had her go first and lowered her ever so slowly to the bottom; they were super sweet with her and we all cheered when she made it to the ground. The rest of the group...well, they just plain out dropped each of us at lightning speeds!

David reaching the bottom.

I was the last of our group to go and apparently my trickster guides thought it would be funny to try and scare the pants off of me. It took a lot for me to step out into midair...I was terrified! I started to drop really fast and then for some reason I stopped just as quickly. The guide below started yelling really loud, "Oh, my gosh!! Oh, my gosh!" and the guide above me was yelling, "Oh, no! Hang on! Hang on!" They were both yelling and freaking out and running around and all I could do was hang there with my eyes squeezed shut, praying that they were just joking around with me. I was so scared I couldn't even scream; I just kept my eyes closed and hung on for dear life! Finally they dropped me super fast and my heart jumped into my throat. Everyone started laughing when I got to the ground, especially David. Isn't he sweet? I was shaking so bad and laughing a little and told them how rotten they were and that they could have given me a heart attack! I could hardly get my legs to walk me across the swinging bridge to the last zip line. Even though they did that to me, those guides were awesome and I really wish I had taken a picture of them. They were the best and I'll never forget my first zip lining adventure!

Making sure we got our Day 5 selfie!

On our way back down the Sky Explorer there were a ton of vultures flying above us. I was hoping it wasn't some poor chap that had fallen off the sky lift.

At the bottom we had to wait for a little while for another couple in our group to come down so we wandered, taking pictures and soaking up the local atmosphere. I definitely had to grab a couple shots of the ginormous spiders!

A cute little Jamaican lizard.

And such beautiful flowers!!

A local seller gave David some sour-sop (who knows how to spell it), a local fruit, to try. David said the juice was delicious.

On the drive home our guide pointed out Runaway Bay, where the Spanish fled Jamaica when the British showed up. We also got to see Discovery Bay where Christopher Columbus landed on his 2nd voyage:

Our guide also showed us this little river which is where Christopher Columbus found fresh water. The old stone bridge was built by slaves back in the 18th century!

Our excursion wrapped up with a quick stop for gas and a little touristy shopping which included David sampling the local Jamaican rum - he got the rum rubbed on his hands to cleanse them before our guide pulled some splinters out. Stinky stuff!
Such a beautiful sunset to finish off such an awesome day!