Jamaican Honeymoon

Jamaica was as beautiful as we had hoped. We stayed at the Grand Palladium located in Montego Bay. It is a brand new resort located in the northeast corner of Jamaica. We arrived Sunday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday afternoon. Everything was just as amazing as all the pictures we'd seen and the reviews we read online. It was very palatial and larger than life and the staff was really friendly. Any time we asked for anything they would respond, "Ya man" or "no problem". They fit the typical Jamaican stereotype perfectly. Everyone wore bright colors which matched the color scheme of the city buildings and homes. It was especially beautiful to see the wide color variation coming from Phoenix where all the homes are a different shade of brown with rocks in the front yard.

If we had to choose one bad thing about the trip, it was the food. I honestly think they tried their best, but let's face it, third world best is still very much 2nd rate to American products. The ketchup was this radioactive glowing red and heaven knows what was in the Chinese food. Through trial and error we eventually discovered what was edible and what wasn't.

This is a picture of the main pool. It wrapped around the entire facade. Just to capture the enormity I took 3 pics in sequence. This would be "1"

"2"

"3"

Ginny looks tiny on the massive grand staircase. Everything was outside when we arrived, including reception. They had numerous fans circulating the air.

We felt small compared to the large buildings. When we arrived they took us via golfcart to our lodging. It took a little while to walk to and from different activities and sights but it was so nice out that it was worth it.

In case you couldn't tell, everything was massive and spacious.

We went at a good time. There were enough people on vacation there that the place wasn't empty, but few enough to where it wasn't crowded. I think we saw other people in our building once. Here is Ginny standing by a fountain outside our door.

This is a random shot of the countryside in a city called Ocho Rios where we escaped to one day in order to climb the famous Dunn's River Falls. This landscape was typical of Jamaica. Everywhere we went there was lush green landscape.

Ok, normally I don't like showing a ton of skin in our photos but Dunn's River falls was amazing! We drove a few hours east, (we nearly drove to the other side of Jamaica), to experience the falls. We were under the understanding that we were to hike alongside the cascading waterfalls but we soon found out that we literally scaled right up the middle of the falls almost 1000 feet vertically. We started at the base at a nice beach and then worked our way up. We went with about 20 others and scaled together. It seemed kinda dangerous especially when we had to form human chains at some points just to get across but in the end that just added to the experience.

See. Here's proof we made it. On our way out our guide lead us through a barrage of vendors trying to sell us a bunch of stuff. Fortunately our guide prewarned us by telling us how to avoid the vendors. When asked to buy, you are to say, "Me no wanty. Me no wanty". In case we didn't get the implications of the phrase he broke it down for us. Apparently "Me no wanty" means, "I don't want". He made that clarification about three times. Crazy. Who would have guessed.

We had a great time. In some aspects we weren't ready to leave. At the same time we were anxious to get back to the states and start our lives together.