Jamaica, land of Red Stripe, hash, bobsleigh's and takin it easy. We flew into Kingston Thurs 26th Jan. Tried to get out as soon as possible. Did 2 complete circles coz people (not me an Brendan) kept telling Hakan to turn left. After an hour and a half, got out of Kingston. Drove to Ocho Rios. 1am, Hostel booked was deserted. In back garden-Giant sattelite dish, small building lying open with upturned furniture and locked inner doors. Extremely stoned gardener lets us in to the actual house (owner didnt get our booking) which has cage accross stairs to the bedrooms upstairs. Looking for keys in the droors we find photo of 2 strange people and what looked like a lifeless old woman. Fairly freaked out we have nowhere else to go so gardener and his similarly stoned friend (called Rasta Man - he insists) take us to get food.
Day 2- We run away and go to Falls, then drive to Negril, passing through Montego Bay. Get offered every drug under the sun by the dealer from each hotel (they all have one). Alan gets told he'll end up in a ditch if he isnt loyal to theirs.
Day 3- Delicious Jamaican food at a local restaurant, great day on the golden white sands of 7 mile beach, drinks and smokes at the apartment. Then fastest sobering up ever as we watch a local motorcyclist die in a collision with a lorry. We do all we can but his body is twisted so severely we cant give him CPR ..... We try to put it out our minds and go out for Alans birthday. We manage to have a great time at a reggae jam at a club.
Day 4- Breakfast of Ackee, Callaloo, wheat bread, coconut, pineapple, plantains, passion fruit an more amazing food at a wee restauran. Cliff jumping at Rick's Cafe in Negril, snorkelling and cave exploration. We find out David is a wave magnet and have a nervy but rush of a time. Then we drive back down South east ish to kingston. We get what was honestly the most mental driving I have ever experienced as we get a lift off the car rental guy from the airport to our hostel. he manages the trip, which on the map looked shouldve been a half hour drive through kingston, in 17 minutes and that includes our 5 mins stop at a cash point. He spent most of his time driving on the wrong side of the road. Brown pants. Quiet night playin pool with red stripe.
Day 5- after breakfast we get in a taxi to take us to the bob marley museum. 6 of us and our bags rammed into a small estate car (hakan in the boot) a policeman approaches and the driver gets out with what looked like his papers. then when the policeman turns away for a sec, our driver walks the other way and doesnt come back and we are left sitting in the car. After a couple of minutes we get out and leave the scene since we dont know what the fuck is goin on. Anyhow, we get another taxi an go to the Bob Marley museum at his house(not the one in trench town but the one he bought in 75 i think, when he had become famous and more wealthy).......
There was lots of other things that happened but those were the main events.
This was our wagon, 12 seats of which 3 were crappy fold out ones, with metal bars in the cushion at the small of your back. Agony to sit on. We flew into Kingston at night and were hoping for something that wouldnt attract attention and looked like what the locals drove. Unfortunately we got a van from the "Rob us, we're a bunch of clueless white tourists" range,with nice big windows an that.
First day we got up and went to Dunnes River Falls. You start off at the beach and then walk up the rocks, back into the forest. Theres about 200 yards of plunge pools and falls. There were local guide guys takin up groups, and they went up the rocks in big chains, but we are men so we went up ourselves and didnt hold hands.
Jamaica is a lot more hilly than I'd thought. There was some great scenery when we were on the road.
Beach fridays - No classes so me, alan, david aubrey and brendan go down to south beach, bit of swimming and am football before it clouded over. This is us on Ocean Drive, the art deco frontages that meet the beach. You cant see it from this angle but the yellow motorbike in front was almost as as 2 bikes coz it had a ridiculous V8 engine.
Friday night and Brendan's girlfriend Sarah came down from North Carolina, for his Bday. We went to Susan's (girl i'm kind of seeing) house party, they have a big garden and a pool, there were 3 live bands and 7 kegs, was a good party. Sarah was really tired and when we got back to mahoney (my halls) she eventually passed out.
She began to attract objects
Days of Thunder, mini style. For Brendan's birthday we went to Boomer's amusement park, a jolly day of racing, mini golf and rollercoaster riding.
On sunday, me and alan went on a scuba dive. This is one of the marinas off of miami beach, the boats are amazing. We went out about 5 miles. Dived a shipwreck and also along one of the reefs. It was beautiful, saw a great barracuda, a big black angel fish, a big yellow needle fish and lots of rainbow, zebra type ones. great day.
One of the Carnival cruise liners leaving port of Miami.
