Day 6 - Thursday December 19, 2013:

I had booked a second excursion for today.  It was to leave the hotel by 9:30 am, but didn’t end up leaving till close to 10.  This one is called the “Martha Brae River Rafting” adventure.  We left the hotel and proceeded through the city of Montego Bay in a van, up through the mountain communities, and eventually, out of town.  I knew we were going a fair way since the Martha Brae River is really a mountain stream that starts high up in the mountains and empties out into the Caribbean Sea.  I’d guess it was a 50 – 60 km trip one-way.  We were also taken on a mini-tour of a nearby Jamaican herb garden because Jamaicans are very health-conscious people.  After our river raft tour, we were scheduled to go on a tour of the nearby small city of Falmouth, a Jamaican city of about 10,000 or so.  It’s a port designed for the very largest cruise ships that sail on the Caribbean that can’t dock anywhere else in Jamaica.  And, we got to see how the native Jamaicans live, something we wouldn’t have seen in the resort.

The river raft tour was something else.  I’ve never been on a bamboo raft, guided by a native Jamaican man, all by myself.  Other people on other rafts at the same time, were also going down this long, but narrow fresh water river, spaced apart.  At some point, two or three rafts all came together and I thought there would be a collision.  Not so.  These river guides sure know what they’re doing!  Except for certain high-water months, they are doing this a majority of the year, so they are very good at it.  It turned out to be a very relaxing and comfortable time.  I had never done anything like this before in my life; from now on, when I think of river rafting, I will always remember my wonderful experience on the Martha Brae River.

After the river raft tour and our subsequent tour of the city of Falmouth, we headed back to Montego Bay (I thought).  Instead, we stopped at a rest stop that consisted of an informal restaurant-bar and a gift shop.  We were told to have lunch there and go shopping if we wanted to and our driver-tour guide would come back for us.  He had to go back to pick up some other people from the “Jamaican Swamp Safari” excursion.  Thus, there were four of us stranded together – a really nice middle-aged Swedish mother and her teenaged daughter and adult son.  They were visiting Jamaica from Stockholm, Sweden.  I had to actually borrow money from the mother (Cecilia) so that I could eat lunch with them because I had not brought enough money with me for this purpose.  I had not anticipated lunch on this trip – so much for budgeting for an excursion.  I did buy a nifty multi-coloured muscle shirt for Brent, a rather flashy T-shirt for James and a cute little blue bead necklace for myself.  But, after I had tipped my raft guide on the river tour, I had no money left over.  The vendors you meet in Jamaica usually deal with cash – US dollars mostly and, of course, Jamaican dollars.  The ratio of Jamaican dollars to US dollars is about 10 to one (10 Jamaican dollars for every US dollar).  So, you can always spend US dollars there and Jamaican dollars, as well, but when you leave this country, only US dollars can still be used.

By the time we arrived back in Montego Bay at the resort, it was already 4:00 pm.  I’d missed my departure time for the Dreamer Catamaran Cruise for the second time in a row!  So, I was really hoping I could rebook it again, this time for the following morning, at about 9:30 am.  This time, I could not miss it.  This tour was really nice.  The driver took a bunch of us from our hotel – an American family and me – to the launch point of the four catamarans.  Ours was called “Day Dreamer” and it was white and yellow and big enough to hold up to 30 people.  There were only about 15 of us altogether on this trip, so we knew there’d be lots of room.  The tour included sailing along the coastline of Montego Bay, stopping at a designated place to do some snorkelling (which I’ve never done before) and then stopping at the seaside town of Margaritaville for a light lunch and/or a drink.  You could also slide down this very steep waterslide if you had the nerve.  It emptied you into the sea, but I chose not to participate.  The others I was with told me that, when they tried it, it shot them out like a cannon into the sea and was very hair-raising for that reason.  This tour took a total of about four hours, from 9:30 till about 1:30.  I think it might’ve gone a bit overtime.  I liked this particular excursion a lot since I’ve never been on a catamaran.  It’s a very large sailboat and sometimes it takes a while to get your “sea-legs” on a choppy sea – it did for me today.  The Caribbean Sea is very clean and clear and there are some interesting looking fish in it and, of course, the coral reefs.  I would love to do some more snorkelling the next time I visit Jamaica!

Last, but not least, I took a full body massage at about 3:00 pm for forty-five minutes at the Health Spa.  Donna did my massage.  She used hot oil and spread it over my body, first on my back and legs then I flipped over and she did the front of my body.  It was a very soothing and relaxing experience – something I definitely should do more of in the future.  I need to start looking after my health better since I am getting older and the only way to slow down the aging process is to take better care of yourself – body, mind and soul.  Being in Jamaica for this week has been a truly rejuvenating and adventurous time for me!

We will have to book our seats on the return flight home.  We can only do this 24 hours in advance of the flight, which leaves at 8:15 pm tomorrow night.  So, Dave and Brent are going to book our seats in the Internet café off the main lobby tonight.