Day 1
Things went great yesterday. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and the priority lineups were very short. The flight from Toronto seemed to go by quickly, I never watched much tv, just a couple episodes of 2 broke girls. One thing worth mentioning though, the landing at mbj was by far the hardest I have ever experienced in a airplane, it wasn't expected so it was more of a shock than scary. But we made it.
I had decided to purchase the Club Mobay arrival package, but my wife had no knowledge of it (that there even was such a thing). We get off the plane and start walking, it wasn't long before we get to where there are 3 beautiful Jamaican ladies holding up little signs. I pointed them out to wife but she didn't clue in right away. Then she saw our names and was a little confused at first, then excited. It turned out the lineups were not very long going thru the airport so we probably only saved half an hour, but we ended up hanging in the lounge to enjoy the free liquor and food (which pretty much meant we blew our time savings lol). The servers in the lounge were so friendly it was hard to leave, we even had a couple take out rum punches to carry with us when we finally left. We negotiated a cab ride and we we off to the Ridgway guest house, really a place walking distance from the airport. They were expecting us and we quickly had a room, a/c in full effect. After a quick cleanup we had our walking shoes (sandals) on and we were off. We left the hotel about 3 pm in the direction of the hip strip. It was a very fun afternoon being able to check out mobay like that, I have spent very little time there in the past. Had a feast of jerk chicken and pork at the pork pit. Wasn't cheap but it was very good, ended up ordering a second round of pork. We were down on one of the beaches when a local came up and started talking to us. He explained how we should walk in a certain direction that will take us to the area where most tourists would never go. Well of course we checked it out and it was a eye opener. I don't know what the area is called but one main street was Market street, and a market it was. For 2 hours we never saw another person with white skin, we wandered thru the masses of people enjoying the sights and smells. In one spot there was a huge Christmas tree, had to be 40 feet tall, lit up beautifully. Unfortunately I decided to leave both my phone and camera in the room as I hadn't planned to taking any pictures, big mistake. Well after dark we decided to start making our way back to the hotel. Naturally we stopped for drinks along the way, including Margaritaville. Had a few very delicious daiquiris (and $$$). A couple more stops as we stopped, one place called Fishbones, they had a sign that looked very similar to a tattoo I have so I wanted to stop there.
We walked by Glorianna hotel, a place we had originally booked then cancelled after reading some very negative reviews. Man, that was a good decision. There is a small barber shop attached and there were a large group of locals hanging nearby, music screaming from one of the vehicles. It was one of the few times in the day I was asked the usual questions (weed, coke??) So this mornings we are enjoying coffee on our private deck. Going to go get some breakfast then hopefully our car rental guy shows at 11 as arranged. Then we are off to Port Antonio. Stay tuned....
