I first want to say I almost quit writing after reading about the murder of that Ontario woman, makes me sick reading those stories time after time.
Our Blue Lagoon day turned out to be a perfect day, although it never had much to do with the lagoon. Upon our arrival in the parking lot we were approached by a few guys, we were looking for a certain individual which we found, although I won't mention his name or recommend him as he wasn't much more than a money collector. I told him we hoped to rent a kayak and go out on our own. He replied that there were no kayaks to rent there, only boat rides or bamboo rafts. I asked him how much and he quotes me 80US for rafting. I laughed and told him I'm not paying that much for a ride of any kind. So then we could be taken out on a boat for 60. Once again, that's more than I will spend. Eventually we settled on 40, all the while not really being sure what that will get us. So we walk up the rest of the way past a few vendors (who ignored us), and the first thing I see at the "dock" is a blue kayak, and a guy sitting there with an oar. I was a little pissed but decided I never felt like putting on a scene. Rasta talks to another guy (who actually owns and operates the boat we will use), we jump in with our stuff. At least its just wife and I, and the captain was actually pretty good, he putted along slowly and seemed to have a pretty good knowledge of all the buildings and villas along the shore towards San San beach, and beyond. After about cruising around we were dropped at Monkey Island with an agreement to pick us up in about 90 minutes. There's not much room there as its just a tiny spot of dry sand, but close to shore its very shallow so you can plop yourself in and relax, which we did. After getting overheated in the glaring sun we donned our snorkel gear and headed out towards the reef off san san beach. The first part was a little scary, its very shallow and the sea floor is littered with urchins. I found myself sucking in a few times trying not to drag my gut over the spiny balls of pain. As the water got deeper is was nicer. The water at the reef is really deep in some spots, a guy could scuba there. Saw lots of fish, nothing too exciting though. Eventually we made our way back, once again making doing the spiny urchin gauntlet. After we packed up our snorkel gear another boat pulled up, 2 men, 2 women, whities, and a Jamaican. Didn't take long before we were all sitting around in a little group and we were long lost best friends. The 2 couples lived in Washington DC. They were staying at a villa near PA and the Jamaican was their chef for their week at the villa (and tour guide). We had actually seen them at Reach Falls the day before (I recognised the Jamaican easily with his blond Mohawk) but never talked to them. We had a great time yapping away, and we made plans to meet up later that night at Anna Banana, where there was a band playing (new years). Around the time we ran out of drinks our boat returned (different one, but rasta was in it looking for us). We did another slow putt putt back to the lagoon, did a long loop around it. We were offered the chance to jump in but I passed, it was a bit cold and I had just dried off. We paid our 40, no tip for the first time this trip, and walked back to the car, where another guy proudly came up to me to let me know how he guarded my car and that I could pay him. Well he got 100J, didn't ask if that was enough LOL.
As for the blue lagoon, its nice but I wouldn't go back, there's really nothing to see. The old bar and restaurant is falling down, wrecked from a hurricane. Sounds like it is supposed to be restored but we all know how that goes in Jamaica. The highlight was meeting our new friends, Adrien, Bryan,(Americans), Regina, Heinz (Austrians living in US), and Timothy, the chef who apparently cooked for Tom Cruise (could be BS, who knows).
That evening we met up with all of them at Anna Bananas and shared some fun together. Adrian and Regina were plenty inebriated and had no problem taking over the drums at one point. By 200 AM I was getting pretty tired and be made our way home to hotel. There was a huge party going on in the town square but I had had enough fun for the day. Getting up at 9 the next morning was a lot less fun.
