Jamaica Day 4 : Chukka Kayaking & Ziplining | Samsara Dinners

We've been waking up each day here at an alarmingly early time... somewhere between 6 and 7 am local time. I don't know if it's the change in atmosphere or what, but Jamaica's only one hour behind Ohio, and yet we're still wide awake before half the place is even open. No complaints, though; it's never misery to wake up to white sand and an ocean at your fingertips!

good morning, negril!

After breakfast, we joined Cassie and Shayne for the trip out to Chukka [which means Play] for a day of ziplining and kayaking. This is another one that is best explained in pictures..

here we go! [beginning of the day = clean & nice hair, hahh]

neighbors

pitstop on the way

We finally arrived at Chukka!

chukka - "play"

cassie & Shayne

my love!

Once we suited up, it was a short kayak out to the zipline course, and from there, it was all airtime!

tree-mounted platform

cassie

Shayne

rob

the gills

love him!

After the zipline course, we hopped back in the kayaks and headed on down the river for some more beautiful scenery and of course, chukka!  

♥ ♥ ♥

We stopped off for some rope swinging & plant observing, as well :)

cori. rob. shayne. cassie.

And finally, we circled back to the launch and grabbed some jerk chicken to go [Jamaican fast food ;), hahh]

onsite chef

Whew! Time to head back...

awesome day with this guy :)

Back at Legends, we rendezvoused with the newlyweds for a bit, then all dispersed to our rooms to shower and change for dinner at Samsara. The six of us enjoyed an outdoor dinner and bar service at the cliffside sister resort before coming back to Legends. Unfortunately, something on the menu did not sit well with Rob, and he was room-bound for the last part of the evening.

babe!

cincinnati girls!

ohio hangin' out in jamaica!

with these beauties - tara & cassie

 

This is of course a back-dated entry, because here in Jamaica, on the beach at least, the parties don't end until around... 5am.

Tonight was the night that most of the people we've seen since CVG here with us decided to really party and see what the Negril beach nightlife is all about. We started at Legends..

oh boy..

it's a party with the staff!

next door on the beach @ bourbon bar | negril, jamaica

 And then.. well, allow me to introduce: Bourban Bar.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day here. I have to say I'm pretty proud of us for making the most of this week; we haven't really rushed anything and we didn't over-plan ourselves. Tomorrow, we along with the other two couples will be heading out on a glass bottom boat tour to one of the mini islands for some snorkeling and lunch. It's another early riser!

G'Nite, Mon!

xo | cmd

Jamaica Day 2 : Local Shopping & Rick's Café

jamaican dollars

So, here in Jamaica, the exchange rate from US $ to JA $ is a ratio of about $93 JAD to every $1 USD. On our initial arrival on Sunday, we converted $200 USD at the airport cambio, and received something like $18,700something JAD in return. That's right... $18thousand something. We joined a long line of people raising an eyebrow when the exchange rates were calculated and the Jamaican dollars were handed out.

Today, Rob and I checked out the Time Square Mall, the duty-free shopping plaza directly across the street from Legends. It was there that we did some of our obligatory perusing of local gods at local, duty-free prices for souvenirs and gifts. We laughed when we found ourselves at the first register, and the cashier tells me I owe her something like $2,000 something for a few things. I'm sure we weren't the only ones to set foot in Jamaica saying, "Yeah, can you imagine if that were in US$?"


time square mall | negril, jamaica

merchant artists at time square!

beach artisans

snorkeler!

Once we'd checked off the names on our souvenir list [& snagged a few things for ourselves, let's be honest... haha], we headed back across the street, dropped everything off, and headed right back downstairs to test out one of our spoils, a snorkeling mask for Rob. It was a perfect day for some swimming, beach lounging and relaxing before we really get into the swing of things tomorrow.

We met up with Tara and Jordan for a little while, all trying to decide exactly what we were planning to do in the arena of off-resort excursions over the next couple of days. Cassie and Shayne had gone today on their first excursion, horseback riding through parts of the mountain and ocean terrains; I was really looking forward to hearing how their trip went. In the meantime, Rob and I went ahead and signed up for a trip to Mayfield Falls tomorrow, and the kayaking/ziplining outing on Thursday that would wind up being with Cassie and Shayne. Tara and Jordan seemed like they both had a solid idea of what they'd like to do as well, so we split off in our pairs to wrap up plans, get ready and grab a cab ride up to Rick's.

tara. jordan. cori. rob.
rick's café | negril, Jamaica

♥ this guy

l - o - v - e!

Kingsley, our cab driver, was what I would describe as the embodiment of a friendly Jamaican local. He explained a lot to us about the traditions and inner workings of the Rick's Café cliff jumpers, the boats in the surrounding harbor and even a little backstory on his life growing up in Jamaica. Rick's is known for its cliffs, but more than that, the locals who make a show for visitors of leaping from the highest perch, which is a mere 80ish feet above the water.

rick's café - bar/restaurant side

just a little cliff-side yoga, pre-dive... ;)

We wanted to see someone jump from the high peak.

But first, to conquer the 45-footer that I'd promised myself and the rest of our group that I would...

Woo! It's been a veeery long time since I bridge jumped, cave jumped or cliff jumped; yesterday at Samsara was a nice little re-introduction to leaping off land into water, so by the time I shed my outer layers and stepped up onto the platform, I knew there was no backing out. [Kalyn, for the record, this is the part when I really wished you were here, hahh!]

Anyway, the adrenaline from jumping was still in my hands as a tried to steady them enough to take video footage of a local making his way up to the high platform for a jump. Below him, a handful of other locals swam out to the landing spot to form a circle in the water.

more impressive stunts!

Rick's is also supposedly known for the sunsets. Unfortunately for us, it's so far been mildly overcast for the couple of days we've been here so far, but we did catch the sun sliding down behind the clouds, even if it wasn't one of the painted skies we heard about from many of the locals.

day's end in negril!

Once the sun went down, we decided to try out the café part of Rick's Café.

world famous!

The food was decent, though a bit more expensive than we perhaps would've ranked it, but worth it for the overall experience. A live reggae band carried us all through dinner, and after we ate and explored the various edges of Rick's cliffs, we hopped back in the cab with Kingsley for the ride home.

perfect tuesday with this guy (:

Our first excursion is tomorrow! Here we go! 

xo | cmd

Jamaica Day 1 : Samsara Resort!

Today. Was. Awesome :)

We woke up to the sounds of the morning ocean tide and a few people already out enjoying the water. We dressed for the day, walked out our door, down the stairs and into the restaurant, where both of the other couples we met yesterday were stirring and getting ready to go for the day as well.

The shuttle came to pick us up around 10am. We, along with Cassie & Shayne and Tara & Jordan rode with a few other people from Legends to Samsara Resort, which was just a 10-minute drive from Legends.

samsara!

We arrived there, unloaded and immediately made ourselves at home along the cliff side. Well, mini cliffs, really... but still, cliffs.

baby cliffs

And that meant... CLIFF JUMPING! :D
Another couple, Nate & Audrianna, from Pittsburgh were along for the day as well, and the group of us made a great time out of cliffs.

rob taking a dive

^ The boys!

and in i go!

^ Taking a little run off the cliff
We didn't have time today, but it's going on my list of things to possibly explore in the event we revisit Negril - The Dive Shop!

my love ♥

monday funday at samsara with our new friends!

The day at Samsara wound down, and soon we were back at Legends, for a late afternoon meeting with our travel agency representative. She proved to be immensely helpful in explaining our different excursion options through the resort and agency, and we all left with some solid ideas of what we wanted to do for the week.

Tomorrow, we're planning to check out some local scenery, and possibly Rick's Café, which is apparently rated one of the best bars in the world. Cassie & Shayne will be out horseback riding; we've made plans so far with Tara & Jordan to make a dinner trip to Rick's. We learned from some of the locals today that there is a cliff worth jumping there at Rick's, and I have every intention of giving that a shot, too. :)

For now, it's another Bob Marley from the bar for me, please!

Yah Mon!

xo | cmd

Omigosh, JAMAICA!

Hello there... from JAMAICA!

Yeeeup! I can't believe it either, but Rob and I are finally here, in Negril. There's already so much to share; I'm not sure where to start, but I suppose waking up at 3am for Kalyn to drive us to the airport is as good as any ;) .. [thank you again, Kalyn!!!]

early morning salutes from cvg

It's been a while since my last real vacation. What's even better is that this is Rob's first trip out of the country! With passports and itinerary in hand, we processed through the airport check-in and security, eventually boarded our flight, and off....we were on our way!

vaca, here we come!!

Fun fact about flying to Jamaica: It takes less time to fly directly from Cincinnati, OH to Montego Bay, Jamaica than it does to drive from Cincinnati to St. Louis. Yeah. Just under 3.5 hours passed by from take-off to landing, and we had made it to Jamaica!

Our first order of business was converting some of our American money into Jamaican dollars. This was highly recommended to us by the travel reps and of course the airport staff; really, I think next time it won't be necessary to convert as much... but I'm sure this is one of the many lessons we'll learn this week. Anyway, after a brief pass through the cambio and customs, we stepped outside and boarded what we called the bug busses:

bug busses ;)

our first picture in Jamaica!

Off we went, on a beeline route from Montego Bay into the heart of Negril. The countryside started opening up as we pulled away from the airport, giving us a fresh view of what this place really is. Oh, and they drive on the left side of the road in vehicles with right-side steering wheels. Move over, America! ;)

We stopped off at a little beer shack [we later realized these are very common!] to take a quick breather, grab a cold drink and breathe in some of the salt air coming in off the water. Oh, and if you had to pee, there was a shack. I'm all about doing business in the wild, so this is right up my alley. I love this place already! Haha..

hello, Jamaica.

Jamaican roadside convenience store

"rest room"

After we all stretched our legs for a bit, we climbed back on the bus for the remainder of our trip into Negril. After we dropped people off at a few of the other resorts along the route, we reached ours. Legends Beach Resort is our home for the next several days. Hello, home.

legends!

We've already been insanely lucky on this trip, that everything for which we paid and expected has so far been delivered; we have an ocean front room directly above the bar/restaurant, and literally just steps to the white sand of the beach. It's safe to say I'm in love.

It took an hour or so after we arrived at the resort for our rooms to be ready, so the lot of us took to the beach and the bar, making ourselves at home and getting to know the staff as best we could.


Once we'd finally settled into our room, we changed and headed back down to grab a shuttle up to Samsara, Legends' sister resort. Our stay here this week is all-inclusive, which means we can trade our included meals at either of the resorts. So shuttle it was, up to Samsara, which sits atop some small oceanfront cliffs.

samsara

view from the upstairs restaurant

looking down on the outdoor seating

Tonight we got a chance to meet Tara & Jordan, fellow Ohioans who are here on their honeymoon! [Congratulations, again!] I think everyone in Cincinnati remembered seeing Tara there this morning, still in her wedding dress. They're an adorable couple, and as we sat cliff-side with them for a bit after dinner, we agreed that we'll hopefully see more of each other throughout the week.

the newlyweds! jordan & tara

There was some live entertainment to sing us out of Samsara as we headed back onboard the shuttle to Legends. This also seems to be a standard practice around here!

live reggae :)

We're back here at Legends now, and just wrapped up an introductory chat with Cassie & Shayne, another couple from Ohio, about 45 minutes away from us back home. Wcmfe invited them to join us tomorrow for a day at Samsara, and it sounds like they're in, too!

shayne & cassie

 Now we're cozied up in our room, ready to get some rest for whatever adventures lie ahead of us this week.

good night, from legends!!

Here's to a week in paradise!

xo | cmd