Jamaica Day 5 : Island Hopping | Snorkeling & Lobster Lunches

First item on the agenda: Breakfast.
Second item on the agenda: Glass Bottom Boat Tour!

One of the unofficial excursions available to us was a tour out on one of the many glass bottom boats. It's a fisherman-style boat with glass paneled floors that allow everyone to see the water as it cruises around. We were joined by several people staying at a neighboring resort, who we later learned were visiting from Kingston and Montego Bay, which are a couple hours' drive from Negril. We've basically enjoyed meeting new people here just about every day this week, and today was no different. This island evokes friendliness and a full-on embodiment of the Rastafarian NO WORRIES, MON philosophy. I. LOVE. IT.


wading by the beach

aboard the glass bottom boat

Anyway, we set out on a course to a snorkeling spot, where we all went overboard to check out the fish, shells, plant life and wildly enough, a couple of harmless manta rays. 

jordan. rob. shayne.

Among the many different types of fish and plant life, there were plenty of clams and conch shells, one of which made it from the snorkel trip out to the mini island for cooking.


Lunch on the mini island was a complete overhaul of how I will define fresh food from here on out. The fishermen on the island were ready for us, and had lunch preparation under way as soon as our feet hit the sand. By lunch, I mean lobster. Ocean lobster. 

conch snail

spoils of a fishing trip

fascinated by the puffer!

ocean lobster

  

We watched with the tourist wonder as our guides prepared our lunches over an open pit; to say this was the best lobster I've ever had is a heinous understatement, and will forever scar my ability to accept the menu items from Red Lobster. Wow.

After lunch, there was plenty of time to roam the beach and check out the colonies of tiny hermit crabs, known here as soldier crabs. I'm fascinated with tiny critters, so naturally I followed them around like the paparazzi that I am.

hey, soldier!

love you!

 

The boat ride back was just as refreshing as the trip out, and when we hit the beach of the main island, we opted to walk back instead of take the cab. We took our sweet time trekking back to Legends, where we disbanded for a few hours to do our own things. Cassie and Shayne hit the beach, Tara and Jordan headed back to their room, and Rob and I thought we'd wrap up our last minute shopping at Time Square.

our new friends!

I've had the best naps in my life here in Negril, so it was a no-brainer to take a snooze between shopping and dinner. The flash thunderstorms here [quite Florida-esque] make it all the more enjoyable to kick back on the balcony and be hypnotized by it all.

Dinner was a bittersweet ordeal; we paired up with Tara and Jordan for our last dinner at Legends [for now, that is!] and then parted ways to wrap up packing and last minute details for our departures tomorrow morning.

last night in paradise [for now]

This. Place... is sublime. It's nearly midnight now; we just woke up from a post-dinner nap and the party is ON at Bourbon Bar next door- we're gonna run down and check it out since Rob missed the festivities last night.

Jamaica, we're gonna miss you. Here's to one last night in paradise!

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