Day 3 - Montego Bay, Jamaica

Ahhhh, Jamaica!

We awoke this morning, ate breakfast and ventured off the ship into Jamaica.

Now Jamaica's a tropical island, right? You think beautiful beaches, touristy shops, etc.

Not.

When we disembarked the ship, you head right into the terminal which was not pretty. It was one giant room with concrete floors and a few small gift shops around. There are tall fences around everything and the few shops that are right by the port terminal are in grass huts and they *do*have armed guards standing right in front of them.

I had done some advance research and decided to take a taxi to Sunset Beach, a private resort with beach that sells day passes which includes unlimited food, drinks and the use of their beach and water sports equipment. Tim & I had both heard stories about Jamaica, that they openly try to sell you drugs, that there are armed guards everywhere, to only take certain taxis, etc. But hey, we were brave souls, so off we went. We had a taxi driver take us the 3-4 minute drive to Sunset Beach. On the way, he explained that he was "assigned" to us for the day. We would let him know when we wanted to be picked up and he would be there. We had to be back onboard the ship at 5:00 p.m. so we said to pick us up at 3:00 p.m. We thought that would give us plenty of time to do some shopping before we left.

He also said that we would turn over our Sail & Sign cards to the front desk clerk and they would be there for us to pick up at the entry gate at the end of the day. We turned over our cards, paid our fee and spent the day at Sunset Beach. We picked a spot underneath a shady tree, read our books, swam in the pool, and walked on the beach. We used their paddleboats and kayaks and had a good time. It rained twice while we were there for about 10 minutes each time.














At 3:00 p.m., we headed up to the entry gate to pick up our cards. There had been many other people from our ship there that day, too, and several were leaving at the same time we were. We got to the gate and saw our taxi driver on the other side waving at us. The guy at the gate flipped through a bunch of envelopes as he looked for our Sail and Sign cards. And looked. And looked.

Meanwhile, those other ship passengers are walking by us saying, "They can't find your cards?" with VERY sympathetic looks because they understood. That card is your lifeline. You've gotta have it to get back on the ship and they CAN'T FIND OURS. Dear God, we were going to be stuck on an island full of drugs and armed guards as we watch the ship sail away.

Our very patient taxi driver was *still* waiting for us. He can't believe they can't find our cards. Neither can we. They gatekeeper guy walked us back up to the lobby area and made the clerk there look everywhere. She swore she didn't have them, he swore he didn't have them. He also told me that in the nine years he's worked there, they've never lost anyone's cards. That's wonderful, I was just sorry it was ours that had to be the first time.

After 45 minutes of looking, they finally found our cards. On the floor. Tim and I were so relieved and very happy that our driver had waited for us. He drove us back to the terminal and got a large tip for his trouble. Needless to say, there was no time left to shop and we just wanted to get the heck out of Jamaica at that point.

Jamaica is mountainous as they grow coffee there and it really is a beautiful island. From a distance. Here are pictures as we sailed away. We were headed for bigger and better things in Grand Cayman!
Towel animal of the day: