May 26 - Jamaica

All the way up until 5 minutes prior to our departure, I was undecided about whether to go or not. Part of me wanted nothing more than to laze around in the Sanctuary again. And my sinuses were killing me. I had a little snot production factory going and no medication could shut it down. It was (and still is) disgusting. But finally, I decided that I had already paid for the excursion. And it would be fun going with Sam. We would have that memory forever. So I pushed myself and off we went.

We exited the ship directly onto the pier and walked up a little hill to where all of the tour buses were. We found our guide who pointed us to the correct bus. On the same bus were two friends that Sam had been hanging out with. (I think they are actually a good bit older than Sam, but they refused to say their age when he asked.) One of the two girls is, I think, quite enamored with Sam. He is clearly not interested in her and is lukewarm towards her. But Sam’s lukewarm is still warm and many girls have been fooled into thinking he was really into them. I always want to warn them, but I keep my mouth shut. His love life is his business and his business alone. His heart is back home, I believe.

Our bus set off and headed towards some caves that we were scheduled to explore. The caves were not nearly as cave-ish as we expected. In fact, at one point they were privately owned and the front portion of the cave was used as a disco club. At one point, we walked down 65 steps to look at an underground lake. I almost died coming back up those 65 steps. I had to stop at the top, heaving for oxygen. I was so hot that I had to take my shirt off. (I had my bathing suit on underneath.) Yikes! I am really out of shape. We had to crawl on our hands and knees to get out of the cave. Had I known that, I would never have gone in! But crawl, I did!!!

Our next stop was the famous Dunn’s River Falls. This spectacular waterfall drops down at multiple angles until it meets the ocean. Several years ago, I visited Dunn’s River Falls with my Mother. But we traveled over by catamaran and it deposited us on the beach where the climb begins. This time, our van driver actually deposited us at the top of the falls at the park entrance. Sam had always planned to climb the Falls, but I was undecided. But that 65 stair climb had convinced me that I had better skip the climb up the Falls. Luckily, there is a path that goes up the hill just beside the Falls. So I got to watch Sam and his group climb the Falls. Unfortunately for me, it began to rain during the climb and I got SOAKED from head to toe. I was really hating that and was complaining bitterly. But then a moment happened. I was leaning against a fence and the rain was falling on me and I leaned my head back and just existed – in that moment. I smiled so big. I am in Jamaica, in my bathing suit, with a warm rain falling on me. This was one of those “far-away-from-home” moments. So beautiful. It only lasted for a moment and although I tried, I couldn’t get it back.

After we returned to the ship, Sam took off again to find a place where he could have a Red Stripe beer and some jerk chicken. I went to take a nap. I was so tuckered out from the outing that I stayed in the bed until the next morning.