YOU GUYS I FINALLY MADE IT TO MY 50TH COUNTRY!!!
Good morning, beautiful Falmouth, Jamaica!
50 countries, I just can't believe it. We docked next to the Disney Magic for the day (and yes, they did toot their "When You Wish Upon A Star" horn for us at the end of the day!)
Grant and Nana ate some breakfast together before we took off for our day in Falmouth.
The cruise lines have really built up this area, which is very nice, but not super indicative of how it looks OUTSIDE of the cruise port.
Our excursion for the day was bamboo rafting on the Martha Brae River!
We took a bus about 15 minutes away on "David's Bus" to the Martha Brae River bamboo raft launch. We used the (somewhat scary) restroom - but right outside of the restroom was a small garden. Please do not touch the marijuana.
Let's go rafting, shall we?
When you're in Jamaica, you should have a Red Stripe, which I totally forgot was Jamaican until we got here.
This wasn't the only bar in Jamaica with this sign. "It's our intention to apply for a spirit license for these premises at the spirit licensing authority session which will be held at the Falmouth Court-House in the Parish of Trelawny. Signed: River Raft, LTD." We promise we will apply for a license. Until then, here's some beer.
Finally, David's group was called and we went down to the launch area to board our bamboo rafts.
Nana and Grant went first - look how clear that water is!
Next up was Todd and Natalie!
And then I went by myself ha ha. That was okay though, because I had John, who was super funny and sang to me.
John was also a speedy boat driver (at first)... so we caught up to Todd and Natalie!
Hello up there!
This was a TRULY beautiful river to cruise down. And it was very relaxing! The part of the river that you float down is about 3 miles long that takes a little over an hour to enjoy.
Natalie and Todd's captain was a no nonsense man of facts!
The funniest part of today was when John spotted this and yelled, "Oh no! Titanic!"
Hopefully they'll come back and retrieve that one at some point!
You really felt like you were in the jungle at times... good thing we had on bug spray! Each captain gets assigned a number - and I really like that John was 94 since that was the year I graduated high school.
I kind of liked riding by myself!
Our captains made us all stand up and try to push the boat along.
Go Natalie, go!
Baby girl and her dad, floating down the Martha Brae River in Jamaica.
Next up, Todd got to try paddling down the Martha Brae.
Just an American man, wearing a shirt from Bosnia Herzegovina and a hat from Germany paddling down a river in Jamaica.
The Martha Brae River is relatively shallow (although at points it gets to about 15 feet deep) so it makes it easy for the captains to guide the rafts by steering against the river bed. You can tell that they had not had a lot of rain in the few days prior to our visit because the water was super clear.
Todd liked this picture of me so much that he made it a sticker on his iPhone and sends it to me every now and then, which makes me cringe.
John was fantastic at pointing out the flora and fauna. Here, he pointed out that there was a green lizard on this bamboo plant! We were also told that the bamboo here grows at a rate of about 2-3" per DAY!
But then again, he also pointed out this termite nest up in the trees. Ewww!
John picked some little petunias from the river bank and gave them to Todd to give to me.
Todd took this one of John giving him the flower - while singing a song, of course.
Then I took a picture of Todd giving me the flowers. The song was really the best though... it was all about how I'm a queen and it went on for about 10 minutes. He made Todd and Natalie sing it to me. Talk about uncomfortable!
At one point, we stopped at Tarzan's house... and who is Tarzan? Well that's John, of course!
John picked me a lemon leaf that was something I still dream about. It smelled SO good! Thank you for capturing this so eloquently, Grant.
It was an awesome and relaxing float down the Martha Brae River on the 30 foot bamboo rafts, but we were HUNGRY by the time we finished! And of course, there were some idiots on our bus who wanted to stop for souvenirs outside of the port area in a shopping center with a grocery store and a Sherwin Williams paint store. David, our driver said the cruise lines helped build that shopping center (but there wasn't much there!) So we went back to the port area and got some Jamaican jerk chicken tacos/wraps.
Oh and a Coke Zero, product of Jamaica.
We didn't spend much time at the port area - we did get our typical shot glass/magnet souvenirs before heading back through "customs." You don't need to show your passport here which was unfortunate. I even asked someone in line for security if there was a place I could get my passport stamped and she told me that I needed to be there for 24 hours to get it stamped!
Back on the boat, we toasted to Jamaica with a Red Stripe beer by the pool.
Yep. Hooray for my 50th country! I think Todd still needs two more to catch up to me since I've also been to UAE and Costa Rica. Oh don't worry, he will!
Goodbye Jamaica!
This was essentially our last stop on the cruise as we had two days at sea after this so... goodbye, land!
No one was left at the end of the day (insert sad face here.)
Peace out, Falmouth.
After dinner, we had tickets to the Aqua80 show which was really awesome. The athletes that perform in the show are former NCAA and Olympic divers and it's set to 80s music, which we all loved. The pool here is the deepest pool at sea (obvi) at 18 feet deep!
At one point, people jumped together!
So much fun!
At one point they bring the floor up and everyone is dancing on it! Good thing no one was jumping into the pool now! That's a major responsibility for whoever is controlling that.
Now the pool was back open, so they resumed their jumping. Ugh, he just seems so close, like he's going to hit something on his way down!
Hopefully you brought a rain jacket if you sat in the first row or two!
After the show, we looked around in some of the shops. Grant wanted some cologne but you could only buy duty free if you weren't from America. Boooo.
I think Natalie went out with her ship friends on this particular evening, and Grant just wanted to go hang out with Nana in the room and be on his phone for a bit, so Todd and I went to the casino. They actually had TWO casinos. One of them (this one) was smoke free which was super nice.
Yo, big spender, big loser!
But this casino was MUCH bigger with more games and a bar... but it smelled so smoky!
Alligator found in subway sewer! Or... on the Oasis of the Seas!
Oh m goodness, he's so cute with his little bow tie and hat! What a great way to end the day!
Until next time, Jamaica!
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