Jamaica Part 2

Apart from hanging out and relaxing at the resort, we took two excursions which gave us great opportunities to experience the real Jamaica and the mountainous part of it's landscape. We went on a ziplining tour in the rainforest about half an hour from Ochos Rios that consisted of 9 zip lines! The drive up the mountain was bit daunting as a the 18 passenger bus crawled up the beaten and pot-holey road that I would probably use four wheel drive if i were on it. Our trusty driver, Joe, who also gave us a great tour of the town of Ochos Rios as we went to many hotels to pick people up had everything under control. The zip lines were a lot of fun, and one of them was actually straight down! What?!

The mountains rose quickly into the clouds up from the ocean.

Nicole with her Jamaican Pespi.

The Zipline tour took us through the top of the rainforest canopy.

The Landscape was thick with green plants and exotic trees.

Thick vines completely covered some of the trees.

Red Stripe. The local Brew.

The other excursion that we went on was a bike tour through a coffee plantation in the Blue Mountains. It took about 2 hours for our tour guide, Cleeve, to take us up the windy mountain road going through a couple of coffee towns, past a few waterfalls and dangerously near to two 1000 ft cliffs before we made it to the top where we got on the bikes. On the way down the mountain, we made a few stops so our bike guide, Venny, could show us the process they use to make the famous Blue Mountain coffee, other plants used for various remedies and a huge 150 year old tree that would have been used to make a canoe if had been closer to the water. At the end of our ride, we went to a waterfall that had a pool at the bottom of it that was supposedly a fountain of youth, taking away 10 years from anyone who swam in it. Cleeve told us that he is really 130 years old but after swimming it it 10times, he onlylooks like he is 30 years old. My question is, what happens to a child who is younger than 10 if they swim in it??? On the way back to the resort, they gave us lunch that consisted of Jamaican jerk chicken, rice and vegetables, it was excellent! The tour was a blast and we highly recommend it, but if you are wanting a good biking experience with good bikes, this isn't the tour.

It was a cloudy day, but the mountains were so high and impressive.

Coffee beans being dried by the road.

Nicole and I on our bike tour through the Blue Mountains.

We past several waterfalls on our ride.

The tree was over 150 years old and would have been cut down to make a canoe out of but it survived since it was so far away from the ocean.

Children in one of the small coffee towns in the mountains.

Small house in the coffee town.

Fountain of youth waterfall, it was freezing but we made the plunge!

Our trip to Jamaica was a trip of a lifetime and we had such a good time, we are wanting to go back some time soon. One of the factors that made it so great was the Jamaican people. They are so friendly and and laid-back and have such a positive, happy view of life. One of their sayings is, "Why work at something today, that could wait till tomorrow?" They insist that you use a couple words from their dialect during your stay in Jamaica. These words were, "ya'mon" which means yes (to either a male of a female, they told us repeatedly it was not a sexist word haha) and "Irie" which means great or wonderful. These are probably the two most common words there and they reflect the overall feel of Jamaica. We left on Christmas day and several of the staff were dressed up as Santa or elves and sang Christmas carols (some of the lyrics were right haha) as we departed.

This was taken during their rendition of "Jingle Bells."