January 16, 2007
Reggae Night
Our vacation in Jamaica came and went, but we still talk about it on a daily basis.
This was my first see-nothing do-nothing, vacation and to be honest: it took a while to get used to. We needed some R&R and that is exactly what we got at the Rock House in Negril, Jamaica. Joe prevented me from hiking and biking and all we did was eat (very hard work), swim and lie in the sun. We listened to lots of Reggae and ate plenty of jerk-chicken and jerk-fish.
After 2 days, I did not mind that we didn't venture out as much as we usually do. I noticed that I was still quite insecure about exploring the unknown. After Portugal, where we were robbed at knife-point, I find it hard to carelessly walk around. Since this was our first trip after Portugal, I was surprised by these feelings. Apparently the robbery was more traumatic than I thought. At night we took taxi's instead of walking to the restaurants. No late night beach walks for us.
We stayed at the Rock House; a very small boutique resort. Joe and I lucked out with our hotel room. There are several private, cabins on the cliffs and a few "regular" hotel rooms. We could not afford the fancy cabins and opted for the hotel rooms. This way we could enjoy the richer people/feelings but not spent the money.
After our arrival, we had to wait for several hours before our room was ready. When we finally were escorted to the hotelrooms, we were left behind in a... private cabin. Our first night there, I did not sleep: I was convinced that they had given us the wrong room and we were going to be surprised with a very high bill.
The next morning we went to the receptionist desk and they assured me that we were in the right room. Our cabin was not located on the cliff side, but further away from the sea. Its view was not as nice but still pretty spectacular.
We really lucked out and made sure to enjoy the luxury that surrounded us. The shower was outside which was a great sensation. To shower in the open air, completely private, shampoo your hair when looking at the bright blue sky above you, was amazing.
After 4 night in the Rockhouse we spent 2 nights in another small hotel at the beach. This was a very different atmosphere. The beach is public, so there is a lot more to see and many more hustlers to shake off. At the second hotel, we celebrated Joe's 33rd birthday in an improvised way: with apple cider and 2 pieces of chocolate cake from the hotel bar.
Every morning after sleeping in, we fuelled up on Blue Mountain Coffee. We liked the taste so much that we bought several bags for our friends, family and ourselves. The Jamaican supermarket charged quite some $ for the coffee. We knew it was expensive coffee in the US, but just assumed that it would be cheaper at the bottom of the mountain where the beans grow. Little did we know that the $10 per pound we paid in Jamaica was quadripled in the US. After we came back in New York and we went grocery shopping, we found out that the same coffee is $40 a pound in the US. We could not stop laughing and were stunned that this coffee is that expensive here. Our friend Anne even confirmed this. When she once visited a restaurant in Miami the menu announced that a cup of Blue Mountain Coffee would cost her $15. The perfect deal for a cheap Dutch girl.
Unfortunately our return was not as relaxed as our stay in Jamaica had been. The flight was delayed with 7 hours. And those 7 long hours at a small airport ruined the zen state we were in. On top of that US immigration gave me a hard time when we got home at 4:30 in the morning. The joy of dealing with immigration officers who do not understand the rules themselves and see you as the next best terrorist. Very frustrating to be sitting in a dumpy office at 4:30 at night, being accused of trying to illigally enter the country. When the immigration officer had to admit that I was right and he was wrong he even got crankier with me. Grrrr.
2 days after our return: Kees and Faustine arrived to admire our nice sun tan.
Every day we listen to some reggae music and dream of the Rock House. We will definately go back again.
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Posted by Femke at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)