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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Jamaica Vacation Day 6, Sunday, June 18

Well today certainly was an interesting day!

We were both up really early this morning as Shawn was going to play golf at Tryall Golf Club, which is a private country club just outside of Montego Bay.  We had to hire a driver which was going to pick him up at 7:30 this morning and the golf course is over an hour away.  They are doing construction on the front 9 holes of the course so he was able to play the back 9 twice for a discounted rate.  The only bad thing was that they front 9 holes were along the ocean and would of made for some amazing views!  Shawn definitely loved playing there!

A picture of Shawn with his caddy for the day!







While Shawn was golfing, I had some spa treatments scheduled.  I had a few minutes before my appointment so I walked around the resort and took a few pictures.







The green building in the pictures below is the Oasis Spa at the resort.







Time for relaxation!  I had an aloe vera body wrap scheduled along with a 20-minute scalp massage and a 55-minute reflexology massage.  Oh my were the massages relaxing and put me to sleep because I woke myself up a couple times snoring.  Now the aloe vera body wrap was something else.   And it was a cold, freezing something else!  A lady named Margarette did the aloe vera body wrap.  I had to strip down to my sports bra and undies and sat on a massage bed that had been covered with plastic.  I sat on the edge of the bed and she covered me in cold aloe gel.  She rubbed it all over my arms, neck, shoulders and back and then had me lay down on the bed and she rubbed it on the tops of my legs and feet.  Then she covered me up with the plastic.  I was already starting to shiver so she turned the ceiling fan off and put a blanket on me.  Then she used an aloe with tea and rubbed it all over my face and covered it with cloths.  I had to lay there for what seemed like forever and I was shivering.  I had to keep telling myself to breathe cause I was so cold.  After a while, I was starting to warm up and actually started sweating.  Once the wrap was finished, Margarette came back in and unwrapped me and then wiped all the aloe off.  I put my shorts and tank top back on and then waited for another lady named Shoridene to come and do my massages.  She did the reflexology first on my hands and arms and then on my feet and legs.  This was the first time I have had reflexology and it definitely won't be the last!  Oh my word it was so relaxing!



After my message I went back to the room to gather some stuff and decided to walk down to the blue tent shacks on the beach to look for some souvenirs.  When you leave the resort, you have to sign in with the guard shack at the edge of the resort that you are leaving, and then when you get back, you check back in.  As soon as I checked out, I encountered one of the beach vendors that sells aloe plant leaves.  Well lucky me he wanted to escort me all the way down the beach to the blue tents.  His name was Tim and he was a nice friendly guy.  He said his uncle had a tent and I told him I would take a look.  I bought a picture frame from him, but had to barter and haggle with him, and then I know I was lied to about it.  

I don't remember how many tents there were, but my plan was to walk past all of them and kinda look, then on my way back stop in the ones that interested me.  Well each time you walked past one, they would say "hey honey, hey my lady, hey sweetie, come in and take a look at my stuff, come in and see what I got, etc."  So I told them I would stop in on my way back through.  Well each one of them remember that you say that and they get you in their booth before you know what happened!

I went in one booth to look around and the lady that owned it was named Carole.  I don't even remember how it happened but the next thing I knew, she had one of her aloe plant leaves in her hand and was getting aloe out of it and rubbing it all over my arms, neck, face and legs. I kept telling her I wasn't going to buy one and that she didn't have to do it, but she was insistent on it because of my sunburn.  She just asked me to give her a tip.  I told her I would give her $5 and then she gave me the aloe plant leave.  I had her put it in a bag cause I didn't want Tim the aloe man to know that I bought a stalk especially since I told him I wasn't buying one of his for $20!

I also got offered to smoke the good stuff a couple times and got a marriage proposal on my way back to the resort!

I ended up buying a picture frame, a beach bag, some magnets, got an aloe plant, a flag on a stick, and I think that's it.  They all had the same stuff.  If I had it to do over again, I would of just looked and then bought all of my souvenirs from the airport, or from the vendors that set up on the beach.





When planning this trip, I had learned of this place called the Office of Nature.  It's down by the blue tents.  This man catches lobster from the sea and then cooks them up fresh on his outdoor grill.  Lobster is illegal right now until July, so people say he's serving crab right now.  I don't like seafood and then Shawn didn't want to walk down there so we didn't try it, but I wanted to take a picture of it.


By the time I got back to the room I was exhausted!  That walk is alot farther than it looks, and then packing a bunch of stuff back in addition to my money bag and an umbrella.  And then my foot was killing me.  I'm not sure what I did to my foot, but I jacked it up the day we went snorkeling.  I'm not sure if it was climbing off those steps of the boat, or walking back from the beach to the room barefoot.  But that's about the time it started hurting.  

Shawn had just got back a few minutes before I did, so we both changed into our beach wear and then headed out to lunch and to the beach for the rest of the day! 

Our towel art for the day...


We ate lunch at the Heliconia Grill for lunch that day.  It was against Shawn's will though - he wanted the buffet every day.  Thankfully the buffet wasn't open yet so we ate at the grill.  Their grilled hot dogs on a grilled bun with grilled onions and jalapeno corn salsa was delicious!  I had one quite a few times and that salsa and burnt lips always set me on fire!  Their soups were really good as well!  Today's was vegetable beef and had such a delicious flavor to it!


More beach vendors selling their wares trying to make a living.





My fruit drink of choice this trip was a Virgin Miami Vice - half strawberry daiquiri, half pina colada 


Another beach musician.  I believe his name was Joshua.  He was a really good singer too!


These two came from the nudie beach :O 


I bought two hats to wear in Jamaica and never wore them.  And they went in the trash when we got home because they were victims of the Equal sugar/wet suitcase outcome :(  But I did like wearing this Snapchat pineapple hat!  Hee!


It was starting to be early in the evening and most people were out of the water.  Some people spotted this stingray near the ocean.  I knew that there is a larger stingray that calls Bloody Bay his home, but I don't believe this was him because he was kind of small.  Other than this stingray, I only saw one jelly fish and a small handful of little fish.  I was so thankful that there was no other critters in the water.  And I loved that the water was so clear and the sand so soft, that I didn't wear my water booties all week except for the first day when I realized I didn't need them. 



I know I've mentioned it before, but I loved watching the beach vendors as I lay out in my chair.  I don't know this guy's name, but he was selling ganja.  He was in the same outfit a couple days this week.  He would just walk up and down the beach not really saying anything, but later in the evenings, he was a little more "friendly" holding up bags of rolled joints saying "already rolled smokes".  



For dinner that night we went to the Cassava Terrace which is usually a buffet, but on this night it wasn't.  You ordered off the menu.  They still had the salad bar and dessert bar. 


Shawn tried the oxtail for an appetizer and then had them quite a few times throughout the week.


I had the beef strip loin.


And Shawn had the fresh catch of the day.



Sunday's activities



I think we were both exhausted from the day's activities and sun because as soon as dinner was over, we were both ready for bed and back to the room we went.


Tomorrow is our last full day of vacation and I plan on getting up really early and making the most of being at the beach!  

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