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Destination of the week - Jamaica!!!

Yes this weekend my destination is Jamaica mon!!! Jamaica seems to be the destination of choice amongst my friends this winter so it has brought back fond memories of my week there in early 1984.  I fell in love with the place and swore I'd be back in 7 years. (why 7 years?  don't ask me!)  Did I ever go back?  No.  Why?  I don't know.  Too many other places to visit. Now I hear of crime in Jamaica and most people stay in all inclusives.  I went with two friends and we stayed in a modest hotel across the road from a beach in Montego Bay.  It was the Carlyle Beach hotel opposite..you guessed it..Carlyle Beach.   What a week it was...a week of firsts to be sure...first attempt at the limbo, first time drinking rum punch, first time getting DRUNK on rum punch (but not the last!), first time climbing a waterfall, first time snorkeling (which was a disaster and started with them literally throwing me off the boat as I was absolutely terrified to jump in on my own) first time listening to live reggae...whenever I hear Jimmy Cliff's "Reggae Night" it takes me back.....  Michael Jackson was wildly popular then and his music played nonstop with the children dancing to his music - something I will never forget.  We took a public bus to see Rose Hall  (home of Annie Palmer the white witch who they say roams the hall to this day).  We took a tourist train and visited a rum factory and we bought home made dresses along the way.  We befriended a gecko that lived in our room and called him Jimmy after my friends' brother. (I think we were all a little scared of Jimmy though) We took crazy pictures with our bras on our heads. (the rum did it - honest!)  Drinking the wonderful Blue Mountain coffee at breakfast. (guaranteed to get constipated if you drink that stuff - it was always a race to see who got to the bathroom in our room first after we had a cup of that!)  Stopping to pet little goats - lots of goats in Jamaica - after all they eat goat curry. (I didn't though!) And then there was the beach...the beautiful beach.....I have a feeling Jamaica has changed since our time there..and not for the better...  so I will remember it as it was during that glorious week in 1984.  Enjoy my walk down memory lane...or should I say my shaking my hips to the music dance down memory lane...the pictures have faded a bit with time but still precious to me.

View from Rose Hall

Rose Hall

What a view!  Back of Rose Hall

Carlyle Beach

Dunns River Falls - my knees were good back then but I still didn't enjoy that climb!

Sunset on the beach

So beautiful!


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