7th February – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

We didn’t crawl out of bed until midday today. We obviously needed a very good nights sleep! We went downstairs for brunch via the spew patterned carpet and then the day consisted of exploring the massive hotel with all the pools and facilities. We lazed away for a while in the sun and then Dan went out snorkeling in the water. He said it was weedy and he had been spoilt in some of the places we had been to and therefore it just wasn’t as good as what he was hoping. Oh well, he didn’t let that stop him. He went for a play on the water trampolines and then we went kayaking for a while in the ocean. Great fun. We spent the afternoon soaking up the sun by the beach. Snorkelling wasn’t too flash, but I found an ID tag and whistle. Do you think I could pass as Leon Gray, Pool Attendant?
We walked along the beach (this property has its own private one) and watched the sun set which was okay but the colours were pretty good. I don’t know if you all think our hotel, Sunset Jamaica Grande, is yellow enough. Work it out for yourselves!!

A nice lazy half day in the sun and we topped up out suntans from Central America. Later that night the hotel had a “Pirates and Wenches” Party. Us, like most people, didn’t dress up however we enjoyed a great dinner on the beach with the entertainment. The most bizarre part of the night was an act of two men with one leg, ironically called “One Pair” each who got up and danced to a song. All we could think of was “freak show”.

6th February – Toronto, Canada – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

With the three hour time difference between Toronto and Vancouver we ended up landing in Toronto just after 7.00am. The flight was fairly turbulent and we kept getting lower and lower and then suddenly there was the tarmac. Not that we could see it, because it and the rest of the airport and the whole of Toronto had been covered in a blanket of snow. No wander so many planes had been cancelled or diverted. We hopped off the plane and cleared through immigration to the International Airport. We stopped for possibly the most unappetizing breakfast that included yellow rubber eggs. Not too tasty. I then stocked up on the some duty free as it was one of the few flights that we would not be transiting through the US for, hence unable to bring much onto the plane in the way of liquid. We then had to hang around the airport for around a further two hours to wait for our connection to Montego Bay in Jamaica. We just sat and watched the snow plows in action trying to remove all of the snow and ice around the airport. We saw 19 snowplows at one time (and we could only see a section of the airport) working overtime to enable the flow of planes to occur. We finally boarded for Jamaica and taxied out along the runways when the pilot advised that we would have to stop at the “De-Icing Station” to have all of the snow and ice melted off the plane. These machines lift up high off the ground with long spray machines that spray the aircraft with warm water (coloured green or orange to show where it has been sprayed) and all of the ice and snow slid off and then we were off. Bring on the warm weather!
Lifting off from Toronto we could see that the whole city was under a blanket of snow. We quickly went into the clouds and that was Canada gone. On our approximately 4 hours and 40 minute flight to Jamaica we passed over a lot of the Caribbean. We could see the Bahamas and its’ capital Nassau.Next, we flew over the top of Cuba. Both looked amazing and the water was clear and turquoise from the air. We finally made it to Jamaica and we flew along the coast. Jamaica was so green, hilly and the water was clear. Alarmingly it had its airport right on the water so we were sitting around 20 metres above the water and still could not see the runway! Never mind, we landed safely and it was warm!!! It took us well over an hour to clear customs. We whizzed through immigration and we were off on our two hour trip to Ocho Rios. The bus left, stopping for beer (as Jamaicans do).We just ended up sleeping for part of the journey being so tired from the red eye flight and long day of travel. It was dark by the time we arrived in the hotel. We had dinner and a drink and crashed early, ready to explore Jamaica tomorrow!