12th February – Ocho Rios-YS Falls-Black River, Jamaica

A 6.30am start today. We have a full day ahead of us. First stop on the road was a small town high in the mountains away from the coast. We feasted on freshly cooked corn on the cob. We were amused by the signs on the poles including Chicken Punchie Don and the Crew presenting Girls Naked Run. Another sign down the road had “funded with tax payers money”. This town was inundated with flood water some years after one of the hurricanes come through.
After two and half hours of driving on windy narrow roads, we had lots of Jamaicans passing us with death wishes. I think we had three near accidents in that time, the worst when a car passed us on a crest with a bend in it and narrowly squeezed in between us and the oncoming car who both braked and swerved. These guys are crazy on the road.

Our first major stop was the Appleton rum distillery. The factory had a large stack spewing out steam set in a valley full of sugar cane. We saw a donkey, Paz, work some magic and crush some sugar cane to produce the sugar syrup. After a few laps, he was happy to get his crushed pulp from the cane for his efforts.
Inside the distillery, a hot environment, we got to see rum getting distilled from molasses in four large stills. The factory was like a “rum sauna”, it did smell pretty bad. Azza would have been in heaven. The next building across held barrels and barrels of rum ageing on oak. The room was cold, mainly due to the alcohol slowly evaporating, or rum air conditioning. They lose 6% by volume in each barrel on a yearly basis. Outside of the fenced part of the factory, our guide took us through the production of sugar syrup again and we got to taste molasses. We got up to our usual capers and took photos, the best was Tan relaxing in the drivers seat of the period style rum truck. We got to taste the rum inside, though with no breakfast and an early morning we took it easy. I did try the 127 Overproof white rum (63.5% alcohol). I dipped my tongue in it and it burned.

Another 25 minutes down the road we ended up at the YS Estate. Here we all climbed aboard a jitney, a trailer which was towed by a Massey Ferguson tractor and drove through paddocks to the YS Falls. The YS Falls are a series of cascades, eight in total, sit in a tropical environment. We put on our bathers and walked to the top pool were we swam in the pool. Now we have abseiled down water falls in Costa Rica, ascended the Dunns River falls and now we showered in the cascading water here. The water was a little cool but it was great fun getting hydro massages. We had to laugh at the sign posted here. No ganja smoking was allowed at the falls.
In the bus again with more driving ahead of us, we stopped along the way to buy Spicy Shrimp from an old lady. These are freshwater shrimp cooked with salt, spice and pepper. We were told there are two ways to eat these shrimp, peel them and eat the flesh or throw the whole thing in your mouth. I had to try the shrimp and I followed the traditional way. It was good at the start but you end up with a lot of trash in your mouth once the good stuff is gone. We stopped for lunch in Luana where we saw our first cricket ground (well we are in the West Indies!) The view was of the broad Black River morass, a large swamp land with many rivers snaking through it. Lunch was fried chicken (a Jamaican (and Costa Rican) favourite), pork and rice and beans. Not bad.

We finally arrived at Black River, where it met the sea. We jumped aboard our boat and Tan and I got pole position at the front of the boat. The crocodiles here are more friendly than what you would see at the Crocoseum. We only went 100m up the river to see our first, sunning himself on the bank with its’ jaws propped open. Further up, we saw Patricia, yes, these crocs have names. Patricia was keen for some chicken and a belly rub. The crocodiles are less aggressive than their Australian counterparts. It might be all the hooch that is in this country. One of the captains of the other boat grabbed this crocodile by the leg and even patted it. Now this thing was only a good 12 feet long too!! The river itself was picturesque, with different types of mangroves and bird life. Even Tan (the twitcher) spotted a few helped by the punch she was drinking. We had a three hour drive ahead of us, via a different way this time via Montego Bay and then onto the best road in the country along the northern shore. The trip was 14 hours in total, but it was good to see the real Jamaica, by getting out and about, compared to sitting in the resort.

10th February – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Today we hit the number one grossing tourist destination spot in Jamaica. Dunns River Falls. Our coaster picked us up, stopping along the way so we could rent our highly attractive aqua shoes. Dunns River Falls is around 200 feet high and you basically have a group that follows a guide from the very bottom and work your way up the waterfall. We naively bought our camera along and luckily the guide took it from us (before we dunked it and lost another camera) and took photo’s for us (for a decent tip).
Through the steepest parts of the falls the group formed a human chain with each person helping the one behind and in front of them. We got the opportunity to sit under some of the heaviest parts of the falls and also had a go sliding down a rock formation. It took us around 40 minutes to climb from the bottom of the falls to the top and it was great fun!

3rd January – La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Yesterday Tan and I made a deal that we would go white water river rafting on the Class 2 / 3 rapids (I preferred the 3 and 4 rapids) if Tan come canyoneering. Canyoneering is a mix of walking along a caonyon and abseiling down cliff faces next to and within waterfalls. Sounds like fun doesn’t it!!

Last night we were woken with some really heavy rain falls and it rained for most of the night. The hotel we are staying at, Lomas el Volcanes, is a lovely spot with cabins spaced apart on the flanks of Arenal volcano, Costa Rica’s most active volcano. The aim of staying in La Fortuna was to see the volcano erupting with glowing fountains of lava. This morning the volcano was covered in cloud.

Our bus picked us up and then we hit a gravel road where we transferred to the back of a four wheel drive. After 20 minutes in the back on the rough road we made it up the hill. We geared up and walked down to our first waterfall. Now due to the geography, the first abseil happened to be the biggest, 55m or 165 feet tall. We got our safety briefing and I was glad to see they were double roping. That is, a guy on the bottom could pull the rope to stop you and another fellow could control your ascent from the top if needed. Tan at this stage was a little concerned, mainly because she doesn’t like heights, pushing herself past her comfort level and she was still unsure on throwing herself off the 55m cliff without a practice. Two people could descend the cliff at the same time, so I hung over the edge waiting for Tan. It took her a little while to get the courage up to start descending and she didn’t enjoy it all. Once she got to the bottom of the 55m, I could see she was scared.
After some reassurance, Tan (in the blue helmet, mine was white) was now fired up to do the next one. Albeit, somewhat smaller, this time is was down the centre of a ravine with water falling through it. This abseil was awesome. At the bottom you got pummeled by the water, which was definitely an experience. The water levels were up higher due to the amount of rain we had the previous day and night.

Tan at this stage had conquered her fear and was hitting the descents with fun and laughter. Yay!

A 25m dry canyon wall and two more waterfalls ascents and we had finished. Canyoneering is so much fun! (Tan wants to do it again!) When we got back to the cars we found out the white water rafting was cancelled today due to high and fast flowing water levels which was a shame. We ended up having some rice and beans, a traditional Costa Rican dish.

After being chilled to the bone with the cold water, all we wanted was a hot shower. To our bitter disappointment, the high winds blew out our pilot light so we had no hot water. To make it even worse, every single cabin belonging to our group members had no hot water either and this was the case last night as well.

We all headed into town, after asking the hotel to fix it, cold, miserable but still buzzing from the canyoneering. The group had a few beers, yucca chips (it a root of a tree which tastes similar to potato with a different texture) and guacamole at the Lava Lounge. Yum. Tan, Elaine and I walked the streets of La Fortuna looking in souvenir shops (yawn), galleries and ended up in the soda. A soda here is a cheap eatery. We ended up swapping travel stories over a cup of hot chocolate.

For dinner, the Lava Lounge (again) was the spot where we met the rest of the group. The sea bass was good but not as good as the one in San Jose.

We had 90 seconds of hot water that night, not enough to get us warm after a pretty poor fix up job by the hotel.

At 3am the sea bass didn’t agree with me, but my stomach isn’t always the best when I travel. Still, it doesn’t stop from trying different foods and beverages.

5th December, Palenque, San Cristobal Del Las Casas – Mexico

Up early again to beat the crowds to Palenque. We said goodbye to our hotel with its lush foliage and cool huts. Another place we could have stayed just a little bit longer.

The Palenque (pronounced Pal-en-kay) ruins are quite unique in that they are still ssurrounded by the massive forests in which they were found under. We started off our trip with a walk through the dense jungle to see our first ruin from high up. This is where I discovered that thongs don’t really cut it in the jungle. Oh well.

Palenque itself only has two percent of its ruins uncovered and many of the other building which remain almost unseen under the dense jungles are simply numbered as temple, 19, temple 20 etc. The ruins were first occupied in 100BC and its prime around 7^th century AD, which centred around the reign of Pakal, who’s grave was finally uncovered in 1952. We went to the Temple of Inscriptions which was where his tomb was uncovered including a Jade mask which has been stolen, but since returned and now resides in Mexico City.

The El Palacio, directly opposite is a maze of small rooms and corridors with the arch’s themselves resembling an upside down bottle for support. There are also stone beds where the royals slept (did not look too comfortable!!)

We were allowed to climb most of the temples, although they were steep and slippery and our guide kindly showed me the dent on a lawn where a man had fallen to his death just last month. We took it very easy both going up and coming down. The ruins had an almost mystical feel and we both agreed that we enjoyed them more than Chichen Itza.

We then visited the nearby museum which housed some of the many artifacts including a replica of Pakal’s tomb but many jade masks that had been found amongst other things.

We then hit the road again to head off to some waterfalls. First up with Misol-Ha. It had a big pool below a 35m drop and we could swim there (although a little too cold so we didn’t). However, the beauty of this waterfall is that you could walk behind it and watch the water cascade over before your eyes.

Dan elected to enter into a cave behind the water falls with a guide a few of the group to have a closer look. He said the cave was pretty amazing but had bats (eww).

Off then to the next waterfall, Aqua Azul, for some lunch and a look. Lunch was traditional Mexican. A young boy came up and asked if he could have some chicken off his plate (he had finished but had leftovers) and he said no, then promply threw it to a nearby dog. Ooops. Dog wins over boy for the chicken!! We bought some what we thought were dried banana’s but tasted more like a potato chip off some very cute young children.

We then walked up to the top of the falls, which are a beautiful blue colour. Again, we all elected not to swim. The falls themselves were lovely though.

Onwards on the road again towards San Cristobal Del Las Casas. We arrived in late and could immediately feel how much cooler it was in the highlands of Mexico. Our hotel is beautiful albeit bright in oranges and blues. We had a very quick orientation around the town. The town is brightly coloured buildings with cobble stoned streets. Many of the lights are up for Christmas also. We headed into a bar with a traditional band playing for dinner and a few drinks and then off to bed.