Welcome to Jam Rock!

Hello Readers,

I understand it’s been a while I’ve posted on here and I have to apologize as my schedule is a little crazy right now! Today I want to share with you my week long vacation on the island of Jamaica!

When I first think of Jamaica, I think white sand beaches, reggae music and jerk chicken; pretty basic. My week on the island was really enjoyable and truly relaxing. We stayed at RoseHall Suites which was a chain of 3 hotels in one big gated community of sort. The complex had their own in house night club!

My friends flew in a day earlier and I flew in by myself. I was a little anxious to get to my hotel being alone as I was running on 3 hours of sleep from the night before and was a little worried I would fall asleep on the shuttle. But it was the absolute opposite, after landing in Montego Bay, I was super excited to meet my friends and get the party going. My friends and I, a group of four, take an annual vacation (typically meant to celebrate my birthday each year) to a different location and we take turns picking the destination. This has sort of now become our tradition and therefore was eager to commence the festivities.

When I checked in, I was upgraded to an ocean view room because I was the birthday girl! I was surprised and over the moon about my week ahead. Check out the view from my room below:

I flew during the afternoon therefore by the time I got to my hotel it was dinner time. I dressed in my light flowy dress and headed to dinner which was a magnificent spread of traditional Jamaican food — rice and peas, jerk chicken, sweet bread as well as westernized american cuisine. After dinner, we explored the resort. It was huge place with a bridge to separate the resort in two; one side with suites and lobby and the other with restaurants and an entertainment area. We played pool almost every night getting competitive and making bets but also made friends with the bartender, lifeguards and local staff.

Fun Fact: my favourite meal of the day is breakfast and so the next morning I was the first one up curious to find out about what they had to offer!

There was the basic – omelette station, variety of breads, fruits, coffee and tea but they also had breakfast nachos! Needless to say, we stuffed our faces and headed to the beach for our first day of fun. The resort had two swim up pools with bars which meant we had the liberty to drink our weight in drinks and that’s just what we did. This is pretty much how we spent the first 4 days. It was relaxing sleeping on the beach under the sun with a cold beverage in our hand and not having to worry about anything and in the evening visiting the friends we had made on the resort, playing pool and hanging out on the patio.

 

Day 4 of the trip was more fun as we had booked an excursion to the city specifically The Bob Marley Tour. One of the greatest artist in reggae history was someone I wanted to learn more about. Our bus took us to Marley’s home and our tour guide gave us the history of the legend.

Did you know Bob Marley was a vegetarian under the Rastafarian practice. We learnt a whole lot about Marley including how his mother was a devoted catholic and of course his history with the infamous herb. Most of Marley’s songs are based on God, life and love. He talks about appreciating what you have and not sweating the little things.

After the tour, we got to visit his and his mother’s grave for which we had to remove our shoes to pay respects and even got to sit on Marley’s bed (I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere). Marley spent many of his days hanging out in his backyard writing tunes on his favourite rock which you can see me sitting on. Our final half hour at the location was spent singing with our tour guide one of Marley’s most famous songs: One Love.

 

Our second last day was also spent out of the resort and we opted to visit Dunn River Falls and spent the remainder of the day on the beach. Dunn River Falls is a major attraction in Ocho Rios which was a two hour bus ride. The falls act as stairs that you can climb and that’s just what we did. we climbed all the way to the top of the falls which was a good hour of cardio. We slipped a couple times on the moss that covered the rocks but enjoyed being in the water. I’d recommend visiting them if you’re ever in Jamaica!

Our day ended at Rick’s Cafe which is a popular spot to get drinks, have dinner and watch the sunset. It was a magnificent sight watching the sun go down. There was many street vendors selling local souvenirs, the restaurant was filled with vacation goers and locals alike and it was a calming feeling sitting facing the ocean and the sun whilst listening to faint Bob Marley songs in the background.

Our resort also had speciality restaurants like Thai, Italian and Mexican which required advanced booking and on the night of my birthday we reserved a table at a Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant. We then headed out for a night on the town on the shuttle bus which was provided to us by our resort. I am a big fan of dancehall and reggae music and this was the most enjoyable night dancing and partying with the locals.

Jamaica, I will come back to you soon as our week long affair felt too short. I can’t wait to laze around the beaches listening to music, indulging in Jamaican cuisine and dancing to the sweet tunes.

Until next time,