Every place we visit or go has it's adventures; however, some adventures are just funnier and more memorable than others. Bring on our Jamaica experience! :)
All of us in our group, all ten of us, wanted to try an excursion in Jamaica. Surprisingly, all of us wanted to do the same thing. :) We signed up through the shore excursions desk on our cruise ship, and got up early on Wednesday morning to get off the boat for our excursion. It was cloudy starting out the day in Jamaica, but it looked like the weather was going to clear up. We departed from the ship, found our tour group, and waited for further instructions. However, everyone seemed to be a bit confused. They left with about 22 people, and twelve of us were left at the bus pickup. So we waited for another bus, and waited, and waited...did I mention we waited?! Finally, after about an hour, we finally got a bus. And we were off!
My first clue should've been that the bus sounded funny! Our tour guide was a sweet young lady. She told us many things about the Jamaica culture. One phrase she told us was that "In Jamaica we don't have problems, we have situations." Those words would come into play many times over the course of the day. We could tell from our tour guide that we were running late, so we hustled to Dunn River Falls. Once we arrived at the falls, we were rushed to divide into groups, and then hurried up to wait! :) Our group was split up so Roger and I went up the falls with Lorenz and Sara. There were a lot of people and although it was beautiful, it was a little over commercialized for this Canadian guy and his country Wisconsin girl. :) The climb up the falls was rushed because we were running late.
There was a little market after we arrived at the top of the falls; but since we were told to leave our valuables in the bus, we didn't have any money. We then climbed back in the bus, and we hurried off to lunch. Lunch was at a beautiful location by the beach, but we weren't able to enjoy it because we were short on time. Most of us in our group left the lunch hungry; but if we didn't get to the tubing spot, we might miss the cruise ship!
After leaving our lunch location, we hopped by on the bus again. Off we went into Jamaica country...only to get lost! After traveling for about ten minutes, the driver stopped and asked someone for directions. So we turned around, and headed back up a different road. This road was windy and steep, and the bus sounded like it was going to need a push at every hill. After traveling for about another twenty minutes, the driver again stopped and asked someone for directions...yeah, we were going the wrong way! When the driver backed up, the bus sounded terrible with lots of grinding, awful sounds. So, we turned around and headed back down the steep, windy road. As we headed down around a turn, a car coming up the mountain waved us down. The driver of the car told us that we had something dragging off of the bottom of our bus. The driver of our bus also realized that the steering of the bus was gone when he couldn't move the bus off the road. So now we are in the middle of a road, on a hill, with a broken bus. But remember in Jamaica they don't have problems, they have situations! :) We got off the bus and saw that one of the wheels of the bus was no longer attached to the tie rod. Something had broken off, dragged down the road behind the bus, the bus lost it's steering, and we were stuck! I am so thankful for the Lord's protection. We could've skidded that bus down the mountain, and it would've been more than a scary experience.
After waiting about about 20-30 minutes, another bus arrived. The first thing I noticed was the sign on the back of the bus. It read "Fresh to Death"! We all got a huge chuckle out of that sign on the back of the bus...God definitely has a sense of humor!!
At this point, we were really far behind on time, and I really wasn't wanting to go tubing. But we wanted to finish our excursion, I mean escapade. :) So, off we traveled to the tubing place. Once we arrived, we started almost immediately down the falls. It was actually a lot of fun, and I'm really glad we did it! However, we were supposed to tube down the river to the beach, and that did not happen. We did stop to get out and jump off this diving platform. It was a lot of fun, but a little scary for one member of our group. I'm thankful that God kept us safe. Because we were short on time, the tubing ended early. Once out of the river, we realized that we had been given a different bus...again. The previous driver had unloaded our belonging from off the previous bus but instead of putting them on the new bus, all our stuff was sitting on a picnic bench. Our backpacks with identification, our money, passports, credit cards,etc., was just sitting on the table! We were then hurried back on the different bus to head back to the cruise ship. We never saw the beach today, and the whole day was filled with one experience after another!
By the time we arrived back to the port where the ship was, our time was almost gone. The driver of the new bus had driven very quickly to get us back on time, which I'm thankful for, but it was a little scary! (I've ridden in vehicles in third world countries, and I've not been unnerved. But passing a vehicle, going up hill, on a steep road, seems a little intimidating!)
I am thankful to be back on the ship, but a little disappointed that we didn't really get to spend much time doing anything in Jamaica. However, The Lord kept us safe, our friendships grew stronger; and memories were made. It was a successful day!
No comments:
Post a Comment