Some of you may remember a flick in the late 1980's called Cocktail. It was a relatively forgettable movie, made to cash in on the massive appeal of Tom Cruise at the time. The most memorable thing about it, in fact was a song about being happy that got a ridiculous amount of radio play time. In any case, if you remember the movie at all, there was a love scene that took place in a waterfall. It was supposed to be this intimate grotto in the woods.
In reality, it was the Dunn's River Falls (www.dunnsriverja.com), one of Jamaica's favourite tourist spots, the least likely place for a lover's tryst. That doesn't negate the fact that the falls are spectacular and well worth the visit. There are a number of ways to visit the falls and we choose to take a catamaran tour. For the record, the ride home was pretty choppy and I DIDN'T GET SEASICK ONCE! Dunn's River empties into the Caribbean Sea and you can see the falls from the ocean. The tour guides warned us that the water would be “cold”. For those of us from glacial places, the water is cool until you get used to it and then quite warm and refreshing. When I first heard that a person “climbs the falls” I sort of had the impression that there's a path beside the falls but in fact a person actually climbs through the falls. It's a very neat experience and the park at the falls is obviously a popular spot for locals too as we saw lots of teenagers around. I later found out that it's spring break in Jamaica so of course all the teens head to the beach!
On the way back from the falls we went snorkelling. I'd never been and found it to be a very relaxing experience. It was early evening and the water was the perfect temperature (no sharks but one of the safety swimmers grabbed my leg, I must have been unwound because I didn't even jump). Afterward, on the catamaran, the tour guides broke out the Red Stripe (www.redstripebeer.com), etc. and the party started. The boat was crewed with a DJ and we had a dance party with games as we toured the Ocho Rios harbour. We passed a boomer with his own sail boat, obviously fully equipped to live on. I've never really seen the romance in retiring on a personal sail boat until that very moment. The guy waved to us and he looked so relaxed and tanned. Later on we saw him go into town with his Zodiac; laying crossways with his legs slung over the side he casually guided the little craft in. It made me think of Farley Mowat's “The Boat that Wouldn't Float”. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend that you do. Avoid public areas though if you're worried about what people think of you when you laugh out loud.
Pictures of the day will come along later as we used a waterproof, disposable, film camera for the day instead of bring along one of the other cameras. Some other people on the boat had a waterproof digital that only cost about $100 so I think that that will be on my list for the next holiday I take (evidently, a person can't own too many cameras). We also splurged on the video of our trip up the falls but since I'm wearing my bikini in those shots, it's unlikely that you will see it up on this blog!