Alright, so it is now day 4 of our Jamaican trip. We are loving the resort. We can eat pretty much whenever we want (we like to eat!). I noticed some people had dishes sitting outside their rooms but I never saw anything in their booklet about room service. I did look but I never called to ask. We love that we can also walk up to the many outdoor pool bars and get a drink almost whenever. They do close them down around 6pm and the swim up bar in the main pool closed early whenever they had a wedding going on. There's also a Beer Hut just around the corner from our room where they chop the tops off of fresh coconut daily around 11 a.m. and we really liked that.
Back at home I have yet to find a store shelf coconut water that I like. They all taste like spit to me. The real deal, coconut, not spit, is so much better.
On Wednesday we decide to make the most of our car rental and actually use it. We had looked online when we were back home about what to see when in Jamaica. There are waterfalls and gorgeous beaches scattered all over the island. I didn't want to venture further than about 2 hours away so we decided we would try to check out Negril's 7 Mile Beach and then Rick's Cafe which is a bar and cliff diving place. I didn't think we would be doing that, even though I would love to some day, but it would still be fun to watch others do it.
So we got up around 8 a.m. and grab breakfast at the buffet. Packed in as much food as we could because we weren't sure when we would be eating again. I had a few snacks I could pack like some Clif bars I brought from home and the extra bags of Goldfish the stewardess gave us for the baby on the plane. I also grabbed our waters and sodas from our mini fridge. We're stocked and stoked. We head out and less than a minute from pulling out of the resort, we are flagged down by 2 police officers standing on the side of the road with another gentleman who appears to be getting written a ticket.
As we pull over I can see that the one cop has a radar gun and so I'm asking Ken if he was speeding and he says he never saw a sign so he has no idea. The cop approaches us and says that he was speeding and if he would like, he could go and look at the radar gun and see what he was clocked doing. Ken was very polite and said no that's okay I trust you. The cop asks for his information and the rentals registration which he hands over. He walks back to his very beat up cop car which looks nothing like a cop car and proceeds to write on his clipboard. I'm thinking seriously? Couldn't cut us a break (found out later from our 2nd wanna-be tour guide that if we had paid them there on the spot a bribe they would have not written a ticket, which I kind of thought but didn't want to be insulting).
We explained how we just drove off from the resort and didn't notice a speed limit sign. Ken was doing 70 km in a 50 km zone it turned out. Okay I understand but could we please just get a warning? Not this time I guess. I watched as the last guy he had pulled over took his ticket andwith a stern look on his face, crossed back to his car with his family sitting in it. He looked like he was on vacation too. I'm beginning to sense that this is a speed trap on purpose. The cop comes back and says basically 'here's your ticket, it's $5,000, you'll have to pay it at ''some government building before you leave". I jokingly say, "That's $5,000 Jamaican dollars right?" And the cop laughs and says "of course, this is like paying $50. In you're country you'd probably pay more like $150 right?" I say "Yes, $50 is a steal. Okay thanks, have a nice day!"
We leave and are so nervous to go over the speed limit that we keep it exactly at 50 km/h. Cars and tour buses are flying around us to pass, clearly they aren't observing the speed limit, but for as many cars ride our asses we continue to maintain the speed limit.
We drive for a while and end up at a city center with a round about. We know we're near 7 Mile Beach but aren't sure where we can park. Just then a guy on a moped rolls up next to us, does a double take on us and says, "Hey how are you guys? I work at the Palladium, I recognize you guys, you have the cute baby." I'm thinking oh crap but also that I don't recognize this guy but he knows where we're staying and even remembered the baby. He asks where we're trying to get to and we tell him 7 Mile Beach. He says we are lucky because today is his day off from work and he can help show us around. At this point we've pulled over on the side of a busy street and he is suggesting that we go check out the waterfalls instead because it's a great place kind of off the beaten path and there's a place to eat and it would be great for the baby. We are acting super hesitant about this whole situation and having flashbacks of Steven. We insist in a very polite way that we just want to go to 7 Mile Beach (basically trying to deter him from trying to 'help' us) and so he says that he will take us there because we don't want to get lost as there are some very bad parts we don't know about and need to avoid. Oh boy, okay, as long as he's not getting in the car. So we follow him and we get to a parking lot for 7 Mile Beach very quickly. There are some shops with tie-dye dresses and some typical souvenir looking stuff. We start to get out of the car and he gets off his moped, says we should shop around a bit and then hit the beach. I said well I did want to find something to buy and bring home so we go over to the shops and he follows us.
I'm beginning to get very uncomfortable because he following us now and just watching me shop. The lady of the shop walks in and says how pretty the dresses would look on the baby, that I should buy every one that I touch, and asks if I want my hair braided. I say no thank you that would take too much time and I don't want them waiting around for that to happen. I'm checking out the tags on the clothes to see if they are even made in Jamaica which they are not so I am ready to move on. There was some cool artwork at the back but at this point I'm feeling pressured by these locals and want to just go to the beach. I pretend to wander aimlessly and talk to Ken about what we should do and we notice that our friend is walking away and seems to know someone in the parking lot. So we begin to make our break for it and walk away towards the beach. We're about to turn the corner of this building which is the Ocean Conservatory Museum and the guy runs up to us and says he can wait for us and then we can go to the waterfalls and Ken says to him "Oh you know what I just realized is I left my wallet back at the resort, we have no money on us, that's why we didn't buy anything, we're probably just going to go look here at 7 Mile and then go back to the resort." Dude quickly makes his way to his moped and leaves us.
Here's a tip: Tell them you have no money and they will leave you alone.
So we go to 7 Mile and to get to it we have to walk down a dirt path which is littered pretty badly and then the beach is just beyond a couple trees.
The sand is white and the water is clear and turquoise. It is beautiful. It is also hot and the only bit of shade was under those trees that we stayed near. We would have like to stay longer but I didn't want the baby stuck in the sun too long and we began to smell marijuana and so ended our visit there.
We get back in our car and make sure that our new friend is actually gone. Then we start to drive up the road further and get to Rick's Cafe which is closed. The guy had mentioned that to us too when we said we wanted to go there. He said to go later in the evening when there's music and people. That it would be a really fun time. We thought we might still be able to check out the cliff but the place literally has a gate you can't get into.
So we decide to try and go to some waterfalls about half an hour away. I am using my phone's GPS which is going in and out of service but there is basically only 2 highways and we just need to stay on this one, the A1 for a while and then make a left at the A2. I shut off Maps because it's draining my phone battery. Somehow after driving for 20 minutes we missed our turn so we have to turn around and find it. We do and start to head up the road when all of a sudden we blow a tire. We're sort of in the 'country' side I would say. There is a house up on a hill but nothing but trees and a field where Ken pulls over down a dirt path to change the tire, or so he thinks. I get in the backseat with the baby who is getting agitated at this point and crying for I don't know what reason. She doesn't normally do that, there's usually a reason and we can usually determine what it is, but she is just having a major meltdown.
Ken pops the trunk and then comes to tell me that the spare is flat! I'm thinking about when we did the inspection back at the rental place and the guy literally opened the trunk and showed us the tools and then put his hands on the tire, but I guess he didn't push on it or he would have noticed it was flat. I get their number and Ken calls them to tell them what has happened. They say, not to worry they will send someone out there with a tire. We sit and wait.....and wait...and wait....We had told them exactly where we thought we were. On the beginning part of the A2 just off the A1 coming from the coast and Rick's Cafe. We call them back and we make sure they know we are in Negril and they say that the mechanic is on his way from Montego Bay!! I had told Ken jokingly that it was going be probably an hour before they got to us because they 'take their time and slow down'. Little did I know how slow they would be.
We were communicating with the lady at the rental office who was in turn calling the mechanic who was supposedly on his way and then I would have to call her back even though she said she would call me and let me know how much longer until he got there and every single time I spoke with her she would say it should be any minute like 10 more minutes. So every 20 minutes I was calling her back. After an hour and 15 minutes I was getting upset. Montego Bay first of all is over an hour away from us and secondly because they really had no idea where the guy was or how long it was going to take and just kept lying and saying just another 10 minutes when they honestly had no clue.
The baby is flipping out worse and it is getting hotter as it is now noon. We have gone through the snacks and most of the water. She's had a bottle, she's nursed, and a clean diaper but is still mad. I tell Ken my phone is dying, we need to park the car in some shade because even though we had the car and a/c running, it was failing miserably and not keeping us cool in the sun. So Ken does we can only do to save our baby from a heat stroke and drives on the rim for a while but we do not see anywhere with shade to pull over so he just stops at some point by the front of a person's huge palatial looking mansion that is approximately a quarter mile from their private gate which we are now parked next to. There is also a church about 400m in front of us up a hill but I see no shade and no cars. It's been an hour and a half or so now and still no sign of this guy. I call the lady at the rental office and ask to get the mechanics direct cell number. I call him and tell him we are now parked in front of this house which has no address, but I tell him the church's name. He says he knows exactly where we are don't worry. I hang up and we wait another half an hour. I'm freaking out. I'm thinking he should of found us by now. It's getting really hot.
I tell Ken I don't have much more patience left, that we need to make a decision soon because my phone was going to die so we either call a cab and ditch the car or keep driving on the rim to some shade and hope the mechanic shows up. At one point a car pulled up and went through the gate after entering a code on the key pad. I thought maybe they would say something to us but they didn't and I didn't really have anything to ask of them.
So we drive a little further up the road. We see a car rental place and Ken pulls up to it. He says he's going to see if they have air he can put in the tire. He goes to check and comes back and says they do not. How do they not have air? At this point we are trying to fix the problem ourselves seeing as how the mechanic is lost. There is a daycare across the street and the hours of operation are not until later so nobody is there. There are two people sitting on a wall by a house next to the daycare but we continue to sit and wait. I'm watching all the cars go by and notice that we have the only red car! I have already called the mechanic again to tell him we have moved trying to get into some shade and are in front of this rental place which I give him the name of and he says he knows exactly where that is and he should be there in 10 minutes. I ask him what he's driving so I can flag him down and mention that we have the only red car in town. Well believe it or not, another hour goes by and he isn't there. I have to pee at this point and I see a beer truck parked on the side of the road a quarter mile up the road by what looks like a shop. I tell Ken I will go there to pee. He comes with me and the baby because he is not comfortable with the idea. I get there and these two girls with a baby are standing behind iron bars at a counter. I ask if they have a restroom or know of one I can use. I explain that we have been broken down and have been waiting for 2 and half hours for the mechanic. They were super hesitant and I could tell so I almost gave up but the one girl said something to the other and the other tells me to follow her.
So we're following her and she takes us around the building they're standing in. It's a junk yard basically with trashed cars and a whole lotta mess. A bunch of men are working on a car when we approach and she says to one of them something about me being able to use the restroom and he says something I cannot understand but later Ken says he said fuck no! They have a lasting exchange so I say, you know what it's okay don't worry about it and we quickly scurried off. I had already looked around the lot and was wondering where in the hell does anybody go pee around there. I was frightened at the thought so my bladder quickly retreated and I was able to last a while longer.
We go back to the car and I tell Ken I'm going to stand on the other side of the road where there is some shade with the baby. Every single taxi that drives by waves questioningly at me if I need them and part of me is thinking yes but the other half is thinking no I'm good so I shoo them away. It begins to be scary standing there and having all these cars slowing down by me so I go back to the car. Ken says fuck this shit basically and tells me he is going to drive on the rim until it breaks off and then he will drive on the spare rim. So he does and we don't get very far. He pulls over again and starts to get the spare out. A guy comes out of the woodwork. He is the guy who was sitting on the wall I noticed. He says he knows how to change a tire to Ken as if Ken has never in his life and takes over. Soon another guy comes running up and then another guy on a bicycle pulls up to us and now we have 3 guys and Ken out there working on just taking a tire off. The 1st guy says he knows a place/guy who can probably fill the spare with air so he says he'll be right back with the spare. Ken takes off with him because he's thinking he'll never see this guy again. They return and no luck, the guy didn't want to help or something. I'm still scratching my head wondering why the rental place we were just at had no air. Ken had also asked the guy there what the road was called that we were on, was it the A2? The guy says he has no idea!!!!!!! What the hell!? I even said that to the lady I was talking to from our rental place and she said yea that's normal, the locals don't necessarily know the names of the roads, they just "know where they are"!
So Ken says forget it I'm driving on it the way it is. I was crying. I was so scared of how hot the baby was getting. She hadn't had much to eat or drink and I was getting scared of all these strangers. Ken tells the guys he has no money (they all disappear) and gets back in the car. We decide to just go for it. He drives and the car is shaking all over and it finally just completely shreds to bits. He puts the spare on and keeps driving. I'm calling the mechanic and yelling at him saying that he keeps telling us 10 minutes and we have a baby and no water or anything to drink. He says to me to calm down and that he knows where we are, but describe the place and the things I'm seeing. So I do and he says again don't worry. I hang up and call the rental place. The lady I was communicating with is gone for the day but I know I am talking to the guy who rented us the car now. He says don't worry they have a tracker on our car so they know where we are. I am fuming! They've got a tracker on the car but the mechanic hasn't been able to find us for 3 hours. Somebody is lying.
We finally get to a clearing and there is a Texaco gas station. Hallelujah! I have never been so happy to see something familiar! I run inside with the baby and change her diaper and finally pee. It has now been a total of 3 hours and 15 minutes since we called them the first time and they dispatched the mechanic. I get some cold bottled water and sit down with the baby. Less than 5 whole minutes and Ken walks in saying the mechanic has finally found us! Not only that but he wants Ken to go and buy him a water! Here we are with an 18 month old without water for 3 hours in the blazing sun and he has the nerve to ask us to buy him something. He says that the mechanic says we need to pay for a new tire and made Ken put the spare on himself!
I am so mad I storm out of the gas station and start telling this guy we are not paying for a new tire when that old one was clearly about to blow. Ken had noticed a bubble in it that I didn't know about until it blew. The mechanic tells me that he needs to call the rental office and tell them of what we are saying. I said go ahead. He calls and then says, let's just go to this tire place down the road and get a tire and then we will sort this out. I said no I am not waiting any longer, my baby has suffered enough, she's not feeling well and we are going to the hotel. He is pushy and says okay calm down let's just go here and it will take just a few minutes and I'll see what the rental place says. I say okay whatever lets just go then. We get in the car and pretend like we are going to follow this guy and Ken just bolts. We ditch him and go back to the resort on the new spare. We quickly dart straight to the upper level bar and order some awesome drinks and I say to Ken as I look around at the beautiful resort with the amazing sun setting over the beach, "Why would we ever leave this paradise?" We literally have everything we need right there on the resort, food drinks, pools, oceans, a room, I mean we were insane to leave. We're just so used to being adventurous and I realized that it would have been fine had we not had the baby with us, we would have just walked to a beach or explored but my main concern was my baby's safety and health. Here's the cool Bob Marley drinks we ordered:
That night our baby had a fever and was sick the next day with a 101 temperature. We spend most of the day keeping her cool in the room and napping. Thankfully there is a nurses station on the resort and that is where we were able to check her temperature and the gift shop had medicine which brought her temperature down. The next day she was feeling better and so we went to the Dolphin Cove and watched other people swim with the dolphins and Ken got to hold a shark. It was pretty neat. We had to drive there which was a major concern for me at first because I had to mentally prepare myself for an hour long drive but it turned out that there is another Dolphin Cove literally 10 minutes outside the resort which the maps did not show us. So that was awesome.
The rest of the trip was great. We swam and went to the beach. Relaxed. The people working at the resort were super nice to us and loved the baby. The only part of the rest of the vacation that sucked was the airport. Because we had the baby they said we could go into this "special" line which I guess is supposed to be faster. We had our passports and tickets checked and then were told which line to go into for the baggage x-ray and metal detector. We're standing in line with our stuff and an airport employee wheels a handicapped person up and cuts in front of us. I'm thinking okay no problem. We are barely inching forward when another employee pushes another wheelchair person in front of us. Of course the baby decides this is the perfect time to start having fit. We finally get close enough that I'm able to grab a bin to throw our stuff in and take my shoes off. Not a minute sooner another wheelchair, and then another, and then another. I am not even exaggerating when I say there was at least a dozen if not more wheelchair person's plus their family members that got to cut in front of us. I watched as the people who had been behind us, but jumped lines when the possibly arose, got through their line a long time before us. I started to get upset and said out loud how I couldn't believe how many people have be able to cut in front of us and how my baby wasn't going to last much longer. I noticed just then the guy who had just reached for a bin to slap down in front of us decided to wait for us to go through. A line which should have taken us 5 minutes took us a half an hour. Even the gentleman in front of us was upset and waving to his family saying "I'll see you in Florida" because they had somehow been able to get through without him (Poor guy ended up forgetting his laptop at the conveyor belt but I was able to find him with my super Sherlock Holmes skills and tell him).
I loved the Jamaican resort. I loved how friendly people were. I just didn't like some things that happened but nothing is perfect. I highly advise if you are going to take a trip to Jamaica with a baby or kids to go on tours with the buses and just riding to the resort on the shuttle from the airport. Even though we had bad experiences I am glad we went. I don't blame them for our troubles because we were the ones who made the decisions that we did and I understand just how lucky I am to live in a first world country. They do things differently there and I get it. They did make us pay for the tire on the day we took it back. Ken was pissed but we agreed to just pay and get the hell out of there. Just remember business is run differently. People are very different. I've come to understand that we can't be as adventurous as we used to be and have to 'slow down'.
