Jamaica has redeemed itself in my eyes! I was in Ocho Rios last week, but I only saw uno rio. Dos rios at the most. I don’t know where the other seis rios are.
Anyway, the port of Ocho Rios was much nicer than the other port I visited a few weeks ago. Some of my friends and colleagues planned a trip to visit the Blue Hole a half an hour away from Ocho Rios. Since I didn’t know of anything else to do, I went with them. I didn’t even know what a Blue Hole was at the time. Our guide cleared up the definition of it for me on our drive out there- it is a swimming hole and it is blue….and deep. Ah, thanks.
It really is a swimming hole and it is fed via freshwater water falls. It is gorgeous there. If you have ever visited the Caribbean you know how uniquely blue the water is down here. Well imagine an oasis of that in the middle of the jungle and you have the Blue Hole.
Truthfully there are multiple holes. The first one we stopped at is nice, but a bit small. You stand at the top of the waterfall and grab a rope hanging from the branch above. You take a giant step and push yourself off from the falls and swing out letting go when you are over the hole…and preferably not over the rocks at the bottom of the falls! We were having lots of fun here jumping of the falls, using the rope swing, etc, but then they told us it was time to go up to the big Blue Hole. We proceeded to follow a path for 15 or 20 minutes through the jungle until we reached a cliff that overlooked a much larger Blue Hole. My guess is that this cliff is somewhere between 3 to 4 stories above the water. We got there as some people from our ship were getting ready to jump off of it. You run as fast as you can and push off when you get to the edge so you go out and not straight down- again trying to avoid the rocks that lay below and land in the water instead. I contemplated this jump but decided jumping from a lower spot would be exciting enough for me- I don’t need to risk my life to have fun. I did enjoy jumping in the water and filming my friends jumping from above me. I have to say the sound of a human body hitting the water from that height and speed is one of my least favorite sounds.
We followed the water up the hillside from the top of the waterfall and all of it is stunningly beautiful.
That will be my last adventure for at least another week. I’m in Nassau, Bahamas today, but I leave in a couple hours for seven days at sea before I reach Tenerife, Canary Islands! I’m very excited and also a little nervous for Europe. I know I will see and experience amazing things- I just hope it is all I imagine it to be.
Also, I remembered my fifth question from the last post. While walking back to the ship from downtown Cozumel a family that was cruising on my ship approached me as they were also walking back. The lady said, “How far of a walk is it? I know it looks far, but it really isn’t, is it?” What? It looks far because it is far. You are not looking at the ship in a car mirror- the objects are not closer than they appear!
Have a great week everyone! I’ll see if I can post from the mid-Atlantic in the coming days.
