We first started talking about visiting Jamaica (where Dustan served his LDS mission for two years) when we began seriously dating, but it seemed more like a far fetched dream rather than something that could actually happen as college students.
But once the new year rolled around and we took a look at our finances and generous donations from the government (we raked in the grants), we realized that Jamaica was actually a possibility. We made the goal early on in the year to visit Jamaica for a couple weeks after winter semester finished. It took some planning and perhaps a little more money than we had anticipated, but we have no regrets :)
Over the course of the two weeks, we stayed in four different cities on the island, exploring both tourist destinations and places Dustan had served on his mission: Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Kingston, and Port Antonio.
But first, a few Fun Facts about Jamaica!
Jamaicans speak English, but a dialect called Patois (Patwa).
Jamaicans honk at everything while driving: to say hi, to let you know when they pass you, when they're angry, to warn you that they're approaching around corners, and a myriad of other reasons. Also, they drive very very fast but in control.
Jamaican's love to eat rice and beans. They eat a lot of something called cook shop (which we ate most days) which is a meal of rice and beans with either fried/baked/curry meat on top. They also love fruit, but no veggies. Honestly, we didn't really eat any vegetables the whole time we were there.
Jamaica has so many fruits! Some we ate: star apple, jack fruit (Dustan's all time favorite fruit), soursop, tons of different mangos, plantain, bread fruit, ackee, papaya, Jamaican apple (not a fan), and more.
If a Jamaican flashes their brights at you, that means there are police up the road and you need to slow down.
After the first couple days, it was weird to see any white people.
Montego Bay
We landed in the Montego Bay airport just a couple days after the semester ended. The first shock that came was when we stepped off the plane--the amount of heat and humidity that immediately assaulted us was astounding! It felt like a warm, wet blanket being wrapped around you.
MoBay was a city in Jamaica that Dustan had never served in, so this was an all new adventure for both of us. Our first evening there, we quickly checked into our apartment (we used airbnb for the entire trip, it's the best!), slipped on our swimsuits, ate some Jamaican food, and went to the beach for a beautiful sunset.
Old Hospital Beach, a free beach mostly used by the locals.
We were so lucky that this place was a bed and breakfast. The lady that cooked did a superb job in making authentic and delicious breakfast each morning! Some of the food we ate was fried bread fruit, callaloo and salt fish, omelettes, mint tea, ackee and salt fish, festival (like fried dumplings), and always a lot of fruit. Once we left Montego Bay, our breakfasts didn't quite compare.
We spent the next day at Doctors Cave Beach, which is where most of the people staying at Resorts in MoBay go to. It had the most beautiful white sand, warm water, and cool reefs along the docks. This is also the place where we got our base tans--via horrible sun burns, of course. We should have listened when we were told the sun was more intense in Jamaica. Applying sunscreen only once at the beach is not enough! Also, we were SO excited to use our new GoPro (named Gullivan, or Gully for short) in the water!
Doctors Cave Beach
Can you spot Dory?
Sunday rolled around. We drove a couple hours to go to church in Santa Cruz where Dustan had served for 6 months during his mission.
Jamaican roads are pretty awful. They are skinny, the people drive crazy fast, and there are potholes everywhere. The dreaded event happened--we hit a foot deep pothole going fast. We immediately had a flat tire. Thank goodness for spares! We were a little late for church, but apparently in Jamaica you can get a tire patched up for only $4.00!! It even held up for the rest of the trip.
This is actually a good stretch of road pictured... And a hot handyman!
I <3 Jamaican homes. The color!
Even though we did get that flat tire, it was completely worth it to visit Santa Cruz. When we walked in, it was clear the love that all the members and Dustan have for each other. Hugs for days! We experienced one of the tender mercies of the Lord while here. One of the missionaries (Elder McGregor) serving in the branch was someone that Dustan baptized on his mission! It was awesome to see how well he is doing. Even though there were only about 20 members there, the Spirit was strong and we felt how true the gospel is everywhere in the world. We loved to see the humble little church building (a converted cement home) and the members that attended that branch. We spent the rest of the Sabbath driving around and visiting people Dustan taught and became friends with on his mission.
Bamboo Ally, on the way to Santa Cruz.
On Monday, we spent the day in Negril, which is down the south coast from Montego Bay. Negril is famous for its Seven Mile Beach (literally) and Rick's Cafe. So of course we visited both.
Negril coastline and muscles
We found a colony of starfish!
Rick's Cafe was a bit pricy and obviously made to snag tourists, but we loved the atmosphere. We ate Jerk chicken and waffles while watching Jamaicans cliff jump and listening to Reggae from a live band. After we ate, we went cliff jumping as well! More Dustan though. He jumped off the 35 foot high one, and I kept it easy with the 10 foot jump (don't worry, I made up for it later in the trip).
Best pina colada in my entire life.
Our dinner! And you can see a couple of the landings people would cliff jump off behind Dustan.
Ocho Rios
After Montego Bay, we made our way to Ocho Rios, which is another tourist destination. Most of the cruise ships stop here. Dustan had never served his mission here either other than trade offs, so it was a lot of exploring and getting lost!
On the way to Ochie, we stopped in a little town along the coast to do some horseback riding :) It was a blast! In romance movies, the couples always seem to get that beautiful horseback ride along the beach--and now we have done that! The only thing that was missing was the sunset, but instead we got to take the horses bareback into the water deep enough that they swam with us riding! It was neat. Who knew horses could swim that well?!
Selfie stick... No shame!
Horse swimming with Dustan!
We had the most beautiful little apartment in Ocho Rios. The ocean was literally our backyard. We loved eating breakfast out by the water every morning. And as a plus, there were security guards and gates, making the place feel extra safe!
Our typical breakfast of porridge (plantain, peanut, or hominy), mango, Tang juice, toast, and a beautiful view!
This was literally in our back yard!!
We spent our first day at the Blue Hole. After looking at reviews of the Blue Hole versus Dunn's Rivers Falls (the famous tourist destination in Ochie), we decided to forgo the $40 for Dunn's and head to the more secret destination. And oh my goodness, IT WAS AMAZING. We both agree that this was probably our favorite part of the trip. Though it wasn't the classic beach and sunshine that Jamaica is known for, the Blue Hole was filled with spectacular waterfalls, rivers, and pools within the Jamaican jungle. We didn't hire tour guides like most, but instead explored the area on our own and just copied tour activities we saw from afar. That way we weren't rushed through anything, and again saved some money. Anyone that visits Jamaica must see this beautiful place! And don't be afraid to try everything: the cliff jumping, waterfall climbing, rope swings, and more.
Just climbing through a tiny hole....
...to get under the waterfall!
Like we said earlier, there were a few rope swings. Dustan loved them. As for myself... I'm not great at keeping my hold on them, haha.
Dustan likes to jump from scary places.
You can see a Jamaican jumping from the waterfall! This was one of the scarier jumps we did.
Here is a video of us jumping off that waterfall you see in the picture above. Sorry for the poor quality on this one, and also you can skip the first 30 seconds unless you want to hear Dustan chatting with the Jamaicans.
We spent our next afternoon in Ochie at Runaway Bay, which was a little farther away. Here we hung out on the free public beach, snorkeled, napped, and just lounged around in general. It was a very relaxing day.
Merman.
We rock the water shoes.
On the morning before we left Ochie, we did some snorkeling in our "backyard". And that was the best snorkeling thus far, but there is still more to come :)
There was just one little fish that had no fear!
Kingston
Kingston is the capitol of Jamaica, and the city most like America. There was an actual freeway on the way here! It wasn't near coast, but this was our chance to explore what Jamaica had to offer other than clear Caribbean waters. Dustan had served the majority of his mission in Kingston, so there were a lot of people to visit!
Our first stop was at Devon House, to get delicious mango and coconut ice cream cones from "I Scream" and cheesecake chocolate bars at "Chocolate Dreams". They were heavenly. Of course we went back before leaving Kingston.
The next day, we took a long drive up into the Blue Mountains to hike around a place called Holywell. There were a lot of little trails through the mountains with some gorgeous views. There were even a few cabins up at the top that you can rent for a great price, which we definitely want to do for a night or two next time we visit Jamaica. Dustan had been hiking here as a missionary and remembered signing one of the cabins. We found his name, still there even in pencil!
Dustan's name is on the left
We took one trail in Holywell that led down to the river. But once we got to the river, we saw that the trail kept going, so we decided to follow it and see where it led. Poor choice. After about a half an hour of hiking, the trail had simply faded away. Thankfully it only took a few minutes and wrong guesses to find the path again to get back! (Sorry about the video quality, it really didn't transfer from the GoPro to Youtube well....)
Stellar view, right?!
Sunday in Kingston was dedicated to church and visiting people Dustan knew from the mission. It was great to see how the church was thriving in Kingston! They had a big church building (complete with ceiling fans!) and a full ward. Everyone wanted a picture with "Elder Kraus", since they hadn't seen him in about three years.
We had dinner with Sister Segree (someone who went teaching with Dustan a lot), and visited a ton of members and people Dustan had taught. It was a blast! My personal favorite was having "Strong Drink" with the old branch president and his family. When Dustan was a missionary, once a week they would meet with President Singh to discuss the missionary work and President Singh would always make them "Strong Drink" which is basically a delicious milk shake (I'm still not sure why he calls it strong drink). It was great to catch up with them and drink milk shakes on the roof. Oh, and Hedwig (a huge white owl, which looked the exact same) flew over us!
A Jamaican fruit stand
On our last day here, we drove to May Pen in the morning to visit the some people Dustan knew, went back to Kingston for more ice cream and chocolate, then headed to our final destination.
This video shows a bit of a typical drive in Jamaica: skinny and scary roads with lots of potholes, beautiful views, and a small, colorful town.
Port Antonio
Port Antonio was the most chill and beautiful place we visited in Jamaica. We stayed in the most perfect little house that overlooked the city and ocean. The view and location made up for the lack of AC in the house, and even for the rooster that crowed literally 24/7 and woke us up in the middle of the night. Portie was also the first time we experienced Jamaican rain on the trip. Dustan warned me beforehand how every afternoon is just pours rain, and Jamaica finally delivered! It rained so hard all night long--it was particularly loud on the tin roof of the little home. It rained like this most nights while we were in Portie, and sprinkled a couple times in the afternoon.
Breakfast at our Port Antonio home. Lovely view :)
Our first full day was busy! First thing in the morning, we visited the Port Antonio Lighthouse, the Bonnieview Hotel (now old, vacant, and scary looking) and the Folly Ruins.
View from the Bonniview Hotel
The Port Antonio Lighthouse
From there we went to Frenchman's Cove, a privately owned beach that was very mellow. (Fun fact, the movie "Knight and Day" with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz was filmed here.) The sand was just perfect and there were actually waves! Right along this cove a river emptied into the ocean. It was neat to feel the difference in temperatures and saltiness. Also, we had some fun on the swings by the river. It was great!
Swings just make me happy.
That awkward moment when a wave hits right as you take a picture...
After swimming there for a while, we headed to Boston to pick up their famous Boston Jerk Chicken and Pork and watch the surfers in Boston Bay. Unfortunately, the sales people here were a little extra pushy and it started to rain, so we left to go eat our Jerk at the world famous Blue Lagoon just down the coast. We took the video below as we were eating on a dock.
Boston Bay. I'm holding our Jerk chicken/pork, and Dustan has some coconut water.
Our second day here was another one of our favorite activities on the trip--we took a bamboo raft down the Rio Grande! We took a taxi up into the mountains a long ways, then hopped onto a raft to ride all the way back down to the ocean. Our guide let us stop and swim whenever we wanted. It was so incredibly relaxing and too cute. We loved seeing how the water was constantly changing colors depending on depth and probably some other factors we don't understand.
This was Kissing Ally. The guide told us we had to kiss. Gross.
After rafting, we headed back to the Blue Lagoon to catch a boat to a little island off the coast, called Monkey Island. We were the only ones on the whole island! From that island were said to be some of the greatest snorkeling spots in Jamaica--they sure didn't disappoint! To get out to the reefs, we first had to swim a few dozen meters or so across a huge field of sea urchins. The water was only about two feet deep, so without swimming quickly, our stomachs would have been scraping millions of sea urchins. It was just slightly terrifying. Dustan had never swam so fast in his life.
Gully takes some good pics.
But dang, when we got out to the reefs the view was amazing! Jamaica isn't famous for its snorkeling, but we thought it was pretty spectacular (neither of us had been snorkeling before so we were easy to impress). We saw colorful fish, a stingray, and a scary drop off into the black deep (just like in Finding Nemo).
After exploring the reefs for an hour (Dustan got tired, he can't effortlessly float like me ha), we headed back to land and hung around the Blue Lagoon. We even swam in it! Apparently the Lagoon is supposed to be closed to the public--maybe on its way to becoming a protected national monument?--but it wasn't hard to get in and take a dip with the locals :) It was interesting to feel the distinct layer of cold, fresh water on top as you jumped in, and sink into the warm, salt water below. It's a feeling you can't understand until you try it!
The world famous Blue Lagoon!
Proof we swam in it (Dustan is diving in)
Our last full day in Jamaica :( We went to Winnefred Beach, which is more of a beach the locals spend time at. There were a few too many sea urchins for our taste, but it was a beautiful, sunny day and we had a blast swimming in the Caribbean as usual. We also saw the craziest fish here! Dustan got down close to it and it fanned out electric blue wings and took off (see the video below)!
We got our last jelly coconuts and just relaxed on the beach.
Rastafarian and bamboo
That night, we got our last cookshop from Zilly's Kitchen (where we ate every single night, SO delicious) and went to the local public beach to watch the sunset.
I had to, okay
Finally, we had to drive back to Montego Bay and catch a flight home. I finally drove in Jamaica, but Dustan only lasted a few minutes before he took over again, haha. I must have been scaring him!
We miss it! We are so thankful to have had the financial means to make this trip happen. We truly are blessed, and this world is beautiful :) We can't wait to go back some day!
