I got a lovely pair of gifts from my mum and Hubs, which may have started a new addiction (you might already have seen if you've dropped by my Instagram feed - Eat. Shop. Fly.) but I'll tell you about that another day!
For today's post, I'm taking us back to Jamaica for the second part of my travel flashback! If you've missed the first part, you can catch it here.
Our next excursion was up in the hills, to visit Bob Marley's house.
I only knew a little bit about Bob Marley before we went to Jamaica, and knew very little of his music, but I truly enjoyed learning about his world. The whole place is treated like a shrine (there's actually a mausoleum for Bob and some family members on site) and it's clear from the way the staff and locals speak about him that he really was an inspiration and his ideologies and way of life were worshipped.
Part of the tour took us in to the house that Bob Marley actually grew up in. Apart from the red, yellow and green stripes (which had been added in afterwards) the house was pretty much as he had left it.
There's a line in 'Is This Love?' which goes '...we'll be together, with a roof up over our heads, we'll share the shelter of my single bed...' and it's this very house and this very bed that he's talking about.
Outside, there is a rock (again, paint added afterwards!) that was said to be where Bob laid when he needed to feel inspired. The setting of the house is so beautiful, I can understand how this worked for him!
If you're ever in Jamaica, this is definitely worth a visit - the atmosphere and environment were brilliant. We even got the chance to sing along to 'Don't Worry' - a crowd of people and one man, sitting, playing a guitar. That song always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside now!
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The last trip we went on during our Jamaican adventure was a two-in-one sort of thing. The first half of our day was spent at YS Falls (much closer to our resort than the more famous Dunn's River Falls) and the second half was at the Appleton Rum Factory.
The weather wasn't what we had come to expect for the first part if the day, with a little lot of rain but it was so warm and humid that it was actually quite refreshing and didn't spoil the experience.
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| The view from our window that morning! |
What did threaten to spoil things though, was the fact that our camera battery ran out and we'd forgotten to take any spare (they were sitting in the hotel room an hour away!!). Thankfully, we made friends with some lovely people in our group who took some photos for us and, about a month or so later, a disc full of photos landed on our doorstep. So, a huge thank you to Mark and Sarah for these pics!
We took a river boat down to the Falls and the view was spectacular - we'd gone from tropical beaches to jungle in the blink of an eye!
The Falls themselves were breathtaking. There's the option to grab a rope and swing in, if you're the brave sort. I'm not that sort, but Hubs is, so in he went!
I'm pleased we had Sarah there to take the photos, as I had my eyes shut and would have missed capturing his Tarzan moment!
Just before getting back to the dock we bumped into this guy...
We'd been looking out for crocodiles all the way through the tour and were starting to think we'd missed them, but luckily he was there waiting at the last minute!
After the Falls we headed to Appletons Rum Factory. The factory still produces rum but they've left a lot of the original equipment in place to show how it used to be done 'back in the day'!
The donkey isn't put to work these days, but his ancestors used to spend their time walking round in circles to grind the molasses out of the sugar canes. One of the important steps in making good rum (apparently!).
We had a tour of the distillery, processing and storage rooms and it was very interesting to learn the lengthy steps to making a perfect rum. There was also a lot of opportunities for tasters on the way round the factory, including some 40% proof rum (just a thimble full!), so we were a little bit tipsy on the way home but it made for a brilliant day!
On our last day in Jamaica, we caught some heavy winds from Hurricane Tomas and, unfortunately, the beach took a bit of a battering.
Luckily, the Riu staff were well prepared and we had some indoor fun waiting for us! The storm passed without too much damage, thankfully,
Overall, our Jamaican holiday/honeymoon was amazing and it's somewhere I would not only recommend, but somewhere I hope to visit again some day. Not only is the country beautiful, but the people are so friendly and welcoming that I actually felt at home there and there's the perfect mix of relaxation and excursions to make the 14 nights we stayed feel like no time at all.
Big, long post again, so 'thank you' if you stuck it out 'til tthe end! I'd love to know any holiday recommendations and 'must go's' that you have, so please feel free to leave a me a comment.
Aimee x
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