Celebrating 30 Jamaican Style

The year 2016 meant the big 3-0 for me!  Even when I was really young, I can remember always wanting to go to Jamaica.  I have no idea where that came from, but something about it attracted me.  So when it came time to pick where I wanted to go for my 30th, it didn't take me long to decide on Jamaica.  It was a dream come true!

We stayed at Peartree Hill Estates, a VRBO.  It was a cute little villa on some land outside of Negril.  I really like getting to stay in a house away from the touristy hubbub.

On a hill, surrounded by palm trees

Hammock on the porch

Typical island style interior

We had a couple of dogs that guarded the place - wouldn't
say that they were one of the highlights of my trip

Also had some goats that sometimes freely roamed

We were taken care of by two locals, Bam and Dave.  Yep, he goes by Bam and I'd say it fits him pretty well.  Apparently everyone has a nickname in Jamaica.  I quickly became known as Rain because I guess I brought the rain with me.  There were some pretty good, heavy rains while we were there.  But Bam was our driver and also made sure we were all taken care of.  Dave was the property manager and the cook.  Both were full of personality and quickly taught us that we were going to have to live by island time. Ya mon, no worries!
One of the perks of staying at a place like this and having someone there to cook is that you get to enjoy the local food.

Dave made sure we got to eat lots of local fish

And we even had a place to eat outside under a thatch umbrella,
 overlooking the incredible view

A beautiful sight for my eyes

and an even better sight!  All the mangoes I could
hope for!  Plus little bananas, guava, and papaya.
I love tropical fruits!

I was on a hunt for soursop and breadfruit the whole time I was there.  I did get to have some breadfruit.  And then I finally found some good soursop on the second to the last day there.  My tropical desires were satisfied!

This was the most relaxing trip I've had in a long time, which little did I know that it was exactly what I needed.  Pretty much every day consisted of:

• Wake up for the sunrise
• Drink a fresh coconut that Dave had just cut down from a tree
• Eat some breakfast
• Put on swimsuits and drive to the beach (we went to the same beach every day because it was the best and we got to know all of the staff there and they had free wi-fi that sometimes worked, which is important when you're still trying to keep up with grad school while out of the country)
• Swim for a while
• Lay on a lounge chair for a while
• Swim some more
• Hide under the cabana when the rain came through
• Walk the beach
• Drive back to our villa before dark
• Enjoy a delicious meal that Dave had prepared
• Play games
• Try to sleep over all the noises - dogs, music, bugs, etc

And repeat it again the next day.  It was quite the life.

We did have a couple of days where we did some different excursions.  One day we went to Rick's to see the cliff diving.  I was only brave enough to jump off of the 10 ft. platform.  Seeing people jump off and land really badly on the 40 ft. platform was enough to turn me away.  And that place is soooo touristy.  A couple of hours there was more than enough.  We were ready to go back to our local beach the rest of the time.

We also went on a catamaran ride, which was great.  We went on a sunset cruise with snorkeling, a swim into a cave, a stop at Rick's, and then dinner was served.  It was beautiful and fun to be out on the water riding the waves and watching the sunset over the ocean.

One of the funniest adventures came unexpectedly. We walked out one morning to find a crab sitting on the bench under our cabana.  We decided we needed to make Dave proud and catch the crab.  It would make a good meal!

Just chillin' in the cabana

He doesn't even see that the crab catcher
is coming!

Like I mentioned in the typical day list, I woke up for the sunrise every morning because there's not many better ways to start the morning in my opinion.  Here are a few of my favorites...

And then follow it up with this...

So, so very happy!

This is the way to start a morning