Granite

Some of you may know my friend Rebekah Granat. She is a rock climber. Like she climbs all over the world in between being a nurse. We did the triathlon together with Ariana in San Jose in 2008.
I, on the other hand, think rock climbing is amazing in theory, but until yesterday I had only done it inside. And that was only like 5 times.
About a year ago, I got an outdoor rock climbing experience for my birthday. Whichever one I wanted. I just used it yesterday.
It was hands down one of the coolest things I've ever done in my whole life.
So the class I chose was about a 7 hour class. It could have up to 6 people. It was only me. My instructor is 30 years old. Her name is Amylee. She's been climbing her entire life. And snowboarding. And mountaineering for 23 days on an Alaskan glacier. And being a hiking guide. You know, ain't no thing. But seriously, she's so cool. And she has a little girl named Aven and I LOVE that name.
Amylee and I got along super good, and that made the whole day amazing.

The climbing we did was quite a bit different than I thought it would be. I was picturing climbing something like this:

Something very jagged with lots of places to put your HANDS and FEET. This mountain is in the middle of town near my house.
Instead, this was my first climb:

 

This looks like I'm way far up, but really, it's only about 15 feet at this point. I did go up to about 40 feet on this climb though (and about 80 feet on a climb later). I almost cried going down I was so excited. (Not because it hurt or anything- this was one of the easier climbs.) But the view and everything was just beautiful and I could not believe I was really doing it!
So the rating system of climbs is basically 5.0-5.15. 5.0 is really easy. Only a few people in the world can do 5.15's. This is a 5.4 or 5.5. The one where I'm sitting at the top was a 5.6 or 5.7. I did one 5.8 that kicked my butt. I could not even start the 5.9. I was tired, but it was also really really hard. That's the bottom picture.

Amy and I climbed together, so I would climb and then she would climb and I would "belay" her, which means I held the rope and made sure she didn't fall. At the first location, she just walked around the back of the mountain and placed the rope, but then we got in her Subaru (shocking, I know) and drove to another location, where you could not do that. Instead, she climbed up, attached herself to one of the anchors and then kept climbing until she got to the other one. So then I was called a "lead belay." Which basically meant I had to keep the rope the perfect combination of loose and tight. Too loose and she would trip. Too tight and I would pull her off the mountain. And always paying attention because if she fell, it would always be at least 8 feet. No pressure. Before she got on the mountain, she said I looked nervous. I told her of course I looked nervous. I learned how to do this 2 hours ago. She told me I was doing awesome, that I was a fast learner, and that she had complete confidence in me. And that she wasn't going to fall, anyways. And then she got on the mountain. And she didn't fall and it was fine. And then on my climb, I got to take off all the "quick draws" (the carabiner's that she had put on the anchors) and even though it wasn't hard, I felt cool. :-)

I love my arm in this picture :-)

In one place (on the 5.8), I got stuck for like 10 minutes trying to get up and my foot kept sliding. I was getting so frustrated. It took me forever to try to get up. Later, when Amylee did the same climb, it took her a little while, too (Not nearly as long, but like 1 minute instead of 10 seconds). When she got to that part, she was like, "Good work up here! This place is BLANK!" It made me feel good to know that even someone who'd been climbing her whole life had a hard time in that place. :-)
So, all in all, I climbed up in 6 different places and went up 7 times. I got two tiny little cuts on two fingers (Amylee called them "rips" and then taped them. So I was like totally authentic then.)
Amylee said we could be climbing partners- like she'll call me if she's in Phoenix and I'll call her if I'm in Prescott, and that made me SO EXCITED!!!! And she might go camping with me and my friends sometime. And basically, it was just the coolest day ever.

The hardest one. No, I could not get up it. 

The View from where we started. 

Brittany Jumps Out a Window

So... Monday was the official craziest day of the trip. Part of the excitement of going to Jamaica for me was actually seeing Jamaica. Like the country and the beautiful jungle and waterfalls. Not just the beach. Brittany agreed. Vanie thought we were nuts. She wasn't having any of it.
There's a few ways you can explore Jamaica:
- Rent a car. NOT! How many seconds of me driving on the left side of the road do you think it would take before I got in a wreck?
- Minibus- crowded and questionable
-Tours- very nice and quite expensive
- Taxis- somewhat less expensive and they spend the whole day with you and your friends.

The taxis come to the hotel so they know which ones are reputable. So Mack was our driver. He picked us up early Monday. Earlier than we realized, 'cause it's not like anyone told us he was there. We had asked Maurice, our adorable security guard to come with us. It had been his birthday on Friday- he had just turned 26- and he'd never really seen any of the touristy stuff in Jamaica. Monday was his day off. So he came with us.
The plan was first: waterfalls and second: bamboo raft down a river. It went a little differently.
The ride to the falls was about an hour and a half. Plenty of time for things to crop up.
First, we saw a car accident on the side of the road. As in, 50 Jamaican people crowded around someone lying in the street and no ambulances. I almost had them stop right there, but then we passed an ambulance so I felt better.
Second, we saw tons of goats alongside the road. Apparently people do own these goats, but they're allowed to walk up and down the streets.
After about an hour, we stopped at Discovery Bay, where Christopher Columbus discovered Jamaica a few years after America. The water was gorgeous, but the stop was totally unexpected and we got swarmed by people wanting us to buy things from us the second we got there. They were offering to braid our hair, rushing us through the artifacts, and taking our picture. This is a picture our "tour guide" really really wanted me to take. He kept telling me how jealous Brittany was going to be that I had this picture and she didn't. Are you ready? Are you ready?

Yes, because everybody, everybody needs a picture of them petting a painted dog. ya, man.

Some of the natural "foliage"

However, the water was gorgeous and it was a beautiful place. We soon realized, however, the reason for our unexpected stop. Apparently our car was overheating and our driver needed a "clamp" to fix it. Apparently a pretty easy fix. About 10 minutes past Discovery Bay, we entered a town. It was definitely a poor little town, and a little scary for us, but mostly just different than what we were used to. Mack, our driver, pulled off to the side of the road and asked about the mechanic shop, which we were close to. So we pulled to the back of it which was this little alley that opened up basically into a field. In the "field" were 5 older Jamaican guys sitting on 3 broken cars and 2 younger Jamaican guys. We were in a minibus, and the engine was under the passenger seat.  So Mack gets out and starts talking to the mechanics, telling them what's up in Jamaican, so we didn't understand. He then gives Maurice some money and tells him to go buy coolant. So now it's just me and Brittany chillin' in the bus in the shady "mechanic shop."

Brittany in disbelief at what is going on ..... Notice her window here.
 Notice the engine in front. I was sitting in the row behind her. 

Then suddenly, one of the younger kids pops the cap off the radiator, exactly what he had been told NOT to do. Coolant starts going everywhere. Of course, we didn't really know WHAT the fluid was, only that suddenly hot fluid was spurting towards us.

View from the car.

Brittany jumped out the window.
Like fast.
Like before I could process what was happening.
Like I didn't even SEE it happen.
I just saw liquid and then a heap of Brittany on the ground outside.
And I was incredibly confused.
I looked up for a second to decide if I should be scared.
When smoke started coming towards me, I opened the door and got out.
Maurice was so confused when he came back.
Meanwhile, Brittany was all sorts of broken. Her elbows were all scraped up, her flip-flop was half-bloodied from a cut pinky toe, and the next day her forearm swelled up in an awful bruise. And she was wondering if she broke her tailbone.
 It was so crazy. We were all kind of laughing and in shock. Someone shouted for water, but Brittany was quite convinced she was going to get some crazy disease if she put Jamaican water (from a cracked up antique gas can) on her wounds. So she refused. Instead, they led us to the BAR next to the mechanic shop. Only two people were in it, and they led us down some stairs into the back to a little bathroom. I couldn't figure out how to turn on the water (it looked like concrete where the faucet should be), but luckily I had brought a little bottle of water and some Neosporin in my purse. So we cleaned Brittany all up and she stopped bleeding. Yay!
But by then, Brittany was not in the mood to hike a six-story waterfall. So we didn't. (Lame.) We were all kind of bummed about that, but maybe next time....
Instead, we turned around and headed to the river for bamboo rafting.
 Once again, everything is shadier in Jamaica, and we ended up paying an individual guy and not the office for our ride (since apparently they would have charged us more). There's just a weird feel to the whole thing, but when you can forget that, the actual ride was amazing.  It took about an hour or so, and Maurice and I even jumped in at the end!

It was so relaxing, and Maurice kept talking the whole time and teaching us about Jamaica. He has such an excited, almost little-boy voice that combined with his Jamaican accent we just loved him. I kept thinking about how much my mom would love this kid. (And I'm still kicking myself for not recording his voice. I never had my cell phone with me, so I didn't even think about how handy that would be. Whatev.) At one point he stood up on the raft and spread his arms out and said, "Tanks be to God for my friends letting me enjoy Jamaica!!" It was so cute :-)

 We all got to take turns being the driver! That was super fun for me.

When we got in our car, we waited a minute or two while Mack talked to some random guys. This motorcycle guy was the ice cream "truck" that drove up while we waited. He had ice cream cones and an ice cream scoop and everyone (besides us)bought one. Entrepreneurship at its finest :-)

Afterwards, we drove through downtown Montego Bay (at my request) which was busy and crazy. And then we stopped a the Pork Pit where I had authentic Jamaican jerk chicken, which was ok, but not quite as incredible as I had expected. We took cute pictures anyways. Basically, it was the craziest day ever. But super fun. And Brittany didn't break her tailbone. :-)

Yoga

So I'm not done with blogging Jamaica yet, but I had to post this. Ever since I've been back, I have had a yoga craving. So this morning, I didn't have to work until 1, so I went outside and did yoga (It is an incredibly gorgeous day today). There were a few more people around than I had planned on, but it was fun. I'm going to make this my morning routine :-)

yay!

Rodjjah

Oh, Rodjjah.
One of the most fascinating parts of Jamaica was the variety of people we got to meet.
But the most unique of all people had to be Rodjjah.

Rodjjah was a performer one night at Sandals Montego Bay. He sang a lot of 80's and 90's love songs that people went crazy over. He had some fabulous moves, I have to say. And an incredible voice. But I had to laugh at the cheesiness of it all. I had no idea well we would get to know each other. (Not like that!)
See, Sandals MoBay has an Irish Pub. Yup. That's right. It's open until 2 or 3 every night and the employees all dance with the guests. And sometimes the performers do, too. So we met and danced with Rodjjah.

 The next day, he was headed out of town when he saw us on the beach. And we proceeded to spend the day with one of the more hilarious people I have ever met in my life. We were laughing all the time (and I think the other guys might have been getting a little jealous!). We even all played bingo together.  Rodjjah is apparently not big on bingo and didn't realize he had one by going diagonal long before anyone else. When I pointed it out to him, he jumped up and started yelling, "BINGO LONG TIME! I HAD BINGO LONG TIME! LONG TIME!" It was so freaking funny. Kind of like the fact that he wore his sunglasses and military boots and delicious Russian cologne to the beach. And what we learned, is that
1- Swearing can be hilarious with a Jamaican accent
2- There is nobody quite like Rodjjah.
3- He told us to spell his name differently than this.

Waiting for Bingo to Start (Anthony with Vanie. He loves her.)

Enjoy his music video:

Johnny B & Ian & Sailboats & Snorkels

Ian

Me breaking the rules again and climbing onto the other boat.

As I said, we made a lot of 20-something Jamaica friends. These are two of them. Without them, we wouldn't have done half of the cool stuff we did. For example, Day 1 we were just hanging out on the beach, and they were like, "Sign up over there and meet us at these boats!" (All this stuff was included with our resort.) So we signed our names on the books and went sailing. It was so hard for me not to just jump off into the beautiful water. It was so blue and warm and beautiful! The guys kept speaking Patois around us, so we basically had no idea what they were saying half the time, but it sounded fun.

Ian and "Johnny B King of the Sea"

Hanging over the side :-)

Then they told us to sign up for snorkeling the next day, which of course we did. That turned out to be one of the coolest times of all. (We actually went twice). The first time was just me, Brittany, and a guy named Michael, whose wife apparently didn't feel like going. He was super cool.

Me & Brittany

These guys were way better divers than me! I could go
down about 15 feet- they did about 40 feet!

When snorkeling, you have the option of the "lazy" lifejacket (the safe one) or the "crazy" life jacket (that you can blow up if you want to, but you don't have to, so you can dive down if you want to). Britt chose lazy, I chose crazy (I know you're shocked). As we've discussed previously, I'm not the world's best swimmer, so getting used to swimming in the middle of the ocean with a snorkel mask and a disposable camera took a little getting used to. It may have also involved inhaling a good dose of salt water when I got too excited about diving under and breathed through my snorkel anyways. Oops. However, it was super cool and Johnnie B & Ian hung around us the whole time. I realized that I can't dive nearly as deep as I wanted to. Something about my ears killing me and running out of breath. More practice is definitely in order.

Vanie, me, and Brittany went again the next day. Vanie was more than a little nervous- there is something a little panicky about the whole thing, but she did good. It was so cool to see the coral and the fishes and the sea urchins and basically just a cool experience. I kept wanting my niece Kaitlynn to be there with me so I could show her Nemo's world. :-)

Fish & Brain Coral!

So cool.

Peas Porridge Hot, Peas Porridge Cold

The next morning I was awakened by Brittany's happy screams. "Christin, wake up!! We're in Jamaica!! You have to look outside!!!" This is what we saw:

I was in shock. oh my gosh. Really? I had never seen water anywhere close to that color. So beautiful!
And then we had breakfast.
Now, if you're like most Americans, you have only heard of porridge in Goldilocks & the 3 bears. You've never eaten it. You've had cream of wheat, grits, and oatmeal, but not porridge.
Neither had I.
Until I thought I was eating cream of wheat and it tasted like PEANUT BUTTER! As in my favorite food of all time. Brittany and I were like, "What is this deliciousness?!?!" It was peanut porridge. In the words of a few Jamaicans, who were SHOCKED that we had never had it, "It is porridge. We have all different kinds of porridge: peanut porridge, banana porridge, oats porridge, cornmeal porridge." Oh yes, porridge it is. Here's a recipe. I am so excited to try it. Although I'm wondering if they really use sweetened condensed milk. But that might explain why their cream of wheat with freshly toasted coconut also rocked my world. mmm....Jamaica

Welcome to Jamaica!

We got into Jamaica about 9pm. It was dark. The airport was almost empty.

My passport got stamped for the first time (yay!).

And then we were so confused. People who didn't work for our resort asked us to tip them as they drove us to our hotel. (Not who we expected). And then we drove past crazy buildings and people and were like, "Whew! We're glad we're not staying around here!" And 30 seconds later the bus stopped.
Ok, so I guess we are staying around here. ahhh!!
There was a small public beach across the street with random people still swimming and hanging out. Our hotel bed was nice and clean. The bathroom was a little sketchy, with flickering fluorescent lights and a questionable bathtub. Overall, it wasn't what I expected for sure (the website picture was not exactly accurate), but it was nice.
So...about Sandals. Sandals is an all-inclusive couples resort. There were actually 3 we could go to. We stayed at the smallest and cheapest. Sandals is not where I would generally stay. It's kind of like a cruise ship on the ground. Built-in restaurants, built-in entertainment. Ya know, stuff like that.  BUT... these resorts also hire the friendliest nicest people in the world. Who all happen to be guys in their twenties. Who were pretty much thrilled that 3 single girls showed up at a couples resort. We made a lot of instant friends.

First, we got back on a shuttle and headed to Montego Bay, where Vanie was. We ate chocolate desserts at the chocolate bar (yum!) and danced a little bit on the deck and in the bar. Vanie wanted to stay awhile longer, but Brittany and I headed back.

Jerk Chicken all night long... and veggies! (I ate like crazy, but I still ate lots of veggies & Protein!)

Vanie gets coconuts!

We jumped in the hot tub and met Maurice, our security guard and then stopped at the grill at our hotel and had jerk chicken and virgin drinks and met a few more Jamaicans and danced our first reggae of the week. I was already loving it, but I had no idea....