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. :-)