As an international student attending college in the US this was my introduction to the art of College vacation, American style. It was fun but not impressing.
Now, back to the trip itself.
We stayed at the cheapest place available in town (MoBay), so it wasn't A/I
by any means. I'm an experienced traveler now but back then I was just
starting. We were also there during ellection week which we were told
it could be dangerous.
From the moment we stepped out of the plane the tour leaders/organizers
(yes, we were on a package tour with transfers included), did not stop
emphasizing how dangerous Jamaica was and that we should not walk alone,
especially at night. It freeked us out and it took us almost the entire
week to notice that it wasn't that bad. Later we realized that what
they were trying to do was to get us to stay with them, spend our money
on their organized tours and eat at the restaurants where they get
commission.
In fact, we were missled, or even lied to by the travel agent, right from
the start. Our hotel was out of the city, in the surrounding hills. The
agent told us that the hotel had an ocean view but it didn't. She told us
it was within walking access to the beach but it really wasn't unless we
felt like hiking for about 30 minutes to get to the beach. She said it
would be OK to walk over to the city but the first thing we were told upon
arrival was not to walk outside at night because that was a dark and
isolated area and bad things could happen. So, expectedly, disapointment
settled in. Worst than that, they overbooked the hotel and we were left
waiting for the rest of the day, for a room to open up. We arrived before
noon and were not given a room until 5pm, on a different hotel which at
least was a better hotel.
I guess the fact that we chose the cheapest package deal available in the
market could have something to do with this bad experience. Like they always
say: "you get what you pay for."
Bad things aside, we actually enjoyed our vacation. On our first day we went on
a day trip to Dunns River Falls in Ocho Rios. It was fun and I even bought a
giant sombrero-like, straw hat. I did scrape my entire stomach on a hiden
rock in one of the lagoons but that's besides the point.
On another day we took another day trip to Negril and Ricks Cafe. This was even
better. It would have been fun to stay in Negril, I thought. The snorkling was
just OK, but the cliff diving was great. In general, I didn't find Jamaica
to be that spectacular when it comes to snorkling but then again, I didn't
try that many places.
Most of the week we just spent the day at Cornwall beach in MoBay and the
night at "The
Cave", one of the popular night clubs in town at that time. We slept very
little and drunk lots of cheap Rum. All in all, your typical, average Spring
Break vacation :-)
We tried a different restaurant almost every day. Dinner was our only meal
of the day. We did not go there to try the local gastronomy, but to have
fun. Besides, we were broke and couldn't afford more than one real meal a
day. In the morning a cup of coffee and some toast. On the way to the beach
we'd stop at a local bakery and buy a few really delicious beef patties and
pastries. Then through the market to buy fuit (usually bananas), and on to
the beach we went.
That food was good, kept us going the whole day, and best of all, it was very
cheap.
In the end, despite all of this fun we were still a bit disapointed. We did
not enjoy enough of the real Jamaica and some of the other people
hated it so much that they swore never to come back. I felt almost the
same but tried to keep an open mind about the whole experience, enough to
realize that it was just a bad experience.
Bottom line is, I want to go back some day and do it the right way before
scratching it off completely as a "Bad Place".