Pumpkin is the New Black: Jamaica Day #4

Like I said, today was the most exciting day of our trip, by far! It had been all about R&R up until this point, but we are some fun-loving people, and we needed to kick this thing up a notch.

Plus, we had a resort credit that could be applied to excursions, so free = fun!!

Before we left for Jamaica, I asked everyone I knew if they had ever been there before, and everyone who had all suggested we do the Dunn's River Falls hike. When the time came to sign up for activities, that was the first on our list!

Our excursion was booked by our concierge, and it was hosted by Island Routes/Red Locks.

We met some people on the catamaran that had come off a cruise ship and had booked this as a shore excursion on their cruise, so you don't have to stay at Sandals to enjoy this same outing. I looked on their website, and it looks like it can also be booked by anyone, if you're going to Jamaica on your own.

#takemewithyou

These are the Hobie Cats we weren't ever able to play around on.

#bummer

If you decide to go on this excursion, here's a few tips:

1) wear a bathing suit under your clothes. That's all you'll wear when you snorkel (obviously), but that's all you'll wear hiking the falls, too. Bring some clothes to wear over your bathing suit that you don't mind to get a little dirty, and if it is fast drying, more's the better. I wore Nike shorts and an old UT football t-shirt

2) wear sturdy water shoes. Flip flips won't cut it on the falls, and I wouldn't want to go barefoot. I found an ancient pair of Tevas in my closet and wore those. If you should forget to pack any, the gift shop sells them. Just make sure you get a pair from somewhere before you get on the catamaran.

3) Bring towels. The resort hadn't put out the complimentary ones yet, and that's what we were planning to take with us. Luckily the boat had some, but there was a huge wait to get them, and it would've been nice to go right to my bag and use my own.

4) If you have your own snorkel gear, bring that. Again, the boat provides it, but not waiting for it is a big plus.

5) Don't forget sunscreen!

6) Bring a camera! I bought a disposable underwater one to take with us, and I'm so glad I did!

7) The hike is fun, but it's no joke, either. Be prepared for a pretty long, steep climb up a waterfall. As long as you're mobile, everything should be fine, but if you have mobility issues, this might not be the excursion for you. Or you might want to talk to the concierge about staying on the boat during the hike.

These are our friends we met that night in the hot tub, and we also shared a table with them at the beach party. They were a HOOT!

This is the building that houses Soy Sushi Bar (the reddish/dark brown part of the building right in the center) and Kimono's.

This is the resort right next to ours. I'm not sure of the name, but I thought the colors were beautiful.

A cruise ship in harbor.

Views from around the catamaran....

Our sumo snorkel gear...

See the guy in the red shirt behind us? He works with Red Locks. He would dive down to the bottom and bring things up for us to touch and see. Like I said, the water was really choppy all over the island, and even though the water was clear, there weren't many fish to see. We saw a couple of stingrays (so cool!) and another kind of fish (flounder, maybe?). The redshirtguy brought up a sea anemone for us to play with, and he would point things out along the way.

Next up, Dunn's River Falls!

The tour guides sell a DVD, which I think is totally worth buying. Truly, I think we could've bought just one for the four of us to share, but I'm having trouble downloading those pictures to my computer (which is why I don't have any of them here; these are all from my glorious disposable camera), so I'm glad I have one of my own to watch at home. I'm going to keep trying to download it, though.

After the snorkeling and hiking, it was time to PARTY! And party we did! They had Red Stripes waiting on us when we got back on the boat, and the onboard DJ got the party started!

Storm clouds didn't dampen our spirits! They were short lived, anyway.

Andy, one of our hot tub Minnesota friends, came up with the idea of all of us getting on the back of the boat and taking a picture doing the same pose. I thought it was pretty silly at the time, but looking back on the pictures, it just cracks me up! Glad we took these now!

Jeff messed up the pose...

And Leeann got one of the boat guys to do it with her!

Kathy

Lori

And Andy.

This might just be my favorite picture ever.

#MiamiViceforever

As usual, a twerk lesson ensued.

As you might imagine, I was terrible at it.

Doesn't mean we didn't have fun trying, though!

I'm telling ya, this was SUCH a fun trip!! We had a blast!!! My only complaint is that I wish it could've lasted longer. Or that they don't offer just the "booze cruise" option. We would've done one every day!

This guy made us drinks call "Mmmm Mmmm". I don't have a clue what was in them, but I'd love to have another one right now!

Our awesome DJ!

The crew were just amazing. They all lined up after the cruise and high five, fist bumped, or hugged each of us getting off the boat. One guy accidentally elbowed my drink, spilling it a little. He ran back in, fixed me a fresh one, and gave it to me! I couldn't believe it! I used all of the cash we brought with us to pay for our DVD, so I hate that we didn't tip them more. I did have a few dollars that I left in the tip shell on the bar, but it just wasn't enough. These guys (and girls) were wonderful!

Look what was waiting on me back in the room!

There was one restaurant at our section of our resort that required reservations, and we made our reservations for that same night. After we got ourselves cleaned up, we made our way to Soy for appetizers (of course), and then to Kimono's for dinner.

And of course our requisite waterfall picture...