After a good night rest we enjoyed a beautiful breakfast (included with our room) at Tingalaya’s Retreat. Before long it was time for us to head off on our excursion. We decided that we would spend one day doing the tourist stuff and planned a fun filled tour day. We scheduled this before we left home and planned to have Rocky’s do the driving. Our driver was prompt and courteous. We started off by heading out of Negril toward Savannah la Mar on our way to Appleton Estates. The countryside of Jamaica is like nothing I have ever seen. The best word I can think of to describe it is Lush.
Once at Appleton, our driver handled getting us set up for the tour. We were show to the bar where they started giving us rum punch to drink (yes, at 10 a.m.).
It was awesome. After 3 or 4 glasses we were heading on our tour. It was very interesting to see how the rum is made and all of the processes. At the end of the tour we were able to sample 8 different types of rum and rum products. Yum!
Next up was YS Falls. What an amazing place! Once again our driver handled everything for us. We boarded a farm wagon and headed from the gates to the falls. Once at the falls (and pools) we were encouraged to head up the stairs to the top. One of the many folks who worked at YS took us to the top and used my camera to take some stunning photos of us. On our way back down, we both used the rope swing. He even took a video of us. Of course this would be the day I wore my new bikini. I actually ordered it from Ebay…and LOVE it!
After eating lunch, we headed to the Pelican Bar. Another truly unique Jamaican experience. We took a boat out to the bar. It is built out of driftwood on a sand bar. It was great. We enjoyed a beverage and watching the sting rays swim by. After a while we decided that if we stayed any longer we would be fried to a crisp, so we flagged down our boat and headed back to where our driver awaited.
It was about 2 hours back to Tingalaya’s. Once back, it was nap time (do you sense a theme?).
After we woke up, we headed to 3 Dives for some awesome jerk chicken and grilled lobster. We had Maria call us a taxi. The safest way to get where we needed to be.
On Saturday, we spent the morning relaxing, swimming and just hanging out. Saturday we went to lunch at the Canoe Bar and then headed to the grocery store. After having a couple of cocktails with lunch, we ended up forgetting about buying snacks and instead got rum and ingredients for rum punch.
About 4:00 our driver arrived to take us to Zimbali Retreat for dinner. I highly recommend this. The drive was, well interesting. The farm tour was very awesome, like nothing we have ever seen. Dinner was amazing. The food was excellent and the chefs put on a great show.
Sunday we spent snorkeling and just plain relaxing. We did a yoga class in the morning. While snorkeling we saw a sea turtle, it was awesome!
Monday it was time to head home.
