Dave & the Quest for the Golden Stream

If anything bad was going to happen to anyone on this trip, it would have to be Dave. Our first day here he managed to step on a sea urchin after Dale and I spent quite a lot longer touching them. He was in considerable pain but Jocelyn stepped up and helped out, true friend that she is!

Monday, after a fabulous 10 hour sleep, we all met up for breakfast and to plan out our week. We decided to stick around the resort that day, and headed over to the Sandy Cove beach area. With some hot sun and beautiful water to play in, we thought it would be fun to snorkel. We had enough equipment for everyone (though our cheap, children's snorkels from Italy will be discarded) so we took off exploring. Bryan took off out to the deeper area and quickly returned to warn us all that there were sea urchins hiding all throughout the seaweed and beyond so we knew to be careful.

My snorkel equipment was not working, water literally dripping into my mask despite how many times I tried to adjust it, so I threw it out and gave up. Jocelyn had gotten spooked by the depth of the water and lent me hers, so I headed out to some coral the boys were swimming around. As I was going out, I realized the water was fairly deep but I still was nervous seeing all those seas urchins down in the water. Some were so well hidden under leaves and other debris!

The further out I got, the more coral I saw and over one small cliff suddenly there were these huge urchins with dark, 10 inch long spikes. Thinking, what if I lost my buoyancy and sat up vertical? I might hit one! I met up with the boys and Bryan called to me. I kind of went upright but was careful. Then Dave comes up out of the water, "oh crap. I think I just got stung again. I think I kicked a sea urchin".

Yep, so he did. My turn to pee on his foot! He is doing okay now but he is now the ongoing brunt of any joke relating to ailments or a problem that may be encountered. It's become like Final Destination - we are all imaginings the possibilities and trying to prevent these from happening so you just know something extremely crazy and outlandish will happen to Dave before the week is out!

Today was a long day and we are all very tired. We took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Ochos Rios to do some snorkelling off a catamaran and to climb Dunns River Falls. It was a fun, relaxing day but I think the excursion was over commercialized. The falls were beautiful and once I reached the top and saw that area not covered will tourists, I can imagine a serene, peaceful falls for those people that were lucky enough to experience this before it became such a tourist trap. It was worth the time and money to see it.

We are all beat. It's off to bed shortly as we try to figure out tomorrow, possibly Negril. The Mexican restaurant was quite tasty tonight and I must give great compliments to our attentive waiter, Kenneil. Last night's a la carte was Jamaican - the food was awesome but service was slow. But, we are on vacation and not really up against the clock.

I need to go for a run tomorrow though.

Posted with Blogsy