Jamaica Called Me . . . Not Kidding

28 April 2017

When I was a travel agent I got to do quite a bit of traveling. The company I worked for sent us on "FAM" trips . . . "Familiarization Trips" . . . where we got to check out places that the tour companies we booked through wanted us to sell. Sometimes we got to go places that were rebuilding after a hurricane or storm to see which properties were open to business.

One of those "after a disaster" trips was to Cancun . . . just after Hurricane Gilbert devastated that peninsula! Some of the hotels down there had watermarks inside that were at the 25 to 30 foot mark . . . whole beaches had been washed away . . . pools filled with sand and trees . . . houses gone . . . a ship washed onto a beach next to a hotel . . . A SHIP!!! I'd never seen anything like it. But when you're in the tourist business, you have to get back on your feet fast, so they were rebuilding and repairing like crazy! Bulldozers pushed mountains of imported sand to create new beaches . . . construction workers scurried around hotels making necessary repairs . . . plumbers laid new pipes right across the floors just to get water flowing! It was insane!

I also got to go to Jamaica . . . under much better conditions . . . with 13 other travel agents.

We toured 6 of the most exclusive all-inclusive resorts on the island . . . from Montego Bay to Port Antonio. The resorts treated us like royalty . . . well, because we were travel agents and they wanted to be sure we would recommend their places! The great thing about this trip was that in addition to seeing some of the coolest properties, we also got to do things tourists enjoyed . . . like going to Dunn's River Falls! Now THAT place is beautiful! It's a waterfall . . . of sorts . . . it doesn't exactly fall straight down into a pool of water like most waterfalls do though . . . the water flows over rock formations that form an angular path down the mountain. Swimmers start and the top and slide or fall into the next area until you reach the bottom.

Me . . . Michelle . . . Mellodie at Dunn's River Falls

One really cool place that we got to visit was Rose Hall . . . a mansion that, according to legend, was haunted by the ghost of a woman, Annie Palmer, also known as "The White Witch," who murdered 3 husbands there! Johnny Cash even recorded a song about her: "The Legend of Annie Palmer!"
 

Rose Hall

We spent 4 days wandering through the north side of the island. My friend Michelle had a memorable experience (thanks to the legend of Rose Hall), but we'll talk about that another time. I don't want to get too sidetracked.

So, when you have a cell phone and no home phone, you are required to share your number if you sign up for credit cards or accounts with mail order companies. Problem is . . . just like when we had home phones . . . solicitors now have access to your number . . . and they call!! You can get on the "no call" list, but I don't think that really helps. Cool thing about cell phones is that they're all equipped with Caller ID, so if you haven't loaded a number and someone calls you, you can simply ignore it. If it is someone you know . . . that for some reason you don't have their number loaded . . . and it's important, they'll likely leave a message. I don't mind it as much as I used to, but I wish they'd make selling your number to telemarketers illegal!

Enough rambling though.

My phone rang one day, and when I looked to see who it was, the caller ID told me it was Jamaica. Not kidding! Where the name should be it said Jamaica. I thought it was so funny that I posted it on FB!

Well, I thought it was funny . . 

"Tired feet always say the path is long." Jamaican Proverb