Tales from Jamaica: Day 5

We had water activities planned for today but the current wouldn't cooperate 😕. We were scheduled to go snorkeling this morning but the guy at the Water Sports hut said the water was too choppy and we wouldn't be able to see anything. So we went to where we could see things: the pool (stay with me here).  There are two trees by the main pool whose branches are cut to provide a sort of canopy of shade all along the one side. This is great for those of us who get grilled in the sun and turn to lobsters. The only bad part is that those trees produce tiny little flowers that fall into the pool constantly. There is seriously a staff member whose only job is to skim the pool all day. When he's not skimming he's standing by the bathroom, waiting to skim, and making you feel uncomfortable when you have to walk by him on the narrow walkway to go pee. Anyway, back to the seeing things part. Because these tiny flowers fall into the pool, bees go in the pool after them and many of them die! I couldn't stand by, sipping my Jamaican Smile, and let this happen! I saved 4 bees from certain death by scooping them out of the water and onto the cement. One recovered and flew away, one put up a good fight but couldn't rub all the water off of himself (or that's what it looked like he was trying to do) and later died. Another one walked out of sight so I'm not sure about his fate and the last one I left on the sidewalk right before leaving for lunch so I can't say for sure what happened to him. But the point of this story is to tell you all that I helped save the bees and I wasn't even wearing my SAVE THE BEES shirt. Something needs to be done about the bee death trap that is unintentionally set at the pool at our Jamaican resort! I bet no one has even considered that being a cause of bee deaths but it is. I've seen it with my own eyes 👀. I'm only one person, I can only save so many bees. Someone help!

We had lunch at the restaurant right beside the pool and we were ridiculously excited to see they were serving tacos! (I've told you how much I love Mexican food, right?) they were delicious and made me happy 😊. 

We had mentioned to each other a couple of times that we were surprised by the lack of creepy crawlies (aka lizards) there have been. We normally see all kinds of tiny little suckers running around whenever we're in the Caribbean. Have I mentioned I don't like things touching my feet? Yeah well, those little a*holes will run right across your feet. I like to look at them, I do not want them anywhere near my feet. They're super fast, too, so I'm surprised we got pics of the two we finally did see.

Both are Jamaica Anoles. They can change colors and have a bright orange dewlap that pops out when they are threatened. They grow to be about 6 inches long. When we were looking at them one of the staff from the Water Sports came by and asked if we wanted him to take our picture (Pool hair=no thanks). We told him we were looking at the iguana in the tree and he told us there aren't iguana on this side of Jamaica, only little lizards. And since we both think we know everything we thought he was wrong and googled it to find that they're Anoles 🤷🏻‍♀️ He was right...okay? I said it. 

I hate the lizards but I'm not sure which is worse, them or the nasty caterpillars we saw in Puerto Rico in 2012. They don't run across your feet because, well, they're caterpillars so they don't move super fast BUT, I hate caterpillars and they're HUGE! For real, they're over 6 inches long and they stink so bad if they get squished. And no, I didn't squish any. I do not like them but I wouldn't kill one..unless it crawled across my feet... 😉. Anyway, I have an actual pic of one that I took but it's at home somewhere on a hard drive of pictures that we never look at so here's a google image for you:

You would think since they're so big and bright that people would notice them, right? I know I sure did. Seriously, they were everywhere. Like, tens of them on the sidewalk. But someone ended up stepping on one by our room one night and the smell....oh yuck. Don't do it. It's not a good time. Just sayin'. 

 Can you tell we had a slow day? 😂

This evening we went to dinner and the waiter asked where we were from. We said WV and he thought about it for a second and then said, "Country Roads?" and I was so excited because many people in the US don't even know we're a state so it was awesome to know a Jamaican knew about us. I replied, "Yes!!" really excitedly and he said, "Yeah mon, I like that song" lol. So thanks John Denver. By the way, they really do say, "yeah mon" all the time, that's not just a stereotype. 

River rafting tomorrow on the Martha Brae river on a 30 foot bamboo raft powered by a Jamaican. Can't wait! 

OH!! I almost forgot: we didn't get offered any weed to buy today! Maybe they were all out 🤔.