I had a pretty fun day but I’m completely wiped out! Bill went diving again this morning and he’s working on a post. I was wrong about about the other beaches not having security guards, and I got kicked off a beach that I needed to cross to snorkel this morning. That was very frustrating, but I was not deterred! I got a paddle board from the resort and bypassed the beaches to get to my snorkeling location. I found a perfect little cove not connected to a resort where I parked my paddle board and I spent the rest of the morning snorkeling. It was my best snorkeling trip here. The location was good and I was on my own so no time limit and no life jacket. I saw lots of neat stuff. The wind had really picked up on the way back, which made paddle boarding rough.

I just got back from a nighttime snorkel trip. Bill did a night dive. I saw a couple of squid, some sea slugs, and an octopus. I missed the octopus last time so I was really excited see one this time. It was awesome! I asked if I could borrow a flashlight from the resort so I could go night snorkeling on my own, but the dive people wouldn’t give me one. I don’t think they were super excited that I went snorkeling alone earlier today.

I got to meet some of Bills new dive friends for dinner before we all went out on the water. He met a couple from Texas. Sally is a GIS instructor (degree in hydrology) at a community college in TX and Sean works in tech. She travels a lot and has been certified to dive for a couple of years and Sean has decided to do the same thing. They seem nice and we enjoyed talking to them. I also went snorkeling tonight with a couple from Oxford, Mississippi. They were super friendly. They also got certified to dive today, but decided to snorkel tonight. They said I wouldn’t recognize Oxford. It’s grown enormously in the last 10 years. When school is in session, it has a population of 60,000. I think it was only around 20,000 when I was there.

I’m out of energy and that’s all I’ve got for tonight!

After my first dive today I was done with my certification other than turning in my tests and filling out some paperwork! I have a temporary card and have already logged my first dive after my certification. I have a log book now and I will have to keep track of my dives. 
My first dive was to 60 feet deep and the second was to 50. You always have to do your deepest first if doing consecutive dives in a day and there is a chart you have to use that tells you how long you can stay under and stay safe. 
Our instructor took the opportunity to take out a couple lion fish, he got a really big one that everyone else was impressed by. I’m not sure what the max size is. 
Down deep there really wasn’t much extra to see, I think that I seen more on the shallower dives yesterday. 
After I got back and had lunch I went and turned in my test. I missed a few, one was from miss reading. I should have a real card when I get back home. 

After getting my scuba stuff done we didn’t have much time left before our catamaran trip. It took us past the push cart restaurant and Rick’s cafe but no stop. Rick’s is famous for having a cliff in which you can jump from. We would like to do that but it’s a whole other trip. We will find somewhere else to do that. We did stop off and swim into some cave, I was hoping that it would be a through cave and come out somewhere but it was a dead-end so I didn’t go too far in, Emily went all the way. She did come out before everyone else and we were able to get back to the boat and do the slide a few time and that was fun. 

The cruise was nice on the way out it rained but on the way back if was very nice! 

It was a busy day but it seems like a short post. I do have some thoughts about resorts and this type of vacation that I will save for another night. I need to get some space freed up on the underwater camera! 

We had a pretty active day today. Bill did two dives this morning and finished up his scuba certification. I took the boat out to snorkel while he was diving, then I came back and snorkeled on my own. That was a better experience. We are on a bay with resorts all around, but no one is paying attention to whether you are on your resort’s beach. There is a beach on the other side of the bay near some rocks with much better snorkeling options, so I crashed their beach and saw some really neat stuff. As long as I stay close to the rocks to avoid boat traffic, I can snorkel outside the designated swimming areas. I saw some starfish in various colors, a sea mollusk of some variety, some crabs, lots of different fish and coral. I’m pretty sure a lot of the fish glow in the dark. I wish I had my own flash light. I have to pay $35 to night snorkel. If I had my own flash light, I could go on my own whenever I wanted for free and stay longer. I’m buying one as soon as I get home.

The water was also full of these clear gelatinous things. I’ve seen them before but there were billions of them in the water today. I wasn’t sure they were alive because they don’t seem to have internal organs, but I looked them up and I think they are salps – jellyfish-like animal that filter feed. Some of the fish were particularly friendly today and swam in an school all around me like I was part of their group. I forgot to bring them a cookie.

This afternoon, we went on a catamaran cruise. We’ve taken out small ones on our own, but this was a big one for a large group of people. When we started, it was raining and dreary and I was concerned that it would be a long three hours, but it turned out to be really fun. We swam into a cave, which was okay. Bill and I made the fortunate decision to go back to the boat to take advantage of the slide before everyone else got back. Boat slides are a lot of fun! We got to slide several times before the rest of the group made it back. Most other people only got to go once. The water was deep enough to dive off the back of the boat and that was fun too.

The boat trip back to the hotel was lovely! The rain and clouds cleared, it was a beautiful evening to be on a boat and the water was so clear that we could see starfish on the ocean floor. It was really a perfect evening to be on a boat.

The resort where we are staying is an adults-only resort. I assumed that all of the resorts in the area were adults-only. There are guys walking up and down the beach constantly offering people weed. I discovered today that the beach right next to the nude beach is a “kid-friendly” beach. There is no barrier and only a small sign separating the two beaches. When I was coming back from snorkeling, there was an 11 year old girl playing in the water next to some naked old people. This is a weird place.

I have almost completed everything for my Open Water Scuba certification. I have a final dive tomorrow morning to do and turn in all my book work. Hopefully I will pass! I’m guessing they pass everyone who doesn’t end up as fish food. 
We did stuff in the pool first which was a lot like doing the discover scuba class, I recommend doing those especially if you are at an all-inclusive that has a PADI shop and scuba is included. Sometimes it’s not. After the pool we went out into the ocean to do the skills there. We did a two tank dive there so technically they count us as having done 3 dives today, but I only went out once. We had to switch tanks which meant we got out of the water did the swap and got right back in. I should have brought my little camera, I seen one puffer fish and five lion fish.  I think that Richard or English as his Jamaican friends call him for some reason, would have liked to been spearfishing. He only gave the explanation that if you are Jamaican then you have a nickname as well as a regular name. He also has a few more variants on Richard as well.  He was a good instructor and was knowledgeable. 
I’m excited about get my certification card! I will need to start logging my dives and I will probably have to do some specialty classes as well. Maybe I will do the lion fish hunter class. I hear they are tasty and since they are invasive they need removed from the reef here. 

There was one other student in my class, he had a few problems but he had never done any scuba in the past. 

There is a fair amount of people who come here for diving. The all-inclusive with diving is a cheap way to do it. There is more places to dive here for scuba than for just snorkeling. 

Without rain we ended up having a day with more outside time which was nice. We do sit on the balcony or in the lobby’s swinging chairs when it rains but there’s also more inside time. That’s usually a good time for getting posts started, today I’m behind and Emily will have to post it Tuesday. She went to bed early. 

While we waited to kneeboard we sat and talked with a guy who lives in Chicago as a travel agent, he covers the Midwest. He was interesting. He reminded me of Serge from the Beverly Hills Cop movies, the way he talked a some of the mannerisms. He represents Jamaica or works with their tourism board. He helped get the nonstop flight to and from St. Louis that flys Saturday and Sunday, we will get to use that for our return. He was excited when Emily told him that we fly out of there. He also talked about resort vacations and that they tend to trap you on the property. 
He tried skiing, he got up once for a short time before face planting. I think next time he will knee board, he cheered us on when Emily and I took our turns. 
He told us that Sandals is higher end than Couples and that they offer more island options. He wasn’t able to give us a must do next place to go. He had some good information though.  

I think Emily was able to get up and strapped in faster than me on the kneeboard. I was able to get up though and then move back and forth over the wake, maybe in a few more I could do some jumps off the wake! We will have to see what all we have time for. Ten days seems like a long time but then the next thing you know it’s over. 

The resort does some special dining nights here that change the flow and times for dining. I think that I like having a constant option, same bat time same bat location (this is a TV show reference – does anyone recognize it?) and just mix up the offerings. Three of the places they do made to order and it flows like a restaurant. Not a fast restaurant. One of those three moves the location where you sit to a deck with a canopy roof and curtains for when it blows rain, by the ocean which is nice. The rest the time they call it a grill and will feed you in your swimsuit inside a more permanent structure though it has no doors or windows. Tonight was one of those special nights and they made our normal dining area into made to order only and they try to make it a dining experience. I like the buffet type option with the carving station and made to order station. They also used one restaurant to do a dinner for returning guests, one was closed and the asian one had the same menu as last night. I found it to be an odd choice mostly because I didn’t like it. 

There really is a wide range of ages here. I seen a old guy with a walker this morning and there are several couples that are probably close to 18. 

I need to get up early tomorrow and finish up my dive. Hopefully I can get some good pictures during my dive! 
Emily will have some from today to add to this post. 

We finally got a day with no rain! It was sunny and warm all day long so we had activities in the morning and in the afternoon. Bill did the first half of his scuba certification today. He’s finishing up the written part now so he may do an update tomorrow. He does the second dive to finish certification tomorrow morning. His training today went really well and he’s excited about diving. I think it will be a fun community of people for him to be part of.

I went snorkeling while he was diving. It was a good snorkel trip, but the water was rough so it was a workout. When you jump in the water, all these little fish come over to see if you have food. I think some of the snorkel guides bring bread crumbs so the fish are used to getting snacks. I have a leftover, dried out cookie that I might take tomorrow to see if they eat those. I went for a walk this evening and found a place where I think I can go snorkeling any time I want to. That would be much more convenient than going on the boat. I’m scheduled for another snorkel trip in the morning but I might try going on my own after that’s over. We only get 30 minutes in the water.

After lunch, Bill and I signed up for a windsurfing lesson. We got the lesson, realized that it was going to be crazy difficult and decided to do kneeboarding instead. Windsurfing is one of those things that’s best if you live close to water and have lots of opportunities to practice. It’s not something you can learn in a 10 minute demonstration on the beach. I had planned to try skiing, but I missed the ski lesson. I made it to the kneeboarding lesson and that worked out great. None of the people who tried skiing were successful but my kneeboarding experience went really well. It still takes some effort but it’s not nearly as difficult as actual skiing. It was pretty fun!

I went to swim after supper and that was my day. I’ve used up all my energy! I’ll have a few pictures once Bill has a chance to send them to me.

I’m going to start off with a few things that I keep telling myself that I should put in the blog. 

Did we mention that we are staying at Couples Negril? That should probably be day 1 but the travel day can really take it out of you! 
I’m not sure if things our readers are interested in hearing about from us are always covered in the posts, if you wish we would talk about something specific please leave us a question in the comments section and we will try and answer in our next post. You can also send us email or texts if you have that information.  My email is mwa435@yahoo.com if anyone wants to contact me directly. 
Feel free to send someone that may be interested in our blog a link like this one you can copy and paste 
https://travelingwithemilydotcom.wordpress.com/2021/05/21/rainy-day-in-jamaica/#comments
Hopefully it works for you! 
While ganja is prevalent in Jamaica it is illegal to actually use it. 
The sun here is harsh, Emily and I both have gotten a little burn in places where the sunscreen has been wiped of or coverage was limited. It seems very common for people here to miss their knees and to have very uneven coverage. Sprays and liquid sunscreen may be the way to go for even coverage. I still like the sticks though and I think that we are paying more attention to the application and I have stopped draping my towel over my shoulders to go down to the beach. 
We take a lot of showers here, sometimes on the beach to rinse the sand, salt water or the pool/jacuzzi water off and sometimes after just being out and about. Add those to the regular daily shower and that’s a lot of showering. For those who’ve not been in the ocean, the water leaves a film of salt and fine sand on you and you feel so much better after just rinsing off with plain water, it also helps to get it off your face and lips. 
There are what we assume are tree frogs that make a noise that reminds me of the ping with echo in The Hunt for Red October except instead of one ping only it is a constant barrage of them in the evenings. 
Today we hoping to get to go on the night snorkel! (I’m working on this after lunch) We’ve been taking it easy for the most part. We did do some swimming at the beach, which is shallow and all sand so there isn’t a lot to see with the snorkel gear, there are crabs and fish that are hard to see because they are naturally camouflaged. The bigger fish are easier to see because of their eyes. I floated with a fairly large school for a while just watching them leave a bubble around me. Mostly we were trying out our gear after I spent some time this morning cleaning the glass in both of our goggles with toothpaste to help with the fogging. Mine weren’t doing too bad but Emily had issues again with her’s. I did her’s 4 or 5 times and seemed to help, she didn’t have any issues today. I think that I will do a quick touch up before going tonight. We ended up having lunch a little later than normal. 
Emily and I have looked at the off site excursions that weren’t included in our trip and for the most part they seem rather overpriced. Some because we are unsure of the duration of the excursion. Others because we can do it anywhere and cheaper. There was only a couple that looked like possibilities. One we most likely will do. We do have a sunset cruise on Tuesday that should be fun and there’s another we are debating. We have definitely decided that we are travel critics, not sure if that is good or bad!? It would be nice to be able to check out some of the other resorts and their options. Like Emily mentioned in one of her posts, it’s very nice here if you didn’t know anything different. Even with the rain! Which it is doing again. We’ve had some issues in the past like with the grueling schedule in Peru and my problem with the Spanish school in Colombia, for the most part though we have had really good things to share and have learned for ourselves. I’m glad to be traveling again! 
Aisha tells us that there are four buildings on this resort that are empty because of covid. She and the staff has had one vaccine dose so far and they will get the second next month. She said she is ready for covid to be done. She also told us that it’s not just afternoons that it rains during the rainy season, it could go all day. I’m not sure what we would do if it does that. She is very nice and friendly. She has two boys one is two and the utter tis tirteen (how she say it mon). 
Dexter is actually Dexton. 
We went on our night snorkeling trip and we got to see some more sea life than our last trip. There was a turtle, some rays, puffer fish, star fish, lobsters, eels, a crab and a squid. There was an octopus that we didn’t get to see. It was under a board that I’m guessing they put down to attract said octopus. We do have some pictures that are okay. The water was a little murky and the flashlights weren’t super bright. 
It was a long day today, we tried to get in to eat before our trip and got some appetizers that we barely touched. The “nachos “ were chips and canned cheese dip and the anti-pasta plate only had a few things worth eating so we had granola bars. After we went to supper, it was better than the appetizers. I had a pizza and Emily had soup. I got dessert that contained way too much rum. I would have like to taste more of the chocolate mousse. I ate it anyway. 
So even though somewhere I was given the impression that one could get food 24 hours a day, that is not true. Some of the schedules are off for our normals. 
Thanks for reading! Shout out to Sebastian, I will have to look at reading some of the short stories! 

If you were going to buy something for a two and a half year old, would you get a ukulele or maracas? My friend has a little girl who I haven’t seen in over a year. Julianna doesn’t remember me, but I’d like to bribe her into liking me next time I get to see her. I feel like something really noisy that she can carry around with her would be a good option. The gift shop here has both ukulele’s and maracas. I could teach her this song called Pocked full of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield. It’s very kid friendly and sticks in your head and won’t leave. She could sing it with her new instrument. If anyone would like to weigh in on this, feel free to do so. Bill and I are planning to visit some other areas where shopping will be an option so I don’t have to decide immediately.

Bill spent part of the morning scrubbing our snorkel goggles with toothpaste. Once he was finished, we took them out to the ocean and they worked much better and didn’t fog up. It was really exciting! We are scheduled to do nighttime snorkeling tonight and we are planning to clean them again with toothpaste before we go. We just went into the water next to the resort this morning so there wasn’t a lot to see, but there are schools of little fish that are almost completely clear. The sand is white and there’s nothing to hide in close to shore so all the fish and crabs are either white or clear. You can see through them. It’s fascinating! I found a dead white crab and various sorts of whitish clear fish kept coming over it eat it. Unless you look closely, you think the water is empty of living things, but Bill and I snorkeled through some large schools of little fish. They were mostly clear with a blueish tent along the back where their vein/digestive system is.

It’s raining right now like it does most afternoons. I have Spanish lessons at 3pm so that will work out well. Bill and I are trying to decide what other activities we want to do next week. Even though this is an all-inclusive resort, a lot of activities are not included and they are very pricy. I thought about doing parasailing, but it cost $120 for about 10 minutes in the air. You can go snorkeling in the daytime as part of the resort package but it’s $35 to go at night even though the staff and the locations are exactly the same. There is an option for snorkeling, boating and cliff jumping that we will probably do. It’s a 3 hour trip for about $60 so that seems like a fairly reasonable deal. We want to mostly do things that are included since this is a fairly pricy vacation and we can do things like zip-lining in Costa Rica on another trip for less money. We are fortunate that we came to Jamaica now. Our cleaning lady just told us that 3 or 4 blocks of rooms are empty right now because of COVID. This place would be packed and crazy any other time. We are on a bay and it’s completely surrounded by resorts. I’m sure their numbers are low too. It doesn’t seem like this is a large enough area to manage all those people. I would definitely not want to be here when it’s full. If we get to keep traveling, Bill and I should become pretty good travel advisors. I’d consider organizing a trip to Costa Rica.

We did nighttime snorkeling tonight. It was awesome, but I’m completely wiped out so I’ll have to write about it tomorrow. Bill took some underwater pictures and video that we hope turned out well. I’ll post those tomorrow too.