Location: Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Address: Main Street
Date: Sept 2009
Website: www.sandals.com
During a long weekend in Jamaica we spent almost all of our time at the Sandals Grande Ocho Rios. We arrived at the airport in Montego Bay and then traveled by bus to the resort.
We had a room in one of the plantation villas which included a fully stocked bar. Each villa also included a shared pool for its four rooms. The first evening we enjoyed a nice dinner at the Manor House where every request was "No Problem". Once night began to fall the crickets woke up and sang throughout the night. After dinner we returned to our room where we were glad to relax, take advantage of our bar and have some time to ourselves. We discovered later that we were not alone as in the night an army of ants had marched single file through our bathroom window and clear across the wall.
The next day after breakfast one of us headed for a massage, while the other took photos around the resort.
The resort is a popular wedding destination so there are many flowers and gazebos just waiting to help with the perfect photo from the perfect day.
One of the plants on the grounds was the Traveller's Palm which is more closely related to a banana plant than a palm tree. It gets its name from the fact that its soft trunk is filled with collected water and that its leaves tend to spread out in an east or west direction in line with the sun. A thirsty traveller could have a big drink and then use the plant as a sort of compass to get their bearings again.
One of our pictures is of this backwards hammock. We wondered if it had been hung backwards or if it had recently flipped out a guest who had consumed too much rum in the sun.
The massage client finally emerged from the spa. She was very relaxed and disorientated by the massage of her life and her hairstyle had grown in size from all the different oils. The massage client was then poured into a small bus in order for us to cross the highway that divided the resort. This brought us down to the lower half of the resort and closer to the Caribbean Sea.
The lower portion of the resort included more walkways through the beautiful resort grounds. We sat for a while and again realized that we were not alone. A brown anole was climbing on the leg of one of the chairs beside us. These tiny lizards are native to Cuba and the Bahamas but have taken over many other Caribbean islands.
We hope you don't mind if we save the rest of the resort for another blog post.
No Problem.
You can read the second part of this blog
here.
Map of Our World
Sandals Grande Ocho Rios
Post # 125
