As I mentioned before, leaving Jamaica made me sad. I know that this isn’t going to be the last trip that I take though, and at least I can look forward to planning out the details for my next trip.
Before I even realized it, my last full day in Jamaica was upon me. I’ll be honest, I was sad at the thought of returning home. Going back home meant no more big adventures in immediate future, and it meant returning to work and normalcy. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s being stuck doing the same thing day in and day out with no end in sight. On the flight home I signed up for a travel credit card so that I can accrue miles and eventually save on airfare. On my flight in the thought crossed my mind but I decided that it would be unnecessary. I honestly don’t want to use credit cards, so it was no big deal. On my flight home though I realized that if I truly want to continue traveling and exploring and having adventures, I should probably start to actively act towards doing so. So I signed up for a credit card and now that I’m back at work I’ve started to actually put an effort forth towards saving and budgeting for my next trip. I realized that returning home didn’t have to mean putting an end to my adventures, and instead could just serve as a pause between trips.
My last day in Jamaica was spent trying to soak as much in as possible. I went around and took pictures of all of the things that I hadn’t already photographed and I tried to spend as much time near the clear Caribbean water as possible.
One thing that everyone I met told me to do while in Jamaica was to climb Dunn’s River Falls. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t going to do it. So many people told me that I had to do it and from the pictures that I saw it seemed like a tourist trap. It seemed too commercialized and didn’t feel like it would be part of an authentic experience of Jamaica. I know how hypocritical that is, especially since I was staying at a resort which is as far from an authentic experience of Jamaica as one can get. My point is, I had absolutely zero interest in doing this. The morning that we were booking the “Let’s go Native” tour from Day 3, we were talking to one of the girls at the front desk as we were paying for the tour. Now, this girl is an absolute sweetheart, so much so that when we left we were sad because we didn’t get to say goodbye to her. That morning she asked us about the tour that we were booking and when we told her she said that we absolutely should give climbing the falls a try, because it seemed like something that we might like. We decided to take her word for it and give it a shot, and we were quite glad that we did so.
The third day of the Jamaica trip was a Wednesday, on which the resort offered an interesting sounding tour, titled “let’s go native.” It was basically a tour in which you got to go to different parts of the island, learning about the history and culture of Jamaica as you went. The tour started around 10am and ran until 8:30pm, which I thought would be fine since I’ve certainly had longer days. In reality I left the tour feeling exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to swim with a dolphin. I lived on the cost when I was little, and seeing them in the water and hearing about all the awesome things that dolphins do for people intrigued me. Hearing about how dolphins let people swim holding on to their flippers, that some dance and sing, and some will even surround humans if a shark is nearby so that they don’t appear like easy prey all caused me to one day want to interact with a dolphin face to face. Luckily for me, I got that opportunity on my second day in Jamaica.
Before going to bed yesterday I fully intended on figuring out something fun to do today. Unfortunately, by the time I sat down to make decisions, I was thoroughly exhausted and sleep was inevitable. Instead I slept in and caught up on rest so that I’d be ready to take on the day today. Because no trips off the resort were initially planned for today, I spent the greater part of the afternoon taking part of the free activities offered by the resort.
International travel can be frustrating, to say the least. If you’re new to it, you’ll notice that every single person around you seems to be a seasoned pro, and you’ll feel like you’re the only one who has questions or isn’t sure what to do. I personally hate feeling like I don’t know what I’m doing, so the airport experiences and filling out paperwork for customs was slightly irritating. The date/month/year vs month/date/year thing also kept tripping me up a lot (other things that keep tripping me up – celsius vs fahrenheit, driving on the left side of the road instead of the right, and the currency exchange rate). Overall though, my arrival to Jamaica went smoothly. There is one thing that I’ve learned already though – no matter how light you think you’ve packed, you’ve packed too much. Seeing the amount of bags that others have brought has certainly made me feel better about the size of mine. It’s not even that my bag is that big, but every pound certainly added up as I was lugging it around airports and onto busses.
Let me start off this post by saying that if the opportunity arises, DO NOT wait until the last second to pack. I’m currently running on approximately 2 and a half hours of sleep, and plenty of red bull and coffee, and I already know that it will have caught up to me by the time my flight lands.
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My first trip out of the country is rapidly approaching (two days to go!), and with that being said, I am going to be completely honest. I am absolutely stressing out. This is my first international trip, and my first big trip as an adult without anyone older than me guiding my way. This will be my first time boarding a plane solo, my first time checking into a hotel by myself, my first time going through customs ever… It’s a big step. One of the biggest factors adding to my stress is packing. Because this is my first big trip, and a trip to somewhere with some serious sun and heat, there were a lot of things that I didn’t have and absolutely needed to get. Combine feeling totally unprepared with working ridiculous hours in preparation for not working for a little over a week, and you’ll understand why I’ve been stressed out and not posting as much. However, I have (almost) everything that I wanted to get, and feel relaxed enough to provide you with my packing list!
ineffable wanderlust 