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All You Can Jet

Day 20: A Rainy Start to Hurricane Season in Jamaica

I arrived in Montego Bay for the most unexpectedly hectic four days of this trip so far. I took a 15 minute cab ride from the airport to the Sunset Beach Resort and Spa. The cab fare was [inexplanably] thirty US dollars. I only had a 20 so I had to stop at an ATM. Shame on me for not planning ahead. We pulled up to an abandoned ATM that locked when you stepped into the private booth. I felt a little uneasy since three people were waiting behind me outside, and all of my luggage was sitting in the cab. I tried to withdraw $20 when I got the error message “you must withdraw in multiples of $100.” I wasn’t even sure if I had $100 in the bank, but I went ahead and withdrew it anyway. When it came out, duh, it was 100 Jamaican dollars. I had no idea how much that was in US dollars, so I got back in the cab and down the road we went.

I thought for sure the driver would try and pull a fast one on me, but I asked him anyway “is 100 Jamaican dollars enough?” He slammed on the brakes, turned back towards the ATM, and tried explaining the conversion rate to me, which ended with “$30 is equal to $2400 Jamaican dollars.” I didn’t know what to do! It sounded like such a huge difference. So I went back to the ATM and checked out my balance. The amount had hardly changed since I pulled out 100 Jamaican dollars, so I figured he must be telling the truth. When I got back to the car, he showed me a sheet of paper with conversion rates on it and to my relief, he was telling the truth.

I was immediately greeted with a tropical drink upon checkin. I told the staff about my travel blog, and asked for a possible upgrade to an ocean view room- which I got, on the 7th floor.

I was sharing a room with another All You Can Jet-ter, and since it was raining outside we headed down to explore the property and have a few drinks. What else are you supposed to do with access to an unlimited open bar on a rainy day? Then we had a four course dinner at a Jamaican restaurant on the resort, and I had my first taste of Jamaican jerk chicken. Overall, it was okay but not really for my taste buds.

The resort had a great live band performing, followed by a couple hours of dancing.

I’ve embarrassed myself many times attempting to dance in public, but this was one of the worst. I wasn’t really drunk, so I was still a little shy and completely lacking rhythm as usual. One of the workers brought me up on stage and challenged me to a dance off. When I showed him a few of my white girl moves, he realized he’d have to teach me a thing or two. Bottom line, I am probably the worst dancer in the world. But I kind of wish someone would have gotten it on video.

After many more drinks, the party moved out to a beachfront bar and dance floor adjacent to a jacuzzi and two pools with a swim up bar in the middle. It wasn’t too happening for a Sunday night, so we bounced back and forth between the jacuzzi and the ocean before calling it a night.