2019-02-26: Islands and Aquatic Biology

Upon waking up, we called “Sheldon the butler” and placed an order for some breakfast to be brought to the room. We got dressed while breakfast was being prepared. Sheldon arrived and delivered our rather small breakfast. We both ordered strawberry and chocolate crepes for breakfast. We were expecting more than a single small crepe on a plate. Luckily, we had ordered a fruit platter and a granola parfait as well.

After breakfast, we packed up our gear and headed over to the dock for the snorkeling excursion we had booked. It was quite windy and was spitting a tiny bit of rain as we walked. Upon arrival at the dock, we were informed that the snorkeling had been cancelled due to the weather. We walked around the resort for a few minutes until we found a couple of vacant loungers in a decent spot. They happened to be around the pool just outside our room. The pool was shaded from the wind which was perfect. Since we couldn’t go snorkeling, I decided to test out our new full face snorkel masks in the pool. They seem to work well. Sheldon brought us a couple of drinks while we relaxed. We spent a couple of hours by the pool until we started getting hungry.

We walked back to the dock and caught the boat across to the private island. The sign at the entrance to the island says it is called Kokomo. Maybe it’s the Kokomo the Beach Boys sung about. There is a restaurant on the island called The Jerk Shack which we heard was yummy, so we decided to give it a try. Amanda ordered the jerk chicken with a mild jerk sauce and a fried dumpling. I ordered the jerk pork with a hellfire sauce and a fried dumpling. The meat was decent, but not as good as we were expecting. The fried dumpling was more like a donut than a dumpling. It was very tasty. We had to hold onto the plates and glasses though or the wind would throw them off the table.

After lunch, we explored the island a bit. It is pretty small. There was a small beach, a pool with a swim up bar, two restaurants (the Jerk Shack, and Royal Thai which we’ll be trying tomorrow). There is also a second beach which is clothing optional. We elected to skip checking that beach out. They have a parrot named Diana in a large cage on the island. Apparently she likes Pop Goes the Weasel whistled or You Are My Sunshine sung to her.

After exploring the island, we returned to the main resort. We discovered our spots from this morning had been taken by someone else. We found another spot on the beach we relaxed on yesterday and spent the afternoon relaxing there. It was in the wind but the sun had come out by then so it was still warm.

Around 4:30pm we returned to the pool outside our room and Amanda went for a dip in the pool. We ordered some pizza from the pizzeria as a snack and returned to our room to eat it. We then got ready for our tour to the Luminous Lagoon. We made our way to the lobby as instructed where we ran into our butler Andre. He had brought us towels and bottled water for our tour. He stayed with us until our shuttle arrived. The shuttle was actually a car and we were the only two taking the tour from the resort. There was supposed to be another couple but apparently the cancelled so, we had a private transfer to “Glistening Waters”. It was about a 25 minute drive from the resort. The driver was very friendly and pointed out sites along the way and gave us some information on Jamaica. He was a quiet speaker and hard to hear though.

Upon arrival at Glistening Waters, he escorted us to the dock and told us he would wait while we did the tour and then he would drive us back. We were given a number by the Glistening Waters staff and told it would be called when it was time to board our boat. They offered rum punch and fruit punch while we waited. They also had a group of dancers performing. After waiting a bit, it was finally dark enough for the tour. They called our number and we boarded the second boat and headed out into the lagoon. The lagoon is where ocean water meets fresh water from a river. The mixture of fresh and salt water creates the right conditions for a microscopic organism to thrive the gives of phosphorescent light when disturbed. There are only a handful of places where they have found this organism. The other places are in Portugal, Indonesia, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. The Jamaican lagoon is reportedly the brightest though. We were given the opportunity to get off the boat and swim around in the water. It was only 4 to 5 feet deep. The bottom was covered in silt/mud that your feet sunk into. Swimming around caused lights to appear where your hands and feet disturbed the water. It was a really cool experience. We swam around for about 15 minutes before it was time to get back on the boat and return to shore. We reunited with our driver and returned to the resort.

We returned to our room to clean up (we were still covered in mud in places). Upon arrival in our room, we discovered that Andre had visited. He had run a warm bath for us and laid out rose petals around it. It was very romantic. After cleaning up, we headed over to The Cricketeer English Pub for a late night snack. Amanda had mozzarella sticks to start and I had chicken wings. We both had fish and chips for our main course. They were playing the newlywed/not so newlywed game just outside the pub. The pub was the booth where they kept the husbands/wives while their partners answered the questions.

After having the snack, we did another search in the water to see if we could find any cool sea life. The water was too rough so we weren’t able to see much. We returned to our room for the night.