JAMAICA
DAYS 1-10
Well, the great day finally arrived. Two years late..... After our epic journey in 2018 in R10FFN, our BMW 640/hotel/travelling wardrobe/tour bus, in which we traversed Europe for 10 weeks after the sale of ROFFEN (the club, not the car, and if you want to see that 2018 trip click on GRAND TOUR 2018 above). We had planned to do a big trip every year, get away from the cold and damp of January, February and March in the UK.
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We all know how that ended. It ended in February 2020 with the pandemic - that's how. Which as we know carried on without a break into 2021, and it threatened to derail the start of 2022 - but failed. We got away!! Not without a couple of months of fingers crossed and hiding at home to avoid the pox.
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Finally Virgin Atlantic VS165 took wing with us lounging in Premium Economy, well worth the extra for a 10 hour flight to Montego Bay in northern Jamaica. There we met up with our driver and not quite so enjoyed another two and a half hours bouncing to southern Jamaica via a thousand potholes. No matter because we finally made it to Lashings Boutique Hotel and Villas in Treasure Beach, owned by a great friend David Folb who greeted us on the threshold and showed us to our lovely room for the first week of 'chilling' Jamaican style. Take a look at www.lashings.com for much better pics than I could manage.
Treasure Beach is a tiny village on the south coast, miles from anywhere, with a real 'local' feel and just one other well known hotel 'Jakes', plus a smattering of local bars and beach restaurants. Great place, totally safe, just a true Jamaican village experience, a million miles from the usual 'all-inclusive' experience. This is an opportunity to enjoy the real Jamaica with friendly locals and lovely scenery, plus peace man!
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The plan was to aclimatise, chill and get some sun. The plan worked. Just not quite as planned, do they ever?
The first thing we did was take a nice walk along the beach and through village to get our bearings. Sadly Brian go the bearings of a sand-fly nest about dead on, trod on it, and suffered the consequences. I did take a photo of my bite splattered ankles, but it was too gruesome to publish. The rest of the plans worked much better....
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Meeting the lovely Lisa, David's new wife, and his lovely son Alec (2 and a bit). Trips out with David to local rural towns of Manderville and Junction, visits to excellent beach restaurants, dining with friends at Lashings, boat trip to the Pelican bar ( a shanty on stilts of a bar 3/4 mile out to sea run by Floyd and placed in this amazing location to avoid paying tax), plus lots of 'chillin maaan'. Sitting round our pool, relaxing on our veranda, walks around the area and dining in the retaurant. Working up a tan, or in my case working up a pink. Perfect start.
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From top left is Mrs H chilling, our room, Lashings, and above a lovely dinner in Junction with (l-r) Jennifer, Lisa (the lovely Mrs Folb), Damion, Jericho, David, Sara, Jason (ex-drifters and a singer at The Roffen) and me.
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Below are some shots of The Pelican Bar and young Alec Folb.
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I couldn't resist adding this pic of Folb, now a super proud dad, holding Alec after his first day at the village school. Best wishes to David, Lisa, Alec and all the staff at Lashings who made our stay so memorable and were then kind enough to run us all the way back to Montego Bay for our next bit of the trip. We miss Treasure Beach already!!
But all good things come to an end and it was time for a change of pace. Off to Seagarden All Inclusive next to Montego Bay airport for a couple of days before we make the journey from Jamaica - Fort Lauderdale - Costa Rica (no direct flights sadly) to start our two week visit to the mountains and beaches of Central America. Much more typical of what we associate with Jamaican holidays. Big, guarded, marble everywhere, lots of hassle when you walk along the nearby roads with your horrid 'bracelet of shame' on your wrist that, while it may get you free drinks, marks you as a tourist (although my bright pink skin may actually manage that unaided I guess). Come back Treasure Beach!
NEXT STOP COSTA RICA - VIA FORT LAUDERDALE USA
Day 11
For some reason there are almost no direct flights around the Caribbean with almost every flight from anywhere to anywhere going via Miami. So we take an Antigen test to get into America and make our way to the airport to see our flight move further and further down the board as delay piled onto delay due to a massive storm over Florida, but it finally took off four hours late, and Spirit Airlines gave us $100 compensation to boot! Through the massive queue at American customs, no easy task, kip overnight, then the following day we fly to San Jose (the capital, of Costa Rica) for a couple of days and then hopefully hire a car for two weeks driving round the country.
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COSTA RICA DAYS 12-26
The plan for the 14 day visit was to drive round in a circle staying in four of the major beauty spots of this lovely country, starting in San Jose, then off to Manuel Antonio (Pacific coastal wildlife parks and beaches), then to Monteverde (5000 feet up in the mountains with Cloud Forests and Zip Lines), then over to Arenal Volcano (steaming active volcano included in the price), then La Paz (waterfalls) and finally Tortuguero (Caribbean Sea coast with lots of water and swamps). About 700 miles along some good roads, some awful roads, but always in an amazingly clean, stunningly bright green jungle covered countryside with lovely friendly people.
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The map shows our 700 mile driving route over about 9 days and then we jumped on a tour bus for 3 days to get from San Jose up to Tortuguero.
To follow our trip click on the buttons below.
