Wednesday, 11-30-11 – Jamaica
Our tour wasn’t meeting until on the pier. So, we had a wonderful lazy morning. I got more sunrise pictures from the balcony. Have I mentioned how much I love early am on the balcony with camera and coffee? We were waiting until folks were beginning to get off the ship, to go to breakfast. This was a dock port, with a very long pier, btw – almost as long as Cozumel . We then headed to what seems to be our hidden gem on the Pearl
We went back to our cabin to prepare the travel bag and await time to head out. We still ended up being ½ hour early for our tour. We bought a bottle of water on the way off the ship and waited in the tented area for the rest of the tour group to arrive. We noticed several little shops on the pier – one had a sign saying ‘Blue Mountain Coffee” and we made a mental note to stop there on the way back to the ship. Our tour was to do some tubing down the White River and then spend some time at the Bamboo Beach Club. Hopefully, we’d have time to go to the nearby mall and see Margaritaville that Mom & I had visited the last time I was here.
Nice air conditioned mini tour bus, with about 16 others in our group. Our guides were Tracy & Ann Marie. Very nice girls. It was about a 10 minute ride to the place where our tubing adventure was to begin. We had to sign a release before going down to the river. It was a warm day, but not terribly hot or humid. Ochos (eight) Rios (Rivers) was in St. Ann Tracy
Tubing was AWESOME! It was a little bit of a walk down to the river, but not bad as there were handrails the whole way. About halfway down, we got our giant tubes to roll along with us. I got in my tube before Mark, in case I needed some help. You get to the bottom of the stairs, they put your tube in the water and you are expected to turn around with your back to the tube and ‘drop’ into the tube! Umm.. yeah…right, sounds exactly easy to me. Not! I have bad knees due to arthritis, so they really do not bend like they used to. But, I was able to get my big butt into the tube! Nice. Then it was Mark’s turn and he had almost as much trouble as I did! We both got cheers from the rest of the group, once we were in our tubes! It was about a 45 minute lazy ride down the river. It was an awesome experience that I would love to do again! Several times the river was very shallow and we bottomed out. It was a very good thing that the tube had a plywood bottom in it! Sometimes we drifted too far over by the edges and got stuck amongst some branches there. There were several young men guides with our group and several others taking pictures on the banks as we passed by. The guides we had made sure we all stayed together as a group. At several points, they held us all to wait for everyone and then let us go all at once! How fun! Sometimes it felt like we were in bumper tubes, and other times we were herded like sheep around curves. A couple of spots, where the river went a little fast, were the most fun parts! It was a great experience and I am really glad that we had the opportunity to do this. Also glad that we pushed ourselves to take this excursion!
We then had to go back to the bus. Mark had to sign some paper – one person from each party – apparently to prove that we did indeed get out of the water and back to the bus! There was a little stand of souvenirs, however our $$ was on the bus! Good planning there?! It was a short 10 -15 minute ride to the Bamboo Beach Club – through locked gates. Drinks and food were unlimited, but by service only, by Ann Marie & Tracy – for about 3 hours. Our group had our own little ‘section’ of the beach. They moved in some plastic beach chairs, almost like Adirondack style chairs. The sand was so loose that the chairs really sunk in when you sat down. My knees were then almost chest high! Figured I was sitting awhile, as getting up would be a little bit of a struggle for me. Mark got up and headed into the water. I didn’t know that’s what he was doing, as I was busy people watching and trying to be comfortable. Pretty soon I realized he was in the water and I was taking some photos. I got some of him in the water, and a few of the waves coming very close to where I was sitting!
There was at least 3-4 rows of chairs between me and the shore line. The beach chairs were being rushed by the water. It was pretty strong waves. Tracy
By this time, I was sitting up on the edge of my chair because I was really uncomfortable. It was time to stand up. I wanted to go into the water. Mark said “Been there / did that!” I must have made a face, as he agreed to go in with me! He commented that he had a difficult time getting back out of the water, as the waves were strong. Well, we weren’t even in the water yet, when a wave came up and sucked the sand right out from under me! Down I went. Seriously, it was like quicksand! I am not sure if Mark was sitting next to me or trying to help me up, but the next thing I know we crashed into each other and I was a few feet down the beach from him! The water had pushed me down the beach. I still couldn’t stand up, because of the sand, so I started crawling on my hands and knees to try to get out of the way of the water. I could see some chairs not too far away that I thought I would use to help me stand up. A couple was sitting there and asked if I was okay. I said I was more embarrassed than anything! I looked for Mark. He was laying on his stomach, with 3-4 guys around him. He couldn’t get up, either. I thought he was like me, only maybe had the wind knocked out of him. I asked if he was okay and he said no…then he told me my breast was hanging out of my suit. Like really? That was so important at that moment? I tucked back in! Anyway, I got up and made my way over to him, where these guys (one was the lifeguard on the beach) were helping him to get into a double chair they set on the beach. He said his leg hurt and he couldn’t put any weight on it. So we thought perhaps he just twisted his leg and after resting a few minutes he would be okay. Umm. Yeah, not so much. After about an hour of just sitting there, attempting several times to get up, we decided it was more hurt than we originally thought. He was helped up the little slope to the medical area, where a nurse took a report and got an ice bag for him. She seemed to think he had a pulled muscle, but could be broken.
We had mega help to get Mark back into the tour bus and back to the pier we went. They had called ahead and had a wheelchair from the ship awaiting us when we got out of the bus. They wheeled Mark, with me trudging behind, through customs, back to the ship, through check in there and straight into the medical center on the ship. The water shoes we bought were not comfortable when full of sand. My the time I was able to get mine off, I had a huge blister on my big toe. I know, small beans compared to what Mark was enduring at the moment!
First ever visit to the ships’ medical center. I filled out the accident report, and filled in the medical form. They took xrays of Mark’s leg. We left vast amounts of sand wherever we went. That was embarrassing! Unfortunately, we were unable to get him rinsed off at the beach, and I didn’t get a good rinse off job, but did get some sand off me.
The doctor gave Mark a shot for pain and wrapped his knee with an ace bandage. We were there for quite awhile. The doctor said it didn’t appear from the xrays that his leg was broken, and assumed that he had pulled muscle or a tendon. Doctor gave him some muscle relaxers and naproxen for pain. We had a wheelchair escort back to our cabin. Mark hit the bed and just could not get comfortable. We ordered some room service, and I hit the shower. Room service said it would be about 45 min before they could deliver, so I had plenty of time. I had to get rid of this sand! Well, by the time I was out of the shower, Mark yelled that the Dr. called and was on his way up to our cabin. So I opened the door and headed back to the bathroom to get dressed. Come to find out, his leg WAS broken afterall! He had given Mark some other pain meds and brought a Velcro brace for his leg that was from thigh to ankle. He was told not to put any weight on it and that we could have a wheelchair & escort anytime he wanted to leave the cabin. Great! Terrific, this was just the type of experience we really could have lived without! Well, not that we had any choice but to relax a LOT now!
Mark got into the shower after the drugs seemed to help a bit. Was good to get rid of all that sand! Amazing amounts of sand were all over! We had a sandwich from room service and just relaxed. Carlos came in and vacuumed up all the residual sand for us. We watched some tv and Mark finally got comfortable and we called it an early night.
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