I am in Jamaica, but not before a short trip to Miami

I unfortunately did not make my flight to Miami over a week ago. this created quite a few problems. First I sat at the Santo Domingo airport with no ticket to the US. This cost me over $400. Since I did not make it to Miami when I was scheduled to I had to forgo my $500 cruise ticket. Then when I got to Miami I had to find a hotel to stay in for three days until my flight to Jamaica. This of course was a few hundred dollars more. All in all I spent way more than I wanted to and was pretty bummed that I was not able to enjoy my cruise around the Caribbean.

It could have been worse though. After all I did get to spend a few days on Miami Beach. I met some nice people and was able to play in a pick up soccer game with some locals. I was also able to play soccer on the beach. This will surely be a reoccurring trend.









Over these few days leaving the Dominican Republic and arriving in Miami I kind of felt like a big shot with limitless money to spend. Too bad this is far from the real situation. However, once in Miami I did go on a bit of a shopping spree. Perhaps the unexpected stay over in Miami was a blessing in disguise as I was able to procure some much needed items.

I went to Best Buy and bought a new camera, flash drive, camera memory card and a few more accessories. The total came out to be far more than I wanted. So I went to Ross to dress for less. I ended up getting some jeans, shirt and a new pair of swim trunks. Then I went to CVS pharmacy to get a few more things which concluded my shopping for the trip. Well, I guess I did buy some great food from various Venezuelan and Argentine restaurants and bakeries…..delicious!





Now let's go to Jamaica!!!



I flew to Jamaica on February 26th. Thankfully there were not any incidents. I was picked up from the airport and have been staying with a woman Kerrene and her boyfriend Rhoan who I met on CouchSurfing.com. For those of you who do not know this site I highly recommend that you check it out if you want to travel inexpensively. Obviously I am looking to cut costs as much as I can. Also, staying with a local allows me to get first hand knowledge about the country and the culture. Staying with me is a young German couple that linked up with our hosts through CouchSurfing.com too.

When we went to the grocery store here is an awesome shirt I found.



On Saturday the Germans, Rhoan and I had a bit of a tour around Kingston before we made it to the Bob Marley Museum. We made a few stops along the way and I was able to see some very interesting things in the city. On the way to one of his friends’ houses where he needed to do some recording we drove up the base of a mountain which lies on the northern side of Kingston. Even though it was a cloudy day we still were able to see some good views of the city below from time to time.

Rhoan is a local Reggae artist and you can listen to his music here…...

As his new manager I recommend that you dowbload his songs here...http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/vanity-single/id284855680

When we got to his friend’s house inspiration hit and I laid down an original reggae track of my own….if you are a music lover then you will hate this track. If you do not know much about music then you should know that I sing at birthday parties, weddings and barmitsfas.



A drive around Kingston on our way to the Bob Marley Museum.



























Saturday night we went out. Or should I say Sunday morning we went out. We arrived at the club Quad at one in the morning and did not leave until 3:30. There were two floors at this club. One was all reggae and the other was a bit of R&B/Rap/music I did not know. In fact I have realized that it is not just the music that I cannot understand here. While they speak English derived from Great Brittan here I have the hardest time understanding what people are saying. In addition to heavy Jamaican accents many people switch back and forth between English and another broken English language. Sometimes I think that I understood more in the Dominican Republic where everyone spoke Spanish, and I am far from being close to fluent in Spanish.

After my stay in Kingston I took public buses to the northern part of the island. I will let the videos below do the talking...for I am off to the beach.

I got Cabareted

Check out these pictures of Cabarete, Dominican Republic where I was last week.



FYI ~ These pictures are from Google images.



Our visit to Cabarete unleashed a few days of circumstances and incidences that can only be described as character building experiences. We woke up the day after we arrived only to find that someone had been in our room while we were sleeping. We walked downstairs and asked the bar tender if he saw anyone go upstairs to the rooms last night. He told us that he saw a group of prostitutes go up there late at night. He just figured that Darren and I were….well you know. Little did he know and soon the next day did we all learn that those women broke into our room and stole multiple items from us. Darren and I would eventually learn that my laptop, my digital camera, his digital camcorder and my cell phone were missing. Adding insult to injury they also stole my traveling baseball cap. It is a great hat and I am sure that it will bring them more business, but did you really need to take it. Luckily they did not take our passports.

Darren and I immediately found alternative means of housing for the following night. We then went back to the bar where the bartender saw people going up into our room. Unfortunately, he did not remember what they looked like but he did see someone he knows talking with them. So like Sherlock Holmes and Watson we set out to try and retrieve our items. We eventually found this woman and told her this, “Look we know you know who took our things. We want all our stuff back and will pay the thieves $200 and you $60 if we get them back.” She definitely took interest in this offer. Although, even with her enthusiasm our attempt would turn out to be fruitless in the long-run, however we hung out for two more days to see what happened. It turns out that these two days would continue to be unwanted icing on a “shit happens” cake.

Darren and I had a great time initially riding the two scooters we rented to get around town and to our new hotel for the night. However, in the rain on the night after the robbery I had a flat tire on the ride back to our room. Then the next day after I got the tire fixed there were two successive accidents that Darren got into and I had to watch. Thankfully he is okay and got off with just some scrapes and bruises. He would be sore for the next few days but heal up fast. Needless to say Cabarete was getting the best of us and while we wanted to leave we also wanted our stuff back.

Darren is a champ and I am lucky to somehow find the best of any situation. As things continued to occur we both remained in high spirits. We recognized that the way things were going was less than ideal, and for some reason things just kept happening to us. However, we knew that we could not change what had happened. The best thing to do was to think about all that had happened and learn from it.

The last night we were there we really hoped that we would get our stuff back. Darren ended up playing in a local Reggae band that night. This is exactly what he needed and he played a great show. There was another trumpet player in the band, yet it was crystal clear that Darren was much better. While he was winning the trumpet battle I met some really great Russians, and spent the night mending cold war scars. We both were happy at the end of the night. Even though we determined that there was no way that we were ever going to get what we hoped for.

The morning of last day in Cabarete we could not leave fast enough….after breakfast that is. The town is amazing with great people, food and nice tourists from around the globe. However, for some reason this just was not our trip. I will return to Cabarete one day and it will be a much better visit!


Add this one to your vocabulary.
Cabareted

- Dictionary results from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cabareted
cab•a•ret

–noun

1. a restaurant providing food, drink, music, a dance floor, and often a floor show.
2. a café that serves food and drink and offers entertainment often of an improvisatory, satirical, and topical nature.
3. a floor show consisting of such entertainment: The cover charge includes dinner and a cabaret.
4. a form of theatrical entertainment, consisting mainly of political satire in the form of skits, songs, and improvisations:an actress whose credits include cabaret, TV, and dinner theater.
5. a decoratively painted porcelain coffee or tea service with tray, produced esp. in the 18th century.
6. Archaic. a shop selling wines and liquors.
–verb (used without object)
7. to attend or frequent cabarets.
8. to have reoccurring demoralizing incidences take place over a series of days leading to one great night that while highly enjoyable does not negate the previous days hardships.

________________________________________
Origin:
1625–35; < F: tap-room, MF dial. (Picard or Walloon) < MD, denasalized var. of cambret, cameret < Picard camberete small room (c. F chambrette; see chamber, -ette)

—Synonyms
2. nightclub, supper club, club.

Used in a sentence:
Rob and Darren got Cabareted in Cabarete.

Pirates of the Caribbean

I recently went to Juan Dolio, Dominican Repuclic.



When I got back to Santo Domingo I had turned into a first rate pirate!



The small beach town of Juan Dolio was on the coast of beautiful beaches and warm water.




Darren took me to day resort that had gone out of business. However, that did not stop us or many of the locals from enjoying the comforts available.








Eventually I decided that it was time to climb a tree. While this is something that I am normally very good at this time the tree got the best of me.



After getting half way up I decided that my technique was doing too much damage to precious parts of my body and gave up. Darren enjoyed watching me get down....it was a slow and painful process to say the least.




When I got home I decided that there is no place in the Caribbean for beards and immediately went to shaving. I think I did a pretty good job.