smile, mon (part 4)

Falmouth, Jamaica - it was pronounced Fal-myth and Fal-mouth; the second one holds true for some of the vendors there, so that's what I'm sticking to.

We stepped off of the ship after breakfast of champions (not Wheaties, fyi) and were greeted with three people on stilts in all of their patriotic clothing (read: traps for tourists with cameras and money).  Before I knew it, he had picked Ruby up and out of sheer determination to get her down from 10 feet in the air, I snapped a photo, threw five dollars at him, and left.  She did end up with a balloon animal which she dutifully carried around with her for the remainder of the day.

For the record, Jamaican people really do say Mon after everything.  They also say things like No worries, Be Happy, and No Problem.  Also, blonde haired, blue eyed little girls are apparently not common - Ruby got more attention than a celebrity while we were there, and we were told numerous times about how beautiful she was (and that we should take great care of her).  Eisley used our day in Jamaica to catch up on sleep, where she took the best nap of her life and woke up happy as a rastafarian. 

We walked in and out of a few shops before finding a marketplace where the vendors were crafting hats, wood carvings, dolls, and various Bob Marley tribute memorabilia.

Here is where we made a huge wrong turn.  We walked down this walk with information boards about Falmouth.

I could have sworn I saw many touristy people and very fun shops back that way, but the minute we stepped across the street, the walls closed in and we felt very uncomfortable.  I couldn't see anything except for the four Jamaican guys in our faces wanting us to a) take a bus, b)buy some marijuana, c)start his morning off right (I didn't dare figure out just what he meant by this), or d) buy some hand-carved wooden rattles that miraculously went up in price after he carved them.

We made up some line about returning to our ship immediately due to cranky children (small white lie), paid for the Love for Eva rattles and hightailed it out of there.

We went back to the jerk chicken stand (yuuuum), where we tried that and some festival bread (think corn bread breadsticks; amazing), and it was here Eisley conked out for the afternoon.

We headed back to the marketplace to wander leisurely.

Blue Mountain Coffee frappucino and latte = total heaven.

When I took this guy's picture (I need a picture of a legitimate Jamaican man with the dreads and the hat), he asked me to take a picture with him, then proceeded to hand me a political card with him and Barack Obama.  We couldn't decide if it was photoshopped or not.  And I still have no idea who he is.

Remember the part about people going crazy over Ruby?

We bought cokes from a small little cart on the outside of the square (where they play extremely loud music and encourage the tourists to embarrass themselves), and these people played with Ruby and gushed over her for a good ten minutes.  High fives, dancing, laughter, and they even fixed her balloon animal.

To go along with her balloon friend, Ruby got a doll very similar to one I had when I was little.  She's reversible, and Ruby loves her.

After a few souvenir purchases, we bought a coconut because a) we're tourists and b) I have never had coconut water.  It was..interesting.  Not what I would have imagined.  Good, overall.

We never ventured to this part of the island (after the lesson venturing taught us earlier in the day), but this is a view from the top deck of the ship.

We had a fun, relaxing day in Falmouth.  Looking back, I would probably have taken a bus to Montego Bay, because hellooo? I can't believe we were that close and didn't go see it.