Here's the video action from Jamaica! As Mike would say, "You know you're in a cool place if it is the location of a James Bond movie."
The Hotel - Normally we don't ever mention the hotel we stay at, because we spend so little time there. We usually just book the cheapest thing we can find. The Franklyn D. Resort (not named after the U.S President), however, blew our minds! First off, each room comes with a FREE vacation nanny for the duration of your stay. How awesome is that? This allowed us to go do the more adventurous things during Coral's nap time, yet still get plenty of fun family time in too. Best of both worlds.
View from the master bedroom
Dinner on the pier. Highchairs are always accessible
Daddy/Daughter playtime
Hanging in the treehouse
The 100ft. waterslide that we went on probably 50+ times (including w/ baby). Her name is Big Blue and she is fun.
This night the hotel put on a beach party with dinner on the beach, live music, dancing and a fire show. Pretty epic.
Coral playing with her nanny while we went kayaking. Our nanny was SO good with our girl.
The Blue Hole - Our favorite! We went with Marks Tours. Mark is the man. He is a local who gives you a local experience and caters to what you want to see. He hooked us up big time and his tour was very reasonably priced. I would highly recommend him over the large companies that run most of the tours. You will not regret using him. He provided a much more local feeling to our trip than if we would have gone with one of the tours that the cruise ship company provides. We ate mango from his backyard, bread pudding from a street vendor and learned a lot of Jamaican history. Blue Hole has crystal clear water, lots of cliffs to jump off of, rope swings to jump off of and waterfalls to jump off of. Basically, if you like to jump off of things into water, this is your kind of place. There is a rock slide that you can go down into a mini waterfall that is the entrance to an underwater cave. There are so many cool things about this place and words cannot describe how awesome and beautiful it is. If you go to Jamaica, this is a must see.
One of the many waterfalls at Blue Hole.
That underwater cave with the waterfall curtain that was mentioned early.
Hanging out at Laughing Waters, the beach where the first James Bond movie was filmed. It is a private beach, so we had to do a lot of asking until we were able to get a local to take us in there. It was incredibly beautiful. An isolated beach with two waterfalls cascading into the ocean with white sand and caribbean blue water. Plus, one of the most iconic scenes in film history was filmed here.
Right in front of the iconic waterfall from Dr. No
Miles of deserted beach in both directions. Idyllic and peaceful (except for the security guard who was mad dogging us the whole time)
Dunn's Falls
Making our way up Dunn's Falls
Like Laughing Waters, the waterfall cascades into the ocean
At the foot of the waterfalls and at the beginning of the beach
River Tubing
Tubing down the White River. It was a nice, relaxing way to end the day filled with adventure.
We didn't know this until after the fact, but Dr. No was also filmed in the White River.
Glass Bottom Boat Ride
We had a bit of a party pooper on the boat ride - she fell asleep instantly! It was her loss. She missed hundreds of fish swimming around in ultra clear water.
Beach Time
That's one happy baby!
Swimming out the floating mats in the ocean. These were conveniently anchored to the ocean floor just off the beach right in front of our hotel suite.
Over the last several months, we have visited family in Utah several times. Mike's maternal grandparents had a family reunion in the mountains where the entire family got together for a few days. We hiked to waterfalls and across snow patches. We hung out with Mike's cousins and reminisced on our youth. We ate lots of food and got to hear stories from grandma and grandpa about their lives. The oldest 6 grandchildren also recreated a classic photo from about 1989 and Coral went on an adult waterslide for the first time.
Stewart Falls
Timpanogos Falls - Manly hike (plus Chelsea)
25 years later photo recreation
Family hike
Hiking over snow patches
Mike and Coral talking story on the balcony
Chelsea climbing the wall of the ropes course
One of the waterfalls by our cabin
Coral playing with the puppy and her Great Grandpa
Coral and her cousin Charlie getting to spend time together
Guayaquíl is one of my favorite Central American towns that I have ever been to. It is much more affluent than I had previously thought and the architecture is really cool. My favorite part of the city was the old district, the brightly painted houses underneath the light house was a fantastic sight against the river back drop. The weather there was really good too. Cool and not too humid.
Guayaquíl is an impossible place to get out of unless you have a local guide. I am fluent in Spanish and have common sense but there are no signs anywhere and drivers seem to thrive on risk. Lucky for us, one of my friends lives in there, so we didn't need to try to do that part on our own. Angel, my friend, picked us up from the airport and drove us from the city out to the coast.
Another picture of the river from the boardwalk. There is a really long boardwalk that meanders along the coast of the river.
We were able to stop by the Valencia home and eat seco de pollo with them. It was delicious and it was really cool eating in the home of an Ecuadorian family. When we vacation, we try to soak up as much of the culture as possible. It opens our minds and allows us to appreciate others in a way that is hard to replicate through other means. The Valencia family drove us to the beach (2 1/2 each way), fed us, and dropped us off at the airport and walked us up to the security checkpoint. That is Ecuadorian hospitality. They enriched our trip and made us feel like we were family, even though I had never met any of them except for Angel, and I hadn't even talked to Angel in over a decade.
One of the unique attractions of Guayaquíl.
Punta Carnero/Salinas
Late Sunday morning and not a single person on the beach
Salinas is an awesome town. There are still no names for any of the roads and no signs. We parked along the boardwalk and ate at an incredible restaurant. This city is amazing. We found it very similar to Panama City, but on a much smaller scale. We woke up the next morning and surfed by ourselves at punto carnero, a mediocre beach break.
We stayed at a great bed and breakfast right across the street from the waves and had a private pool and hammocks under a palapa. We relaxed and watched the waves break from the balcony.
On our way up the coast towards Montañita, we ate at a restaurant that is shaped like a boat. I will likely repeat myself throughout this blog, but the food everywhere in the country is incredible. Best seafood I have ever had, and I am a seafood maniac.
One of the many attractions in Salinas. Great city to bring your family for a meal and a night out on the town. There is a lot to do and it is cheap. It is a city situated along the coast. There is a boardwalk, warm water and hotels and restaurants lining the strip.
Montañita
Our main purpose of visiting Ecuador was to surf in Montañita, a hippy/party town on the central coast. We stayed in a hotel right on the point break and our room was directly in front of the lineup. The tides were crazy the week we were there, but on mid tides, we scored some killer waves. We were able to dodge the crowds a few days, since we had the advantage of staying right there and it was awesome surfing the point on an overhead swell with a small crowd.
We ventured out to Olón for a few sessions to escape the crowds and madness of Montañita. Olón offers mediocre beach break with absolutely no crowds.
The empanadas were amazing. The seafood was amazing. The pasta was amazing. The people were friendly and cool. We had a great time in Montañita. We scored good waves, ate great food and Chelsea was able to practice her Spanish, since almost nobody spoke English. When I say almost nobody, I think I only met one guy from England and everyone else was from a non-English speaking country. We were there for a week too.
Chelsea hanging out under the palaces, scoping out the surf at the point. She didn't let food poisoning get the best of her.
One of our most rewarding experiences was donating our clothes to some Ecuadorian families. We scored when we saw an old woman with her daughter, who had down syndrome. We dropped off a bunch of clothes and it made their day. They hugged us and took pictures with us. It was pretty cool. We are all a part of the human family and our brothers and sisters in many of the countries that we visit are often in dire circumstances. We can have a huge impact on bettering the lives of many by doing things as simple as giving away our used clothes or toys. A suitcase full of old clothes was all it took to make these peoples' day.
Chelsea did yoga in a bamboo studio right across the street from the beach. It was hot yoga by default, since it was about 90 degrees with no ventilation.
Awesome place with awesome people. We LOVED Ecuador!
