Another morning for a breakfast at Burger King before checking out of our hotel. The customers at the Burger King were particularly interesting this morning, some tourists, some natives. There was a little boy with his mom who was wearing sunglasses and making beats on the table. Then, when he would get up to walk around he had a swagger to his step. There was actually an older man that walked by him who imitated him...I think to point out how silly he looked...but the kid didn't get the picture and went back to what he was doing.
Then there was a pretty large family, both in number and in size, that were complaining about the heat. Mostly the kids...they were such whiners: "It's too hot outside!" "I don't want to do (this or that)!" ...except for one. He was sitting there quietly, listening to the rest of them complain with a look on his face that said "Well this isn't any fun." At that point their Dad pointed him out to everybody and said something about how he wasn't a complainer and was really proud of him. It brought a little smile to his face and mine that he was recognized.
After breakfast we went back to the hotel, made sure that we had everything packed, and got our game plan ready to go...our game plan for the taxi driver that is. Since we knew we were going to be over charged we worked out how we were going to pay the guy so that we wouldn't get ripped off. Well, we gave him 300 Jamaican dollars as we walked up to the taxi and told him we needed to go to the airport. As he walked around to the driver seat he counted the money and then go into the car and told us that his boss would fire him if he drove us for only 300. He went on and on about how it's at least 1500 Jamaican dollars (5-7 minutes down the road!) and his boss would be so mad. So then David decided that he would give him another 100 in hopes that it would make him happy. Well, as David pulled the money out of his wallet he didn't look at it so well. Instead of handing him the 100, he gave him a 1000! The driver jumped at the opportunity to take the money. I hit David in the arm but he still didn't realize what had happened. I thought that he was intentionally giving the guy the 1000 dollar bill. Turns out David didn't realize what he had given the guy and was mad at me for not pointing it out to him. It made for a very unpleasant first few minutes in the airport, but a very happy taxi driver. ARGH! They win again!
After we checked in we waited in a really long security checkpoint/passport control line. While in the line we talked with two ladies who were headed home as well. One of them was an aerobics instructor for resorts and she brought her friend with her. We told them about why we were there too and enjoyed our conversation with them until it was our turn to talk to passport control. I was nervous at this point too because David wasn't convinced that they were going to let me bring the conch shell out of the country. I had it in my purse and wasn't planning on saying anything about it unless someone asked. Well, the passport person had absolutely no personality, I don't think she even looked at our faces, so she didn't ask any question and told us we could go through. Then we had to take off our shoes and x-ray our bags and the rest is history!
Back to reality, oh wait, one more picture...
James & Gabrielle
March 26, 2010
Montego Bay, Jamaica
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