It’s been a busy couple of days!
Wednesday we got up early and were collected by our driver to go out to Ocho Rios. After a lovely drive though the gorges, we arrived at Dunn River Falls. You can take the path down along the falls to the beach where the river joins the sea and then climb the falls back up. Joe and I were watching and thinking it looked like a lot of fun. But a cruise ship was in Ocho Rios and the place was packed – the tour bus lot was full and there were boats pulling up to the beach with hundreds more coming up already in the congo line to start the climb. With that many people it just didn’t look that fun after all. It wasn’t so much a climb up the falls but more a queue up to wait to go up the falls.
But we enjoyed the walk down to the beach, then along the beach, and then just took the patch back up. It started to rain just as we were ready to leave so that was timed well. We just drove through Ocho Rios. About all there is to see is the cruise ship enclave and Reggae museum and both were packed with people. We then took a drive along the north coast braving the detours along the route and admiring the scenery. It was a lovely drive. We didn’t get to Ian Fleming’s house because of road blockages and detours but didn’t mind. Just nice to go for the drive and see the sights.
Back to work today as the conference started. Also put Joe to work taking photos in the morning. All is going well and we’ve just returned from having drinks at the Vice Chancellor’s home. Very nice with a wonderful garden.
Joe has added more photos to his site: http://www.panoramio.com/user/511198 and may make a gallery on the other website. We’ll link when he does.
Otherwise not much to report. Just work. Mind you, it’s work in a lovely lush sunny warm part of the world!
Frog Blog
While Kathleen was working I took a wander around the campus taking a few pictures which you can see below. The day was quite hot so went quite slowly looking at all the different buildings of different ages. Popped into the help desk to ask about gaining access via wireless but they told me they don’t do the guest login any more. Although apparently there is some open access around the Business School. I then made my way back towards the Vice-Chancellor’s office stopping for a cup of mint tea in one of the little snack places (the unusual shape). When I got back Kathleen was still busy so I told her I’d meet her at the bar, where I had a ginger beer and downloaded the photos from the camera. Kathleen joined me and we went for lunch at Pages Cafe on campus. I had my curry chicken and rice and peas and cherry drink (they were out of coconut milk) which was all very nice; Kathleen had the recommended honey roast chicken and Spanish rice which she enjoyed. We then wandered back to the room to cool off a bit and upload the photos and type this blog entry.
Joe – as typed by Kathleen
Just woke up in Jamaica. Of course, there was a bird that was insistant it was morning at 4.30 when it was still dark and I still wanted to sleep and of course it shut up when the sun came out. Stupid bird.
The flight was probably the worst flight I have ever been on. Very full, more people not knowing how to find seats, and a very patronising airĂ‚Â hostess made the 9 1/2 hours seem like forever. Plus we were late. Stuck on the tarmac at Gatwick for over half an hour and then late into Kingston. We managed to get to the front of the immigration queue but that still took nearly an hour to get through. Then the baggage claim – oh my. That took nearly another hour. So I was pretty sure the person who was to collect us had long gone. The best sight ever was a board with our names and a smiling face above it there to take us to UWI!
We’re staying at the Mona Visitor’s Lodge at UWI and it hasn’t changed much since I was here 10 years (!) ago. They have done some refurbishment and taken out the restaurant (which is a shame) but the general layout and bar are the same. Not that I spent that much time in the bar last time!
So we got to the visitor’s lodge and checked in, got our bags put away and headed down to the bar to try to log in to the wireless. Got our drinks (I do love decent ginger beer!) and Joe started sorting out the laptop only to discover that we can’t use the wireless connection. So that’s something he’ll probably sort out today. So the evening was spent with Joe trying the local beer (Red Stripe) and rum (Appletons) and me trying to empty the bar of ginger beer. One of the conference organisers came to see how we were settling in and we had a chat with her. Then off to find food and just managed to get into the fast food place before it closed and got patties. They were sold out of everything else. We must do better tonight!
Off for breakfast and then to discuss the conference and then looking forward to seeing more of Jamaica!
PS: He may not have worked out the wireless connection but he did manage to sort out the room connection. I don’t want to know.
Frog Blog
