A fantastic relaxing day at Paradise Bay

Just got back from one of the best days yet. Went with some of my friends from class, christina, jody, and louise with a big group of vet and med kids to the paradise bay resort for the day. We were spoiled rotten with amazing food and lots of fun activities. The day started off bright and early with a reggae bus ride from campus at 8:00 to the resort. The bus took us about 45 minutes away to the parish of St. David and the roads were some of the steepest I've seen yet. Once we arrived, we met our host, a Mr. James Post who runs the entire resort after coming here from Holland. We had a yummy midmorning snack and then decided to go to the beach. There are several beaches around the resort with about a 15 min walk in between each of them. The view was breathtaking and being on the more exposed side of the island the waves were HUGE.

View of the beach from the resort

Looking up a set of stairs at the resort -reminded me of those pictures you see of Greece..

Christina, Louise and I

enjoying the sun!

We spent a couple of hours on the beach playing in the waves (they must have been at least 7 feet tall) and got thoroughly drenched and full of sand. I've never been in waves this big and it's surprising how strong they are. If you are in the breaking zone they will drag you under and spin you around like you're in a huge washing machine! I also found it was hard to judge once you were further out if you could clear the wave and go over the swell or if it was going to break and you should go under it -lots of fun!!
The beach we spent the morning on

MIke faces the wave head on, he's about 5'7 so it was a big wave!


Louise and I

Limin at the tiki bar


Right before lunch, we were given full body massages. I've never had a professional massage before but it was really nice -very relaxing. The massage house is a little bamboo hut right overtop of the surge line so you have a whole view of the ocean and through the bamboo floor you can see the waves underneath -very cool! The funniest thing happened at the start. The table had a loose string so when I was told to hop on the massage bed, the whole thing collapsed. It's a good thing those beds are so padded or I might have been a bit sore today:) The table was quickly replaced and luckily the second one was a bit sturdier.
Lunch was delicious -pumpkin soup followed by chicken curry with rice. Desert was a nutmeg flam (nutmeg jello like thing that looked like an upside down cupcake. It tasted good but had a very bizarre texture -of course being with a bunch of med students we decided that it felt like dissecting certain tissues to cut into it and it quickly became unappetizing.
yummy pumpkin soup appetizer for lunch

In the afternoon, James took us out in groups of four to the Mt Caramel falls. The only reason I felt relatively safe riding in his car was that I knew he was from Holland and they know how to drive over there.**whenever I meet someone from Holland I think of Dr. Denooy and how he drives -efficient but darn quick! We got to the falls in record time and met a very odd little old man. Mom and Dad went to these falls when they were here and I remember them talking about this odd little old guy. But this little old man sits at the head of the trail and asks for "donations" of rum which he drinks like water -very interesting.
Mt Caramel falls


The whole group shot: