Barter Tuesday

I made a mistake the first afternoon, going back to yesterdays Rum Coma title. We had been up at 3:30 for our 6:30 flight out of Chicago and I hadn’t eaten much. They serve tiny portions on the plane. They are smaller than Lean Cuisine or Smart Ones. We got there about 1:30 and grabbed lunch on the patio and then went to the beach and I started drinking rum punches. I thought they would taste too sweet but they weren’t and they were stronger than they tasted. Very deceiving drink. I don’t know how many I had in a couple of hours but went back to the room and passed out until nine. John had to go to the beach party by himself and it sounded like a lot of fun. I thought I was going to die at one point but got up at nine at night and ate something but no more drinking. We went to bed semi-early since we had to get up for the eight o’clock bus to Dunn’s River Falls the next morning.We got up and ate breakfast and then went to the water falls. I love this country but it is so touristy. Every thing we did had about five guides and videotapers. We had one guide to videotape in case we wanted to buy a dvd and two guides to go up this falls. This was in a national park and there were tons of tourists there from the various resorts and cruise ships that dock in Ochos Rios daily. You basically walk down to the beach and then walk up the falls holding hands. It was fun and they took some fun pictures of us as couples individually dancing or sliding in the falls and John actually bought it. It is quite cute and I don’t look too awful in it.
As an aside, I didn’t hate myself in many of the pics we took and some were actually good but I really see the areas that need work. One problem is my legs. My legs have skin hanging off them and look shapeless. My waist and stomach look fine depending on the angle but still need a lot of work. Again I am glad I dieted all winter or I would have been miserable on this trip and hated looking at the pics but I don’t hate them so while I am not where I want to be, I can see the huge improvement.
After the rum incident of the night before, I decided I wanted to buy some pot, so I wouldn’t drink myself to death here and to save some calories. Dunns river was not to be the place. I told John I wanted to go in town in the afternoon for the shopping trip because I figured my chances were better there. I am sure no one on the staff would hook me up. Am sure they are threatened with their jobs and I wouldn’t want that to happen and doubt they would help me.
We got back and ate lunch and then got ready to shop. Another shuttle bus with about 20 of us. Our first stop was this scurvy looking craft mall. These are all over the place and they sell souveneer types of items, tshirts, jewelry, some local crafts, straw hats and whatever. After you have been through a few, you feel you are looking at the same merchandise over and over. The vendors are very pushy and a lot of tourists find it intimidating. I found it annoying. I wanted to look at stuff without one of them yacking at me the entire time. I went to a booth this man dragged us in and saw a Bob Marley mahogany head I liked and asked him how much. His first price was 175 then he kept talking it down to 100. I knew I wouldn’t pay that. He asked me how much I would pay and I said 20 and he said no he would go to 50 so I walked away. Then he dragged me back, stuck the head in the bag and took my 20. He asked me for a tip but I said no way. So that was a good deal. It will look, although odd, in my dining room. John thought this was hilarious. Anyway once you get the knack of bartering, it is easy. All they can say is no. I think this particular craft market was somewhat desperate and on the fringes of town. I would doubt they get a ton of business but who knows.
After that we went downtown and there were basically stores with the same shit in with prices on them, that you also barter for and another huge craft market. John must look like a druggie because he got approached twice for drugs. The second was when we were downtown so I butted in and paid 25 for some pot. John took a pic of the drug deal site. My second good deal of the day. I was pretty excited about that. I wish you could buy drugs that easy here. I love pot and have a hard time getting it. John had never smoked before. Anyway we bought some gifts and then went back and got high. Pretty good stuff, but I had to leave a bunch of it there because John was worried about getting it through customs. This is the one disappointment in my trip. Sucked, but wouldn’t have been worth it I guess.
That night we went to the French restaurant at the resort. Very good food. I had some steak and John had some duck shit. I don’t know why he orders duck. It is never good. Steak is usually a no brainer. Even I can cook steak really well. I don’t know what was French about this restaurant. I thought French food was normally pigeon brains or gerbil chops. The food was good though and the wine. Food taste better when you are high though, but everything we had was good. I know I had a dessert but can’t remember for the life of me what it was.
I did well with eating this trip though. I didn’t really pig out and drank my water and exercised daily and ate lots of fruits and veggies. More later.