In today's video, I'll show you one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
It's in the Caribbean, on the island of Jamaica...
And it's known as The Blue Hole.
Also, we'll go to the top of Mystic Mountain in Jamaica...
For a ride on the famous Jamaican bobsleds.
I'm Jim Zim, a cruise ship fanatic...
And this is my wife Kellyn, who I've been married to for 38 years.
We love a good tropical vacation especially a good beach day...
And this week we're on the Carnival Horizon for a 6-day Caribbean cruise.
But today's video is not about the ship.
It's about one of the best shore excursions we've ever been on.
And we've been on quite a few!
This is our 48th cruise!
When our ship arrived in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, I had no idea how much fun we were going to have that day.
In fact, I wasn't even really looking forward to going ashore all that much...
Because the weather was grey, with a chance of rain.
But, WOW, this turned out to be just an amazing day I'm sure I won't ever forget.
I had seen some videos about the Blue Hole in the hills of Jamaica...
And it looked fun, but none of the videos gave me a true sense of what this place was all about.
So, I'm going to try to do better!
In watching other videos about it, I thought the Blue Hole was just one place...
One big pond, let's say, that you could jump in to from spots on the rocks.
What surprised me when I was actually there, was that the blue hole is not just one pond...
It's a series of beautiful little spots along the river.
Our guide led us on a path along the rocks, from one spot on the river to another...
And at each spot, there were places you could jump in from...
Sometimes multiple places, at different heights... and some of them were way up there...
Making you think twice about whether you really wanted to jump from that height or not!
And the other thing that surprised me was that the water wasn't cold.
It wasn't warm, but on an 85 degree day in Jamaica, it was refreshing,
And people were in no rush to get out.
Anyone that wanted to just swim or relax in the water, was welcome to do so.
I'm just going to let the let the pictures do the talking now for a while...
And let you enjoy the beauty and the fun of what I got to see and experience on this day in Jamaica.
After our visit to the Blue Hole, we headed over to Mystic Mountain...
Where we got on what is essentially a ski lift, although they don't do a lot of skiing in Jamaica...
For a ride to the top of the mountain to ride the famous Jamaican bobsleds.
Now if you were born after 1993, you might not be familiar with a movie called "Cool Runnings"...
Which is loosely based on the true story of a funny situation...
The tropical island of Jamaica sending a team to the 1988 winter olympics in Canada to compete in the bobsled race...
Even though none of the Jamaicans had ever been in a bobsled prior to arriving in Canada for the Olympics.
After the 1988 winter Olympics, and later, the movie Cool Runnings...
Jamaica and bobsleds have kind of been a thing.
And that led to the construction at the top of Mystic Mountain...
Of the bobsled run that has gone on to become one of Jamaica's top tourist atrractions.
I sat in the front of the car with a GoPro, and Kellyn was behind me...
And here is the view as we get started now on what will be a pretty fun and high-speed ride!
That's the end of the downhill section of the bobsled ride.
This section of track that we're about to enter here is basically a big mechanical brake...
That would automatically slow down a sled if the driver had come screaming down the hill...
And failed to apply the manual brakes before now.
The bobsled ride doesn't take you all the way down the mountain...
To the bottom where we boarded the ski lift originally...
And in fact, it's just about to take us back up to the top of the mountain where we got on the bobsled.
They've got a pulley system that latches on to the bottom of the bobsled...
Very similar to the way a roller coaster works at an amusement park.
It was a fun two-minute ride from the top of the mountain down to this elevation...
And it only takes about three minutes for the bobsled to get pulled back up the mountain.
I'm going to do an edit here, though... and spare you from having to watch the whole trip back up to the top.
But if you do want to watch the complete ride...
Including the full three minute trip from the bottom back up to the top...
And with the full, original audio track and no voice-over from me...
I promise to post that to my YouTube channel within a few days of posting today's video.
So, there it is up ahead there... the same spot where the whole ride started.
I got a real kick out of the bobsled ride, and would have loved to do it again... maybe even two more times...
But the deal we had signed up for through the ship just included one ride.
There is more at the top of Mystic Mountain than just the bobsled ride.
They've got a restaurant, and a gift shop, and this really nice looking swimming pool...
So, bring your swimsuit... because the weather in Jamaica is tropical and warm
And you'll enjoy cooling off in the pool.
There's even a waterslide, which is a better waterslide than you'll find on some cruise ships...
And I thought it was cool the way that the water coming off the waterslide makes a little whirlpool in the pool.
You don't get down to the bottom of the mountain by bobsled like you might think you would...
You take the ski lift again, for a relaxing ride through the rainforest...
And on the trip down, the ski lift is at a lower position than on the way up...
So you don't get the views of the bay and the cruise ship that we had on the way up...
But you get a better view of all the foliage in the rainforest.
At the pier, as we headed back to the Carnival Horizon...
I couldn't help thinking about how lucky we were that it hadn't rained at any point during our excursion.
Skies were cloudy all day, but we hever actually got rain.
That ski lift ride up and down the mountain, through the rainforest...
Might have been kind of miserable if it had been raining.
And since it's a rainforest, my advice to you is if you come here, just be prepared.
Bring some kind of lightweight poncho or waterproof windbreaker, just in case.
Our shore excursion to two of Jamaica's top tourist attractions, the Blue Hole and Mystic Mountain...
Cost us $90 each, booked directly through Carnival...
And I think it was $180 well spent...
For one of the most memorable shore excursions we've ever had...
In the 48 cruises that we've been on.