Seeing Jamaica Through the Eyes of a Blind Travel Agent

Today, here's the plan.

You need to pick up the phone and call into work today.

Next, you need to grab a bag, better pack of bathing suit, maybe a bottle of sunscreen.

Because we are headed to Jamaica.

That's right, the island of alright.

Yum, let's go.

I want to tell you about what I feel is one of the best Caribbean islands there is.

And well, it's because I fell in love with it.

On a trip that I took a couple of years ago, and that's what I want to talk to you guys about in today's podcast, is the island of Jamaica and how it just happened to steal this boy's heart.

I feel it's safe to assume that when most people think of Jamaica, they picture the same thing that I do.

A beautiful tropical island with crystal clear waters and picture perfect beaches.

Matter of fact, I bet you can already hear Bob Marley singing and already taste the pina coladas flowing.

That's exactly what I pictured in my mind.

But I realized there's actually more to Jamaica than just that.

As a travel agent, we get some amazing opportunities from time to time to visit some amazing destinations.

It's always the destinations that we know our clients would love to travel to.

And that way we can have firsthand knowledge of the destination so that we can better be equipped to sell it to our clients.

It's one of these types of trips that I want to tell you about.

I was so excited when I got the call from one of my fellow travel advisor friends who asked me if I would like to come along on a trip that he was organizing with a small group of travel advisors to Jamaica.

I had never been to Jamaica, always wanted to, and so I was super excited to say yes.

Never did I realize, though, that this quote unquote work trip was going to totally change my life because it was going to open my eyes to not only a new place, but an entire new culture.

Because as I like to say, you travel to Jamaica for the resorts and the beaches, but you come back for the people.

Before diving in, I do have to give you a little bit of context.

This was actually my first time traveling outside of the country, besides for those typical Caribbean cruises I had been on with my family.

It was also the first time that I had ever traveled anywhere after losing my eyesight without one of my family members traveling with me.

So it was kind of a big deal.

Definitely had my family very scared while I was just very excited.

And so that's what I want you to remember.

I'm not just a normal travel advisor.

I'm a travel advisor who can't see.

And so I get to experience a place a little bit different than everyone else.

And so that's why I want to tell you about the way I saw Jamaica, Jamaica from another view.

With my head bobbing along to the sound of the reggae music blaring from the speakers, we swerved our way along the twisty-turny two-lane road, headed from the Montego Bay Airport to our resort, Moon Palace, Jamaica Grand.

I was starting to realize just what it meant to have that island lifestyle, that carefree, no worries attitude, as our driver seemed to have no worries about swerving into other lanes as he made the turns.

Everybody in the van would scream and he would just laugh and keep on driving, foot pressed to the floor.

Once we arrived to our resort, the mood definitely slowed down a lot.

I was thankful for that.

After a full day of flying from Florida over to Jamaica and then making that crazy drive from the airport to our resort, I was definitely appreciative when I was handled an ice cold towel and a glass of champagne upon our arrival to our resort.

The resort we were staying at was absolutely out of this world.

And matter of fact, after touring other resorts, which I will get to later on in the podcast, I came to realize how appreciative I was of this resort's relatively small size.

Some of the other resorts are much more spread out, where Moon Palace Jamaica Grand, they fit a lot into a small footprint.

Walking through the lobby, I almost got this feeling that I was walking through a really nice shopping mall.

I know maybe the designers of the resort didn't have that in mind, but maybe they didn't seek the advice of somebody who's blind either.

Because the tiled floors and the glass walls of the shops and restaurants, it just kind of had that same sound quality that I picture when walking through a mall.

But it was nice, especially once I got to my room.

Had my own room with two queen-size beds.

Plenty of room for one guy, that's for certain.

But oh my goodness, the beds were amazing.

I thought my mattress at home was comfortable.

Nope, no comparison.

But I settled in and I was loving it.

One feature I thought was really great for a guy who's blind is the light switch was on a timer.

So all of a sudden the lights would go out, which was perfect.

That way I didn't have to worry about remembering did I turn the lights on or off?

Or honestly, for all I know, the lights could have stayed on all night long for the whole week I was there.

And I certainly didn't notice.

Advantages of being blind, I guess.

But I have to say, the resort was awesome.

They had everything you could ever want.

They had one of the flow rider surf simulators.

They had scuba diving.

They had every restaurant you could think of.

I'm talking everything from the hibachi tables where they're cooking in front of you, to various restaurants serving up the best of Jamaican cuisine.

One thing that I thought was particularly awesome about the resort was listening to the scuba divers in the swimming pool.

Scuba divers in the swimming pool?

Say what?

That's right.

The resort offers scuba diving lessons, which are what you do before you actually head out into the ocean.

That's right.

They want to be sure that you know what you're doing and that everyone is safe.

So I thought it was pretty cool because when we were walking around the resort, at one point we were walking next to the swimming pool, and I could hear the scuba divers swimming in the pool.

And you may be wondering, okay, how do you hear people swimming in the pool?

Well, it's easy.

You have the scuba divers, and you can hear them breathing through their regulators.

And so you hear that.

Plus, you can hear their flippers hitting the surface of the water every once in a while when they would make a big kick.

And so I just thought that was really awesome.

There were a couple of days when they had different groups of scuba divers in the pool, and I just loved to sit in a chair beside the pool, just listening to them make their way through the gorgeous pool.

I must add, this was no little rinky-dink swimming pool.

This thing was amazing.

And so I just thought it was pretty cool to have the scuba divers practicing and making their way through.

It just kind of added a whole new experience to the uh swimming pool atmosphere.

It was definitely Caribbean-like, if I could say the least.

But here's the thing: even as amazing as our resort was, that's not what had me fall in love with Jamaica.

Because I don't care what resort you're at, you've got to get out and experience Jamaica for yourself.

I mean, you don't just want to trust the food that they're serving up at the big resort.

You've got to get out and go to the local restaurants.

There was one day that we went to one of my buddies' favorite restaurants called Scotchy's.

At Scotchy's, you know what you had.

You had jerk chicken and an ice cold red striped beer.

Let me tell you, it was amazing.

The amazing food at Scotchy's was just the beginning.

I have to tell you, the most amazing experience I've possibly ever had when traveling happened when we did an excursion to Mystic Mountain.

I wasn't really sure what to expect other than we were going to some really tall mountain that we would get on a chairlift similar to that that you would have when you would go skiing.

And you were taking the chairlift up to the top of the mountain.

And then, to be quite honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect once we got to the top.

I guess I figured we would then just come back down.

But I have to tell you, it was absolutely incredible.

You have to remember, this is coming from a guy who can't see anything.

So the thoughts of going up to what is more or less thought of as a lookout point may seem like something that wouldn't be so great for somebody who can't see.

But that's just the opposite.

Once we get to the base of Mystic Mountain, we did just as I thought.

We paid our fee to visit Mystic Mountain and we waited in line at the chair lift.

I remember going skiing up at Snowshoe, West Virginia, when I was a little kid.

And sure enough, this was exactly the same.

We just didn't have skis on.

When it was our turn, we lined up at the chair, and all of a sudden the chair swung around, hit you in the butt, and you fell down and started going up the mountain.

And then that's what was really cool was the ride up to the top of the mountain.

I don't know how long it took, but it was a good ride.

That was what was so amazing was as we were riding up, not only were we being hit by tree branches from the forest growing up a little too tall, but you could also hear the different birds all in the forest below us.

It was absolutely amazing.

It was like you were going right up over top of this amazing tropical forest.

And it was just full of sounds of birds.

And then at the same time, you had the other sounds of the traffic and the world all below.

And what was so cool was the higher and higher we got, of course, the quieter and quieter all the sounds of the hustle and the bustle of the city life down below got.

But then what was really awesome was all of a sudden at one point I realized we were so high that you could no longer hear the city below.

All it was was just you in the air, still bouncing along on the chairlift with complete silence, other than the birds chirping in the rainforest below.

And of course, you had the occasional screams in the distance as people were taking the zip lines coming back down through the rainforest, going from tree to tree.

And that's what gets us to the top of the mountain where it's full of awesome activities.

So the top of Mystic Mountain is an awesome place to just hang out for the day.

They had a full bar and restaurant.

They had a swimming pool.

They even had what I thought was really cool, and I actually tried out for myself was the Jamaican bobsled.

Now, it wasn't really like a bobsled in the fact that it was more a rustic Jamaican roller coaster going down the side of Missing Mountain.

I don't know that I uh probably felt the safest on this roller coaster, but nonetheless, I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to have some type of excitement in my day.

So I went ahead and said, yeah, I'll do the roller coaster.

And there I was in this single-person car at the top of the mountain.

And all of a sudden it was my turn.

They said go.

And I just held on and prayed for dear life.

But look, I'm still here today.

So the roller coaster is perfectly safe.

But like you said, there was also amazing opportunities for people to go zip lining, which a lot of people were doing that and seemed to enjoy it tremendously.

But the biggest thing about Mystic Mountain, like I said, was just the amazing sounds coming from the different birds all filling the forest.

And then especially just the difference in the sound of, like I said, when we were at the top, you literally could hear nothing from the city below.

Until then, you know, we were on our way back down the chairlift and eventually you got low enough and you started hearing everything again.

And it was just one of those opportunities for me that it just reminded me again how when you use your other senses, you realize you're not missing out.

Never once did I think, oh my gosh, I wish I could see, I wish I could see this or see that.

I didn't, not a single time because I was experiencing the whole thing just as much as everyone else.

I was just using my other senses.

And I have to tell you, it was really amazing.

And that's what's really cool about Jamaica, because Jamaica is full of amazing opportunities like this.

Trust me, if this hadn't been a work vacation, I would have definitely planned my trip to involve more of these amazing opportunities all over the island.

Some of these other activities I'm referring to include at Dun Rivers Falls and the Blue Hole.

I'm telling you, there are so many opportunities that you just can't stay in the boundaries of your resort.

I'm telling you, if you do, you're cutting yourself so short on your trip to Jamaica.

Now, as part of a trip like this, we not only want to get to experience the destination, but we also want to get to experience the different resorts.

Resorts that we know are ones that we may like to send our clients to.

So that was actually really awesome for me because, you know, everybody else gets to go online, look at the pictures, see what something looks like.

But for myself, nothing beats that firsthand experience.

Me actually getting to be there, to feel it, to understand what it looks like by how it sounds.

And so that really was such an amazing opportunity.

We literally spent one whole day touring, I can't even tell you how many countless numbers of all-inclusive resorts all over that section of Jamaica.

And, you know, what was really pretty awesome was the perspective that I had of some of the resorts was, I think, a little bit different than what some of the other people in our group had.

And matter of fact, I actually touched on this in one of the earlier episodes.

I'll link that episode in the show notes below in case you're interested.

I believe it was where I had described how being a blind travel advisor might just be better than one who is sighted.

So I paid close attention to the overall feeling of a resort, how closed in or open the entryway were when you walked into the lobby, or how easy to navigate the walkways were.

All of these little things that some people I don't think really pay attention to because let's face it, they're being distracted by the visual elements.

And meanwhile, I'm over here just keened in on all my senses, taking it all in and figuring out do I like this place or not?

And that's what was actually pretty funny.

Because, like I said earlier, some of the places that other agents really liked were the ones that I liked the least.

Because let's face it, if it don't feel good, it ain't good.

So you can give me all the list of amenities you want and give me all your top-tier recommendations and your five stars.

But, you know, if the place just doesn't feel good, it has something about it.

You know what?

It's just not the right place for me.

You know, that's what makes me me.

And like I said, you'll have to definitely check out that episode about what makes a blind travel advisor better than a sighted one.

Like I said, I'll link that in the show notes because I think you'll find out maybe I am a little bit better than your sighted one.

But more special than any of those resorts were that day was me getting to interact with the local people of Jamaica.

Now, that's saying a lot because, like I said, we visited some pretty amazing resorts.

We visited the very room, the honeymoon suite that The Bachelor was filmed in, in whatever season that was.

Like I'm telling you, none of that compares.

None of these amazing resorts with all their glorious pools and amazing over-the-top restaurants compare to the people of Jamaica.

And that's why I'm here to tell you my favorite part about that day was getting to know the guy who drove us around all day.

His name was Bradford.

As a native to Jamaica, Bradford was a wealth of information to that curious guy like myself who wanted to know all about the island and even more so about their culture.

I actually became so fond of talking with him that some of the resorts that I knew I didn't have any real interest in seeing, I opted to just sit in the van.

And that way everyone else could go tour the resort and I could ask Bradford more questions.

I'm telling you, the guy would fill me in on everything, and I learned so many interesting things about the people of Jamaica.

And one thing that I thought was particularly interesting was their meat of choice is goat meat.

And on top of that, they're big fans of the pressure cooker.

Now, I hadn't heard of anybody using a pressure cooker since my great-grandmother in North Carolina.

So I found this particularly interesting.

By the end of the day, I felt like me and Bradford were friends.

I mean, we were talking to each other, asking each other back and forth about how things were at home versus the other ones.

And it was neat to find out the comparisons and contrasts of both of our lives.

I just thought it was so awesome.

And, you know, and that was one of those things that I sat there and I thought to myself, you know, this is what makes traveling so amazing is getting to have one-on-one conversations with people of other cultures.

And as different as their culture may be, you know, you realize we're also so alike.

And it just made for this really amazing opportunity that had stuck with me ever since that trip.

But what was especially awesome was at the end of the day, we had been invited to dine for dinner at the chef's table at one of our last resorts to visit that day.

The chef's table is a very awesome opportunity where you get to dine at literally the chef's table.

So the chef is the one bringing out each course that evening.

You don't know what it is that you're about to eat until he brings it out.

The food was absolutely out of this world.

But this is what's cool is my buddy, who is the one who organized the whole trip, he invited Bradford to come to dinner with us.

I don't think Bradford had ever been to a restaurant that fancy before in his life.

And it was really something special.

I sat next to Bradford throughout dinner, and me and him, we had the best time ever.

They would bring out the dishes and he would whisper to me, This is what we call foo-foo food.

And I told him, Yeah, we do too.

But we would go ahead and laugh and try to figure out what in the world we were eating.

Stuff way too fancy for this guy who was used to cooking goat meat in the pressure cooker.

But it was just amazing.

It was so awesome to get to sit there and share a meal with this guy of this amazing experience that, like I said, I know that he had never had before.

And it just made for this amazing end to that entire trip, to get to meet somebody and just to be part of their culture.

You know, I think that's something that's so important for all of us, no matter where we are traveling, whether it's in the United States or to another country, is, you know, to put your guard down, to open up and talk to the local people.

Because not only are they interesting, you want to find out about them and, you know, because it does something good for us to learn about other cultures and to open our minds.

But also, if you want to heighten your vacation, I'm telling you, ask the locals where to eat and what to do.

Don't follow all the other tourists.

They're gonna take you to all the places that aren't the good places.

You know, you want to go where the locals go.

And so I'm telling you, you got to meet the people, talk to them, make friends with them.

It will really just make your trip something extra special.

When all was said and done, I came away with the following about Jamaica.

Number one, an all-inclusive resort is truly all inclusive.

I can't tell you how long it took me to realize, Kevin, stop worrying about how much something costs.

It's all inclusive.

That's right.

You don't have to worry about if you don't like that particular drink you just ordered.

You can order another one.

It's all inclusive.

Number two, as great as the resort is, the destination is even better.

As I said, Mystic Mountain totally made the trip out of this world.

And number three, of course, the local people of Jamaica are absolutely amazing.

They just truly made the island what it is.

I realized, you know, this place is all about the people of Jamaica that make it so amazing.

And last but not least, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is something amazing.

And Jamaican rum cream, oh baby, let me tell you, it is out of this world.

So that's my wrap-up on Jamaica.

Whenever you're able to travel, I hope you'll choose Jamaica as your Caribbean destination.

It will totally change your life.

SPEAKER_00: And that's the lowdown on life and travel.

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