Hey everyone! I’m back! And I just had to post this while it’s still relevant since the Olympics just ended. Everyone knows that hockey is a religion in Canada so I needed to find a place to watch the gold medal game while in Jamaica.

Watching Olympic hockey at Fishermans bar in Ocho Rios

This was so fun because I had met up with my girls at this little bar at fisherman’s beach in Ocho Rios. Three of us are Canadian and one is American and we all managed to force the bar owner to find the Olympics at 3pm for the big game! Imagine watching winter olympic hockey in a spot like this! It was great!

Watching hockey right on the Caribbean Sea!

This day was so much fun. The Jamaicans all hung around even though they don’t understand hockey at all, but I think our excitement for the game made them stay. We tried explaining it as best we could. At one point early in the game we acquired two more Canadians who were walking around looking for a place to watch the game too. Turns out they’re from my hometown!

It was a fabulous game and as you all know, Canada took the gold medal. I can’t think of anywhere else I would have rather watched it, except maybe with my son. There you have it….winter olympics in Jamaica!

The winning moment in the gold medal game!

Okay honestly this is the most unexpected discovery I’ve made in Jamaica!  I had no idea anyone attempted skateboarding there!  I have heard there’s a rollerskating arena somewhere but not skateboarding.  One of my friends in JA last year told me he’d seen it on TV and would like to try.

Last month I went to Boston Bay, in Portland, for the first time and I’ll be damned if I didn’t discover this primitive, YET functioning skate park!  Complete with one ramp and a rail (the long rectangular concrete piece on the ground).

I loved finding this out because Jamaicans will truly try anything! Heck, they have a bobsled team and a dogsledding team!! I wonder if there are any more of these little skate places around the island?

The reason I was so entertained by this was because my son used to be a competitive skateboarder in his younger teens, and we are fortunate enough to have the largest concrete skate park in the world, where we live. My son got to learn and excel on the best available so HE is the reason I took this video! To show him that even though there was no world class skate park here, these kids were having a great old time trying it anyways! I remember right after I shot the video I actually had to call him to tell him what I was watching.

Hilarious! Loved it!

I’ve been going through my mind to collect the posts I lost and this one needs to be reposted. I had a lot of response to it and its a beautiful beach! Much nicer than the public beach you’ll find right in Ochi. And ironically, this much better beach is FREE…the public beach right in town is $200 JMD for murky water and muddy sand.

Mahogany Beach, Ocho Rios

If you’re staying right in town Mahogany beach is much more of a hike than the public beach but definitely worth it. You could walk from the clock tower in about 15 minutes, or catch a taxi at the clock tower for about $100 JMD….just over $1 USD. The taxi will drop you on the roadside and you’ll have to walk down a bit of a road to get to the beach. When you get down there you’ll see plenty…a bar and restaurant on the right side and a cute little craft vendor with lots of colorful things to buy!

Mahogany beach craft vendor.

If you’re lucky you could even buy a Pepsi for a little Jamaican boy LOL. Actually this boy is the little brother of the friend who brought me to the beach. He’s priceless and might even get his own comical post on my blog down the road. I think in this next picture, that’s about the 4th Pepsi I bought him….the first three ended up on the ground LOL.

There’s a boat dock at this beach and you’re free to walk out to the end of it anytime and jump in for a swim if you want. There were a couple yachts parked here when I came and the view out onto the water is spectacular! Especially on a sunny day! My friend took a dip. Beyond the building in the distance in this picture, is the public beach.

Yachts at Mahogany beach.

A major plus to this beach is that its full of locals…I’m not a big fan of beaches packed with tourists. I love to watch the local kids play in the water, and Jamaican families taking some time out to enjoy.

The only downside in MY opinion is the local booze cruises dock here. You can hear those boats coming for miles…thumping bass playing something touristy like “Hot hot hot” and when the boat arrives a bunch of half drunk tourists get off. One came in the day I was there but the tourists didn’t hang around the beach…thank God LOL.

Its definitely worth the small trek to get to this beach from Ochi though. Loved it. And the funniest thing is when I saw it in the daytime I realized I’ve actually been to this beach for night swims a couple times, I just didn’t pay attention to where we were driving in the dark.