In July of 2005, we decided to go to one of those "all inclusive" resorts in Jamaica with a group of friends. All was well, the resort was beautiful, the food was good and the weather was fantastic....until Hurricane Dennis hit.
It was a wild ride. Everyone stayed inside the resort and rode out the hurricane because there was no where else to go to. In fact, our resort was considered to be one of the safe places for the locals to go during the hurricane. Uh, did we mention that this was an open-air resort located on the beach in the direct line of hurricane fire? Ponder this for a moment... Uh huh. Fortunately, our resort sustained little damage.
Eventually we were able to get out on a flight out of Jamaica. The drive to the airport was certainly an E-Ticket ride. The best part was just after the hurricane when our driver came to take us from the resort to the airport (which was on the other side of the island). He told us the following;
- Most communications were down & no one really knew how bad the hurricane damage really was.
- He had no idea if the airport was functioning.
- He had no idea if the roads were passable, but he'd try to get us as close to the airport as possible.
- He had heard reports of violence outbreaks along the local roads (locals ambushing passing cars, looting, etc).
Take a deep breath.
Wait for it.
Ready?
He told us that everything would be OK because he had a loaded gun with him. You could just feel the joy oozing from us at that point. We did eventually make it to the airport & only had a few "character building" moments along the way.
That experience certainly expanded our definition of "fun." We did pick up a slick little souvenir @ the airport to remind us of our experience.
