As usual, we flew from Orlando the night before and stayed with my parents so we could catch the 8am Air Jamaica flight to MoBay. We tried to buy an upgrade at the counter, but since we were on Frequent Flier (Delta) tickets, they said that would not be possible. No Problem, Mon…and we took our seats in 27 E & F. Just before takeoff, the flight attendant came back and told us we had been upgraded to First Class for free! Irie!!! No problems on the flight, but the stopover in Kingston meant we did not arrive till 11am.

The transfer was the longest we ever had to wait – about 30-40 minutes – but we did meet a few of our fellow Braconauts (Jeff & Julie and Will & Beth) while waiting. They then packed 26 people destined for Braco and 28 people headed to Breezes Runaway Bay on a large bus. With over 50 people, the "Red Stripe Stop" became a foregone conclusion and we did not arrive at Braco till nearly 1:30.

Checkin was as smooth as ever, we dropped off our first gift (a bag of chocolates for the front desk staff) and we were assigned Room 3047 (Block B, 3^rd floor on the east end). This is a great room with vaulted ceilings and a little extra area in the sitting room. We have stayed on all 3 floors and in both buildings and this was our favorite room so far.

As we passed through the A/N area on the way to the room, the first thing we noticed was the place was PACKED!! It was the Thursday A/N luncheon and tables were set up on the deck, the grass, and even onto the beach. I have never seen so many A/N guests as I did on the 4^th. We got our usual warm greetings from Wayne (yes Butch, the first thing I asked him was "What time is it?"), Annette and Joyce at the A/N bar and chatted for a bit, but soon felt out of place with our clothes on. Off to the room for the 30 minute unpacking of our 4 (four) (IV) suitcases. Our friends cannot understand how we can go to an A/N resort and bring so much stuff, but we will discuss that later…

Back on the pool deck, we quickly met Chris & Kristy and Paul & Deb (from the Braconaut site) who turned out to be our companions for most of the week. The missing 25% arrived around 4pm when Jim & Cindy came in from St Louis. We had vacationed with them the year before and it was great to see them again!! That afternoon was spent mostly meeting folks we had chatted with online and getting decompressed from the States. I finally got to meet Mike (Scharpfy) & Sara which was great since I had chatted online with him for years.

Thursday night was the PJ party and Ange & I had matching outfits. Unlike prior years, when we went down the Fredricks/Victorias path, we opted for something different. We had matching long sleeved, footed flannel "rubber ducky" PJs – mine in baby blue, hers in pink – complete with a drop seat and nightcaps! Needless to say, I won 1^st prize for sexiest PJs (after engaging the drop seat!!) and Ange would have too, but didn’t enter the contest. They were fun, but boy were they HOT!!!

After the PJ party, I was pretty lit and raring to party more, but all 7 of my so called fellow partiers wimped out on me. So I went out by myself around 1am and hung the Braconauts Banner from the A/N bridge. Luckily I saw the next morning that I had indeed hung it right-side-up. I feared the worse when I awake with a bad hangover!

On Friday morning, Ange & I awoke around 8:30 and had to hurry to Chris & Kristy’s vow renewal. It was very nice and very romantic. They did it out on the prude side in the Wedding Gazebo. The minister was Reverend Derrick from Ocho Rios. He did a beautiful five-minute ceremony against a backdrop of the ocean, wind and waves. This was followed by champagne and traditional Jamaican wedding cake for the wedding party of 5. We shot lots of great pictures and then headed over to breakfast.

We ate breakfast just about every morning at Victoria’s Market and found it to be a relaxing and filling first meal of the day. The omelet station was our favorite, but most everything was good.

At 11am, Chris, Kristy and I went on the intermediate dive at Big White Reef. The high point was getting to use my new digital camera (Canon A40) with the underwater housing. I got some great shots and it was perfect for diving! The dive overall was OK, but we had some folks getting certified and being check out with only 2 dive masters. This meant we all had to keep in a tight group which I don’t really care for. Prior to ascending, we all had to link arms and I felt like I was in the kindergarten lunch line at my son’s school!! The safety stop at 15 feet for 3 minutes reminded me of the underwater fight scene in James Bond’s Thunderball. Visibility that day was also marginal, so I looked forward to Saturday’s dive at the Wall.

Lunch was Lambchops and Red Stripe at Wayne’s bar! Ahhhhh!!!! Massage at 2 pm which is my ULTIMATE FAVORITE BRACO EVENT. Bad news is they raised the prices a bit. A 50 minute (used to be 60) massage is now $70 (used to be 60) and a 80 minute (used to be 90) is now $100. The ladies are a fantastic as ever. We wound up having 3 massages each while we were there. We also did other stuff in the afternoon, but I have no idea what!

Friday night was Street Party and we reserved about 4 tables at La Pasta for the group. This quickly filled up and we squeezed others in where possible. Street Party was good and yes… they had lobster!! Irie!! The only thing I did NOT like was the jerk fish – way too spicy, bones, and dry. Yuck!! Evryting else irie, Mon! As the Street Party was winding down and the empty bottles of Chianti began to pile up, a "triple-dog-dare" led to the "liberation" of the now unrecognizable ice sculptures. We took the first two to the A/N pool and tossed them in to the cries of protest of the swimmers – they wanted them in the hot tub which was WAY too hot. So I went back for #3 which happened to be right in front of the GM, Sam James. When Mike asked if he minded if we used them to cool down the hot tub, he just laughed and said of course not, so off I went with the swan/bird/frog/whatever it was. I took this one right to the hot tub and tossed it in. We heard later the three of them had no measurable effect on the temperature, but it sure was fun doing it!

We awoke Saturday and joined Chris & Kristy for the 9am advanced dive. The destination was one of our favorites…the Braco Wall. The dive starts in 20 feet of water as you swim along the top of the reef towards the drop-off. At the most dramatic point, the water goes from 25 ft deep to over 3,000 ft in a shear drop-off. It is kind of like flying over the top of a cliff or tall building. We descended down to about 70 feet and swam along the wall for about 100 yards, then came back to the boat via a "crack" in the wall. This is a fun and beautiful dive and if you are certified, we highly recommend it.

Resort Divers has run the Braco concession for at least 3 years. Saturday 7/6 was the last day for Tony and Resort Divers. Braco was pulling all dive operation in-house. Eric is the new dive master in charge, along with Fruity and Bobby the boat captain. The negative is we really liked the Resort Divers staff. Tony, Lloyd & the others will be missed. One positive to come out of the change is all new equipment. New Sherwood regs, bcs, and all new snorkeling gear. Even the old blue Healthways fins are gone, replaced by something more current. The equipment was in perfect shape! The dive boat remains unchanged. Hedo III did the same change from third-party vendor to in-house operations the week prior.

After breakfast, it was back to the A/N pool for our usual volleyball, games and sunning.

The resort was still very crowded. As such, Paul (our earliest riser) was going out at 7am to place our things on the 8 chairs we were using. Ange followed about 20 minutes later and I was usually in my chair before 8am. This is a little earlier than I would have preferred, but we were afraid we would not get a chair or (more importantly) an umbrella. Management really needs to invest in about 6-12 more umbrellas for the pool deck as it seemed everyone was trying to grab one. We had heard stories of people reserving chairs at sun-up and not using them till late in the day, or trying to mark out chairs both on the beach AND at the pool, but we did not witness this. In general, by the time we went diving at 9am, the others in our group were out by the pool.

Jim, Cindy Ange & I had reservations at 9 for Piacere. Kristy & Chris had been at 7 and warned us that the A/C was not working. Although the Sea Bass was excellent, the place was insufferably hot. By the time desert came around, we were all soaked and not in the mood. It had to be miserable to forego Crème Brulee, Ange’s favorite in the world!! It was the worst experience (so far) of the trip.

Toga Party was that night and 7 of 8 of us made it. Jim passed out and we picked him up afterward. Toga night is OK, but not our favorite. Seeing people with a sheet wrapped around their shirts and shorts is pretty lame. If you are going to do it, do it!!! We stayed about 30 minutes, then hit the pool. We broke out the shot glasses by the pool and had our "Sambuca Run" in deference to our friends Rick & Thea we met last year. Only we used champagne instead of Sambuca and I am not sure if we ever ran in the pool. Details are blurry…but the spirit was there!!

This was the first full "official" Braconaut day. By this time, we had met lots of the folks from online. In the end, I figure I met over 60 people who were from the board. It was great meeting everyone, but it soon became apparent that a "group" of more than 10-12 people was not a manageable thing at Braco. It just isn’t really well equipped for larger groups for dinner, activities or just sitting around and socializing.

Massage again!! Sunday "day" I can’t remember anything else, so we must have had fun!

Dinner was for 8 at Munahana’s (Lido Trivia: Munahana means "Muna’s House". Muna is one of John Issa’s daughters. The other is Zein, the namesake for the yacht at GLN). Munahana’s is my favorite place to eat, not just because the food is great (which it is), but for the socialization. We had the most fun at dinner this night. Dwight was our teppanyaki chef and did a great job. The fish was to die for!!! We drank our usual "way too much" of the Chianti and in general made ourselves too loud and obnoxious. Fortunately, the only other table had 8 other Braconauts (Kyle & Kelly, Dan & Marjorie, Jeff & Julie and Jay & Patty) so no one cared too much (we hope!!).

After dinner was the A/N Dance…the only "official Braconaut function" in the trip. I was pretty blasted by the time I arrived and only Stuart & Ruth and David & Penny were there. The maintenance person had just moved the ping-pong and pool tables out of the way and mopped the floor. The tile floor. I then proceeded to dance with Penny in a manner to make St. Vitus look like a wallflower. The next thing I remember was lying on the floor and running my tongue around my mouth and tasting teeth. I had slipped and fallen flat on my face. At first I was worried I had damaged the floor, but fortunately I am equipped with "crumple-zone-teeth" and the wet tile floor remained as good as new. Actually, it was more scary than damaging and I was left with a couple of chipped front teeth, but nothing too serious. My dentist expressed his thanks 2 weeks later.

After extensive self-medication, I was back on the pool deck and ready to be comforted by all my fellow concerned partiers. Irie, Mon!!!

Awoke and brushed my teeth. Just so there is no confusion, I brushed my teeth EVERY morning, but this morning I did it with much more attention than usual. Teeth felt A-OK, though my jaw and gums were a bit sore. No harm, no foul. The true teeth test was to come during the dive that morning.

Two days earlier, Eric had offered to take Kris, Chris, Ange & I on a longer than normal boat trip to Runaway Bay, since we discussed how much we liked it during previous visits to Hedo III and Breezes Runaway Bay. However, Monday morning was VERY windy and by the time we got to the pool, there were already whitecaps. Eric was very apologetic to us, but no worries, mon…we understood 100%. In fact, Ange, Chris and Kristy all skipped the dive, leaving me to try out my new teeth. The Canyons is a reef dive in about 55 feet with sandy bottom and finger like patch reefs. In general, this dive was more stressful than relaxing. Lots of folks fumbling with equipment, tough surface time, and some new divers being checked out once we submerged. Saw some interesting marine life, but I could just as easily have passed on the dive.

I got back around 11, had a bite of breakfast and joined the A/N crowd at the pool. I finally got to meet BracoBob and his wife after many years of chatting online, which was a great pleasure!! Days sort of blur together, so let me just hit on a few high points that happened SOMETIME during the week.

• Volleyball: We played at least one round of 3 games every day. Sometimes we played twice! Usually we were joined by the EC on duty – Carl, Tamika, Hioka. I love this activity and all the games were great fun. No one is too serious (except for Carl!!!) and everyone get a chance to play and laugh. We had lots of players, sometimes 9 per side.
• Games: Trivia, History, Bingo, Scavenger Hunt, Toga Demonstrations … all these were fun and we participated in many. Even those who didn’t join in seemed to have fun watching. Pool Olympics was very entertaining and though we didn’t play, we had a blast watching!! Advice: Don’t snub the games just because you might not play them if you were home. It’s all good in Jamaica!
• Mixology: If you’ve done it, you know. If you haven’t done it, DO IT!! Always our favorite game!
• Body Painting and Tattooing: this year we must have been doing something because we missed them all! The "tattoo" gang led by Gary and later the "bead bikini" team led by David & Penny were entertaining folks over by the bar.

Today we painted our rocks. A Hedo tradition which has spilled over into Lido, guests will take the nice river rocks from in front of Block A rooms and paint their names, dates of visits and other things (sunsets, trees, etc) on the rocks. Several of us painted rocks with nail polish we had brought specifically for that purpose. It seems to last longer and stay prettier than regular paint. The next time you return, you add to the rock.

Dinner was Jim, Cindy, Ange & I at Piacere. AC was working….ahhhh. I don’t bring a jacket to Braco and got the "Talking Heads" jacket this time. Very big, but I wore it about 90 seconds. Byron was our waiter as he had been last year. Dinner was fantastic as usual. Ange, Jim & Cindy all ordered surf & turf with an extra lobster tail and loved it. I had the veal which was OK. I liked the Sea Bass on Saturday much better. Crème Brulle for everyone!!! Ange was happy at last.

For the Monday night A/N bonfire Robbie & Donna had hired a steel band to play. This was absolutely great and I encourage anyone who loves steel band music to consider doing the same, especially if you happen to be going with a group as this makes a great group event. Carl dragged around a few cases of champagne and kept everyone well supplied. We relaxed on beach chairs, in the breezy warm night, in front of the fire, sipping champagne, and listening to Caribbean sounds. It sure turned the evening into a beautiful concert. Everyone seemed to love it and we expressed our thanks to Robbie.

Ange & I renewed our vows today. We decided to do it on the A/N side so our friends would not travel far. You cannot actually get married/renewed while A/N (in case you wanted to do this) so all guests have to be wearing something. This is for the minister’s benefit more than anything.

They had set up the flowered arch just west of the Block B building along with a table for 12 and the wedding cake. We had about 35 people in various degrees of dress witness the event on the ground with us and several onlookers wished us well from their balconies in Block B. In general, it was a fun, romantic and thoroughly enjoyable ceremony and we would recommend it to anyone. We had only been married 2 years, but had been married by a notary friend of ours (legal in Florida) and wanted to repeat the ceremony with a pastor. We also had the pleasure of doing it in the presence of old and new friends, many who joined us for champagne and cake afterwards. All in all, it took about 30 minutes.

By 12, we were out of our tux/dress and in an impromptu game of volleyball. We had lamb chops for lunch and they were the best ever. Michael is a new addition to the A/N clubhouse staff and a super guy!!! He tracked down the chops early for us one day when a friend was leaving early and made sure they were delivered on time. Other days, he made special trips out to check with us, knowing how much we loved the lamb! When we were told by others that the chops had run out, he would always seem to materialize from the textile side with several full racks waiting to be grilled!! Michael got our "Irie Service Award" for the trip and we left our CD Boom Box with him when we left.

Today we had the only case of "textile invasion" all week. Two couples came over, but only one man disrobed and got in the pool. One other lady took her top off, but the other couple remained fully clothed, sitting in chairs, looking around, whispering and chuckling. After about 20-30 minutes, they were given "the option" by the security guard at which point the woman loudly responded "I’m not taking my clothes off for anyone". The man said he would leave when he finished his drink and they did just that. I think they came back the next day and got naked, but I am not sure.

Several people gave a big thanks to Jacqueline the security guard for saving us from the clothed invaders and we had fun the rest of the day "sicking" her on fellow Braconauts who did not immediately and completely disrobe by stopping volleyball, pointing and yelling "she’s got clothes on, Jacqueline!!". Oh the fun we had.

Chis & Kristy, Ange & I did a night dive tonight. It was pretty good except for a few surprises. The night diving costs $60pp which we charged to the room at the front desk. They supplied us with either a primary (8-C or D-cell) light or a good secondary light (like a 6-C cell Underwater Kinetics backup) either of which is fine for me as a night diving light. There is only one light per person, though I always pack a small "Mag Lite" which is waterproof so I took it along as a backup. 8 divers went to Fruity’s reef along with Fruity our dive master and another divemaster. Bobby drove the boat. Fruity’s reef is about 15-25 feet deep, but we had a good 2-4 ft seas that night so we felt the wave surge even on the bottom. We saw many things that are uncommon during the day – lobsters walking around, fish sleeping, sea cucumbers, bio-luminescence – and the 30 minute bottom time was fun. As we were getting near the end of the dive, Fruity had us all kneel on the bottom and link arms in a circle. He then proceeded to turn out all our lights one-by-one. This came without warning and you could feel the tension build in the inter-linked group as the lights slowly went out. I thought he did it to show off the bio-luminescent plankton, but then we began to rise. I thought "there’s not way he wants us to surface in the dark without briefing us on this!!" but there we went. When we got to the surface, someone accidentally switched on their light. Fruity began yelling, "Turn it off!! Turn it off!". Then I realized what was happening but not why. We were trying not to attract SOMETHING. Fruity then explained that jelly fish are attracted to the light. This got the group moving quickly to the boat. Ange was up first and though she had a full 0.5mm skin on, was stung across the ankle. I heard Chris yell out, "they got me!!" and I didn’t wait another second. I was just wearing a bathing suit so I quickly threw my fins up and went up the ladder tank, weight belt and all. I was one of two people who didn’t get stung. These were pretty nasty stings and although we all treated the stings Chris had three big red striped welts across his calf the next day. My guess is they were Box Jellies which can be nasty.

During our stay, they switched the nights of Toga & 60/70s party. We were now told tonight would be another toga night. We loudly protested since some of us had brought 70s clothes. Hioka got a compromise and we had the first (and maybe only) 70s-Toga night at Braco. I wore my hot pink double knot Sanasabelt slacks, psychedelic shirt, blonde afro (which Carl made me give him) and purple velvet Elvis glasses. Ange wore her rainbow tube top, miniskirt, and matching white belt and knee-high go-go boots. Kristy, Chris and Cindy also dressed up, while Jim lay passed out on the bed in his Lido robe. As you might guess, there were a grand total of 5 people in 70’s costume and the rest in togas, but as usual, we cared not. This is a REALLY fun party at the Hedos and could be so much more fun if people would only bring a few 70’s or 60’s items with them when the go to Braco. Go ahead and do it and if no one else dresses up, so what…it’s Jamaica!!!

Paul (our early riser) had stake out our site for the last time and we hit the pool about 8:30. Our first task was an unwelcome one…walking with Deb & Paul up front to say goodbye. I am always amazed how sad I am to do this duty. We had made great new friends, but now they (and soon we) were leaving. After hugs and promises, the 6 of us walked back to the pool. Chris & Kristy were the next scheduled at 12, so we got a 10 AM volleyball game going so they could play one last time. We also saw Michael and made sure we could have lamb chops as soon as they were available. After volleyball and chops, we walked them to the front and it was (in the immortal words of Yogi) like déjà vu all over again. Jim & Cindy and Ange & I returned to our spot, now ½ it original size.

We picked up our photos from the wedding today. Although we had 4 people shooting pics, we decided that the quality of his pics were worth the money. We paid $60 for 24 4x6 prints plus negatives. This package was originally quoted as $240 for 24 5x7s to Chris & Kristy. They bargained him down to the $60 and we benefited from their negotiations.

Massage again!!!

I was a proud participant in the 1^st Annual GLB Kite Flying Festival arranged by Robbie & Donna. I had modified, packed, and carried my parrot kite down for this one event and I tried my best to "get it up" as they say in the kite flying world. Alas, the weather was a bit too windy and Polly not only repeatedly crashed, but finally broke free of his tether and headed inland. Robbie quickly captured the cracker-muncher and presented me a shirt for my effort. He actually flew well the entire afternoon tied to our umbrella by the pool where the wind was a bit lighter. I disassembled the parrot and gave it to Wayne for his daughter.

Ange still wanted another bottle of rum and I had failed at both music trivia and scavenger hunt, so I dove in earnestly to Braco Trivia. Success!!! Ange then also scored a bottle with Bingo. My favorite quote came during Bingo when I heard Tamika on the PA system saying, "Angelika…please take Cindy away from the bar!!". I don’t know or want to know what they were doing.

We gave Michael his boom box today, but management had a problem with him accepting it without documented permission. Ange went to the front office to fill out a form for him. We gave Jacqueline (security) a heart shaped basket filled with toiletries and she was delighted. One thing we do is print out a bunch of labels that say "This gift is for our friend ________ from Terry & Angelika in Room _____. It is not a tip, but a token of friendship." We peel this off, write in the blanks and then they have written permission for the present. Worked great for everything except the boom box.

We returned to find the dreaded "eviction notice" under the door. Bags by 6, bus by 7. In Jamaica, the ONLY thing you must be on time for is the ride home. After a fun afternoon, we began our least favorite task…packing.

Dinner that night was the four of us at Munahana. Mike had asked Ange & I to accompany Robbie, Donna, Bob, Jan, Sara and him into Ocho Rios to Anil Sud’s restaurant, and we really liked the idea. But this was our last night and we had to pack and then be up at 6am, so we passed. Actually it was Beach Party night and we thought we would wind up eating there, but we had heard such poor food reviews from the prior Thursday that we wanted to avoid it. We were surprised that you CAN book at Munahana on that night and we did. Great dinner, yadda yadda yadda….

We finished packing that night and turned in early. Although we arrived with 4 suitcases we had given away one suitcase and the contents of it and another one. The return trip was much lighter.

We were up at 6 to put our bags out. We had breakfast delivered and watched the sunrise from our balcony as we enjoyed our last hour of Braco. Jeff took our picture as we walked up to the front to get on the bus. We didn’t see Jim or Cindy and thought we would be leaving without a send off, but at 6:59 they were there to hug us and say goodbye until next year.

On the bus and plane ride back to Orlando we talked with Robbie & John - a twenty-something couple. We had played volleyball with them a few days before and asked how they liked Braco. They said it was "OK" and would return "when we got older"! They said they had done Hedo II a few years ago with 12 of their close friends and this vacation was pretty boring by comparison. I would guess so!!! Just goes to show to each his own!

Another great trip to Braco, our favorite vacation spot. Some pros and cons from this trip:

Pros

• Massages – I’m sorry, but there is simply nothing better than a Braco massage under the sea-grape trees. End of discussion.
• The Braconauts – a great group of people!! We met many wonderful folks (way to many to name) and we hope to see you again next year.
• Diving - Equipment was new and the transfer to Lido control went smoothly.
• Room – our favorite so far. 3^rd floor on the end.
• Volleyball & lamb chops!
• Other Food – Great as usual.
• A/N bonfire and the Steel Drum band – Thanks, Robbie!!!
• Staff – Great as usual. Spent more time than usual talking to the ECs which was nice. Spent less time socializing with the A/N staff due to the crowd, which we missed.

Cons

• Crowds – This is a two edged sword. More people = more fun. But lots of people also meant lamb chop shortages, scarce chairs, very scarce umbrellas, tougher to get reservations, and generally a bit less personal service.
• Wet Tile Floors – (grin)!!
• No A/C at Piacere - If faced with this problem, skip dinner and re-book for another night. It was just too hot to enjoy it.
• Jellyfish on the night dive – Ouch!!
• Jerks – We met a few really rude people this time, more than I remember in the past. Being a bit obnoxious due to having a good time, I can handle any day, but some folks were just plain rude and inconsiderate.

In the end, the good outweighed the problems by about 20 to 1. How you choose to view the problems depends on the kind of person you are. At Braco, there are so many nice things that you can begin to take them for granted. For me, evryting irie, Mon!!!