What's up y'all?
Thanks for joining the Travel Tales and Talk Podcast with Derek and Makyla.
I'm Derek.
I'm Makyla.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
Hey mon, this is episode seven.
I had to do it baby.
We are in Jamaica.
Jamaica mon.
Oh my goodness.
Sweetheart, we just got back from Spain.
What are we doing in Jamaica?
Well, we are attending a wedding.
Oh, that's right.
We have a destination wedding.
One of your friends, lifelong friend, right?
Yes.
Yeah, so upon arrival back to the States, we have 72 hours in our own beds before we
fly off to Jamaica mon.
Oh my goodness.
I love saying that.
Oh man, but so we're headed out to the destination wedding, which I thought was awesome.
I've never been.
Glad I went.
I was a little hesitant at first, but it was really nice.
You went because I told you I'm paying for the tickets.
Yes, that too.
In the room.
99% of that was because you were paying for it.
So that's why I was going.
Shame on you.
Oh man, but yeah, we had a good time.
We had to fly out of Louisville this time.
Yes, we had to fly out of Louisville.
You planned this whole trip.
I don't recall why we're not flying out of Lexington versus Louisville.
We couldn't get the flights back to Lexington.
Would have, this is so silly.
We would have left Sunday morning, but we would not have, well, Sunday midday.
We would not have arrived in Lexington to nine o'clock the next morning.
So we had an almost, was it an 11 hour layover?
12 hour layover in Atlanta.
In Atlanta.
Yeah.
We could have drove from Atlanta to Lexington, back to Lexington by the time our flight took
off.
I mean, I considered it.
I thought about doing the Delta Sky Lounge, you know.
We had never done it before.
And I was like, hey, we could really do that.
That'd be our first time.
But I really thought about it.
I'm like, no, that's a long time to be hanging out in the Sky Lounge.
We could have drove home by then.
Twice.
And then I was like, let's just check our neighbors.
So we go to Cincinnati, we look at Cincinnati flights and we look at Louisville and Louisville
had the best.
Options.
The better options for returning flights.
Because even from Louisville, we got back at midnight.
We did.
Yeah.
Versus, I mean, that's much better than nine a.m. from Atlanta to Lexington, I guess.
Yes.
And you know, I'm always looking at layovers.
Layovers aren't always bad.
With us leaving the country, if the layover had have been, I don't know, somewhere like,
I don't know, the Bahamas.
It's been different.
Or Miami.
You know?
No.
I never want to do a layover in the United States.
I'm always looking for long layovers in other countries because you can kind of squeeze in
another excursion.
Yeah.
Another trip.
Depending on how long it is, though.
Yeah.
Those 11 hours would have been great had we been in like Nicaragua somewhere, you know?
Yeah.
Or Guatemala City or something.
Yeah.
And I'm like, no, we used to live there.
Yeah.
No, we're good.
It would have been nice to see the kids, you know?
Yeah.
But, uh-uh.
Yeah, that layover was a no-go.
But one thing we found out when we arrived in Jamaica, called us both off guard, the
guy was like, did you fill out your C5?
We were like, our C what?
Your customs form.
I'm like, no, no one told us to.
I've never done that before.
I'm like, oh, you saw the look in his face like, you freaking guys, you didn't fill out
your C5?
Like, this is just common knowledge.
No one told us.
Yeah.
Did you know about that form?
I had no idea.
And you got to keep in mind, with us holding the blue passport.
Yes.
The US passport, we-
Assumed.
We normally don't do, you know-
Additional forms.
Yeah.
We assume that's all we needed was the passport.
There are countries, but a lot of times we don't have, what's it where I'm looking for?
Visas and stuff like that.
You know?
Yeah.
So it was like, ah.
And it, cause I thought it was weird that they didn't give us the custom forms on the
plane.
On the plane, yes.
You know, we are used to that.
Them handing out, cause I had my ink pen ready to go.
That's standard.
And we didn't get those.
I was like, oh, okay, well this is one of these countries where you just show up.
Yeah.
Blue passport, you know?
Wrong.
No.
We were totally wrong.
We sure were.
So you have to go to their website, which is enterjamaica.gov.jm.
And you have to fill out a custom C5 form, either online or print out a actual form.
And then when you arrive, hand the form over.
So that's one thing we learned upon arrival.
Called us totally off guard.
And then we have to scan our passports on this, like, kiosk.
Like, we put it face down and scan your passport.
We've never done that before either.
That's new too.
We didn't do it in Guatemala.
We didn't do it in Spain, Canada.
All the places we've gone, we've never done that.
So that's maybe a Jamaican thing.
Only thing I can think of.
I have no idea.
Yeah.
So from there, we head to transportation and we were shuttled to these shuttle buses.
See what I did there.
And we pull up to the guy and we say, hey, we're going to Zortree.
That's the name of the hotel we were staying at.
And he looked at me like, Zortree?
I don't know what that is.
Put your bags over here.
I'm so, what?
Now, mind you, this shuttle was purchased.
Massive, yeah.
No, it was an additional purchase through the hotel.
That was through the hotel?
Yeah, like they work with, you know they have-
Third parties?
Third parties, yeah.
Okay.
Because Zortree doesn't have their own personal shuttle, but they gave me the information
where I can hire my own private.
This whole time I thought they worked for the resort.
No.
Wow.
But sort of kind of because the resort recommends them.
So it was kind of like, wait a minute now.
Yeah, yeah.
Some other guy said his hotel, oh, put your bags here.
I booked you through the resort's information.
I said, Zortree, he like, get out the way.
Move back, move back.
I was like, oh no, we are in the wrong place.
We're going to have to take an Uber or something.
I was getting worried.
I don't know about you.
I don't know about you, but I was very concerned when he said, put your bags over here, get
out the way.
So I was-
I wasn't worried because I had a paper trail.
I had paperwork.
I had receipts.
So I wasn't worried at all.
I was terrified.
So we ended up getting in the, in our shuttle was an actual bus.
Bus.
Like a tour bus.
Yep.
And my guy was on there hustling.
He was on there hustling.
What you mean hustling?
He had his little side hustle going on on the bus.
What side hustle?
He was dealing in Mary Jane.
So he had a little bucket and I saw it.
He had a little bucket and the bottom of that bucket was the devil's lettuce.
And he had things on top of it to keep people from seeing it.
So this one guy came on and he gave the universal sign to, you know, I want to partake.
He's like, okay.
And he came, brought him his little bucket, showed him what he had.
Oh my goodness.
And the guy bought it right there on the bus.
I didn't see any of that.
Yes.
I was about to get off.
It took everything in me to stay on this bus.
I'm like, we might get picked up by the DEA.
We need to get off this bus.
You were sitting to the, you were all in the back.
So I saw it when I got on the bus.
So I saw that foolishness when I got on the bus.
So he was on the bus hustling.
Oh boy.
FYI.
Well, I'm glad we made it to Zoetree.
Safe and sound.
Me too.
Without any charges.
But yeah, excuse me, Zoetree.
How did you find, this is part of the wedding.
Okay.
I thought you found.
It was recommended by the bride.
Yeah, I thought you.
It was part of her.
It was part of her thing.
Yep.
Gotcha.
So Zoetree, it's on a private beach.
I thought that was public property, but they own their little beach and it's beautiful.
It's a five star boutique resort, 49 suites and rooms.
So very limited capacity and it's part of the Hyatt brand.
So I did not like that because I am a Hilton's guy.
So I gave my money to a competitor.
Oh, you gave your money to a competitor.
I'm sorry.
We could have got our 50,000, 60,000 points a night, but we missed out on that, baby.
You better talk to the couple.
Don't come at me with that foolishness.
Next time we got to tell them, y'all got to go to Hilton property.
It's a wrong job.
Now the room was breathtaking.
It was very beautiful.
And leading up to the days of our trip, you get these emails, hey, would you like to upgrade?
Tell us your price.
My price wants to be like $2.
Tell me your price.
But they had a little sliding scale and the sliding scale was starred at what they really
wanted.
So I would pick the lowest amount and then send it off and see if they will accept it.
And they accepted our room upgrade and our room upgrade allowed us to have a soaking
tub and a butler.
We got a butler.
A butler.
Now we're going to talk about this butler and this soaking tub.
The soaking tub.
So I'm thinking, oh, I love to soak and everything.
It'd be a great way to relax.
We've been in Spain for nine, 10 days.
Great day to relax, get our muscles together.
Our soaking tub was on the balcony.
Outside.
Outside on the balcony.
I was like, I can't do that.
With no privacy fence or nothing.
No privacy.
Because I was tempted.
You know, if we were just a tad bit higher up on the floors, I would have went out there.
No, but here's the funny part about it.
We walk in the room and we didn't open the curtains.
We never thought the tub would be on the patio.
And we walked to the bathroom like, where's the tub?
We were going to call the butler, hey butler, we got a room with a tub in it.
And then Kyla goes and opens the curtain like, shh.
Oh, there's the tub.
Yep, on the balcony.
On the balcony.
On the second floor.
Nice, beautiful soaking tub.
Nice tub.
And then the balcony is like a plexiglass so it's clear.
You can see right through it.
Because I was thinking about, hmm, maybe I can fix the blanket up.
No.
So.
The people at the pool can see everything.
We were low enough to the ground where the people in the pool could see.
Every day.
So we sat in the soaking tub but we sat in it with our pajamas.
Bathing suits.
Not pajamas, bathing suits.
You know what I mean.
Bathing suit.
You've been not being in your pajamas.
It had all our swim trunks in the soaking tub because it was on the patio where everyone
can see our business.
A little bit disappointed in that.
But nonetheless, it was cool.
Cool little vibe.
Cool room.
The room was awesome.
The freshest of the bed.
So our butler though.
Oh.
He was very helpful that first night.
He kind of ghosted us the second night.
The second night we didn't see him.
But once.
We saw him that morning at breakfast.
That was it.
And I think we text him about how to stop the tub or plug the tub.
He never showed up.
And I figured it out.
Like look man we good.
We good.
You can just stay wherever you are.
The service there was very slow, so you know,
I heard that's a thing in Jamaica.
They move at their own pace,
so don't order your food if you're really hungry.
You gotta order it in anticipation of your hunger.
Yes, because we ordered lunch when we got there,
and we got it at dinnertime.
We really did.
We got it at dinnertime.
Actually, the dinner came
at the same time we went to dinner.
Because you told me to eat your food upstairs in the room
while the guy was bringing out the dinner to the table.
That is hilarious.
But the butler part in the dinner,
but they have this room service.
That dude showed up like clockwork knocking on the door.
You want some more beer?
I'm like, dude, would you stop?
No, I don't want any more beer.
So we asked for Wata.
And it says Wata on the bottle.
It says Wata on the bottle, W-A-T-A, Wata.
He brought us plenty of Wata.
And then he goes in the fridge and he's like,
brother, you don't drink beer?
I'm like, no.
He's like, man, what is wrong with you?
I was like, I don't like beer.
He wants me to drink that red stripe.
I was like, no, I don't drink beer, bro.
So I guess I'll just stop bringing you beer.
Thank you.
We just want Wata, Wata and Coke, Coca-Cola.
That's all we want.
Everything else you can leave at the bar.
So that guy was like clockwork, but our butler.
He threw them deuces real quick.
That man said, y'all good?
And he went home.
He really did.
He went home.
He was like, you have WhatsApp?
Okay, here's my number, plug me in.
Yeah, plug me in.
And I was like, for what?
You don't answer.
Man, we was texting that man all night, no response.
This dude ghosted us the whole time.
We would see him walking around the hotel though.
I was like, dude, I just text you.
You didn't even respond.
So that was fun though.
So Friday night, we have the rehearsal dinner, right?
And that's where we met our new marriage counselor.
She talked about everything.
She has some great advice though.
So my question to you, if it ever happened, all right.
Hold up.
First of all, let me interject.
She's not our real marriage counselor.
It was basically the friend of the bride and groom.
And this lady was sitting at the table with us.
And she was very, very, very chatty.
Very nice.
So chatty that the bride actually called me over
a couple of times to make sure I was okay
because she knows that the lady can talk you under the table.
She said, are you all right now?
She can really talk.
I was having a good time listening to her talk.
She was talking about some stuff to get you,
make you a better wife so you should have listened.
Better wife?
Make you a world-class wife.
Oh wow.
You already were because I'm just joking.
Just joking.
But my question to you is about our new marriage counselor.
Do you think who would win in a talking match?
Your daddy.
My dad or her?
Your dad.
That's a, they're probably tippy-tappy.
Man, they would probably, it would be a draw.
It would be a draw.
Derrick's dad.
He loves to talk.
He knows no strangers.
No strangers.
And we found his match.
I think we found his match, baby.
Yeah, that lady is his equal.
We need to ask Ebony what's her name
so we can get those two connected
so they can have a talk-off.
And we're gonna record and put on YouTube.
YouTube.
And everything.
YouTube's gonna run out of space.
YouTube's gonna say no more storage
after we drop that one.
I promise you.
Anyway, I just wanna talk about that dinner.
They had the world's greatest mashed potatoes.
Really?
Did you not have the mashed potatoes?
I did not.
Oh my God.
They were delicious.
They melted in your mouth.
I can't explain it.
I cannot explain what they did to those mashed potatoes.
World-class mashed potatoes.
I didn't know mashed potatoes were a thing in Jamaica.
Was not expecting that.
Along with the roasted chicken.
A plus.
What did you have for dinner?
I honestly don't remember.
Do you remember your Bob Marley's?
I remember the Bob Marley's.
You never told me what that was.
They don't tell you what it's made out of.
They told me but I don't remember.
It was like some kind of fruit juice situation.
It was a mixture.
It just reminded me of a rainbow slushie.
So did they have alcohol in it?
A little bit.
Okay.
Because everyone was drinking them.
So it had to be pretty good.
I just.
You could have it without alcohol too.
I didn't really do fruity beverages like that.
So I didn't think I would like it.
But you seemed to love it.
But backing up, my whole lot of nothing
when we were in Madrid,
I told you I didn't wanna do anything.
So what did you wanna do when we got to Jamaica that Friday?
It was just three things.
I wanted to go white.
No.
You didn't wanna go.
No.
I wanted to go to Dunn River Falls.
Dunn River Falls.
I wanted to go rafting on a raft.
Okay.
White water rafting?
It wasn't white water rafting.
Just a lazy river rafting.
And the third was I wanted to go
to the Biolumnescent Bay at night.
Was that in Montego Bay
or is it on the other side of the island?
I don't remember.
It was like an hour away.
Okay.
So that was in a different direction.
I don't remember.
It is.
That they had an excursion
and they would have took a seat.
Those are the three things I wanted to do.
But what we ended up doing was lying in the bed.
Yes.
Watching Harry Potter.
Yes.
Harry Potter marathon.
And it was awesome.
Never seen Harry Potter until that Friday night.
Cause that's all I wanted to do.
I just wanted to lay and relax
cause I was dead beat.
Dead beat from Spain.
I was tired.
But my wife, she was ready to hit the road.
She was like, come on, let's go.
She wanted to go ride horses.
Yeah.
Everything.
It was too beautiful.
Jamaica, where we were, it was breathtaking.
It was very beautiful over there at Zoetry.
So I just felt like it was a waste to sit in the room.
Tired or not, it was just a waste not to be out there
and enjoying the ocean and the sand.
I'm offended.
You will be.
I'm offended.
So Derek got left a lot of times.
So it was a waste to lay with your husband.
You can spin it the way you want to spin it.
And cuddle with your man.
That's a waste.
Putting words in my mouth.
No, no.
I was, I couldn't take it no more, baby.
I had to rest.
You forget I hadn't slept in my own bed
before what, five days that whole month.
So I couldn't take it no more.
So we got through the first night.
And then I have a thing about sunrise pictures.
She come waking me up at, what was it, 5.15?
Sunrise that particular morning was 5.45 in the morning.
That was an early sunrise.
You come waking me up at 5.15.
We had been used to, Spain's sunrise
as being like 7.45, almost eight.
So that 5.45 was an adjustment.
Man, it was tough for me.
Now mind you, in order to hit sunrise at 5.45,
you gotta get up.
So I had to get up by 5.15.
She come waking me up.
It's time to go.
We gotta take these pictures.
It's time to go.
I wanna make sure ain't nobody out there.
I'm like, ain't nobody gonna be out there.
We had the whole place to ourselves.
It was beautiful though.
The beach, the patio, the ocean.
I think the fish was still asleep.
You come waking me up.
It was nice though.
We got a very beautiful view.
We walked the dock.
Yeah.
And it was very windy though.
I'm not gonna lie.
I was quite concerned.
It was very, very windy.
I was like, ooh, I'm afraid of the ocean.
I can't be blown into this water.
I can swim now.
But the moment I hit the water,
I'm gonna be thinking, but it's a shark coming to get me.
It's a shark coming to get me.
It's coming to get me.
Yeah, we had that 5.45 sunrise photo shoot.
It was a good photo shoot.
I enjoyed myself, I must say.
I don't usually enjoy myself
on those early morning sunrise photo shoots,
but I had a good time this time.
I don't think I told you that.
I had a good time.
Great.
Because you were not beating me over the head
with camera angles.
I never do.
You didn't take it right.
I need this line to be right here.
I need to be in this grid.
At this point, I shouldn't be coaching you.
You should. You should know how to do it.
I'm not a photographer, baby.
I'm taking my picture more than enough time
to know what to do.
Moving along.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, for real love, for real love.
I liked the beach pictures we took on the beach.
Did a good job.
Where we walked through the sand.
That was cool.
That was real cool.
And then the dock pictures of you were very pretty.
They were beautiful pictures.
I thought I did a good job taking those photographs.
You did.
I did?
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
So breakfast was good.
There were a lot of cats.
My resort cats.
They lived there.
They were well fed cats, too.
They were healthy looking cats.
Big cats.
And they were picky, too.
They wouldn't eat certain things.
How you know?
Because you tried to feed that cat,
what was it, bacon or something?
A piece of chicken.
He looked at them like, I don't want that.
You shouldn't be eating it either.
No, but it was good.
I was confused why the cat didn't eat it.
Well, I probably shouldn't have been feeding the cat.
But I was really missing our cat.
We have just rescued a cat a few months ago.
And I was really missing him.
I was feeling quite guilty
because we had been away from him
for a lot since we've gotten here.
All of a sudden, we just went on all these different trips.
So I was feeling guilt.
Cat mom guilt.
Yeah, those cats were very well fed.
They were nice.
They would just sit there and wait for you to feed them.
They didn't have their phone, your plate.
One did.
One tried to climb up my leg.
I was like, hold up now.
Back up.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yes.
I didn't have that issue.
Just one.
Yeah, okay.
Just one.
Okay, yeah.
The little orange cat.
The orange cat was everywhere.
Oh yeah.
It had to be.
He came out of nowhere, too, didn't he?
Maybe it was three of them.
It was one.
It was just one orange cat.
How could he be everywhere the whole time?
He just does it.
He was all over their resort.
Oh, he don't play.
He was at the bar.
He was at the club that night.
He was.
Last night, he was at the club.
That little cat was everywhere.
But anyway, so they had a beautiful wedding.
Beautiful wedding.
Had the live music.
The guy was playing the violin.
The minister was awesome.
He did a great job.
Great job.
And then I let you speak on Ebony's dress.
I thought it was amazing.
I thought it was beautiful.
She had her dress custom made.
What?
It was beautiful.
Oh yeah.
I didn't know that.
Yes.
Man, that thing was fire.
It was beautiful.
It was fire.
And it wasn't the typical white or cream.
It was like a rose, gold, blush sort of color.
I can't describe it.
Shout out to the tailor.
But it was very beautiful.
That thing was, yeah.
Yeah, very, very, very pretty.
Whoever made that did that.
That thing was fire.
And then, so they had this one thing,
this in the ceremony where they put the two sands together.
Yes.
That was awesome.
So we needed to do that.
Explain it, explain it.
So what happened was the minister said
they had these two different shakes of sand,
like a light brown and a dark brown.
The groom takes one, the bride takes one,
and they poured into this jar and combined.
And then he said, now your souls are combined,
your spirits are combined, and you're married, whatever.
Then he said, there's one caveat.
You ever wanna leave this woman, man,
you're gonna have to dig through this whole vase
of what it was and pull all your grains out.
All your grains of sand out.
And he said, that's gonna be a tough task.
So you can never leave this woman.
I thought that was pretty cool.
Pretty cool spin on marriage.
To dip through your part.
It's forever.
Yay.
Oh wow.
I'm sorry.
I am happily married.
It's forever.
No, but that was a great spin on marriage.
I like that.
We need to get one of those put in our house.
We need to get our sand and put it together
and put it on top of the fireplace.
So if you ever make the decision,
you gotta pick each one of your grains out.
Okay?
All right?
So after the wedding, you have the, I guess, cocktail hour?
Man, that resort, they have so many drinks,
so many drinks that just falling out of everywhere.
We had so many beverages.
You had Coke, you had your ginger ale,
you had your Marley's.
They were doing it up.
They were trying to get you wasted during the cocktail hour.
I've never seen so many beverages in my life.
We had the whole bar.
We don't even drink like that.
And then we met another small business owner.
Was she friends with Ebony or?
I don't remember.
Okay, but she was pretty cool.
She owns, what is that place?
Pops Colonel.
Pops Colonel in?
Memphis. Memphis.
Mm-hmm.
Forgot where I've been.
Popcorn, gourmet popcorn.
And they're located at 1770 North Germantown Parkway,
Suite 1, Cordova, Tennessee.
And what they do, they've been,
what's the word I'm looking for?
They've been on Essence, the Memphis Flyer,
and Forrest Magazine did an article on them.
So she and her family run that business.
And she told us they have a special needs son
that works there as well.
And they try to hire high functioning
special needs people.
Okay, I don't remember if she said her son
was special needs or not.
I don't remember that.
She did.
Oh, okay, okay.
Yeah, so, yeah, because that caught my ear
when she said that, that he's involved,
the husband's involved, the entire family's involved.
So I thought that was great.
But yeah, she was pretty cool.
We spoke with her for, I guess the whole time,
the whole cocktail hour.
Yeah, we did, the whole time, yeah.
The whole time, because she had some great stories.
They like to travel as well, just like we do.
I think she said they've been to all 50 states, right?
They drove to like South Dakota and North Dakota
from Memphis.
That is nuts.
That is a long freaking drive, long drive.
So from there, we have the dinner.
Yeah, we have the, right, the reception.
The reception, we were on the patio.
So we ate, partied.
Bob Marley's.
What is it with you and Bob Marley's?
That's your favorite beverage.
Oh my goodness.
Tell the people, you had like 20 of them.
And then we just danced on the beach all night.
All night, and then spilled into the club.
To the after party.
To the after party we went.
And we went for a little bit,
and then we just, when we realized our age.
I ran out of gas.
I ran out of gas, I'm not gonna lie to you.
We tried to be cool and stay out all night, we couldn't hang.
I'm not gonna lie to you, I ran out of gas.
And you know I had to get up at sunrise again, next day.
You didn't take, you took more sunrise pictures?
No.
Okay.
I just wanted to get up and see the sunrise.
You just got up, okay.
I thought you, I don't remember you getting up.
Oh yes, you did get up, okay.
So I also had, because Derek wouldn't come out the hotel,
before our flight, I scheduled a clear kayak adventure.
Because I had this idea.
That you got up Instagram.
There's this lady on Instagram named Traveling Tuesdays,
and she did this video where she was in Tanzania somewhere.
She was somewhere in the middle of this beautiful ocean
in a clear kayak just, you know, paddling herself.
And I said, I wanna do that.
That's what I wanna do, and I want video shots
just like that.
With a drone.
With a drone, that's the only way you can do it,
with a drone.
So I found a company that used a drone
that would allow you to paddle.
So of course on their website they had all these beautiful,
you know.
Instagram worthy photographs.
Like the same color water as Traveling Tuesday did,
and everything.
And I said, they're the one.
They're the one now.
Viator, you know, the bride, the bride for the wedding.
She and some of her bridesmaids did one of those
through Viator, and they came back with beautiful pictures.
Just like Traveling Tuesday,
except they didn't have the video.
They just had these beautiful pictures.
Didn't you go through Viator?
I did not go to Viator,
because one, they did not respond to my inquiry about,
can I paddle the boat?
Right.
So I didn't go with them, so I went with another company.
Okay.
And man, let me tell you.
However, I'ma give them five stars.
I'ma give them five stars,
even though I was, my experience at the time.
Why you give them five stars?
Made me question my five stars at first.
Well, I'ma give them, okay.
So, okay, all right, so.
The driver picked me up.
He was very friendly, loved the driver.
We went to our, what we thought was a location,
only to find out it wasn't the right location,
but it was very sketchy.
It was in like this partially abandoned hotel,
where the, I didn't tell,
Derrick is hearing this for the first time.
And the pool was busted up.
Oh wow.
They had water in it,
but the tile was cracked all around.
It took you to be murdered.
It looked like a scene out of a scary movie.
It really did.
And then there was two men sitting off to the side,
they had cigarettes.
Oh Lord.
No, it was a couple, a lady and a man,
they was sitting off to the side,
and then my driver's trying to ask them
which way to the beach, and they just pointing.
And then we go down these little stairs
off the back end of the pool,
and there's two men that's like gatekeepers of the stairs
at the bottom of the stairs.
And they're standing there,
and he's trying to ask them where to go.
And one dude gets all close to me,
he's like touching my elbow.
Oh wow.
And I was like.
I feel bad I didn't go now.
Because Derrick refused to go.
I didn't wanna leave the hotel.
So at that point, it's me.
And the driver.
And the driver, male,
two strangers that are both males
in this run down looking spot.
And dude's trying to get me to buy something.
I was like, oh my gosh, get out of my space.
And he touches my hand.
And I'm real particular about my hands being touched.
I did not feel safe.
And then the driver gets me out of there,
and then we continue on walking down to the beach.
We get to the beach, full of debris.
There was a big storm the night before,
so it was full of debris.
Then it looked like two homeless men.
Right there at our location.
The story keeps getting worse.
And I was like, this can't be the spot.
This can't be the spot.
Then I look at the water, the water's green.
Right, because the storm blew through.
Yeah, the storm blew through,
so it changed the color.
Right, so there was green water right next to the beach,
but right behind that is that beautiful crystal blue
that my friend and Traveling Tuesday had.
All right, come to find out we're in the wrong location.
So we go back up with the driver.
We gotta walk past the two homeless men.
We gotta walk past the two gatekeeper of the stairs.
We gotta walk past all these men.
It could've went left real quick with me.
Only to find the kayak conductor.
I'm calling the kayak conductor, that guy.
He's like, all right, so you're right,
that was our location, but now we had to move it
because somebody called and complained,
and because it's like a public beach or something.
You can't do that.
We couldn't do it down there.
They didn't want us to be on that part of the beach.
So why didn't they call or text you that?
I don't know, and those guys were actually at the wedding.
They were the DJ and some of the people at the wedding.
I don't know if I told you that.
No.
Yeah, he was like, he recognized me from the wedding.
Wow.
So he's like, all right, we're gonna walk down this path.
Now the path was like through the woods.
Yeah, go through the jungle, baby.
It was literal, it was a literal dirt path
that was lined on both sides by trees.
You went through the jungle.
I really did.
So you go to the beach, take these
clear bottom kayak pictures.
Real talk, and so we were on a path at one point,
and he was like, okay, now we're gonna go this way.
It's a shortcut that was literally through the trees,
and I was like, man.
Wait, wait, wait.
But the guy, he was so friendly and so personable.
I felt safe with him, because at that time,
the driver had to go pick up some more people.
So it was just me and this one person.
At no point did you thought that I should run?
No, because.
It sounds very sketchy.
It sounded extremely, it could've went left really fast.
It was so left, I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna have to film you, because.
I hope.
And the guy just fell out laughing.
It's like, just in case you ain't on the up and up,
I gotta have some proof.
And we just laughed about it.
The video will be on the cloud.
So if I come up missing.
I'm walking, now I'm walking, now I have flip-flops, y'all.
So I'm trying to hike through the woods,
and I was like, is that a dirty diaper?
It was just all kind of debris.
Like I said, it could've went left so quickly.
And then we finally exited, and we're on the beach,
and we had the clerics.
So I was like, ooh, all this good.
So he was the guy that helped me walk through all of this.
He operated the drone.
And then he had another guy that would go out to the ocean
and anchor me.
So well, after I got to paddle myself.
So was the kayak already on the beach,
or were they carrying the kayak?
They brought it on the beach, yes.
So at first, now the thing is,
I honestly think I was the first person
to request something like that,
because I don't think that they're used to getting
requests of someone wanting to just kayak
and get drone shots of them kayaking.
Because midway through, he requested me to go ahead
and do the photo shoot like they normally do.
And I didn't really want that.
I didn't care to see myself sprawled out,
laying sexy in a kayak.
I didn't want that.
I did.
Derrick did.
Are you happy with your pictures?
I am.
Because whatever.
And I just said.
So we did all that, and it was fun.
I got the experience.
I did.
You got the experience, you fear for your life.
You got to get in the kayak.
Because like I said, even though I can swim,
I am terrified of the ocean.
Thanks to all the TikToks and Instagram videos
I've seen of sharks rushing the beach now.
All the shark movies you watch?
No, lately it's the,
did you know I was one of those that believed
that sharks can't swim in shallow water.
Now I've seen tiger sharks rush the beach.
You saw, I showed you the video.
And I'm sitting there like, man,
this water's tall enough for a shark to come push me over.
That's all I could think about.
Like man, I probably need to go ahead and end this real quick.
So, you know, and we get back on the beach.
And as the drone operator is escorting me back up
to get through the woods to the path,
the driver's walking down with his,
the people he picked up, two young ladies,
and they both looking scared.
Yeah.
And I just, cause you know, imagine,
it looks really sketchy.
It looks like somebody is about to pull you over
and like do some bad stuff to you.
And I have to tell you.
The moment you pulled up to that abandoned hotel,
you should start recording.
I should have.
And I told the ladies, y'all are okay.
They was like, it's okay.
I said, yeah, it's okay.
It looks sketchy, but y'all are good.
So, you know, the operator, he's falling out laughing.
And I was like, I'm good.
I just dip my shot, you know,
and you can just see them relax.
And they're like, are you going to get wet?
Can you, I don't know, cause I'm like, yeah.
You're going to get wet.
I was like, there's waves.
You know, you're not going to get sloppy wet,
but you might get splashed a little bit when waves come.
Cause they had their hair all done.
I was like, y'all are in the ocean.
You're at the wrong photo shoot,
trying not to get wet at the ocean.
So back to my five stars.
So my experience with the company, great communication.
Great customer service.
I will give them that.
Great customer service.
It was just my product.
And I know for a fact that, excuse me,
that they had no control over the water.
Right.
Like I really wanted my crystal blue water and the kayak,
and I had that green water.
You know how when the pool, it breaks down
and the water turns green.
That's what it looks like I was kayaking in.
So I was very disappointed that I didn't have
the blue water, but they were.
They have no control over that.
No.
There was a big storm that came through the night.
And then my drone shots were very, very far away.
Cause you know, keep in mind,
I had traveling Tuesday's videos of mine
and her drone was all like right above the water,
like at her shoulder length.
Like whoever was flying her drone.
They had done it before.
Man, they were not caring about losing their thing in the sea.
They were not caring.
But my guy, he was like,
I don't know, I ain't got time to play with you.
I'm keeping my drone way up here.
We gonna have bird's eye view at all times.
Right, exactly.
So I literally look like I'm lost at sea.
Yeah, you took your lost at sea kayak pictures.
So Derek, you know, he's loving that.
But one thing, now what's gonna give them back the five
star is that they offered to give me another shoot.
Like I wrote them. When we come back.
Yeah, I wrote them and let them know
how I wasn't happy with it.
But how I loved all the people involved.
I just was not happy with the product.
Final product.
But they were like, we will edit the pictures.
We will change your water out
and we'll give you a whole new shoot when you come back.
So girls trip is in Montego, right?
I happened to be coming back in 2025 on a girls trip.
So I was like, great, I'll take y'all up on that.
And hopefully can bring in some more business to it.
Cause they were just that awesome.
So when I got my pictures back, my pictures were great.
Waters blew, great, amazing job.
But they were not able to fix the water
on my videos portion.
So.
But it was fun experience.
It was fun experience.
And I do regret not going now.
You should have went.
Cause I feel bad.
I could have.
You could have been.
It could have went differently.
You could have been taking part four.
And that's what it felt like.
And that's when I was starting to say,
I probably need to chill out a little bit
with my adventures.
No, I should have went.
I should have went.
But I felt like they were going to charge me what?
20 just to take the ride.
I'm like, come on man.
Well, I was paying for it.
It don't matter.
You gonna charge me $20 to ride?
I wanted you there.
And.
I get that, I'm talking about the business.
They were paying.
Because you were paying for the Uber ride.
Like the shuttle ride.
That was that man's business.
That was his livelihood.
And because the man was so awesome.
He was worth the $20.
He was worth it.
You're making me feel bad.
He was worth it.
Cause he was sharing his life story with me.
Oh, he moved to Canada.
Yep.
He's gonna move to Canada.
He's working on welding or something.
I remember you telling me about the guy.
He was moving to Canada.
Shortly after we leave, he's leaving to go to Canada.
Yep.
Great guy.
So.
Cool dude.
And I want to tell you the name of the company.
It's in your email?
And I just realized, I don't remember.
We'll dig it up and put it in the show notes.
So everyone can read.
That name is coming you guys.
All right.
So, Makalah comes back in one piece.
I was a little nervous.
Unscared.
And we're just chilling and we go eat lunch.
And like I said, we're just lounging.
And we totally forget.
We gotta get on the plane.
We gotta check out.
Like we just, like this day is never gonna end.
So we had to rush back to the room.
We had to throw our lunch down.
We ate so fast.
I ain't never ate that fast in my life.
We had to go back to the room and pack our clothes.
We had to go down to the lobby
to make sure we had a shuttle back to the airport.
It was crazy.
But that's how nice that place was.
You kind of lose track of time.
I didn't want to leave.
But you know what's crazy though?
We called a shuttle at one time and we were there.
Because you know my friend's family was there.
So we were kind of chilling out with her aunt.
Down the lobby.
And cousins.
And they were like, yeah I got a shuttle back to the airport.
It was like an hour and a half after ours.
Do you know that we were on the same flight?
On the same flight.
And I'm sitting here like hot diggity.
We sitting here rushing.
Because we ate breakfast with the aunt too.
We sitting here rushing to get to the ding dang airport.
Could have rode with them.
We could have just rode with y'all.
Because we were on the same flight.
But they didn't know what flight they were on.
They didn't know what time they were leaving.
How you don't know?
But it worked out because Derek and I
had been sitting at that gate for two hours before they came.
And we were able to save them some seats.
So they were able to come in.
Thumbs up.
And have a seat to sit in.
Because that gate got full.
Quick to Atlanta.
Yes, oh to Atlanta.
And it was a full plane.
It was a full plane.
And Atlanta airport was full when we got there.
Let me tell y'all you couldn't tell me nothing
about my global entry.
I'm gonna delete this whole part.
Because Derek, like I mentioned in the last episode,
Derek did not get his global entry card, okay?
I tried three times.
He refused my phone calls and did not respond.
So here we go.
We come up, you know, port of entry.
Going through customs.
You gotta go through customs at your port of entry.
And our port of entry was Atlanta.
The busiest airport in the world, okay?
And I'm not exaggerating.
No.
So we get there.
The room.
The room is like an auditorium.
It's like a coliseum.
And it's full of people.
It's filled.
And I remember, I have global entry.
And so I'm like.
And our flight, our next flight leaves.
It was 45 minutes.
45 minutes.
I just knew I was spending the night.
I ain't gonna lie.
I've already told Derek.
Because you know, my petty, I'm super petty.
And I admit it.
I told Derek.
In the event that you missed the flight,
I will see you at home.
I told him that because he should have got
his global entry.
He should have did it.
So maybe.
I was sweating like crazy.
I was petty.
I recorded it.
And I was like, haha, bye.
There was nobody in my line.
In my line, global entry, nobody.
Zero.
There had to be.
It felt like it was like 5,000 people in front of me.
That's what it felt like.
And I was like, I'm not gonna make it home tonight.
And I never felt so alone in my life.
And I was so mad at you.
I was talking crazy about you.
You should have been.
I was telling people around me.
Because they saw you walking.
And it was like, why you not going to, who's that?
That's my wife.
She has global entry.
And she didn't fill out my paperwork.
They was like, she didn't fill out your paperwork.
Like, no, she said she didn't know my information.
Ain't y'all married?
I'm like, yes.
Man, that's messed up.
I was like, I agree.
Everyone around me felt like you not filling out
my paperwork.
That's because you didn't tell them the whole story.
I did tell them the whole story.
I said, she said she called me.
And I said, I didn't answer because I work sometimes
in West Virginia, I have zero service.
And I asked her, I said, did you call my other phone?
Because I have two phones.
She's like, nope, I just called the one.
I was like, you just going to leave me hanging?
Man, she had the world's largest smile on her face
when she walked through global entry
and see me standing at the long line.
Hurt my soul.
I'm going to tell you what I did.
Okay, so I went through global entry.
I had enough time.
Because you know, when you go through your port of entry,
you got to go and reclaim your luggage.
You got to go back through TSA.
So, I had time to go.
You had time, you went to Buckhead,
you went to Lennox Mall.
Listen to this, I had time to walk at a leisurely pace.
I got a whole meal.
She went to go get something to eat.
I went and ate it.
I was able to sit.
And I had a whole conversation with someone at the gate.
I went to the restroom.
I was able to come back.
She texting me, you made it through yet?
Derrick arrived right when we were boarding.
They about to pull off.
I'm just not going through and making it to the gate.
It's not funny, but the only reason why I could laugh
because Derrick had over three months
to get his global entry.
And I don't know why he didn't.
Because he told me.
Look, I told Derrick to do it in Spain.
I said, do it in Spain so that when we arrive in Chicago,
you can just get it then.
He still didn't do it.
You didn't tell me to do it.
So hey, he got what we pay for.
And I said, look, I bet you next time.
Yes, I am.
Because I knew Atlanta was gonna be a mess
because we went to Guatemala a while ago.
And it was miserable.
It was a mess then.
And I knew then from that experience,
I knew I'm getting global entry.
Man, I still have a vision of walking around that corner
through customs and I walk around that corner
and I see all those people.
And then all those people turned and looked at me.
I was like, oh no.
You know what it felt like?
What?
It felt like one of them zombie apocalypse movies
when everybody's trying to get into a coliseum for safety.
Yeah, everybody's pushing, let me in.
That's what it felt like.
I have the proper purple work.
That's what it felt like.
It felt like I am a legend.
You remember saying I am a legend when they try to get.
That's what it felt like.
That's what it felt like, all those people.
Let me see your eyes.
I'm like, oh no.
And you just walk and laugh.
He he he he he.
Oh, it was funny.
I see you at the gate.
He he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he.
I had a nice fish sandwich too.
It looked like you was skipping when you walked past.
I was so, I wanted to trip you.
I wanted to trip you, man.
I'm like.
Oh, tell him about what you wanted to do
and what you could have held me up.
Oh my goodness.
Was it hold your passport?
I was hoping.
I was like, I was like, man,
I wish I would have had a passport
and she couldn't get through.
No, cause you said five minutes after I went through,
they said global entry was closed or something.
Oh yes.
I forgot about that one.
Yeah, I was thinking, I was like,
I should have told Mikala to just stand over here
and talk with me for like five, 10 minutes
because I promise the moment she goes through global entry,
five minutes later, they say,
announcement global entry is now closed.
I'm like, oh man, I should have made her
stand over here with me.
You would have lost your mind
if you'd been standing beside me
and global entry closed.
You probably would have,
ooh, would have gotten the fight in the airport.
I was like, oh man, I missed my chance.
I would have definitely kicked your foot.
Oh my God.
So next time I'm gonna hold you up.
No, next time I'm gonna have my global entry.
What am I talking about?
You better, you need to get it.
I'm gonna go ahead and make that happen.
Pay that $100 because global entry covers TSA PreCheck.
And there's no point of buying TSA PreCheck at 70,
I think it's.
75.
$75, you might as well pay that extra 25
and get global entry.
And it lasts what, five years?
Five years.
Five years, you're good to go.
Yep.
You're good to go.
So that's pretty much our Atlanta trip.
Oh, I'm sorry, our Jamaica trip.
Yeah.
So that is it for this episode, guys.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Derrick.
And Makyla.
Later.
Ooh, if you made it this far, you are the true champion.
You could have been anywhere, doing anything,
but you instead chose to spend your time with us.
And for that, we say thank you.
Thank you.
I'm Derrick.
I'm Makyla.
Rate, like, and subscribe.
Do good, be good.
Until next time.