Travels through Jamaica...mostly

Driving in Jamaica - my experience

2011-10-01T13:33:00.000-04:00

People are always asking on various Jamaican travel b boards about renting a car, if it is safe or advisable to do so in Jamaica. Rather than say yes it is or no it isn't, I'll share my experience and observations from this trip, where I drove myself for over a week, all over the island.

This was my 20th or so trip to Jamaica and I have only driven a couple of times before, and generally short distances. My husband liked to drive there and so I let him most of the time. I've rented scooters for a day here and there in the past.

But this was my first time renting all by myself, alone most of the time, for over a week, and traveling all over the island. I was a little nervous about it, even called a friend who drives herself about for a little pep talk. It worked.

This trip I rented from Sparks in Negril (great company, great car, call Omar for a quote: 876-312-8351). This is a Toyota Corolla "Fielder" - a hatchback sort of Corolla that I'd never seen before. I loved it, it had power everything :)

I am comfortable driving in Jamaica. But I grew up in NYC and drove there for many years, some of those years for a job that required daily driving throughout the 5 boroughs. NYC driving isn't for the faint of heart either, and most tourists choose not to drive in NYC for the same reasons they don't in Jamaica.

I also have been to Jamaica so many times that most places I am driving I have been to before, several times, so I know my way, more or less. I have landmarks I recognize and knowledge of what is coming next and that allows me to drive with more confidence than someone who is trying to find their way AND drive at the same time. I can't say how many times I found my way by noticing a mountain or sea view or other landmark and placing myself in relation to it. Those new to Jamaica don't have that sense, and it will make it harder.

Also, as the main "navigator" on previous trips and an obsessive map-studier for years, I know the roads as well as anyone can from maps and guiding another driver. I know what towns are along the routes, what island cut-throughs are coming up and where they go, when the road will go inland or along the coast and when it will switch back. I didn't even carry a road map with me this trip, I basically have it memorized, at least in terms of the coast roads.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see the roads marked at most major roundabouts and intersections. Kingston this way, Buff Bay that way and so on. If you know where you are in relation to these places, and where your destination is in relation to them, you can follow signs on main roads quite easily. The secondary roads, not so much. But there, I rely on people. There are always people along the road to ask, and though directions are often vague ("just go along for a bit and you will see it" or "after you come over the big hill look to the left"), stopping repeatedly and asking again always got me where I wanted to go.

I could rarely go on autopilot when driving as I can here at home a lot of the time. I was always conscious of what's going on around me, there's no way not to be. Only on certain north coast highway stretches between MoBay and Ochi could I drive with the same kind of "not really thinking about it" that I do at home. Even on that nice highway, in every town I passed through, it was necessary to deal with parked cars, taxis and trucks that often completely occupied one lane so all cars going through in both directions had to share one. Pedestrians and bicycles were often on the roadsides, often IN the road, and had to be stopped for or given space as I passed.

On the south coast highway, the roads are generally narrower and somewhat more potholed, so there was the matter of staying more or less in my lane while also moving around potholes but NOT into oncoming traffic - a good sense of timing is required here to avoid crashes and also not mash up your car in large holes. And in the towns I went through, same deal with parked cars and pedestrians and one lane to share with all.

And taxis, just like in NYC, are either in a huge rush to get where they are going and thus passing you or passing oncoming cars in your lane OR cruising slowly for passengers and pulling over or back into traffic at any moment.

But I was impressed with the way taxis drove, for the most part. There are rules people seem to follow. They always honked when pulling out and if I honked as I passed they let me go by first. They signaled ("indicated" in JA) when pulling over and pulling back out into traffic. They passed, yes, but generally only when there was enough space to do so safely and legally. The exception would be on wide roads where it was possible to create a "third lane" for passing by cars in both directions staying to their lefts thus creating room in the middle. This happened most often on long stretches where passing lanes were rare but the road was also wide enough, or had good enough shoulders, to permit it.

How that situation came up for me personally this trip, would be one in which I (or a car in front of me) was driving the speed limit more or less, and someone would come up behind fairly close and perhaps blink their lights, thus letting me know they would like to pass but there was not space to do so on the right. I'd pull over to the left, partially on the shoulder or maybe just to the far left part of my lane. Oncoming cars seeing this would also pull to their lefts. Thus enough space - a virtual middle lane if you will - was created for cars to pass.

This truck is sort of to the middle of the road because of the rocky cliff to the left. Can't pass until the road widens or he moves left.

I was impressed with the lack of road rage and politeness of the drivers I encountered.

For instance, when several cars are backed up behind a slow vehicle, usually a truck, there is a passing protocol. If the road is wide enough, the trucks (or other slow vehicles) will move to the left so that third lane is created and everyone can pass. If there is not space, cars wait for an opening to pull out into the right lane to pass and when a car approaches from the other direction, the other drivers in the line allow the car back into the line. That would NEVER happen in the US, at least not without a lot of cursing! In this manner, all cars that need to get past the truck or slow vehicle can do so in a fairly orderly manner, even if there aren't real passing lanes on that stretch.

Now driving on secondary roads is a different thing and requires a completely different set of skills. For one, you are theoretically driving on the left side but what you are most often doing is staying sort of left while avoiding the far left edge of the road which is usually very rough, and avoiding potholes as best you can. Sometimes that means you are on the right or in the middle or even off the road because it is smoother.

On these roads (like in Treasure Beach or in the Cockpits or Duncans Bay or Robins Bay or Portland past Port Antonio), I found myself just staying very loose...watch the road carefully, stay left as I can without hitting the edge, if no oncoming cars then drive around the holes, if there is an oncoming car either time the move properly or brake and slow down until there is room. And when approaching a blind curve or crest of a hill on these roads, ALWAYS honk and try to stay left a bit more. The honk lets cars know you are coming so they can get left as well, because often you are both using the middle.

In fact honking is a critical part of driving in Jamaica. I honked when approaching a blind curve or hill crest, when passing another car or truck, when a car passed me, when I wanted a car to know I was there for whatever reason, to let someone in. Jamaican drivers honk far more often, to say hi to people or to see if potential taxi passengers need a ride. But still, I honked pretty often.

Or maybe I should say beeped. A light tap on the horn makes much friendlier sound than a prolonged pushing of it, and I got the feel for that a day or so into my driving. What i wanted was a "beep" - not a "HONK". A honk sounds angry, a beep is just a friendly "I am here".

This site goes into some depth on the subject of the various Jamaican honks: http://thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=154

Sometimes you can't avoid a pothole, either because oncoming traffic is too heavy or because it is just too large or several are too close together. My tactic then was to slow down as much as possible and take it, when possible, with two tires straight on at the shallowest point with the least height at the front. Sometimes a pothole was just narrow enough to take the car right over it and the wheels would stay on the edges of the hole. Judging this got easier the longer I drove that same car.

Also, roads I drove on more than once I got a much better feel for...I came to know when I could go fast to take advantage of a smooth stretch, and when I had to slow down to deal with potholes.

Also staying aware of how close I was on the left got easier the longer I drove and got the feel of the car. On the left there is often rough road edge/potholes, sometimes scratchy bushes, and sometimes stone wall or cliff. When there is a center line on the road, this is not hard, I used that to judge my right side and the left took care of itself. But there was rarely a center line...so I had to get a feel for the space I took up. I never scratched my car, got a flat, or hit anything so I think I did pretty well.

In Jamaica gas is pumped for you. You pull up to an available pump and the attendant will ask you which gas you want (80-something octane or 90-something octane) and how much. I suppose you could say "fill it up" but i always asked for a specific amount. Many stations take credit cards (you have to go inside), but not all. I often tipped the attendant.

After hours - at night, you often deal with an attendant inside the locked up convenience store part of the gas station. There will be a drawer that you pass money through and they give you whatever you want from inside (near Discovery Bay, one Texaco sign at the night drawer announced that there was 24 hour availability for non-alcoholic beverages such as juice and soda, beer, spark plugs, headlight lamps and condoms - everything you'd need at night, really :)) . I didn't get gas at night so I am not sure what the protocol is there but I know you can get it. I assume they pre-authorize the pump in some way.

My friend observed that gas stations at night seem to be THE spot to hang out for some reason...they were all pretty crowded with people just chilling the night we were out driving the north coast road.

Air for your tires is often located right on the gas pump, sometimes to the side, and seems to always be free. I filled a couple of my tires after a drive on a very rough road in the cockpits left them a bit low.

Rental cost...it is a LOT cheaper to rent a car if you are going to certain locations that are far from an airport and not as popular for tourists, Port Antonio or Robin's Bay, for instance. Private drivers want like $250 each way for Port Antonio from Montego Bay. Even Treasure Beach from MoBay is $120 each way. (For comparison, Negril from MoBay is about $20 per person or $50-60 for up to 4 people) I went to all of these places with my car this trip, and many in between.

My car was less than $50 a day, all taxes and insurance included. I got this rate partly by reserving an older car that was unavailable so I got a free upgrade, and by renting for a long time, over a week. I ALWAYS take the insurance. Most US credit cards do NOT cover Jamaica so without that insurance you are liable for the entire cost of the car should you wreck it or it is stolen. I paid $5 a day to limit my liability to $1,000US. That amount was held on my credit card until I returned the car unscathed. Some companies allow you to pay more for insurance and have zero liability and almost no deposit, so shop around for what's best for you. Taxes are 17.5% so see if those are included in your rate or not.

Police. Well I got pulled over twice.

The first time I was on the north coast highway doing absolutely nothing wrong. This was a "spot check" which Jamaican police can do at any time. They (on foot) wave you over and you pull to the side. They took my license, rental papers, and searched the car for ganja (they mainly looked in the ashtray, and asked if my friend or I smoked - we don't). They asked where we were coming from and where we were going. They attempted to give me a hard time about the fact that my insurance paper from the rental company was a photocopy and not the original. I called Omar from my rental company and let him talk to them, and they "decided" not to ticket me, though they threatened it more than once. They were VERY obviously looking for a bribe. (I learned later that there is NO PROBLEM with carrying a photocopy of the insurance, that's what all the rental companies do.).

Still I am sorry to say, I did give the cop $1000J "for lunch" because i really wanted to get back on the road and they seemed so displeased to not have found any drugs or other issues with us that they would have continued searching and generally hassling us if I didn't. I'm sorry about that choice now, because I know I had done nothing illegal (though i really wasn't sure about the insurance thing at the time), and what I did perpetuated police corruption. They did let us go right after that though.

On the lighter side, when I palmed the cop $1000J (about $11US), he dropped it and the wind picked it up and he had to chase after it for a few dozen feet...that was pretty funny (as funny as a cop in a group of cops with machine guns gets, anyhow).

While the one cop and I dealt with that, the other two cops at the stop flirted with my friend in the car and told her she really should try dating Jamaican cops. Oy.

Later in the trip I did get a traffic ticket, legitimately. I was passing a truck in the manner I described earlier - he was going very slow, was slightly to the left allowing me by, there was no oncoming traffic. But this was on the new highway and there was a center line and it was solid. As soon as I passed the truck I saw the roadblock and the cop waved me over. My ticket was for "disobeying a continuous white line" - aka passing in a no-passing zone and it cost me $11 US. This police officer (from the highway patrol) was extremely professional...just gave me the ticket, had NO ISSUE with the insurance photocopy at all. I was told I could pay it at any tax office. As I was leaving Jamaica the next day, I gave the $ to my rental guy so he could pay it - the license of the car was on the ticket so a future renter might have had a problem if pulled over.

In most cases drivers let you know when police are set up ahead by flashing their headlights at you. My friend actually saw a car do this as I passed the truck, but I was so focused on passing the truck that I didn't notice.

I will say I NEVER drove after drinking ANY alcohol. I don't smoke but if I did, I wouldn't drive after that either. I wanted all of my senses engaged. For that reason I basically put the car away in the evenings and only drove during the day. I also gave my car back for my entire week in Negril - there are so many route taxis and private drivers available there, and distances are so short and rides so cheap, it makes no sense to have a car there.

I did drive once at night, we were late returning from Robins Bay to Duncans Bay so it was unavoidable. I did it, I can do it, but it was pretty stressful not to be able to see the roads and people and bicycles and things as well as by day. Fortunately most of that drive was on the north coast highway where there are side lines, center lines and even reflectors embedded in both, so it wasn't too rough.

On another occasion at night we - I wasn't driving - came up behind a VERY drunk driver who was weaving all over the road. We stayed well behind him and he eventually pulled over, to sleep it off I hope. That kind of thing is obviously more likely to occur at night, so one more reason to put the car away at dusk.

Many drivers do not put their headlights on at dusk (or dawn, or in fog), not until or unless it is full on dark, so extra caution is required. Also many drivers go right to brights, thus making it difficult to see against oncoming traffic at times.

If there is construction blocking a lane, often there will be a flag man with red (stop) and yellow (go slow) flags. Of course often someone will just double park and block a lane for no good reason, to chat with another driver or a pedestrian, so I always had to watch for that.

You might notice I never mentioned driving on the left as an issue. It isn't. It is the LEAST of conditions to consider in driving in Jamaica. Very soon after i got in the car, I stopped thinking about it and it became natural. Occasionally at a roundabout I'd think of it as I merged in (FYI cars already in the roundabout, aka cars on the right, have the right of way), but that was about it. Related differences...when you turn left that is the easy turn, only one direction of traffic to consider. Turning right is harder, you must wait for a clearing in both directions of traffic. If you happen to be on a 4 lane highway - and they are rare - the right lane is the passing lane, slower traffic stays left. But that kind of thing was just natural to me after a short time.

To US drivers - everything is in kilometers...distances on signs, and speed limits. 80 km is about 50 mph and is the highway speed, 50 km is about 30 mph and is the "town" speed. When you see "mile markers" they are kilometer markers and thus a bit more than half what you think miles might be. But will take as long as miles in some cases ;)

If there is construction on the road you will encounter a flag man...red is stop, yellow is go slowly.

When I pulled up to a gas station, restaurant, whatever destination in my car, people did not automatically assume I was a tourist...not at all like coming out of a JUTA bus or taxi. Even if I was pegged as not Jamaican, I was treated differently. I loved that.

So given all of that, would I drive in Jamaica again?

Absolutely. There is nothing like the freedom of having your own car. You can go where you want, when you want, stop as you like, no need to check with anyone, wait for anyone, feel you are inconveniencing anyone, think about if you have the right change to pay or how much to tip. I loved it when i was alone, I loved it when my friend was with me, I just loved it. Windows down, music cranked, these are some of the best memories I have of the trip.

I have taken a few videos driving over the years...not while I was driving of course, but they may give you some idea of what the road conditions are like:

Check out the chickens at 35 seconds...this is in eastern Portland, near Manchioneal.

This is also Portland, but on newly constructed "superhighway". Other than being pulled over for a paper check, this was a smooth trip:

Sometimes you get stuck behind a truck on a curvy mountain "highway"...that's just too bad unless you are willing to take some serious risk passing, which undoubtedly some drivers behind you will:

One of the better roads into the Blue Mountains from Kingston...the road got MUCH worse further on and we turned around so as not to harm my driver's car.

...and finally, in New Kingston. We're mainly waiting to make a left turn here.

Michigan Beach Trip (this is where the "mostly" in the blog title comes into play)

2011-08-02T17:17:00.000-04:00

I blog almost exclusively about Jamaica here, but this summer I took a trip to northern Michigan and felt like sharing it here. Hope you enjoy :)

I spent the last week enjoying a vacation with my family - my mom and stepdad, son and daughter, sister and brother in law, stepbrother and (step?)sister in law. My parents rented a house and invited everyone to come up for as long as they could, dogs, kids, whatever.

It was in Ludington, on the western coast of Michigan, aka the east coat of Lake Michigan, a bit more than halfway up the mitten. Northern Michigan but not the Upper Peninsula.

My parents went last summer and loved it, which is why they arranged the trip for this summer. I was skeptical. Lakes Erie and Ontario are the only great lakes I have really seen or swam in, and they really aren't all that. Kind of weedy and silty, not always the cleanest, just OK.

Well Lake Michigan is a whole other ball of wax....blue like the Caribbean sea, wide white sand beaches with sand that doesn't get hot or stick to your feet....beautiful sand dunes...public parks everywhere, little development.

I was particularly impressed by the lack of development and the high standards of the city and state parks. Clean clean clean, thoughtful amenities (refreshments, bathrooms, piers, walking and biking trails, board walk paths, ample parking, bike lanes.) Truly fine examples of what taxes can do and why I do not at all mind paying them. You can rent a fancy house if you have the money but if you don't you can put up a tent in a state park or enjoy a day at the beach for free, and there's lots in between.

Clearly the states (and Canada) that border the lake understand the importance of keeping it clean. I could never NOT see my feet when swimming, and usually quite a lot farther away than that too, and that's just naked eye out of the water. Divers say it can get to 100 ft visibility. Water temp was high 70's, cool enough to cool off but not so cold you couldn't stay in for hours if you wanted.

I tried to capture the water color, never was really successful but this one is closest:

This is the city beach, 2 blocks from our house in town. I think the walk on the sand was longer than the walk to get to the beach, it is SO wide!

The dunes you see are at the state park about 7 miles north.

Light houses are everywhere. This one was "ours", in town, and you can walk out to it. Lots of folks do, around sunset especially.

People like to take photos from here....

...of the BADGER, a steamer ferry that takes people and cars over to Wisconsin 2x a day.

This night it steamed off into a storm, but the storm never really reached us.

Some fun Ludington people:

We got tubes to float on.

and taught my dog to swim, finally! She loved it :)

I took a lot of bike rides. Michigan is really flat around here, which for me means I'll go miles and miles before turning back. Here's a small lake and Bridge i passed one afternoon.

There are some kitschy motels around Ludington, as well as modern homes, campsites, RV parks, and huge Victorian mansions in town. This would be in the kitschy motel category :)

A popular activity at the state park - tubing the "river" between a dammed inland lake and Lake Michigan. This water was super clean too, and very warm.

Another view...

We took a day hike to the dunes at the state park. There's a board walk, steps and such, that takes you over from the inland side to the sea side. Really pretty hike since you are up high.

Lots of little rest areas, since there are a lot of steps to climb!

This photo is my favorite:

This little guy joined us on our hike...think he's a garter snake. When I came close to take the pic he hid his head :)

Sunset on the beach....

Messing with the HD camera app on my phone:

There's a skate park here too. Pretty pro guys on skateboards and little kids on scooters and everything in between:

After sunset everyone (seems like everyone since the line is always long) goes to get ice cream at this one shop...the House of Flavors (aka the Hizzah of FLAY-VAH!!)

One day we rented a pontoon boat on Lake Hamlin, a smaller lake just the other side of the dunes from Lake Michigan.

There's a boat beach people go to and swim, hang out.

or nap :)

Dunes right here too:

Really stunning area, I thought, just beautiful.

We were blessed with great weather. At home in Ohio it was almost 100 and humid. In northern Michigan, high 70's and low 80's, dry, nighttime down in the 60's. It rained once, at night, for an hour or so. One day it was cloudy/misty for part of the day. Otherwise, this:

Water was super clear here too.

Water looks brown here but that's because the bottom by the shore is sandy and you can see the sand color so well.

We rented a tube.

This is my daughter and her uncle:

Back in town we waited for the Badger again...this is becoming quite the inside joke now, since everyone in Ludington seems to do this every night...the tourists, anyhow. It's like Mallory Square in Key West or Rick's at sunset, but different :)

My sister made us all watch this video the first day we saw the ferry go out, so we laugh even harder about the "bad ass" "nasty ass" Badger every night....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

There was a not-very-sunny day when we walked around town a bit.

You KNOW what this is a sculpture of...

Yep :)

The next day we rented bikes and rode them to the state park. We got tubes and went tubing.

This is where the river we tube on ends - right at the "big lake" beach!

We rode bikes up a couple of miles to another lighthouse, one that you can't reach by car:

Another of my favorite photos is of this pond and wildflowers near the lighthouse.

Here's the lighthouse trail. Really sandy at times so bikes have to take it carefully, but really fun.

The last full day we were there, my mom and I took a drive up to Manistee, about a half hour north of Ludington. Just to see what was there.

Manistee also has a lighthouse, of course.

And a beach quite similar to the one in Ludington:

This is a municipal building by the beach:

Manistee also has an inland lake that connects to lake michigan via a river, but the river is much deeper than the one we tubed on, and it goes right through the town. So they have a riverwalk that follows it, the buildings on the main drag have their fronts on River St and their backs to the river walk. The walk has gardens, marinas, restaurants, historic this and that, and leads right to the beach.
This is near the beach looking to town:

Here's the riverwalk in town:

A restaurant on the river walk:

Some dogs coming in from a boat ride....

One of the thoughtfully planned gardens along the river walk, this one for butterflies:

And a peace garden. We have a peace pole like this in our town as well, I guess it's a trending thing....

Back in Ludington, we still had time to hit the beach.....it doesn't get dark until almost 10, sunset around 9:00 or so. A plus to being up north...Jamaica always messes me up a bit because it's hot and I'm used to long days and late sunsets when it's hot, and sunset there is never really later than 6.

We watched some beach volleyball.

As it was Friday Night, the last of the month, we walked into town for Friday Night Live, a street fair with performers, rides and food.

Save the Badger!!! (It's coal fired and the EPA has said it must be fitted with pollution controls that are really expensive so the town is trying to raise money to get that done):

Last Badger sighting....

One of the many parks in Ludington...all spotlessly clean and well kept:

That's all I've got. The next morning we swam one last time, my daughter jumped into a beach volleyball tournament for a short time, and we drove home. We will DEFINITELY be back. It was one of the best beach vacations ever.

I love to swim, but I don't much like being salty, and i don't care for jellyfish and urchins and stuff....so this lake was about perfect for me. Not quite as sweet as a Jamaican river or blue hole, but better than the sea, for me.

There's a college in the area my son is considering...I may have to take him up to interview/visit before it's too cold to swim :)

Dornoch's Head: A Trip Back Into Cockpit Country (April 2010)

2010-09-08T18:35:00.006-04:00

Before I left for Jamaica on this trip, I came across a new web site called "Cockpit Country Jamaica". It featured attractions and information about the Cockpit Country in Jamaica, that sparsely inhabited central-western region of the island that spans roughly 4 parishes. I've written about the area before, and I've visited it from a few different approaches before. But this site talked of a place I hadn't seen or heard of before: Dornoch's Head, supposedly the source of the Rio Bueno river. A Blue Hole - my very favorite thing to find in Jamaica :)

On this leg of my trip I'd be driving with my intrepid friend Nene, staying in Duncans Bay for a night or two at Jamaica Jewel. Duncans Bay is not too far from where I understood Dornoch's to be, so I asked Cher, the hostess at Jamaica Jewel, if she knew anything about it. She didn't, but said she'd ask around and see if she could find out where it was so we could go. Well as it turned out she did one better - she not only found it but went to check it out in person before I arrived. (And FYI that is the kind of thing Cher and Barry do for their guests - go above and beyond to make your stay with them special).

Cher is a huge fan of fresh spring water and she'd found that Dornochs is a great source for that, so she and her husband Barry not only joined us on the trip as guides/company, they brought several large empty bottles to fill with water there and bring back.

We set out late in the morning (it was Sunday, and Leroy's on the beach in Duncans Bay had its weekly Saturday night open mic/live music/community party the night before, and of course we all went to it. So there would be no 7AM departure for us. Just the same, Barry and Cher said it was only an hour or so away.

Nene took lots of photos of the trip which is good because I was driving and took none.

This is along the new highway heading east from Duncans Bay.

Around Discovery Bay we turned inland to go into the cockpits. The road was rough but not too bad at this point.

It didn't takelong before it got pretty narrow, so much so that I had to honk pretty much every few seconds to be sure any oncoming cars would know we were there.

...or oncoming people. This gentleman confirmed for us that we were on the right road. I don't think anyone called this place we were heading to Dornoch's Head, I think this man called it just "the blue hole".

Finally we reached the road that would take us down to the hole itself. This road is described as "gravel" but is in fact really large rocks with huge ruts. Barry said we might prefer to park up by the main road (the main being the one in the photo above) and walk down, but with the water bottles and not really feeling a mile+ hike, and looking at the road from up there, I figured we could make it.

Well, we did, sort of. About a half mile down I realized I had probably made a mistake. The rocks in the road got bigger, the dropoff steeper, and there was absolutely nowhere to pull over or turn around or even get off the road. For better or for worse we were going almost all the way down. This is the road, though you can't really see the rocks because the sun and shade shifting through the trees made the photo fuzzy. But i think you can see the drop on the left side.

Almost all the way down, there was a spot to pull off to the side, and that we did. We walked the rest of the way, just a hundred yards ro so, as it turned out, carrying Barry and Cher's empty water bottles and our swimming gear.

Coming out of the woods, this is the first thing I saw:

It was perfect.

I went in the water immediately, of course, and spent the next hour swimming. It was cold - fresh spring water - but not too cold to get used to.

Off to the right side of this pool the Rio Bueno river begins its descent to the sea:

Off to the left side the spring water comes from the rock here:

I think that's me.

When we arrived, there was a man bathing two kids. They finished up and left soon after we came. About a half hour later, a large pickup truck pulled in (THEY made it all the way down the road without having to stop early, I noted). These were some friendly folks from Montego Bay who we chatted with a bit. They'd been coming to swim here since they were small, they said.You can see their truck behind Nene, Barry and Cher.

Cher said no one was there at all when she came before, but this was a Sunday and thus the day for people to come swim. A couple of kids came down on their bikes (how they managed that on the road I have no idea), so it was a relatively lively scene...and yet, in the middle of nowhere. No towns very close, no houses in view, no road that a tour bus or van could handle. When people talk about "off the beaten path of tourism", I will always think of this place. But i was not at all surprised that locals knew of it and swam there...I'd be there every day if I lived nearby.

After swimming and relaxing for awhile as Barry and Cher filled their bottles, we were ready to get back on the road. We walked the bottles up to the car 2 at a time - they were quite heavy by now. We decided it would be best if Barry drove the car back up with Cher while Nene and I would hike up, as the bottles full of water added a lot of weight that would make the car's clearance a lot lower.

Nene and I did the hike, it might have been a mile, probably not much more if that. It was in the shade, and the cool of the cockpits, so not a bad hike. When I return, if I don't have a 4WD SUV-type vehicle, I'll probably park up top and hike in.

We passed this on the way up, a nest of something:

We rejoined Barry and Cher at the car and I thought it best for Barry drive some more as our next stop was by a friend of his' yard that we had passed on the way in.

We enjoyed meeting Barry's friend and his family, had a cold drink and tried, for the first time, a breadnut shake there....I had never seen a breadnut before, have you?

We made it back to Duncans Bay well before dark and in plenty of time to enjoy Cher's home cooked dinner...that's okra, crab cakes, fried fish, potato salad, cole slaw and rolls. It was awesome.

It was a great day :)

I couldn't tell you how to get to Dornoch's Head. Probably best to ask Cher and Barry to take you, or heed the advice given by the web site about the Cockpits that led me there:

Catcha Falling Star Gardens in Negril (April 2010)

2010-09-01T12:20:00.000-04:00

I had a lovely stay at this hotel on the west end of Negril, so thought I'd post a few photos and a review.

I was with a rock band, many of whom stayed at Catcha Gardens - we had probably 5 rooms there. This one is a lower level one that belonged to a friend:

Catcha Falling Star took over this property from LTU Villas in late 2009, I believe. So when we stayed in April Catcha was just decorating the place in their style, planting flowers and such. This is a little sitting area in the yard that they created.

Looking at a typical building...I think there are 6 total for 12 units? Not sure, but each room has its own floor here, with full length balcony and hammock. You can see a new garden just getting started here.

This is the view from the street of the entrance and office. It is located just past Rick's Cafe, across from LTU Pub.

This is Catcha Gardens manager - she is fantastic, wonderful, can't say enough good things about the entire staff here. From the woman who cleaned my room to the security guards to management...everyone is SO helpful and friendly.

A second level porch.

We had the only 2 bedroom unit, this is the larger of the two rooms. All the second floor units have really nice vaulted ceilings.

Same room. The double doors lead to our porch.

I was very comfortable here, and for the price it is hard to beat rooms with air conditioning, porches, hammocks, refrigerators, lovely landscaping and location. With the incredible Catcha Falling Star team in charge, I expect this place to get even better.

http://www.catchafallingstargardens.com/

Return to Strawberry Fields, St. Mary (part two) (April 2010)

2010-08-19T22:01:00.002-04:00

So I last left this story with us hitting the road from Portland headed to Strawberry Fields/Robins Bay, where we'd made arrangements to meet Sata and Peter when we were there the day before.

I fee like I should clarify something. There is no Strawberry Fields on any map I have seen. There is a RESORT with that name very near where we were, and there is a town called Robins Bay just down the road. Google map shows the bay where the Robins Bay hotel is located as "Mahoe Bay". The Esso road map shows that bay's edge as "Don Cristophers Point", and the nearest town is labeled Green Castle. There is a Green Castle estate pretty close to the turnoff (and i am told it is a lovely place to stay), but it's not by the coast. When I asked Sata what he called the community he lives in, he said "Strawberry Fields". So that is what I call it.

Here's the area as it appears on the Esso map. The road we were on was not significant enough to make that map but we were in the area between what is labeled "Green Castle" and "Salt Bay". As near as I can tell, Salt Bay is just west of the black sand beach we went to by boat. But i get ahead of myself.

One day, when I have a high clearance 4WD vehicle, I may try the "back way" from Port Maria. But as it was, we took the turnoff that on this map leads to Green Castle, but kept going along the coast.

Nene had been watching me drive all this time and asked if she might try it. The road to S-Fields is rough but it is Q-U-I-E-T - we passed maybe one car each way out by the coast. So I said sure and she drove the last bit.

Here she is :)

When we arrived at Sata's, he and Peter had made lunch...and what a lunch it was. Fish, fry chicken, breadfruit, plantains, nutty sweet things, some veggies....we all sat down and joined by Charlie (the fisherman in the photo from part one), we finished almost all of it. I didn't take any photos but we had this lunch at a table under an open roof maybe 10 feet from the edge of a cliff down to the sea. It is a breathtaking setting.

Full and ready for some adventure, we walked as a group along the road and on down to the beach to wait for Lion. Their beach has these awesome bamboo swings on it....

And we waited for Lion to get his boat ready. (Sata had reached him the evening before when he returned from fishing, so he was ready for us).

As you can see, the beaches are dark here and have lots of shells and little pebbles and driftwood. It's a change from the manicured beach at Frenchman's we were at that morning - not better or worse, just different and beautiful in its way.

You can see one of Sata's cottages in this photo, at the end of the cliff, with the red roof.

Maybe you get a sense of what this place is like from these photos. I didn't take as many as I'd have liked, or video...when I return i will try. There are people living here, and some houses, and farms, but by and large the coast is natural and wild. That's what i hoped to experience here, and I got it.

But where we were going by boat...now THAT would be wild...

We set off in some pretty wavy seas that made us squeal...bouncing in big surf is FUN :)

We picked up one more person...while Charlie, Sata, Peter, Nene and I would hike to the falls, Lion and the guy in this photo (name forgotten, maybe Nene remembers...) would be fishing. In fact we all fished on the way over, Nene and I even held lines...but we didn't catch anything.

Here is a shot from our half hour or so ride....Nene took this (and many of the photos I include in this part of the report, actually), I was scared to get out my camera because we were getting pretty wet from the waves.

After a bit, we arrive at the black sand beach where we will get off the boat and begin our hike.

I assure you, it was even prettier in person. Clam water, a dark blue because of the black sand, no rocks, no people.

Sata says they sometimes cook out and chill here for a whole day...I could totally do that when I return, this trip we just didn't have much time.

Lion said goodbye, he'd be fishing out a ways and watch for us to arrive back at the beach when we were ready to be picked up. Watching him pull away I remember thinking here we are, no people around, no roads, no houses, no nothing but us and our new friends...and I was fine with it.

We splashed around a little bit but I wanted to get up to the falls so we set off. Sata took the lead and he is FAST. I'm in pretty good shape and so is Nene, but hiking in the stream, following the river up, having done it since he was little he said...I guess he was just better at it. Plus he's really tall, long legs help :) It was still VERY buggy, and we didn't stop much on the hike up because the mosquitoes were fierce. Sata said they just came two days before. We had bug juice and it helped some, but it was still best to keep moving.

When I come back, maybe it won't be a buggy time and I can stop and appreciate the hike more...because it WAS beautiful.

Nene took this one photo of a tree that Sata wanted us to photograph along the trail, because it is so big. I assume it's a cottonwood, I've never seen any other kind get huge like that. Very cool.

We hiked sometimes on a trail, sometimes in the river itself, which was fairly low. At one point in the hike, Sata, Peter and I continued up the river on a route that took us chest deep in the water while Charlie took Nene up and around on a path through the jungle as she didn't want to go through the deep part...they arrived at the falls maybe 5 minutes after we did.

And here is Kwame Falls.

and here I am looking back down the river that we hiked through to get here.

There were still a lot of mosquitoes around so I got in the water ASAP...I love to swim anyhow, if you've read this blog at all you know i live to be in water, no matter where or what kind :)

Nene can swim but she is, as she puts it, "not a strong swimmer". The guys got the idea to grab a big piece of old bamboo to make a floaty for her so she could come out into the deep part. It worked perfectly...when she held on, anyhow ;)

Here is Charlie helping her out...

We swam and hung out for a couple of hours. We were, of course, the only people around. I am told Strawberry Fields resort does an ATV trip up here using the trails from there to near here, and while that sounds cool, I am glad we did it this way (and didn't run into them).

When I knew we had to, we hiked back down to the beach and waited just a couple of minutes before Lion's boat came into view. I know he was watching for us from where he was fishing, though we all had cell phones too, if needed. You'd think there'd be some issue with cell phone reception in a remote area like this but no....my Digicel phone worked just fine. I find it works in the Blue Mountains too...funny.

One last look around at the beach where I WILL return and spend a lot more time....

We had an exciting ride back to the Fields, and walked up to the shop by Sata's. We all got drinks and I found myself wishing I could plunk down my stuff at River Lodge after all, I really didn't want to go. But this was my last day in Jamaica and we needed to get back to Duncans Bay to sleep and get up for our flight home the next day. So we had to say goodbye.

Many thanks to Sata, Peter and Charlie, and Lion too for sharing their favorite places with us and showing us such a great time.We had a GREAT day and look forward to returning soon.

(Before we left I asked Sata if I could put my story and photos about our day on the internet, and he was fine with it. I also asked him if anyone wanted to reach him to go on this trip or camp at his place, if I could give them his number, and he also said yes. So comment here if you'd like to reach him and I'll get you in touch.)

An Evening in Port Antonio (April 2010)

2010-08-19T14:46:00.002-04:00

As you may recall, we left Robins Bay to spend the night in Port Antonio. My friend Nene had never been, and frankly Port Antonio is probably the most beautiful part of Jamaica I have ever seen. I hadn't been for almost an entire year, and was ready to show it to my friend.

We drove from Robins Bay through Annotto Bay and Buff Bay and Margaret's Bay and all the other bays you go through on the main road to Port Antonio. The new road is SWEET...smooth and pothole free with lines on the sides and reflectors and everything - we made good time.

As we pulled into Port Antonio proper, I decided to stop at the Errol Flynn marina. I spent a lot of time here last year when I was staying nearby at Ivanhoes, it's an interesting place and you drive within feet of the gate on the main road. Today we parked at the marina/pool bar as Norma's beach bar and restaurant was not open (this was a Monday, I believe). As always, the crowd at the pool bar was a mix of travelers who arrived by sailboat or yacht, locals and I suppose, tourists passing through by car like us.

Here's Nene on the phone....

It was happy hour and i was ready for a drink after the long day, but I'm a stickler for not drinking and driving so we had Tings and just people-watched for awhile. The marina has great views of the west harbor and has a park with Devon House ice cream that seems to be popular with local kids after school. I considered where we might spend the night and decided to go up to Fern Hill Club, a place I enjoyed very much in 2003 and hadn't been back to. It's a wonderful spot if you have a car, not as easy to reach if you don't, and last time I was here, I didn't.

Driving out of Porty on the new road, I reached Boston Bay in about 10 minutes - MUCH faster than I remembered, and, I realized, too far for Fern Hill. I'd passed it. I wanted to make it up there before dark and the sun was going to set very soon, so we turned around back towards town. Aha...the big sign I remembered on the main road is really only visible when you are going west.

We made the turn and drove the mile-long road up the mountainside and finally reached the entrance...

Whew...we were both ready to settle in for the evening...starving, tired, hot. I walked into the office where I was offered a lovely walk-in rate and even after that, instantly upgraded from a standard suite to a deluxe suite. We were shown to our suite and dropped our stuff, took showers, changed and headed to the restaurant for drinks and dinner.

Fern Hill has acres and acres of grounds, some facing the Blue Mountains and some facing the sea. ALL views are stunning. If you go to Portland and never get up on the hillside, you missing something special.

Still looking at Fern Hill here, there are 2-3 swimming pools on the property.

Our suite was one of these upper ones.

Freshly showered and changed, we walked to the restaurant for dinner.

These might have been the best rum punches EVER. We were so road weary and felt so relaxed now that we were settled for the evening.

My steam fish was great too :)

We basically went to bed after we ate, we had a big day the next day.

The following morning we ate breakfast at Fern Hill....

...and drove on down the hill and across the road to Frenchman's Beach. I'd only been here once, and never to the beach. Back in 2003 we looked at a room here, considering a stay, and hated it. In fact that is how we found Fern Hill - when we left Frenchman's in '03, we drove right up the hill, loved Fern Hill, and stayed there.

But the beach is open to the public for a fee ($400J), and it is the only relatively developed beach in Portland that I hadn't been to. So, something new :)

I have to say it is now one of my favorite beaches in Portland. Boston has the jerk, Winnifred the vibes, Long Bay the long expanse of sand...but this is different. The beach itself is lovely - a cove with calm water, waves breaking out at the mouth of the bay by high cliffs, white sand, nice facilities for drinks and snacks and chairs and such.

But what got me was the river. There is a crystal clear, cool river that flows to the sea right here. When you are on the white sand, you can walk into the sea or walk into the river or walk into an area where they mix...which is really something else. The sea is warm, the river is cool, and having both swirl around you is a feeling that is difficult to describe.

And if you know me at all, you know I don't like to be salty for a long time. Taking a sea dip and then going right into fresh water is heaven for me.

This is about where they mix...you can see the white sand beach at the river in the back here.

I'd never seen a river without rocks or grassy stuff or mud on the edge...just perfect white sand, right in.

Nene LOVED it too.

I was in heaven.

We could have stayed all day (and that is my thought for next April), but we had plans back in Robin's Bay/Strawberry Fields today, so we reluctantly left the beach.

Up at Fern Hill we stopped by the upper swimming pool for a dip before packing up to leave.

We bid the staff at Fern Hill goodbye and drove off to the west to resume our adventure at Strawberry Fields.

(continued)

A Visit to Strawberry Fields, St. Mary (part one) (April 2010)

2010-08-18T22:23:00.007-04:00

If you've read my blog before, you know I usually do trip reports in a diary format, day 1, day 2 etc. Well I am not feeling that for this past trip, April 2010. I've already shared my "woe is me" posts from it (which I wrote while there, just to torture some friends who were not there), and my lengthy description of driving

(written because I thought about it a lot while there, it being my first time doing it alone, and because I get asked about it a lot), and now I feel like sharing about my time in Strawberry Fields, St. Mary. So I'm going to do that, even though it was near the end of my trip.

I have a thing about my Jamaica trips...something old, something new. I like to return to cool places but I also like to check out new ones. If you have ever looked at a map of Jamaica, you have to look at Robins Bay/Strawberry Fields and wonder what is there. The main coast road goes way inland here, from Port Maria to Annotto Bay, and there is this vast GREEN area between the road and the sea...hardly any roads or towns, it looks completely undeveloped. I expect to see seemingly uninhabited green expanses in the mountains, but not by the sea, that's kind of unusual for the north coast. I have wondered what was back there ever since I stayed in Port Maria back in 2003.

Plus, you know, the whole hippie thing. I've read about Strawberry Fields, how there was a commune of sorts there back in the 70s, a camping place, all that. I heard a lot more about that than I did about the Jamaican people who lived there, actually. In any case, I was curious.

I usually choose a new part of Jamaica to visit based on the recommendation of a friend and this time was no different. I know someone through the band that goes to Negril each year (ekoostik hookah) who has been going to Strawberry Fields for many, many years, his name is Michael. It is his home away from home, where his heart is, where he will never go to Jamaica and not stay, if only for a day or two after he is done doing the work he comes to Jamaica to do (which is putting on rock n roll shows). I had also spoken to a couple of folks on the internet who had spent time in the area, and all of those conversations and photos and my long-time curiosity convinced me to try it out.

At this point in the two week+ trip I've driven the south coast solo, spent a few days in Treasure Beach, spent a week in Negril with the band and a ton of friends, and am back in my rental car heading east, with my brave and wonderful friend Nene, who decided she didn't want to read about all the stuff I do after ekoostik hookah's trips to Jamaica, she wanted to be part of them.

I had a phone number for a close friend of Michael's, and tried to call it several times earlier in the trip but was never able to reach anyone. So we decided to just go and see what we could see. (One great thing about having one's own wheels is that freedom and flexibility). We had rough directions - what town to pass and then look for a turn, basically, and we followed them as best we could. I still turned off too early a couple of times but each time we were helpfully directed back to the highway and told what to look for at OUR road. Here's the sign to look for:

Once we turned off, we traveled probably about a half hour or so on a pretty rough road, asking as we went along. Truthfully we didn't pass many people, or buildings, or anything really, until we reached the coast. There we passed the very large Robins Bay Resort (of the sign), which appeared to be deserted. I learned later it wasn't, but we sure didn't see anyone around.

We were heading for a shop near the entrance to Strawberry Fields resort (which was too pricey for me to consider for this trip, I'm sure it is lovely), in the vicinity of River Lodge, which we are going to check out for a possible stay, tonight or another time.

The road only gets worse, really. At times it is more pothole than road, but at least it is flat and dry. I've become a bit of a pro at the bad roads after my time driving around Treasure Beach so I'm good with it, we just have to go slowly.

This was before it got really potholey....but I'll dodge potholes all day for a view like this!

We finally come to the entrance of Strawberry Fields Resort and soon after, a shop. We pull over and ask if anyone can point us to Sata's place. Of course someone can - Peter is who we find and he offers to walk us down. Sata lives on the sea, and this involves hiking from the road down a rather narrow path through some yards and then bush....

Walk down with us...it's daylight, and dry today :)

Peter does find Sata for us, in his yard by the sea. I tell him Michael has sent me and that's good for him, we all sit down and chat for a bit. The place is incredible. A grassy yard on a cliff over the sea, with an open air kitchen and several small cottages, a couple on stilts.

A third new friend, Charlie, fishes off the cliffs:

A beach is far below, off to the left. It's hidden in this photo of Lucky Dog, behind the foliage.

I had an idea of what I wanted to do here..Michael told me about a hike through the jungle to a hidden black sand beach and waterfall with a pool to swim in. This is right up my alley, I love hiking and swimming and beaches and hidden things. I also like boats, and at this relatively late hour in the day, taking a boat to the black sand beach and then hiking in to the falls was the way to do this in less than 4-5 hours. Sata headed down to the beach to find Lion (who has the boat), but before he made it out of the yard we all watched Lion's boat speeding out to go fishing. So it was not to be, today.

I'm undeterred. I have a couple of days to play with here and don't mind spending tomorrow in this area, so Nene and I set off to take a look at River Lodge. If we dig it, we'll stay over night and do the trip tomorrow.

River Lodge is just down the road, as it turns out. it's an old Spanish fort that has been converted into a small hotel, complete with round stone walls with ivy and outdoor steps going around, and neat grounds. We can't find the owner but do find a really nice guy who shows us the rooms and grounds.

Neat tower room:

Those steps above lead right here..I thought it was kind of cool but Nene's eyes got really big when she saw it :)

I should say at this point that it was HOT - unseasonably so for Jamaica in April, and also unusually buggy. I wasn't really into not having air conditioning or screens, as cool looking at this place was.We were both kind of hot and sweaty from hiking and traveling.

It DID have a pool...one of the nicest ones I've seen. The guy who showed us the room was kind enough to take us down to it and let us have a swim.

We decided to save staying there for another time. Nene had never been outside Negril except on day trips, and we are much closer to Port Antonio than I thought we'd be - we are almost to Annotto Bay once we get back on the main road. So we decide to head to Porty for the night, perhaps find some dinner, a drink, some air conditioning. I have an idea in that regard and suddenly feel that I HAVE to get to Port Antonio since I am this close. I want to see Fern Hill again.

I talk to Sata and Peter and we arrange to call them when we are on the road from Porty the next day, the plan is to have a late lunch with them and then do our trip.

So we are back on the road, heading east once again....

(continued)

Miserable in Jamaica: an on-site report of woe

2010-04-15T17:27:00.010-04:00

I'm here, arrived yesterday.

Let me tell you how terrible things are.

Sitting here on the cliffside finishing my breakfast, the ocean I am looking at has too many shades of blue and turquoise to count. So frustrating.

Also, the breeze coming off the sea keeps blowing my paper napkin off the table. I had to stick it under my mug of Jamaican blue mountain coffee to keep it secure.

The sun is so bright I have to wear sunglasses most all day. Sometimes a hat too.

I have been swimming so frequently that my swimsuit hasn't had a chance to completely dry yet. I'll have to put it on damp in a few minutes.

I had a red stripe yesterday that was so cold it was frozen, partially. I had to let it sit for like 3 minutes until it was drinkable.

There were bones in my 3 Dives jerk chicken last night. Luckily the chicken fell off them.

If i were you I'd seriously consider canceling, i mean this is just awful.
-----

Well folks, my woes continue.

First, since Catcha has that sweet new pool, I had to swim in it before hitting the road and you know what? My swimsuit was so wet when i left I had to set it in the back window of my car to dry on the way to TB. Couldn't pack it.

Then, in Black River, I missed the turn to the bridge. I had to pull into the tour boat place and ask for directions. Sure a very nice lady gave them to me, but while I was standing there I saw a bar with really cold looking Ting. I had to get one and darnit, another $100J gone. And 5 minutes of my precious time too!

On arrival in Treasure Beach things just got worse. For one, it was hot and sunny. I mean sure, I have AC in the car and my room and once i was in shade it was fine, but there are the seconds of walking to consider! I broke a sweat!

And let me tell you...my room is too big. It has a couch and like 4 chairs that I feel obligated to sit on. I am solo here, this is real work making sure they all get sat in. They all face the beach, too. Different views from each, more work taking pictures...

Also my bed is a king. Hello! I'm alone, I have to sleep diagonally and roll around, why didn't my hosts consider this hardship and give me a twin??

Later I took a boat out to Pelican Bar with my old friend Dennis (aka Captain Dennis). The sea was so smooth we hardly bounced at all - where is the fun? No matter how fast he went, we couldn't get a good slam-your-butt-down on the bench going. And the speed forced me to wear a hat to keep my hair from blowing in my face.

And then Floyd , with his evil smell of delicious food cooking, forced me to order a fry fish. Which in turn forced me to order a cold red stripe to go with it. Another entire $600J gone, just like that.

I could go on and on but unfortunately I have to go the beach now, apparently there is a sandy cove just around the corner from here that i am told I must try...obligations and work never end, here, I tell you!
-----

I'm sorry to say that my tale of misery continues.

At my hotel in Treasure Beach, I was served way too much fish and shrimp for dinner last night. I mean the plate was 12 inches wide at least. Of course I had to eat it all, or I'd offend the chef, who clearly is unused to offense, given the very high quality of the seafood meal I was served. I felt almost uncomfortably full at the end.

To top it off, my hosts were hanging out at their little bar with friends and invited me to join them. Do you think i had room for beer? No, I did not, but I felt obligated to sit and drink some, for 3 hours in fact. But that's me, I suffer in silence. (Though I must admit, silent I was not, given the lively company.)

Then today...after a night spent trying to fill a bed meant for 3 or 4, and another too-large meal of a tomato cheese omelet with bacon and toast and coffee and jelly and fruit and freshly squeezed OJ, I set out for a beach walk.

Out the gate and onto the sand, around the bend and past the fishing beach where I was troubled to lift my arm several times in return to greetings called out to me. Work work work. On down the sand and through a hotel pool, back on sand...then rocks. Oh lord, coral-ey rocks. Sure there was a concrete path thoughtfully provided across, and I had shoes on, but I had to look down at my feet for that part. It irked me so much I had to stop for a cold water at a beach bar and some shade. Oh did I mention the sun? HOT! SUNNY! BRIGHT! Out of order!

Tough as it was I bravely marched on, around another bend to a swimming cove with no waves at all. Now everyone says Treasure Beach has rough waves and undertow and all these things, and what do I get? Clean sand and calm clear water. I had to go in and then you know what? I was salty.

After a stop on down that beach for a ridiculously priced meal - callaloo fritters with dipping sauce for $150J - I headed home in shame. I'd miscalculated how much money to bring and had a too-heavy pocket to deal with the whole way back. It was so exhausting I fell right to sleep on the daybed on my veranda at Mar Blue.

When I awoke I decided I had to share my sad story with you all, so came over to Jake's for a drink and an appetizer. I drove here, and sat a nice table, but it was quite warm. 5 minutes later a downpour began that is still, 20 minutes later, raging outside, sending a cool breeze (but no water) to my seat. I am trapped, I cannot leave, it is raining too hard.

Fortunately, a tomato-feta salad was just delivered to my table. I hope I make it through.
-----

My trials and tribulations continue, unfortunately.

Though I lived through the rain yesterday to another evening at Mar Blue with my hosts and some admittedly lovely people from London, a gourmet meal, fine aged rum and and ray ray ray...I found the ground outside quite full of puddles that required stepping over or through. My sandals actually got slightly wet.

Waking this morning I found the wifi back on (off from the storm for an evening)...which meant I had to work for a few minutes, checking to see if I had email from desperate clients. Sure I worked in the breezeway/lounge with the sea view and coffee, but lord, it was hard.

Then I had a drive...to Mandeville to meet up with friends. Jamaica driving and I are not strangers but it has been a couple of years since we've been together on a road trip and the new car with power everything is really making life tough....figuring out the power mirrors and auto-power-window thingamajig, temp control and all this while simultaneously dodging the odd pothole and minibus overtaking a truck is hard work, let me tell you. The radio blasting Bread (I would give anything I own, just to have you...back again... - really??) was just too much.

Then, coming back from Mandeville to Treasure Beach down Spur Tree Hill made my braking leg hurt. Why oh why didn't I take the "switch to low gear" sign seriously? It would have saved my brake leg the soreness of that last 10 minutes. Sure the views were incredible from up there but it's not like I could really enjoy them, focused on braking as I was.

Then back, a new guest from London to chat with completely slowed down my consumption of my chilled pinot grigio. It took me about 10 minutes to finish the glass.

Jamaica is rough-rough, don't let anyone tell you different.

---------------

The next day I made it a point to visit Great Bay, because I always wanted to and never did.

What do I get there? A wide sandy beach, a shady place to park, friendly families out for a weekend swim, but no shops open and it's Saturday morning! No juice, no red wata, nothing! Why why why? I had to drink the drink I brought with me in my cooler to stay hydrated on the beach.

Later in the day I had to drive to Negril for the week. Truth is, my dear reader, that could be a real tale of woe for me as Negril is not my favorite place to be in Jamaica, not by a long shot. But this week I'm meeting a ton of friends there, so it's not so bad :)

The drive took me forever though, as I had to keep pulling off the road to take pictures of beautiful vistas and check out places along the way like Font Hill beach. Probably took me 3 hours to get there...and that's no thanks to Sav la Mar, a town in which I ALWAYS, EVERY TIME lose the main road. I am driving along, following traffic until I realize the narrow residential street I am on dead ends into the sea and is clearly not the south coast highway. Turn and try the next one, and sometimes one or two after that before I find it again.

Then in Negril, there is no rain. None at all. It's hot, and I must once again go swimming.

Sigh.

Jamaica June 2009: 4 - Kingston (party!)

2010-03-30T14:42:00.002-04:00

T and I decided it was time to head back to Kingston as one of T's roommates was having a birthday party at the house and T wanted to be around to help get ready. A friend who lives in Negril was on his way to Kingston on business that day and detoured through Runaway Bay to take us along. We restocked what we'd used from the kitchen at the local grocery (L&M is a great little store, if you ever need a supermarket in RB), packed up our stuff, paid the cleaning person, said goodbye to the really nice security guys who manned our gate, and hit the road.

We took the main road to Kingston, I can never remember the name of it but it's the one that goes over Flat Bridge and through Spanish Town and all that. I have photos of it from last trip and some more from later in this one.

Truth is, I have very few photos of my time in Kingston. I love the fact that I can move around there without being immediately pegged as a tourist, and carrying a camera just messes that up completely. So I have only a few shots from this couple of days.

As I said, there is to be a birthday party in a day or so, for T's roommate - let's call her Holly. Holly is Scandinavian and works for an environmental group that is part of the UN. She's been in Kingston for at least a couple of years but will probably be moving on to another assignment this year (and as of this writing almost a year later, she has). She's planning a party at the house for her birthday, and a couple of others (Martin and Jeff have their birthdays that same week), and when we arrive in Kingston she is already making arrangements.

T takes care of invitations and stuff, Holly is handling food and drinks. On shopping day she invites me to come along to see about what's needed for the party.

First stop is a local market/caterer/bar to order appetizers and such. We have lunch here, and when the order is finalized and delivery arranged, we head on.

Holly's heard of a soup guy. He's made soup for parties around town and is recommended, so we set off to meet with him. We meet at a Popeye's Fried Chicken and discuss what kind of soup he'll make.They agree on terms and soup (fish tea) and we head out with him to shop at an open market in the vicinity of a large superstore somewhere around Halfway Tree. They get all the veggies and other ingredients he'll need, he's got a fisherman for the fish and will bring that the next day. But his actual soup pot and burner is at the site of his last engagement - Freddie MacGregor's house. We pile into the car and head over there to pick it up.

We are somewhere in the low foothills vaguely east of town...through residential streets that wind around, turn left, turn right, turn again....eventually with SoupMan's guidance, we arrive. As you might imagine his home is a large one, gated. Out front there is an American guy, security? friend? Hard to say. But we are admitted to the courtyard and while SoupMan goes off to get his pot, we sit with a dozen or so guys hanging out in a covered gazebo. There's his tour manager, his brother, his cousin, I lost track as we were introduced to everyone. Mr. MacGregor himself is not in. It was an interesting hour or so we passed there, chatting with the guys. Finally SoupMan is back with the pot and we load it up and say goodbye.

SoupMan doesn't just make soup. he's also a singer (of course) who does studio work. He's got to meet someone at a recording studio nearby about a gig and we drive him there and are invited to come in. Again we are on a tiny street I couldn't possibly remember how to get to....seems little goes on in Kingston on the main thoroughfares.

We meet some studio musicians who played on this or that cd with this or that artist, have a look around. On our way back to the car we see Etana walking into the studio. Just another day in Kingston....

That night we hang at the house, some people come over but we don't go out.

When I wake up the next morning party preparations are full-on...house cleaning, getting the decks ready, setting up SoupMan....boy that's a production. He does some prep work in the kitchen and then, after much discussion as to the best location for day-long fish cooking, sets up his propane burner under a large shade tree in the yard and gets cooking. Apparently fish tea takes hours to prepare because he is at it all day.

Meanwhile soap and water are running off the side and roof decks as they are cleaned, the house is being mopped and picked up. I go out for a hike around the neighborhood and when I return we begin moving furniture. The main dance floor and buffet will be upstairs on the roof deck, sitting areas will be on the 2nd floor decks and the roof deck sides, the living room is made cozy, the bathrooms cleaned....parking valets of a sort are hired as space in the very steep driveway is limited and no one wants people to be trapped behind cars. The DJs arrive -Alric and Boyd from FAME FM, as it turns out, and they set up their sound system on the roof.

One (of many) cool things about this house is that roof deck. It's huge, and loud music just floats away to the sky, we do not anticipate any issues with neighbors and noise.

I'm helping get food upstairs, get guys to help unload the ice delivery, setting up the bar...it was alot of fun. Finally everything is set, we shower and dress for the evening and people being arriving. The guests are a very diverse group and I enjoyed meeting lots of new people. The early part of the party is sitting, talking with new people, dinner. The later part is pretty much all dancing :)

I did get my camera out for a bit...

....and captured the cake(s) and flouring...

Whew! the party went on all night long, it was a LOT of fun. It was extra cool to be staying there as all I had to do when I got tired was walk downstairs into my room :)

Jamaica June 2009: 3 - Resort Hopping (Hedo and Starfish)

2010-03-26T14:19:00.001-04:00

We're still in Runaway Bay at the villa, but today our host will join us after work. I also got some work done today, and a swim at our pool. Tonight we are going to Hedo III for dinner and the weekly pajama party. I've been aware of Hedonism for years - what regular Jamaica visitor isn't? In Negril they call it the zoo. It's an all inclusive resort (actually two resorts) known for nudity, parties, swinging....not my scene at all. But I'm game to check it out and see what all the fuss is about.

Our host, M, arrived at the villa in the evening. We got to know each other and the three of us got ready for our night out. It was hard to come up with the right thing to wear (!!), but I did a beach cover up/PJ sort of outfit as it was pajama night, and went with that.

We drove over to Hedo and took a look around. It's a smaller resort than Breezes, with a much smaller beach area. The week we were there occupancy was fairly low so it was perhaps not as crazy as it might be on other occasions, but the buffet looked OK, the bars were open, and people seemed to be enjoying themselves.

We had reservations at Pastafari, the Italian restaurant. We were seated and given a menu with appetizers, main courses and desserts. This is an AI resort so you can order as much of whatever as you want. I went for an appetizer of mozzarella and tomato crostini that was not bad at all. For dinner I ordered steak. Yep, steak in Jamaica...something i NEVER order there. And you know what? It was delicious. I was really surprised. We had a nice bottle of wine with our meal.

After dinner we did a little gambling at the slot machines. M gave us each $5 and I won like $100....gave it back to M (he gave me $5 back :)) as thanks for my stay at his villa. While T and M played slots longer, I wandered over to the basketball court to shoot a few. One of the entertainment staff came over and a lively game of HORSE ensued (what's Horse? I shoot from one spot, if i make it he has to shoot from the same spot and make it, if he doesn't he gets an "H". If I miss it's his turn. it's kind of like hangman, the first one to spell HORSE loses). I was doing well at first but after a bit he started hitting 3 pointers that I couldn't follow so I lost :(

It was late enough to head over to the disco for the pajama party and contest. People were dressed in all manner of "pajamas" - some actually pjs or nightgowns, some just a few strips of leather. We observed the contest from the sidelines when I found myself dragged onto the dance floor to win the "Most Conservative Pajamas" prize, which was a bottle of rum. So now I can tell the story....I went to Hedonism and won the most conservatively dressed prize! No, I did not bring my camera, sorry ;)

We left soon after that and after a little chatting at the villa, we all went to bed. We are heading to Starfish (now known as Breezes Trelawny) tomorrow for the day!

I've read a lot about this resort too. It's the "family friendly" Breezes, the one that is geared to families with children, especially small ones.I know where it is - Falmouth, because you can't miss it when you pass it, it is a high rise hotel, like maybe 10 stories. It isn't very appealing from the road, honestly. But I have heard the beach is a really nice one and I'm eager to see what it's like.

We set out QUITE early the next morning...I slept most of the way in the car. When we pulled in and parked, I was pleasantly surprised by the lobby area:

It is, as you can see, bright, spacious and colorful. This picture faces the lobby bar and beyond that are the restaurants, swimming pools and ultimately, the beach. (If you look in the mirror there you can see me taking that photo).

We arranged to have a room for the day, so we could shower and nap and such. We checked in, got our wristbands (as day visitors we needed one for day and one for night) and unloaded our stuff in the room. Our room was on the first floor of the main part of the hotel, so very convenient. It had a large queen size bed and a double bed, a clean bathroom, a mini-bar and a balcony. I could see being quite comfortable there.

Settled in, we headed to the buffet for breakfast. There was a very nice spread...smoked salmon, a "make to order" omelet bar, fresh fruit, hot coffee, juice, eggs, bacon....pretty much everything including ackee and saltfish. I was happy with it and ate a lot.

T had a friend staying here, I think she and her husband were checking out later, so we went to find them before they left. They were staying in one of the cottages - very close to the pools and beach, exactly the accommodations I'd want if I stayed here with my family. Ground level, private, porch, bunk beds and queen, and the location is great.

We settled for the morning by the pool on a covered king size bed sort of thing...very cozy. I walked down to the beach to check it out. And it is, indeed, one of the nicer natural beaches in the area.

There's a little island you can wade to:

Lots of space:

Sailboats and jetskis to use or rent:

I think my kids - who have been to JA several times but never to a resort - might actually enjoy some time here. Lots of kids are around to hang out with and they can have the run of the place.

I swim a bit, then head back to the pool. A water aerobics class is beginning and I figure hey, why not? I take the class and feel virtuous for having gotten a little workout in that day. It was alot of fun - when it's hot, and Jamaica is almost always hot - exercising in the water is the way to go.

After that a trivia game is started by the entertainment staff. I get to resorts just about never, so this is all kind of fun for me. I head over and sit. The staff asks a trivia question and if we think we know the anser we run up and answer - if that person is wrong another can run up and so on until the correct answer is given. If we are correct we get cards, the # depending on the difficulty of the question.

Well today the trivia topic is the Caribbean. Oh YES, now all those years of reading guidebooks and history books and combing the internet are going to pay off!

At first the 20 or so people in the competition are sharing the answers but as they get harder more and more people stop coming up to answer. Many times, I am the only one to even try. Some were just ridiculously easy and yet people didn't get them....like "which island is known as the Land of Wood and Water?". I mean, really? Some were harder, like name the 4 largest islands in the Caribbean in order (this geek got that one too - Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico). There was one that irked me....it asked what island had something, the answer was Hispaniola. I wasn't given a card though because the answer they were looking for was Haiti. Hello - Haiti is a country, not an island. In the end it didn't matter - when it was over I had by far the most cards. To the point that the staff asked me if I had been at the resort the previous week and heard the questions before. LOL. I won.....another bottle of rum!

After this we hit the buffet for lunch - again plenty of good food to choose from - and head to our room for an afternoon nap. Which was lovely.
Refreshed, we changed for dinner and headed to the manager's cocktail party which was taking place near the lobby. There were appetizers and drinks and an opportunity to chat with various managers of the resort. From there, we headed to dinner - we had reservations at Munasan, the Japanese restaurant.

M and T have great things to say about the food there and I must agree - we had the "chef tasting dinner", 8 courses of sushi and other Japanese food, and it was amazing. Right up there with the best I've had in NYC.

M had to head home - not the villa, his regular home, so I thanked him again for all the wonderful hospitality he'd shown me, and T and I head to the bar to meet Bar and Cher. Bar and Cher, the owners of Jamaica Jewel in Duncans Bay, live pretty close by and T invited them to come join us for the evening.

We had a lot of fun with them and some other guests.

Drummy came to get us (all the way from Runaway Bay, he's awesome) and return us to the villa. Tomorrow, we head to Kingston.

Jamaica June 2009: 2 - Runaway Bay

2010-03-22T21:32:00.002-04:00

This trip report will have to be a bit different than most, because I didn't take notes and I didn't take very many photos. The days blur a bit, divided into the lazy days in Runaway bay with T, resort hopping, and my time in Kingston.

I woke up for my first full day in Jamaica in my comfy bed in my spacious air conditioned room with the door to the porch literally over the water. I opened that door up first thing, then wandered into the kitchen to get some coffee together. Enjoyed that and a book on the porch for awhile, just looking out at the sea.

This was taken in the evening but you get the idea. Our porches look exactly like these porches next door:

And this is the view...again at sunset. During the day it was BRIGHT out here:

I like to swim. A lot. T was still asleep so I went to check out the beach and pool. Our villa was one of 4, all on the water, all sharing a pool and beach area and some tennis courts.

I checked out the beach but honestly it wasn't that appealing...the tide was very low and it would be difficult to go in and float or swim without going out pretty far, so I opted for the pool. I had it to myself every time I swam there.

Well, not quite to myself:

I have a video of him...he kept drinking the pool water. Tipping down into it like one of those birds that you put next to a drink and it dips its head into it and back up.

Things were quiet here...it was midweek, and I am not sure any of the villa owners actually live here, it seems to be more of a holiday home for them. I never had to fight for a lounge chair or floaty at the pool :)

After some exercise and lounging I went back to the villa and T was up. Today we'd again go to Breezes, it was so close. We had a late breakfast there and hung out at the beach and pool for awhile, then lunch, then back to the villa to relax before dinner and the night out.

The afternoons at the villa were spent napping or reading books, or chatting on the porch. I had my laptop with me this trip because in order to get away in June I had to be able to work. I didn't even tell my clients I was gone this trip, I just dealt with whatever came up as I would if I were home. It was a bit of an experiment for me, to see if I could really work there. I checked in with clients every day, put out fires, and did what i had to do....probably not more than an hour or two a day. It was useful to learn that i could, in fact, take my work with me to Jamaica and stay there for a long time if I chose. One of many upsides to self-employment :)

We went back to Breezes for a late dinner and stayed for the show afterward. That's the night we met Tammy T and Klyve, two very talented singers, sister and brother. I never expected to be wowed by a resort band but both T and I stared at each other with open mouths when they began to sing. Just incredible voices. We met them at set break and had a nice chat...turns out they tour with Etana and do resort gigs when they are in Jamaica. Really nice people too. Lee took this photo at a different event, jazzfest or something, but this is them. If you get the opportunity, don't miss their show.

with Etana in the US (thanks again Lee):

We had a great evening here, hanging out with staff that T knew, meeting guests, enjoying ourselves. I think Drummy took us home again this night.

Jamaica June 2009: 1 - Arrival and Runaway Bay

2010-03-22T10:05:00.001-04:00

Here I am again, off to Jamaica. I was last here in March, 3 months ago. Normally I can only get away once a year. But this time things just worked out. I was in NYC for my high school reunion. Flights on Jet Blue were dirt cheap to JA from NYC ($89 each way). My children have relatives in NYC they don't see as often as they'd like. So.....the kids and I went to NYC, spent a couple of days together, I went to my reunion and the following morning, I left for Jamaica while the kids stayed in NYC to hang out with their grandmother and other relatives.

I took my daughter to my old neighborhood in Harlem, showed her my building, gaped at the changes....bodegas to french cafes, laundromats to specialty shops. It was weird. But enough was the same as when i lived there to give her an idea. We all went to Chinatown to my brother's favorite spot. We walked along the Hudson river on the new bike path, visited old friends and family, saw a show at Lincoln Center. It was a good time.

My high school reunion was a blast. I guess a lot of people would rather forget high school or didn't like it or whatever, but I really did like the people I went to school with and hadn't seen many of them for years. So I really enjoyed visiting my old school, seeing my old neighborhood in Brooklyn, and a party a classmate had at her apartment after was attended by everyone and was a great chance to catch up. We also stayed out really late, so when the alarm went off at 5AM, I was beat. But when I'm heading to Jamaica, I can function on 2 hours' sleep, no problem :)

This trip was a little different for me, I was not working and really don't have the budget for a run-around trip, but do have a friend I wanted to spend more time with and she put together a plan.

We'd meet in Runaway Bay at a friend of hers' villa, which she had the use of. We'd hang there for a few days then head back to Kingston, where she lives, and I'd stay with her there, then I'd head back to MoBay at my leisure. Sounded great to me. As I recall this trip was 9 days long.

Jet Blue is amazing. I wish we had them in my city. Really nice people at the ticket counters and on the planes, lovely new planes with personal satellite tvs and free snacks and drinks, left on time, arrived on time. All that and cheap, too.

I arrived, got through immigration and customs quickly, and I called my friend Lee. Side note here - my Digicel phone from 2006 is alive and kicking. I've been topping it up every 2-3 months from home, online, and when I turned it on in Jamaica, it worked immediately, all my credit was there, it was great.

Lee was invited to hang out in Runaway Bay with our friend too so we arranged to go together. He drove, and we had a pretty had a quiet drive - I was still very tired not having slept much on the plane. We pulled in to the villa around noon, greeted our friends, set down bags, relaxed a little then headed out.

The villa is owned by a friend of T's. He doesn't use this villa very often for himself, so my friend borrows it occasionally for a break from the city or to entertain out of town friends like me :) It's a few minutes' walk to Breezes Runaway Bay and that is where we go to spend the afternoon, as we have been given day passes.

It's just as I remember it from last year. I took a lot of photos then so didn't take any this time. We had some lunch and a drink and I swam in the sea and the pool. All that took my tiredness away very effectively, as I knew they would.

We spent the afternoon there then headed back to the villa, both Lee and my friend's husband had to return to work in their respective cities. For the next few days, it's girls' vacation time :)

Here's our first night sunset from the villa deck:

And the bar at the villa....not that we used it much since we had passes to an all-inclusive resort down the street, but I liked his sign.

Of course there's a full kitchen (and 4 bedrooms with baths, and porches, and a beach and a pool), and it was stocked. I have a basket like this in my kitchen, some of the stuff in mine is different but actually most of it is the same...I wish I had fresh scotchbonnets now!

We got changed for the evening, I think I wore a dress and everything. This was no backpacker trip for me, it was resorts and the city so I packed accordingly.

We had a great dinner at Breezes...their food is really very good, even on the buffet. There's always seafood and good Jamaican dishes, as well as the normal salad bar and fruit and all that. We took our time at dinner, got caught up. Wandered by the beach bar, the lobby bar, back to the dining room for the show. I think it was some kind of reggae, very enjoyable. We stayed around and checked out the disco for a bit before heading back to the villa.

My friend used to work for this chain of resorts and has some friends working at this one...one hooked us up with a local driver for getting home late, and for going places during our stay. Drummy, I think, was his name and he took us home that night.

I fell into my very comfy bed in my large air conditioned bedroom (nice sea breezes here as we are directly over the water but it is June) and slept like a baby. Hello again, Jamaica.

March 2009 Trip Report Index

2010-03-21T14:39:00.002-04:00

This is an index to my trip report for March 2009, sorted chronologically.

Jamaica March 2009: 25 - Luminous Lagoon and Out

2009-05-18T23:35:00.000-04:00

When I returned from my adventure in the Cockpits I caught up with J&M, who'd had their own adventure that day. They went out on a fishing boat and got chased by dolphins, visited a deserted beach and even caught a couple of fish. Another time I'd love to do that.

They want to go check out Glistening Waters/Luminous Lagoon. I've been before, about 2 years ago, but it's 10 minutes from Bar and Cher's so I'm up for it. After dinner we hop in the car with our friend's son, he has never been.

Last time I went we had our own boat but this night there were a couple of large tour groups so we had to share. I would say the glowing effect was only so-so this time. The boat engine made a glow, but not the fish and just a trailing hand, as had been the case last time. Our guide Jerry said the microorganisms that glow go deeper in the water when it's colder, and so are harder to see. He did lower a bucket and bring up glowing water, and that was fun.

Our friend's son took a few photos of people swimming. I swam last time, but opted to stay dry this time.

These birds seem to love nesting in this tree, I have a photo of them from last time.

It was $10 or $15 per person for the boat ride and I'm glad we went. But in the future I'd make sure the water is warm and the moon dark before going again.

I don't have any more photos in my camera from this trip. I knew already that I'd be back in June, less than 3 months away. The typical last night, last morning wasn't nearly as bittersweet given that I'd soon be back.

I did go for a final swim in the ocean the next morning, before my friend Lee picked me up and took me to MoBay. We had time to shop for a few gifts and grab lunch together, and that was nice.

This trip was an interesting one in many ways...as I look back over my blog I see 25 entries for it. Wow. I was only there for 16 days :) But it was a packed 16 days...the sort of trip I always wanted to do, where I had time to travel wherever I wanted to, to relax, to go adventuring, to hang out with friends, to find new places to love.

I learned that having a loose idea of where to go and people to see is nice but firm plans aren't for me.

I confirmed to myself that I am perfectly capable of moving around on my own.

And I remembered that while a trip to Jamaica is exhilarating, relaxing, fascinating and fun, I am always glad to go home when it's over.

As I get ready to return in less than a month, I'm glad I got to finish this trip's blog. Perhaps I'll even get that June '09 trip's thoughts together before I head for the place I've come to love so much, again.

Thanks for reading :)

Jamaica March 2009: 24 - Into the Cockpits

2009-05-17T01:00:00.001-04:00

During the course of the previous evening at Ja Jewel, a friend of Bar and Cher's stopped by. We'd met the year before and I was glad he came, because he is a driver, and I wanted to go somewhere.

For as long as I've been reading about Jamaica, which is longer than I've actually been going to Jamaica, I've wanted to go into to Cockpit Country. It just sounded so mysterious. Vast limestone cockpits...uncharted...no roads...caves...rivers...endangered and rare animals of all kinds. The history is so fascinating...this is an area Tainos escaped from Caribs to, African slaves escaped from the British to, and made their own.. These slaves and their descendants, the Maroons, made a home in this roughest, wildest part of Jamaica and completely screwed the British soldiers who tried to follow them here and fight them. It's the "District of Look Behind". On maps of Jamaica it is a big blank spot with a few dots around the edge, with labels like "Wait a Bit" and "Quick Step" (conflicting advice notwithstanding, those are some cool town names). Who can resist that?

Cockpit Country makes up part of at least 3 parishes, but Trelawny has most of it and that's where I am. And one time, I saw a picture of a blue hole there that I just had to see for myself.

Now I've been to Blue Lagoon, it's awesome. I've seen blue holes in Jamaica before, it's a pretty common label for a spring or deep spot in a river. Finding new ones is one of my favorite things to do and since i have a day, I am in Trelawny and now I have a friend and driver, I'm in.

Bossa and I set out after breakfast towards Duncans and Clark's Town. Clark's Town is as far into these hills as I've been, that was last year with Bossa and Cher and Barry, you can read about that in my blog from November '08. But we're going further this time. This is just outside Clark's Town. That rebar dragged along the road behind that truck until we passed it, right after I took this shot.

This is the lake we visited last year - it's gotten bigger. Which is kind of funny because everywhere I've been this trip, everything has been so dry it's often burning.

Much sooner than I think we will, we arrive at Windsor. And we are welcomed :)

No, not just by the sign. Also by this gentleman who, of course, Bossa knows and greets like his oldest friend in the world. (thanks to Jamaican Caves for this photo - lots of good info there)

I didn't realize we were going to be at Windsor Cave. I've heard of it, it's a very large cave system and somewhat navigable. In fact Dango, pictured here, is the official guide. But I did the cave thing yesterday and am not ready to go deep into the ground in a cave that, I am assured, WILL have water, low ceilings, crawling and all that stuff. But Bossa asks me if I'd like to just peek inside and I would. It'll make me ready to jump in the water, at least.

So we take a bit of a hike up a trail, beginning at this innocuously flat area:

This is my last photo of the trail going up because from this point on the trail narrowed and got steep and I had to concentrate on my feet. Note to self: do not wear crocs if hiking in the cockpits is even a remote possibility.

The hike was cool, and I am glad I started working out a few months before this, I don't think I would have had an easy time of it before that. It's in pretty dense jungle,vines and huge trees all around, and made of rock steps and steep hills with tree roots for footing.

Finally we reach the mouth and step in. MUCH cooler here. These are taken with my flash:

See any faces in there? People say they do.

Probably using a flash in a cave is a no-no, from a "disturbing bats" standpoint. I read that somewhere, later on.

Bossa makes a pretty good guide, actually.

Loch Ness sea monster. ("People" don't say that, I do. See it?)

I've seen all I can see without a torch, so we head back down the trail. I am more confident with my footing this time so take a couple of photos. Isn't it beautiful? I mean, you can sort of tell, but not really. There's not a way I know of to capture being completely surrounded by forest, below you, 360 around, way, way above you, no visibly sky. So I took this little snapshot.

It really doesn't do the experience justice, this video may help...

Coming out of the forest....we are the only souls around, except for Dango. I love that.

No sign of the drought I've seen everywhere else this trip. Not up here.

I'm looking pretty sweaty but I DID this hike, and I am proud. And also very ready for a swim...

And man, it was worth coming up here for this:

This is, I found out later, part of the Martha Brae river. Downstream a ways, people take rides on banana rafts on it. Up here Bossa says people come on Sundays sometimes and cook out and picnic. The water is very clear and clean. You can see a ledge underwater on the far side if you look.

Across a small bridge, there is a little dam and waterfall.

This bridge, in fact. That's our car, by the Welcome Center. Which is a shop and home base for Dango.

Bamboo seems to like the river's edge.

That was one very refreshing swim, moreso because of the hike to the cave. We hung out for about an hour just floating and going under and coming out and jumping in and swimming and floating. Bossa swam too - sometimes drivers, even friend drivers, don't care to DO stuff with you, but Bossa was great about jumping into the water, into the cave, whatever i wanted to do.

I have to say here too that sometimes men misunderstand my traveling alone. It can be weird sometimes, I have to explain myself. Not to him. Perfect gentleman.

We dried off, said goodbye to Dango and got back in the car. On the way back down, Bossa asks if I want to stop in Usain Bolt's hometown of Sherwood Content, apparently we pass close to it if we go back a slightly different way. You know me...what do you think I said?

We met Usain Bolt's dad and chatted for awhile over a cold drink in his shop. He ran track too, in school. I didn't want to ask him for a photo, so I settled for one of his shop. In retrospect, I could have asked, he was very forthcoming and probably would have been fine with it..

Here is the booming metropolis known as Sherwood Content, Jamaica. Main drag.

Do however note the astonishing lack of potholes. It's rumored that Mr. Bolt asked for that, for his community.

As we wind down towards the sea, I think of this day. It was fantastic, one of those I won't forget.

And sadly, it's my last day this trip, I have to leave Jamaica tomorrow.

Jamaica March 2009: 23 - Caves and Beaches and Chinese

2009-05-16T21:36:00.000-04:00

After we left the beach, J&M wanted to check out a Chinese restaurant in Duncans that Barry said was new and good. J is Chinese-American and was eager to see what Chinese-Jamaican food might be like. I needed to hit the ATM so we all piled into a car and took the 5-10 minute drive into Duncans.

I am on the porch of the restaurant here, looking at the parking lot. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but seeing the sign from the back, Garden something....

We went in and the menu had Jamaican and Chinese dishes. I ordered curry goat, and J began discussing the menu with the owner in Cantonese (mom, dad, if you are reading this...I just can't get away from this phenomenon can I?). Next thing I know he's back in the kitchen showing the owner exactly how he wants his ginger-scallion fish done, after having picked out the exact fish from a passing fisherman, of course. Turns out he cooked in a restaurant at one point. It was great. We took our food to go and headed back down to the inn.

More of downtown Duncans, or rather, mechanic shop at Duncans and adjacent parking lot the actual town center is much cuter than this lot might suggest. While we waited for the food I took these in the parking lot.

"2K9" - I like it.

This house was right behind the restaurant.

No problem getting cell service anywhere, you see why:

The food was delicious, we ate it in the tiki bar at Jamaica Jewel. Next up, Barry had promised to show us a cave. A "slave cave", not mapped, and local - walkable in fact.

We set off. Made one stop to visit a friend who owns a lovely home in the area and whose puppies were in some way related to Barry and Cher's puppies....or whose birds were related to Fiyah...there was a pet connection. Anyway it was a nice visit.

Here we go....

Right on down in there....

I am not bringing up the rear here because I am scared. I swear. Caves and I are all good. As long as they don't have a low roof, lots of water or involve crawling or bats. So far this one is OK...steps, even.

OK now THIS is my kind of cave - open on top!! These tree roots came fro ma tree way above our heads...I am not sure exactly how this works but roots will find water however they have to, I suppose.

With trees and everything.

We did pass through a cave part but the cool thing was, it was never dark. (I'm not too into pitch dark caves either). This is where we'd been in a room, of sorts, then came out into what I would call a courtyard.

Bat holes. Didn't see any bats but i bet if we were here at dusk....

Barry said this is a well that slaves used, that they did stuff here...hid here, relaxed here, he wasn't sure.

Bats I expected, snails not so much. But there they were.

It was really neat to see. By the time we walked back I was ready for a swim (again). Hey, it's hot.

J&M and I took a hike down to the far end of Duncans Bay Beach, to a part that isn't sandy. I'd never walked down there before, the swimming is really nice right where we usually come on, and I was warned about swimming down on this end. But we found really neat tide pools. Water shoes are definitely required for this part of the beach.

Looking back to "our" part - white sand and no rocks. That roof is Leroy's, waaaaay in the distance. There are a handful of houses along this beach, not many. It is really a special place.

Lots of little critters in these pools.

Like this urchin:

Or something.

You can see we are on the end of the beach where stuff washes up. Makes for great sealife, swimming not so much. It makes me appreciate our end of the beach which is sandy and clean and absolutely perfect for swimming.

As we reach the end, we turn around and find a shortcut to the road and head back.

Cool day in Duncans, and we never went more than about 3 miles :)

Jamaica March 2009: 22 - Duncans Bay

2009-05-15T01:01:00.000-04:00

When I arrive at Jamaica Jewel Barry and Cher are there to greet me. I set up in the downstairs apartment this time, guests are expected for the upstairs one. They've rented a car and are heading over from the airport now. Cher has an idea of dinner for them and I'm psyched to eat that too, so I enjoy a cold drink and just chill. I usually head right to the beach but I have a feeling the new guests might like to head there too so I'll wait and see if they want to go together.

Soon enough they arrive...a lovely couple from NYC on their first trip to Jamaica. I'm impressed they found Duncans Bay, usually we have to visit Jamaica a few times to find a gem like this :) They are totally game to go see the beach so I wait for them to settle in and we walk over together. We promise to be back soon for dinner.

...right to Leroy's Bar on the fishing beach.Here's the menu and some...um...artwork. Jamaica's version of a biker bar, you might say. Sort of.

I hope you can see the prices here. No meal more than $240 - that's less than $3US. Welcome to not-touristy Jamaica.

The band is practicing...they play here every Saturday night but this day they are rehearsing for a wedding up in the hills somewhere. Free show for us :)

We walk back to Ja Jewel for a lovely dinner which we all eat in the outdoor bar area. After dinner my fellow guests (who I'll call J&M), went up to their suite to hang out. I stayed up a little longer but also went to bed fairly early, tomorrow is a full day in Duncans and we are doing stuff.

Here is the view I wake up to when I open my bedroom door:

Taken literally from my bed:

On the porch:

Looking from the porch...it's very dry right now but the garden is still lovely:

I zoom in my camera, the beach is just behind that house above.

It'd probably be nice if i took photos before i threw my clothes around and unmade the bed, but oh well.

Alex, Cher and Barry's friend's son, comes by. He's 12 or 13 and I like him a lot. We met last time I was here and he offers to show me what's going on in the garden since last year.

My attempt at an artistic up-in-the-sky shot:

Here's my porch, from the garden.

I eat breakfast (fresh fruit, coffee, juice, ackee, saltfish, toast - YUM!) with Barry and Cher, J&M eat upstairs on their deck. After breakfast we all gather to walk to the beach and this time, swim and stay awhile. This time the real tour guides come with us :)

...and here it is, the lovely, undeveloped, absolutely gorgeous, Duncans Bay beach park. The varying shades of turquoise just kill me, every time. I know you want to jump in, I do.

We enjoy the morning in the water, swimming and playing. We chat with Edwin, the "oldest fisherman on the beach", and discuss what we might do today. Barry is available to show us some things, and J&M & I agree to spend the day more or less together seeing them.

Jamaica March 2009: 21 - Kingston to Duncans Bay via Faith's Pen

2009-05-14T01:02:00.000-04:00

Ricardo picked me up right on time. I bid farewell to T, who I will see again in 3 months, and we hit the road. Through town, out the super-highway and onto the main road to Ochi we go.

At Flat Bridge, the Rio Cobre is calm.

Do people hike around here? Looks like there must be places....

Coming around the bend....these giant boulders must get thrown up here when the river is raging, as I saw it last trip. This time it looks downright wadeable.

I'm hungry. A place I had seen photos of and always wanted to check out is Faith's Pen. Called that, or "the truck stop", it is right on the main road between Ochi and Kingston. It's comprised of a long line of fast food stands.

Set right up against a cliff.

As soon as I stepped out of the car I was approached by several guys who wanted me to shop at THEIR stand. But I just said I wanted to walk up and down and check everyone out, and they were fine with that. I did check everyone out, and took these photos too.

There was jerk chicken, roast corn, escoveitch fish, patties, every kind of soup you can imagine, brown stew chicken, fish stew, festival, ackee and saltfish, drinks...lots of overlap between shops but different recipes and variations at each one.

I settled on some escoveitch fish and festival from this stand. The drinks I wanted were sent for from a second stand. For all the competition on arrival, everyone seemed to work together quite well to get together all the things I wanted to buy :)

We came through Fern Gully (I have taken photos of it before,they are always dark and blurry. So it goes in a very shady place one passes through at high speed). Coming out on the north coast at St. Ann's Bay, we turn to the west.

It's been dry, bush fires are burning everywhere.

Sooner than I think, we arrive in Duncans Bay. All I can say is....ahhh. The quiet, the sun, the peaceful empty roads....I am back in one of my favorite spots in Jamaica to finish up my trip.

Jamaica March 2009: 20 - Kingston

2009-05-13T01:04:00.000-04:00

I arrived at T's house in Kingston just after dark. Enough time to shower and change and get ready to head out with some friends to Red Bones to see Rootz Underground.

This was my first time going out at night in uptown Kingston. I didn't really have clothes for it, really only had my backpacker-ey, beachwear clothes, and people dress up here. But my friends lent me an appropriate top and accessories and I was deemed good to go :)

There was a cover charge, but not for dinner guests, so a friend made a dinner reservation for 8 or so of us and got a table with a great view of the stage to boot.

Food was very good- expensive by my Jamaican travel standards but not at all by, oh, NYC restaurant standards. And we did get into the show for free. And what a show it was. I love Rootz Underground and it was nice to see them in Negril, but Kingston is home turf for them and it showed. The place was packed to the gills, both inside and outside. I met so many people that night there is no way I can remember names :)

We stayed out quite late...as a matter of fact had a small party at the house afterward that involved lots of reasoning late into the night. As a result, the following day was a quiet one, spent relaxing at the house.

There was some kind of high school championship track meet going on at the National Stadium, I could see it on TV while seeing and hearing the crowd from the veranda.

There was an incident with the neighbor's dogs that night...rough night for everyone. I could write about it, but I am not sure if it's appropriate.

In any case, I was well ready to climb into bed that night....getting up to head to Duncans Bay in the morning.

Jamaica March 2009: 19 - Round the Far Side (Portland-St Thomas-Kingston)

2009-05-12T01:06:00.001-04:00

I've been all over Jamaica, almost. I've traveled around it, through it, up and down it. I've been to every parish in the country....except one. Saint Thomas. The far eastern parish that encompasses most of the Blue Mountains, loads of sugarcane and the far eastern coast - indeed point - of the island. As I am heading back to Kingston instead of on to Duncans Bay as i originally planned, I figure it's time to see some of St. Thomas and head back to Town the "other" way - south and around the coast.

As good as the new road on the north coast is, the one past Port Antonio is bad. It's supposed to be bad most of the way to Kingston. I've been warned, and I've told Ricardo I expect him to charge me extra for the miles and expected wear and tear on his car. I think it was an extra $1,000J.

Showered and changed and refreshed I bid goodbye to the staff at Ivanhoes - I will certainly stay there again - and head off with Ricardo to a part of Jamaica I haven't seen since 2003 - Portland east of the parish capital.

I pass sights I remember well from our trip in 2003...Trident Castle, Frenchmans Cove, Blue Lagoon, Winnifred Beach, Boston Bay Jerk Center, San San, Fern Hill. But we don't stop, we head on until we reach Long Bay.

I have been meaning to check out a place on Long Bay called Seascape. Last trip a friend stayed with the manager of that villa and I actually spoke to him on the phone. As we came near, I asked Ricardo to stop so I could see if he was around to give me a tour...I also wanted to see what was going on in Long Bay since hurricanes destroyed Yahimba and Cool Runnings.

We stopped and as luck would have it, Dave was there. Not only that, he recognized me from earlier in the day - he and the villa owners were having lunch at Norma's at the marina in PA when I came back from my boat ride! As soon as he said it I remembered seeing them eating there. Small world.

I had a tour of Seascape, though an abbreviated one as the owners were there and i didn't want to disturb them. It is RIGHT on the beach, sand outside the door, and looks quite comfortable.

The beach was still as lovely as ever.

Ricardo said he enjoyed the stop too, he hadn't been there for years.

It's still very quiet there.

...though a beach bar has opened, a nice spot.

This is where Yahimba cottages were, before Dean, or Ivan, I forget which hurricane.

After a drink and a final look around we head on.

Passing through Manchioneal I wish we'd had time to stop at Reich Falls...

We went on, passing coastline and small towns until the road cut inland for awhile, and we passed cane fields, lots and lots of cane fields...and then we were back on the coast, and I remembered another place i wanted to stop.

Golden Shores is in Lyssons, St Thomas, not far from Morant Bay. It's a beach hotel in a pretty remote part of Jamaica that a few people I know have stayed at and enjoyed, and I am curious to see if it's a spot I might stay at in the future.

We pull into the gate and I walk into the office. I ask if there is a room I might see and the woman at the desk apologizes and says no, there isn't, the hotel is full.

Full???? Really? OK. I ask if there is a bar and she points down the drive to the beach and says something very odd.

"There are a lot of guests there but don't worry, they're OK."

Don't worry? What the heck does that mean?

Ricardo pulls down into a shady parking spot and tells me he'll rest while I check things out and get a drink.

I walk towards the bar and whoa....if I'd had the balls to take out my camera and get a photo I would have, but I was frozen in my tracks. The Weather Girls' most famous song comes into my head because man oh man, it's raining men.

They are EVERYWHERE, have to be over a hundred of them. Talking, drinking, dancing, swimming... What's really odd to me is that these men are clearly American, I can hear their accents, their voices are not exactly LOW.

I walk to the bar - where I am the only woman in sight except for the bartender who is being hit on by 5-6 guys. You know those old Wild West movies where the cowboy walks into the bar and the piano stops and everyone stops talking and stares at the door?

That's how this went.

I approach my sister bartender and get a soda for myself and for Ricardo, I order a warm Magnum. If you are familiar with Magnum, you may know why the bartender gave me an odd look, since Ricardo is not in view.

In any case I exit the bar, where everyone is still staring at me, and out on the beach patio area, I decide I need to know what is going on. I approach an older guy (very fit, muscular guys were all there were but this one had gray hair and wasn't shouting or doing shots) and say "Excuse me. Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

He responds in the affirmative and I try to put "Why are all you men here without women and what the heck are you doing partying like crazy in this remote corner of Jamaica" as politely as I can which comes out something like "Who are you all?"

My acquaintance stands up tall and says "Ma'am, we are the US military".

Whoa...now it makes sense. I sit and am informed by my friend that these guys are engineers and civic planner-types with the US Air Force from Portland, Oregon and have been in Jamaica working with the JDF (Jamaica Defense Force) building things in Kingston.

Of course - THESE are the soldiers whose tents we passed at the airport on our way to Port Royal! There were Canadians and Brits and others there, but this is the R & R portion of the trip for the US guys who are heading home the next day, and then onto Afghanistan.

Now it all makes sense...the drinking, the swimming, the general merriment...these guys have been working their butts off building stuff in Kingston and this is their two day beach vacation before heading off to war. I'm amazed that most will return from Jamaica having seen Kingston and Lyssons -and that's it. Quite a different view of the runnings from their friends and families who most likely cruised into Ochi or resorted in MoBay. But i guess military travel is always different.

We chat for 15 minutes or so, my uncle is retired Air Force, and my dad lives near Portland and I am having a rather nice time. The older guy is very friendly and his friends have begun to gather around to talk with me and they are cool too, but I have to go. We need to beat the sunset to Kingston.

I wish them well and we are on the road again.

Tonight is Roots Underground and I want time to unwind before we go out....

Here's the beach at Golden Shores.

Jamaica March 2009: 18 - Navy Island

2009-05-11T01:07:00.001-04:00

On my way to meet Pressley I ran into the couple that lives on the green boat in this photo (on the right - the little one). They were at sea crossing the Atlantic for like 4 months. They told me about storms, about following tides full of trash...all kinds of stuff. There are some very interesting people at that marina in PA. I met Pressley on the dock and we walked to his boat. I had told him I didn't care what kind of boat it was as long as it had a good motor and I meant it. Good thing, here is Pressley and his boat, The Hunter :)

View back to the marina from the harbor.

It was a fine boat and we set out into the harbor for a tour. I beleive Pressley and I arranged $20-30 for this, an hour or so around the area, but we stayed out quite a bit longer than that and I got a tour I wasn't expecting...

This is Navy Island. I've wanted to see it up close ever since I read The Pirates Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson. The book is about a (fictional?) daughter of Errol Flynn, who bought and lived on NI back in the day, and her life with and without him and the characters are great, I loved the book. It really brought Navy Island to life for me and I was glad to see it close up.

Beach at Navy Island

Pretty Port A mountains from the sea

We not only looked at Navy Island, we pulled up on the beach and got out! I thought it was off limits but Pressley said no one would mind so off into the bush we went...

...and the bush is indeed in charge here. These cottages belong to a resort that closed years ago ('96ish) and clearly the bush would like them back...

We follow a path...we are not the only ones to visit, i see. Unique and beautiful flowers are everywhere..some surely leftover from intentional landscaping, some just lovely wild Jamaican flora.

Stairs to nowhere

The old dock

The old swimming pool

The "lobby"

Looking up

Pressley says this was Errol Flynn's boat.

After our walk, during which I began to wish I hadn't worn new flip flops, I was glad to get back on the boat. Navy Island is not huge but certainly big enough, and while it's cool it's also a little bit creepy. Pressley says people come sometimes to salvage whatever is still there from the old resort, and to fish, and that all of that is illegal. Still, I'm really glad I got to see a place I've read about and wondered about for so long. We head back to the marina, passing near the lighthouse

and the marina beach

When we get back to the dock I thank Pressley for going above and beyond the call of duty, and head back to the marina for some ice cream from Devon House. My phone rings, it is Ricardo from Kingston - he has come to pick me up and arrived early. He says no rush, he'll just hang out. I'm ready for a shower and change and to get on the road to Kingston so I head back up to Ivanhoe's to do that.

Jamaica March 2009: 17 - Port Antonio and Around

2009-05-10T01:08:00.002-04:00

One thing that's cool about Porty is that you look one way and there is the sea with all its turquoise and blue and green jewel colors, and you turn your head and there are the mountains. RIGHT there. Kingston is like that too, but the land you are on in Portland that is between the two is so much narrower. And the north coast light plays on water in a way that is just very different from the south.

This was not long after sunrise, the mists were still coming up off the water.

I am looking from Ivanhoes to the east harbor.

Last night I didn't do too much after beach and dinner and market. For me Portland has always been a daytime place, a place where you sleep so you can get up early and do cool things, and so that is what I do. I slept like a baby, a rock, I was REALLY cozy with my blanket and the breeze and the quiet. Well it was mostly quiet....except for the rooster:

He crowed right through breakfast which was delicious by the way. Ivanhoes made me ackee and saltfish and toast and coffee and juice and it was perfect. Since I've never stayed right in Port A before, I wanted to check out the twin harbors, cruise around Navy Island and basically take a boat ride, because I like riding in them. I find going fast on a motorboat to be fun no matter where i am, and in Jamaica I take most any opportunity I can to do it. Since Port A is not exactly a developed tourist town with glass bottom boats and guys asking to take you out every 5 minutes, you have to inquire.

My friend at Ivanhoes suggested the marina (who'd have thought it??) and even had a name for me so the previous day I'd asked around there and found that guy who had a friend who agreed to take me out on a boat. He asked if a small boat was OK...I said a little dinghy was cool if it had a motor. So after breakfast I planned to go down to meet Presley ("as in Elvis") for my ride. I suppose i could have gone with these folks, Lady G'Diver (who had their base at Blue Lagoon 6 years ago but are now in Port A at the marina), but i was happy with my arrangement. I prefer private rides to tours.

At breakfast I met a European couple (Ivanhoes is mostly European people, or was when I was there) who had just arrived the night before and were on their first trip to Jamaica. I offered to "pay forward" the tour I'd been given the day before and show them the market and marina and beach on my way to meet my boat. Before we left I cleared out my room as I was checking out later that day. The Ivanhoes staff stashed my bag for me and promised me a space to clean up and change when I got back. We walked to town and the market (where i really never felt like getting my camera out, sorry) and on into the marina. It is a nice setup with Devon House Ice Cream, shops, and a lovely promenade and park and of course the beach and Norma's. And a pool. It's on Titchfield and along the coast of west harbor.

This is Norma's.

I hung out with the couple for a bit then left them by the pool to go meet Presley (as in Elvis).

More in a sec....

Jamaica March 2009: 16 - Port Antonio

2009-05-09T01:09:00.002-04:00

Man, I love Porty. This was my first time staying right in town. I'd booked Ivanhoe's Guest House on the Titchfield Peninsula for $40 a night, on the recommendation of several friends. After a little asking around we located it. The peninsula is not large, maybe 4 blocks by 4 blocks, with a high school at one end, an army base of a sort on one side and surrounded by water on 3 sides. The architecture in the area is old Port Antonio...old wooden houses with lots of gingerbread and wraparound porches,but all a bit decrepit and past its prime. I loved it.

Some views of Titchfield...

This is a little house behind Ivanhoes, I thought it looked like a treehouse, and I couldn't see how people got up into it.

Looking to east harbor

Looking to east harbor, town and the mountains

This red building is the mall. Seriously. It's a nice mall too, with a big open cathedral ceiling in the middle and a great little coffee shop and stuff in it. I feel like it's called St. George's but I am not certain. Lovely building with neat architectural touches.

A house across the road from Ivanhoes

houses on the hill

East harbor

The high school that takes up the whole end of the peninsula.

In my view, Ivanhoes is the nicest guesthouse on the peninsula and there are several, maybe 4. It is spotlessly clean, extremely well run, has lovely gates and flowers and 3-4 levels each with table and chairs and nooks to sit, and views to die for.

This is the front entrance of Ivanhoes, from above

This is the patio off of my room, shared with 2-3 other rooms. I am kind of in awe that my $40 a night gets me this view whenever i want it.

This is the common living area adjacent to the dining area - nice spot to read or hang out with other guests.

...and this is the lower courtyard.

Mrs. Burke is the owner/manager and she checks me in, shows me a couple of rooms to choose from and is very pleasant. Thereare a few air conditioned rooms for $60 but for the life of me I can't imagine needing one...the breeze up here is constant and strong and the $40 room has a ceiling fan and a floor fan. The $60 rooms are on the highest level (third) and thus have the best views, but as you can see the view from the second are not at all shabby, and I can go up to the third floor seating are anytime.

At Ivanhoes I hooked up with an online friend and she walked me down into town, showed me the market and took me to the beach and marina. I had a few concerns about the neighborhood that turned out to be completely unfounded.

I was comfortable there right away. I am not sure if I'd have felt good about walking late at night alone, but that is not something I' do much of anywhere other than where I live. I found the neighbors to be friendly, and having the high school there was a hoot...there were SO many kids coming and going all the time, it made for a nice atmosphere. I also worried about a beach. Well that was fine too - one of the loveliest most well kept beaches I've seen was a 3 minute walk down the hill at the Port Antonio Marina.

The beach we use...

West harbor is great for swimming.

Looking to Navy Island - more on that in a day or so....

Navy Island and the marina beach. The beach is clear of weeds and stuff but it does drop off fast - the dark patches you see are in deep water.

I had NO problem hanging out here. Norma's on the beach is the local bar and despite having exceptional service and comfy tables and bar and a prime location, charged only about $150-200 for a red stripe. The restaurant menu was not pricey by US standards, and quite a few appetizers (like delicious crab cakes, salads with seafood and such) were around $10US. I enjoyed my time there very much.

I'm excited to do stuff around town today....

Jamaica March 2009: 15 - Heading to Port Antonio on the Junction Road

2009-05-08T21:23:00.001-04:00

Ricardo and I set off from Kingston into the mountains. We were taking the Junction Road through the Wag Water Valley - another first for me. I really enjoyed the new scenery, though for at least awhile, it was of this truck:

But once Ricardo passed it, we had beautiful views like this:

My main regret about this trip is that we didn't stop at Castleton Gardens. Guidebook junkie that i am, I somehow missed this gem and had no idea it was there until we passed it and Ricardo pointed it out. I had my mind on Faith's Pen as a stop and never thought about anything else. Ah well...next time.

Before long we hit the north coast, around Annotto Bay. The new north coast highway is in very nice shape all the way to Port Antonio now...

suppose the new road tempts many to speed. We weren't, but got pulled over anyway. Ricardo had all his taxi stuff in order so we were all good.

My heart is racing and I am so happy to be back in Portland. it has been 6 years and that is way too long for such a beautiful parish.

Jamaica March 2009: 14 - Chilling in Kingston

2009-05-07T21:17:00.001-04:00

Wednesday was April Fool's Day. Also Tracy and Sven's wedding anniversary. We hung out at the house...I enjoyed the view...we chatted...friends came by to visit...it was a mellow day.

I never get tired of chilling with a drink on the veranda and looking at this:

...at night too:

Even this view is fun for a little while :)

But by Thursday it is time for me to move on. I intended to go to Porty for 4 nights (that would> have been like 2 nights ago) but I got stuck in the groove of Kingston and decided to go for just one night....because Rootz Underground is playing in Kingston on Friday and I do not want to miss it :)

Thanks to Tracy's driver Ricardo, who I hired several times last trip, it actually makes more sense to go to Porty and back to Kingston then on to Duncans than it does to try to get from Porty to Duncans. So I set up a pickup time with Ricardo for Thursday morning and we set off.