The first thing I notice when I step out of the town car in the driveway is the smell. It's been raining, so the impact of wet pavement and wet lawn strikes me first... then I notice the distinct smell of the cedars and firs in our yard, some flowers in front have opened. I notice, under the glow of the front step lights, that the foxgloves have grown a good foot if not more, and the deer have eaten the tops off of the plants.
Inside the house is just as I left it... Easter decorations are still out, some packaging from stuff we bought for the trip is piled in paper bags waiting to be taken out to recycling. I go upstairs and I notice the slight hint of vanilla from the candles we have in our room... normally it's not a scent that stands out to me because I smell it every day. The air feels dry even with the rain outside... it's cool and refreshing and humidity is low. G is already crashed out in bed within 5 minutes of arriving home, D is laying on the couch with his foot up, and the house is quiet. I'm gathering up all those things that I use on a daily basis... after this stretch of being away I can't quite remember where I last dropped everything. My laptop, my cell phone, my car keys... I make sure I know where they all are and put them in the same place. I turn on my cell phone and let it cycle on, then set it down. As I flip open the laptop and let the last few weeks of updates install, my phone chimes. Chimes again. Normally the sound of downloading email drones into the background of my day... now it's loud and offensive... so I shut the phone back off (but I do plug it in to charge up, knowing I'll have it strapped to my hip tomorrow) There are photos I'm dying to see in Photoshop, on my big screen without the glare of tropical sun... music I want to listen to... but I'm exhausted so I shut everything down and go brush my teeth.
The face in the mirror surprises me. I'm darker, much darker than I normally ever get in any given summer, to spite having applied SPF100 on my face and SPF50 on my body every day - twice a day - and stayed in the shade except while swimming. In Jamaica I noticed it, but against the cool red tile and fluorescent lights of their bathroom, I saw a gradual change. Standing here, in front of my mirror on my beige carpet with my energy-efficient 50 watt bulbs, the change is sudden and startling. As I wander towards the bed I notice the absolute silence and I go to turn on our sound machine... usually set to a low rain sound. I turn it on and push a few buttons, running from white noise to ocean waves and over to frogs - which sounds as close to the crickets of Jamaica as anything on this device. I listen for a few minutes, laying on my soft bed under the down comforter, and quilt on top of that, and wonder if I can fall asleep to that sound here. Somehow the mixture of frogs and a soft bed with cool, dry air doesn't cut it - being home means the furnace is going to kick on, the bed is softer and full of blankets, and the sound I fall asleep to need to be rain.
---------
I appear to still be on Jamaica time - even with the long day of travel and no nap time on any planes, and the decidedly late night (even by west coast standards) I woke up at 5 a.m. - 7 Jamaica time - and couldn't get back to sleep.
The travel day had a few bits of adventure in them, but the flights themselves were amongst the most pleasant I've ever had. We woke up early - about 5:45 - and the realization that not one damn thing was packed hit me like a ton of bricks. I was up and moving without hesitation, and without coffee. I pulled out the suitcases, designated which were for checking, and which for carry on, and started pulling clothes and sealing them up in the space saver bags.
(A word on those... the REI brand - once again though more expensive - far exceeds the "as seen on TV" brand in every way.)
We had one bad incident while packing... for this trip D brought a couple of thick, sturdy containers to hold jerk sauce and Courtney had filled them for us last week. We stuck them in the freezer so they'd solidify... then we planned to wrap them in the beach towels and stick them in the checked bags for the flight home (figuring that between the coldness of the luggage area and already being frozen, they'd survive the trip decently enough) As D was working with one container, however, it slipped out of his hands and dropped directly on the second-to-last toe of his left foot. An 8 pound brick of frozen stuff - SMACK - on his bare foot while standing on a hard tile floor.
The string of obscenities that flew from his mouth was impressive.
He took some advil and iced his foot (with the brick of frozen jerk sauce) while I scurried around to finish the packing. By the time we were ready for breakfast he was able to generally walk on it without too much trouble, and he went up to the front office to check us out while I sat at the table sipping my coffee.
Breakfast was quiet... we had said good bye to a lot of the staff the night before as they were getting off work... this morning we had Shane and King working, and Aaron the security guard was just ending his overnight shift. We were fully packed and ate breakfast, talking to a couple of the guests we'd met in the previous couple of days... after finishing up our food D went over to the bar to play the last few games of dominoes before Ty came to pick us up. Once it was time to head out it was another long round of hugs and "see you next time"s... we'd spent so much time here hanging out and getting to know everyone so much better, it was really tough to leave.
The drive to the airport was fun, though, because one of the girls from the large group was also heading out and she rode in the van with us, which made for a lot of fresh conversation on our final drive over the potholed roads at breakneck speeds. We did have to stop at one point, though, because S realized he didn't have his wallet in his pocket. After a few phone calls back to the hotel and a frantic search through his bags he did find it, in the pocket of the shorts he'd worn the night before.
Once at the airport we got through security without much issue and wound our way down the length of the airport to the far end to find our gate. There wasn't time to sit for a long lunch (we were boarding in 10 minutes) so we ran through the snack area of one of the stands and grabbed a few things to tide us over.
The flight was relatively uneventful... take off was fine, there was a bit of turbulance, landing was fairly smooth. G sat by the window and enjoyed watching the clouds below and seeing the islands as we flew around Cuba and back into US air space.
The airport in Charlotte, however, was the only part of the journey that was borderline clusterfuck.
We landed 15 minutes late due to weather, and our gate was occupied by another plane... which delayed us another 20 minutes. By the time we were parked and off the flight we had roughly 40 minutes to get through immigration, customs, baggage claim, recheck bags, back through airport security, and run the length of the airport to the other end of another concourse and be on our next flight. The realization of this came over me as we scurried down the corridor to the basement level for immigration and saw the long winding ropes guiding people around to the immigrations... and across the room I saw another international flight was dumping into the same basement, racing into the same line.
The island must have still been with me though, because I just shrugged - what can you do? - and got in line. Chances were good we would miss our flight because of this, but there was nothing we could do about it except get in line and cross that bridge if we got to it. The line moved pretty quickly, but as we wound our way towards the front I looked back and saw that security was adjusting the ropes, making the pathways much, much longer for the third flight of passengers that was now streaming in.
Through immigration, down a corridor we got to baggage claim, where it seemed the luggage of all the passengers still stuck in immigration behind us had piled up on the belt. It wasn't too long before our bags dropped - just about clogging the entire process, and we nabbed them, raced through customs, rechecked the bags and on down the way to security we went.
The line for security was thankfully quite short (only 3 people in front of us) so we scurried through and now only had to make it to the gate - I noted briefly that our flight was delayed by 15 minutes, but didn't stop to check my watch... I just ran. (If we missed it we missed it, but knowing that we might actually make it fueled me to pick up the pace) We arrived to see an empty boarding area, employees calmly standing by the ticket scanner, and they just nodded and said "the plane is still here."
The flight was scheduled for 6:10, they held it over to 6:25 because of our connection being late... then once on board the announced that they were holding it even longer. There was a connection flight from Miami which was running late, and they had on board 19 military guys who were scheduled to be on our plane. While we waited we saw a few more people from our flight who had just made it on board, but we still hadn't seen S. Then came the guys in fatigues. As each of the 19 came on board I heard nearly all of them say "Good evening" and "Sorry" and "thanks for holding the plane".
Once they were on board and settled, and their luggage was on board below, the airplane door was closed and the plane pushed off. No S. (He and a few other passengers were so far behind us in customs that they couldn't make it through in time, even with the extra delay)
From there the flight was thankfully uneventful - just very long. The guy sitting next to me was quiet, either read his book or napped, while I was on the netbook nearly the entire flight. I couldn't eat most of what was served for dinner, but neither D nor G wanted their salads, so I had three bowls of that along with the beef tip sort of thing they served me.
Once we landed we got off the plane easy enough, though D's toe was now black and blue and swelling from being down for so long. Our bags came up into baggage claim first, we nabbed them and our driver and went straight out to the town car for the ride home. Once back in the house, luggage out in the kitchen, I quickly went through the bags.
The jerk sauce survived, still partially frozen, so both bottles went into the freezer... the coffee we bought seems to all be there (though I honestly didn't count them so I don't know if any was swiped during inspections) and the bag of seashells G and I collected was left alone in the safety of the helmet where I'd packed it. All in all, I think we arrived with everything we packed still in tact.
Now there is laundry to face and bags to unpack and food to buy... but it's Sunday, and I woke up at 5 and I have plenty of time to face that sort of stuff... after I have my coffee.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Friday - the last full day
Our last full day in Jamaica dawns with fresh blue skies and calm waters. It's a relatively quiet morning, and since all of our running around for this trip is done, we take our time to soak in the beach environment while we can. Breakfast is long, slow, and laid back... as I keep popping up from my chair to snap photos of the lizards who decided to join us for the morning.
Around mid-afternoon the stingray came back through while I was out in the water. I didn't have the camera on me at the time, but I got to see it for the first time under the water. Holy shit, that thing is huge... the body itself looked large from the surface, but looking under the water I got to see the 6 foot long tail trailing behind it. It was at once beautiful, amazing, and slightly terrifying.
We stayed at Idle Awhile all day, either in the chairs, on the deck, or at the bar playing dominoes. D met a group from the Caymen Islands who also seem to have a Patois-like dialect and were immediately drawn to the sound of dominoes on the bar. While D got into a game for money, G and I stayed at a table and played Spot It and Uno. (Jennie, one of the bartenders, got into our Spot It game so we ended up leaving the game for her to take home... we'll replace it through Amazon once we get back in the states.) As D worked through his big game, we ordered lunch.
After lunch we stayed around the beach a bit, doing a little more swimming until the waves got too wavey and the fish had moved on. After we turned in our towels and cleared our gear from the chairs, we headed back to the room to shower up and start semi-sorting things out for packing.
Then we decided to just shove that off until morning, and enjoy what we had left of interaction with the folks at the hotel.
Friday night at Idle Awhile is a special menu prepared deck-side and live music. Tonight there was not even a hint of rain, so the band set up on their stage on the beach, as we gathered on the deck to hang out with the staff and get ready for dinner. As the sun set, our last sunset of our vacation, we wandered out to the beach to take some photos.
After the sunset I packed up the camera gear and stuck around the bar, hanging out and talking with the guys before we eventually wandered over to our table for dinner. I ordered the peppered shrimp - same dish I'd had the week before - which was excellently spicy. D and S had both ordered the peppered steak along with some of the conch (steamed in a foil pouch with callaloo) and they couldn't finish their dinner so I ended up with a lot of conch/callaloo as well.
There was a large group of girls who had just checked in to the hotel earlier in the week - 6 girls in their late 20's who are originally from the east coast, and for the last 5 years have made an annual trip to Jamaica all together to hang out on the beach and chill. G made friends with them quickly (telling one about the zipline adventure, and then she would stop a friend, and then stop another friend, so that they could all hear about G's big adventures in the jungle) They took up the big center table during dinner, and the surrounding tables were all filled with other guests of the hotel. It was the busiest time I'd seen at the restaurant... the music was fantastic and the atmosphere was like one giant party.
We stayed out at the bar all night... throughout dinner, after the band had cleared their gear, after the guests had all left... we were there at the bar with the crew. Needle stayed after work to get into a game of dominoes with D, Aaron and one of the chefs from the kitchen. It's amazing to watch how fast they play, see them calculate how many cards are left, see how they can read each other's hands... and of course I'm there to make sure Needle doesn't cheat. (How do you cheat at dominoes? Move quick, with authority, swap the dominoes around, and play two at once when nobody is looking. Needle is highly skilled at sneaking hands, but even after two of his special rum punches I can still spot his attempts to cheat. You know he's contemplating it when he asks me "Hey, don't you need to check on G?") Needle stayed up well past closing, as it was our last time to hang out with him, and it was hugs all around when he finally had to call it a night and head home. I went in to our room - with all our clothing strewn about, my gear spread across the bed, and not one damn thing packed, and passed out for a short night of sleep.
This guy was running along the chain link fence that separates the properties
This guy was in the palm tree above our heads.
I also spent some time wandering the gardens with the lensbaby lens on my camera
We spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon taking in the last of our swimming opportunities, feeding the fish and enjoying the beach.
G being the mermaid that she has turned into
Look I'm swimming in the ocean without a floaty! (OK it's only 3 feet deep, but still...)
D, floating and feeding the fish. You've gotta keep the bread out of the water or it'll just turn to mush.
This is vacation... ice cold coconut water, hot sun, and perfect water.
Around mid-afternoon the stingray came back through while I was out in the water. I didn't have the camera on me at the time, but I got to see it for the first time under the water. Holy shit, that thing is huge... the body itself looked large from the surface, but looking under the water I got to see the 6 foot long tail trailing behind it. It was at once beautiful, amazing, and slightly terrifying.
We stayed at Idle Awhile all day, either in the chairs, on the deck, or at the bar playing dominoes. D met a group from the Caymen Islands who also seem to have a Patois-like dialect and were immediately drawn to the sound of dominoes on the bar. While D got into a game for money, G and I stayed at a table and played Spot It and Uno. (Jennie, one of the bartenders, got into our Spot It game so we ended up leaving the game for her to take home... we'll replace it through Amazon once we get back in the states.) As D worked through his big game, we ordered lunch.
I ordered the steamed fish for lunch, which is not nearly as bland as it sounds... steamed with onions and peppers, and served with callaloo and fries for me, since I'd had my fill of rice and peas.
After lunch we stayed around the beach a bit, doing a little more swimming until the waves got too wavey and the fish had moved on. After we turned in our towels and cleared our gear from the chairs, we headed back to the room to shower up and start semi-sorting things out for packing.
Then we decided to just shove that off until morning, and enjoy what we had left of interaction with the folks at the hotel.
Friday night at Idle Awhile is a special menu prepared deck-side and live music. Tonight there was not even a hint of rain, so the band set up on their stage on the beach, as we gathered on the deck to hang out with the staff and get ready for dinner. As the sun set, our last sunset of our vacation, we wandered out to the beach to take some photos.
G and I in front of the sunset
G by the little palm tree where we had our chairs set up every day.
The sunset as viewed from my camera
After the sunset I packed up the camera gear and stuck around the bar, hanging out and talking with the guys before we eventually wandered over to our table for dinner. I ordered the peppered shrimp - same dish I'd had the week before - which was excellently spicy. D and S had both ordered the peppered steak along with some of the conch (steamed in a foil pouch with callaloo) and they couldn't finish their dinner so I ended up with a lot of conch/callaloo as well.
There was a large group of girls who had just checked in to the hotel earlier in the week - 6 girls in their late 20's who are originally from the east coast, and for the last 5 years have made an annual trip to Jamaica all together to hang out on the beach and chill. G made friends with them quickly (telling one about the zipline adventure, and then she would stop a friend, and then stop another friend, so that they could all hear about G's big adventures in the jungle) They took up the big center table during dinner, and the surrounding tables were all filled with other guests of the hotel. It was the busiest time I'd seen at the restaurant... the music was fantastic and the atmosphere was like one giant party.
D during his big game of dominoes
Needle, in the midst of taking care of tables
This is Aaron, one of the security guards that D stays up chatting with well into the night.
Tonight's band up on stage
G and I at the table after finishing up our meals
During the last song the girls got up from their table and hauled G out to dance... she wanted me to come too.
We stayed out at the bar all night... throughout dinner, after the band had cleared their gear, after the guests had all left... we were there at the bar with the crew. Needle stayed after work to get into a game of dominoes with D, Aaron and one of the chefs from the kitchen. It's amazing to watch how fast they play, see them calculate how many cards are left, see how they can read each other's hands... and of course I'm there to make sure Needle doesn't cheat. (How do you cheat at dominoes? Move quick, with authority, swap the dominoes around, and play two at once when nobody is looking. Needle is highly skilled at sneaking hands, but even after two of his special rum punches I can still spot his attempts to cheat. You know he's contemplating it when he asks me "Hey, don't you need to check on G?") Needle stayed up well past closing, as it was our last time to hang out with him, and it was hugs all around when he finally had to call it a night and head home. I went in to our room - with all our clothing strewn about, my gear spread across the bed, and not one damn thing packed, and passed out for a short night of sleep.
Thursday May 12 - Beach and shopping day
I've found that when the water is calm and the fish are hanging out in the shallows, it is incredibly peaceful to just float on the surface of the water with my snorkel and mask on... breathing calmly while I watch the fish meander around. It's not quite sensory deprivation, but with my ears below the surface I hear mainly the sound of my own breath through the snorkel and a distant muted sound of waves lapping against the beach. The fish are both soothing and interesting to watch, as they shift lazily with the movement of the waves, only really putting effort into swimming when one suddenly notices food, and the rest - as if having heard an announcement - zip along to follow the leader.
Today was a quite day for us... a majority of the people we'd been hanging out with in the hotel were checking out and taking off, so breakfast was a lot of exchanging of information and last minute chats before they had to pack. As our vacation winds to an end, we plot out the last of our shopping.
There is a rastafarian named Jimmy who puts up a stand on Idle Awhile's property every Thursday, and every year we buy one or two things from him. This year G found a shoulder bag that she just couldn't live without (and his wife makes them herself, as opposed to the ones in gift shops that are probably made in China) and I found a fun necklace that has a stone fish pendant on it which is shaped like the shad we've been feeding throughout our vacation.
We also wanted to stop off at the Hi Lo for some Jamaican specific ingredients and a decent supply of Blue Mountain Coffee. We also asked Ty for his recommendation on a local coffee roaster, and he brought us to
Jessie's Coffee Shop.
Jessie hand roasts her coffee - and by that I don't mean she does it at home in the oven... I mean she roasts it by hand over a fire.
Jessie was an absolutely delightful woman, very energetic in describing her coffee and telling us about her process. The interior of her shop ceiling is decorated entirely in flags, mostly the Jamaican flag but also a lot of smaller flags with other symbols or faces on them (Bob Marley, etc...) As she packed up our coffee for us she told us how happy she was that we came to her shop. Just that morning she'd been thinking about how she needed to sell some coffee and had prayed that someone would stop by that day. Then she took a nap in the heat of the afternoon, and woke up just an hour before we arrived. She opened up the doors and windows for air, put on some music and was talking to a friend who had stopped by when she looked up and saw Ty's van pulling up, and she got so excited that he brought us there to see her coffee.
After shopping we went back to the beach to hang out for a bit longer in the water before it was time to clean up and think about dinner. Our hotel was setting up for a wedding so we decided to make ourselves scarce rather than stand over the reception.
We'd been debating for a while about where to go (because we knew our last night would be at Idle Awhile again) and after much discussion we agreed to try something new and finally get in to Push Cart while it was open.
Push cart surprised the hell out of me. After having seen so many road side stands selling food out of makeshift kitchens, I actually expected Push Cart to be something of a push cart. It turns out it is a relatively large space on the cliffs, with a big hexagon shaped bar in the center, darts on one wall, a huge statue of a pirate at the entrance, and tables overlooking the ocean.
Their menu was a fantastic variety of Jamaican options. I decided to try the jerk pork - which I'd only had a few bites of from a beach vendor once, so I was excited to have an entire meal of the wonderful stuff.
We were also pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a live reggae band playing that night, so we were treated to a great variety of songs while we enjoyed our meal. Besides the most popular "Three Little Birds" and "She's Royal" they also played "Here I Am Baby" and "Jump in the Line".
After a long full day of adventure and good food, we were ready to ease into the night with a few rounds of dominoes at the bar before calling it a night.
The water, first thing in the morning... from here the fish blend in completely with the sand below
D at one of our regular tables on the corner of the deck, finishing up breakfast
Today was a quite day for us... a majority of the people we'd been hanging out with in the hotel were checking out and taking off, so breakfast was a lot of exchanging of information and last minute chats before they had to pack. As our vacation winds to an end, we plot out the last of our shopping.
There is a rastafarian named Jimmy who puts up a stand on Idle Awhile's property every Thursday, and every year we buy one or two things from him. This year G found a shoulder bag that she just couldn't live without (and his wife makes them herself, as opposed to the ones in gift shops that are probably made in China) and I found a fun necklace that has a stone fish pendant on it which is shaped like the shad we've been feeding throughout our vacation.
We also wanted to stop off at the Hi Lo for some Jamaican specific ingredients and a decent supply of Blue Mountain Coffee. We also asked Ty for his recommendation on a local coffee roaster, and he brought us to
Jessie's Coffee Shop.
The outside of Jessies shop.
Jessie hand roasts her coffee - and by that I don't mean she does it at home in the oven... I mean she roasts it by hand over a fire.
Jessie was an absolutely delightful woman, very energetic in describing her coffee and telling us about her process. The interior of her shop ceiling is decorated entirely in flags, mostly the Jamaican flag but also a lot of smaller flags with other symbols or faces on them (Bob Marley, etc...) As she packed up our coffee for us she told us how happy she was that we came to her shop. Just that morning she'd been thinking about how she needed to sell some coffee and had prayed that someone would stop by that day. Then she took a nap in the heat of the afternoon, and woke up just an hour before we arrived. She opened up the doors and windows for air, put on some music and was talking to a friend who had stopped by when she looked up and saw Ty's van pulling up, and she got so excited that he brought us there to see her coffee.
Pay no attention to the bad hair day... me and Jessie
Jessie had the tiniest little kittens we've ever seen.
After shopping we went back to the beach to hang out for a bit longer in the water before it was time to clean up and think about dinner. Our hotel was setting up for a wedding so we decided to make ourselves scarce rather than stand over the reception.
The wedding party's archway at sunset.
We'd been debating for a while about where to go (because we knew our last night would be at Idle Awhile again) and after much discussion we agreed to try something new and finally get in to Push Cart while it was open.
Push cart surprised the hell out of me. After having seen so many road side stands selling food out of makeshift kitchens, I actually expected Push Cart to be something of a push cart. It turns out it is a relatively large space on the cliffs, with a big hexagon shaped bar in the center, darts on one wall, a huge statue of a pirate at the entrance, and tables overlooking the ocean.
G standing by our table
The interior is lit by strings of lights
Me and S at the table
Their menu was a fantastic variety of Jamaican options. I decided to try the jerk pork - which I'd only had a few bites of from a beach vendor once, so I was excited to have an entire meal of the wonderful stuff.
My jerk pork, roasted plantain, veggies and a side of callalo. The texture was like carnitas, but the spice was absolutely purely Jamaican hot.
G enjoyed her fried chicken and a side order of festival... a fried cornmeal bread
We were also pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a live reggae band playing that night, so we were treated to a great variety of songs while we enjoyed our meal. Besides the most popular "Three Little Birds" and "She's Royal" they also played "Here I Am Baby" and "Jump in the Line".
Me, watching the band
We enjoyed it so much we bought one of their CD's, then since we bought a CD they stayed and played a couple extra encore songs (one of them was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" they did especially for G)
For the last song, they invited G up to take a photo with them.
After a long full day of adventure and good food, we were ready to ease into the night with a few rounds of dominoes at the bar before calling it a night.
Wednesday May 11 - beach day
Today the weather dawned a little bit on the cool side and was somewhat overcast, so when I woke up in the wee hours of the morning (crickets still chirping) I actually turned off the ceiling fans. I slept in until about 7 or so, when I went to make my coffee for the day. Then the heat came up over the trees and I was back to increasing air circulation to avoid sweating.
This morning's fish feeding was interesting. The water was calm, and from the deck looking out to the ocean I could see what looked like large, dark ameobic like orbs undulating under the surface of the water. I watched these shadows move... the circle changing to an oval, then suddenly splitting to two half moon shapes, then elongating to one mishapen 8 foot long stretch of shadow. When we got into the water with the masks we were able to see that these odd shapes were being caused by a massive school of jack fish.
These fish utterly ignored our bread feeding, and the shad we have been feeding darted in and around the school, causing the school to split and go around. When I floated on the surface and watched they would simply stream by me, like commuters on their way to work, ignoring the tree off to the side of the road. They moved with casual ease until something frightened them, then they would split and dart away. I stood up and looked over to find a 4 foot piper (one of those blue spikey fish that feed on the surface, only massive in size) trying to catch himself a bite.
For lunch Ty drove us over to Sweet Spice, a local restaurant in town. I had the curried shrimp, which was cooked to perfection.
For the afternoon we were back at the beach to soak up some more swimming. The sand in the sunshine became so hot that it actually burned my feet to walk on it barefoot - we had no cloud cover the entire day so by the end of the beach time I was dodging sunny spots, opting for shadows and walking across the deck of the bar to get back to my room. After a good bit of swimming and lazing about, we cleaned up and got ready for dinner. Ty had suggested a place called the Hungry Lion - his #2 spot to eat in town. It is a vegetarian/seafood restaurant, but with a surprisingly varied menu.
Appetizers included hummus with pita, and also peppered quesadilla. For dinner options they had a variety of pastas, some with seafood some plain, a couple of seafood plates, and a couple of Asian inspired tofu. I had the Thai Curry tofu, which was served with rice and peas, ratatoulli, and a bit of grilled plantain.
After dinner we were back at Idle Awhile's bar for a night of domino challenges and good conversation before bed time.
This morning's fish feeding was interesting. The water was calm, and from the deck looking out to the ocean I could see what looked like large, dark ameobic like orbs undulating under the surface of the water. I watched these shadows move... the circle changing to an oval, then suddenly splitting to two half moon shapes, then elongating to one mishapen 8 foot long stretch of shadow. When we got into the water with the masks we were able to see that these odd shapes were being caused by a massive school of jack fish.
The shad we have been feeding daily
Big giant school of jack fish passing by
A closer shot of the jack fish
These fish utterly ignored our bread feeding, and the shad we have been feeding darted in and around the school, causing the school to split and go around. When I floated on the surface and watched they would simply stream by me, like commuters on their way to work, ignoring the tree off to the side of the road. They moved with casual ease until something frightened them, then they would split and dart away. I stood up and looked over to find a 4 foot piper (one of those blue spikey fish that feed on the surface, only massive in size) trying to catch himself a bite.
For lunch Ty drove us over to Sweet Spice, a local restaurant in town. I had the curried shrimp, which was cooked to perfection.
For the afternoon we were back at the beach to soak up some more swimming. The sand in the sunshine became so hot that it actually burned my feet to walk on it barefoot - we had no cloud cover the entire day so by the end of the beach time I was dodging sunny spots, opting for shadows and walking across the deck of the bar to get back to my room. After a good bit of swimming and lazing about, we cleaned up and got ready for dinner. Ty had suggested a place called the Hungry Lion - his #2 spot to eat in town. It is a vegetarian/seafood restaurant, but with a surprisingly varied menu.
The Hungry Lion is upstairs
Part of the mural at the entrance
G at dinner
Relaxing and waiting to order
The interior of the restaurant also had a variety of murals painted on the walls
Appetizers included hummus with pita, and also peppered quesadilla. For dinner options they had a variety of pastas, some with seafood some plain, a couple of seafood plates, and a couple of Asian inspired tofu. I had the Thai Curry tofu, which was served with rice and peas, ratatoulli, and a bit of grilled plantain.
One of the more interesting fusion meals I had.
G is super happy with her pasta.
After dinner we were back at Idle Awhile's bar for a night of domino challenges and good conversation before bed time.
D with Jermaine, Sonia and King
May 10 - big adventure day - Tons of photos
This morning we woke up pretty early and got right down to the deck for breakfast so we would be ready when Ty came to pick us up. After going over my camera gear, changes of clothes, etc... we gathered ourselves up and headed out front to Ty's van.
Ty took us through the island back to the Mo Bay area (not as hilly as the last day trip we took, but just as picturesque) As we drove up into Anghovy he told us that we had now traveled every road in the parish of West Morland (well... ALMOST every road - more like every main route)
Getting into the ziplining place was a bit of a shot in the dark... Ty didn't have the new phone number for the place so he hadn't been able to call and make a specific reservation for us... but he kept saying it's no problem, he'd figure it out. As we rattled down the gravel road towards the place he stopped a truck coming from the other direction, got the current phone number, and called as we crawled up to the main building. At first they were telling us that the last of the current group was already heading out, and we'd have to wait for the next tour (about 2 hours away) but then we pulled into the parking lot and Ty saw that the girl working there was his cousin. They spoke rapidly in patois, and his cousin managed to stick us in at the end of the group just getting ready to leave. We had to strap in and go through the safety talk quickly, but within 5 minutes of parking we were on our way up the trail.
I'd sold G on the idea of ziplining by explaining to her that she'd be strapped in with me the entire time. This was the conclusion we'd come to based on reviews of the place, photos of other people ziplining with their kids, and that according to the zipline's website, she didn't weigh enough to zip on her own. As we went through getting strapped in, however, our tour guide Mika explained that no... she couldn't go with one of us because of safety issues... the kids had to ride either alone or with tour guides. G welled up a bit, frightened at the idea of going alone, but we kept talking to her all the way up and Mika did her best to calm her nerves. When we reached the first zipline, Mika had D lift G up to the line so she could be strapped on. G was still nervous, but as Mika assured her it would be a quick ride, and no problem, G took a deep breath and sat into the harness. Mika pushed her off and we heard G scream all the way across, being caught at the other end by our second tour guide, Gussy. D went immediately after her, and landed across the way to a smiling G who couldn't wait to get to the next line.
G rode across the longer and faster lines with either Gussy or Mika, but took the rest of the shorter lines on her own. All in all there were 9 ziplines, one of them being the longest in all of Jamaica, another being the fastest. D wore a helmet cam and has birds-eye-view video of each line, and we also bought a CD of photos of all of us zipping, however I have no way to read the CD here, and the video files are too big for this netbook, so I'll have to wait until I get home Sunday to share those.
For me... the ziplines were both terrifying and incredible, indescribable fun. I was the major screamer of the group, which caused Gussy to catch me at the other end by screaming and waving his arms every time I came at him. Every time, no matter how long or short the line, Mika would have me sit in the harness and I'd have to take a deep breath and every time I asked... "I just go now?" It was absolutely easier to sit into the harness first before shoving off (rather than walking off the platform, which I presume would have a sudden drop/stop) but my heart would still race and my body would shake with adrenaline and fear as my feet gently left the platform and I found myself flying over the jungle. On the longest zipline I had time to scream as I took off, mutter a string of obscenities as I cleared the trees, and then look around and say "wow... that view is incredible!", spinning right and left to see both sides of the river before re-entering the canopy and seeing Gussy on the platform, screaming at me and waving his arms to greet me at my landing point.
G held her own through the entire day, joking with the adults on the tour and giggling excitedly between ziplines. Sometimes we zipped across to a platform with stairs down to the ground... sometimes we zipped across to a platform high in the trees, where we'd stand and wait to get to the next line. At one point, we had to rappel down a tree to the ground... though they didn't have us put our feet on the tree trunk at all.. they hooked us to a rope, pushed us out from the platform, and dropped us, controlling the rope with a pully at the top. It was more of a free-fall than a rapell.
I cannot begin to express how proud I am of her, and how grateful I was to see her wide grin at the end of every line. One of the lines was 13 stories above the riverbed, and she glided into the end as easy as could be without a care in the world other than worrying that the day would come to an end too quickly.
When you arrive at the sanctuary, Fritz greets you at the front driveway and walks you back to the patio next to the house, where the table has a bunch of those airplane size bottles of Appleton rum, cleaned out and filled with hummingbird food, and a little hole poked through the top. He shows you how to sit and hold the bottle with your finger out in front for the humming birds to come land on your finger and drink. He then, very peacefully and in a sing-song voice, calls the birds and sings instructions to us... "hold the bottle hiiiigher.... here birdy birdy birdy..." He also spreads some birdseed on everyone's knees to bring down the other finches and parakeet types to grab a snack and pose for photos.
I didn't feed any of the birds, I was so enthralled with shooting photos that my hands never left my camera. I would scan from feeder to feeder, adjusting the settings and zeroing in on birds. Fritz helped point out birds in the trees and would explain their names, which ones are hunted in some parishes, and which ones were males and females. D had the Canon point-and-shoot, which he used to take closeups and flash photos. I wandered the grounds with my SLR, shooting a total of 233 photos in the short hour we spent in the sanctuary.
It is really difficult to not post all the good in-focus shots, but soon enough I'll have them edited properly and on my site. Until then, here are a few of my absolute favorites shot my D and myself.
After a wonderful late afternoon visit, I packed up my gear and we climbed back into the van for the ride back to Negril... making one more stop on the way. Ty took us to Lucea to see his house. Unfortunately I didn't think to stand back and get a shot of his whole house, it really is an amazingly solid thing. He's in the process of building it, so the downstairs (with a bedroom, bathroom, and entryway/mudroom that currently serves as a makeshift kitchen) is finished, however the upstairs is still under construction. The house is built into a hill, which was dug out to make room for the structure, so you enter on the bottom floor, but the top floor will be the main house, and is flush with his back yard. The walls are built from cinderblock, he hired people to come do the plumbing and wiring, but otherwise is doing the actual building himself, working a bit at a time. The walls and roof upstairs are built, and he is in the process of stuccoing the interior walls upstairs before he finishes with the floor. After showing us which room will be which, he walked us through his garden in the back.
After such a long day, we headed back to Idle Awhile, where we showered up and grabbed some dinner on the deck. We stayed up for a bit playing dominoes until the bar closed, then headed in for the night.
Ty took us through the island back to the Mo Bay area (not as hilly as the last day trip we took, but just as picturesque) As we drove up into Anghovy he told us that we had now traveled every road in the parish of West Morland (well... ALMOST every road - more like every main route)
A house in the countryside
A large piece of property near the zipline area
The side road to the zipline place
Along the way through the orange fields we noticed this old building just off the road.
Getting into the ziplining place was a bit of a shot in the dark... Ty didn't have the new phone number for the place so he hadn't been able to call and make a specific reservation for us... but he kept saying it's no problem, he'd figure it out. As we rattled down the gravel road towards the place he stopped a truck coming from the other direction, got the current phone number, and called as we crawled up to the main building. At first they were telling us that the last of the current group was already heading out, and we'd have to wait for the next tour (about 2 hours away) but then we pulled into the parking lot and Ty saw that the girl working there was his cousin. They spoke rapidly in patois, and his cousin managed to stick us in at the end of the group just getting ready to leave. We had to strap in and go through the safety talk quickly, but within 5 minutes of parking we were on our way up the trail.
The first zipline goes just across this river
I'd sold G on the idea of ziplining by explaining to her that she'd be strapped in with me the entire time. This was the conclusion we'd come to based on reviews of the place, photos of other people ziplining with their kids, and that according to the zipline's website, she didn't weigh enough to zip on her own. As we went through getting strapped in, however, our tour guide Mika explained that no... she couldn't go with one of us because of safety issues... the kids had to ride either alone or with tour guides. G welled up a bit, frightened at the idea of going alone, but we kept talking to her all the way up and Mika did her best to calm her nerves. When we reached the first zipline, Mika had D lift G up to the line so she could be strapped on. G was still nervous, but as Mika assured her it would be a quick ride, and no problem, G took a deep breath and sat into the harness. Mika pushed her off and we heard G scream all the way across, being caught at the other end by our second tour guide, Gussy. D went immediately after her, and landed across the way to a smiling G who couldn't wait to get to the next line.
G rode across the longer and faster lines with either Gussy or Mika, but took the rest of the shorter lines on her own. All in all there were 9 ziplines, one of them being the longest in all of Jamaica, another being the fastest. D wore a helmet cam and has birds-eye-view video of each line, and we also bought a CD of photos of all of us zipping, however I have no way to read the CD here, and the video files are too big for this netbook, so I'll have to wait until I get home Sunday to share those.
For me... the ziplines were both terrifying and incredible, indescribable fun. I was the major screamer of the group, which caused Gussy to catch me at the other end by screaming and waving his arms every time I came at him. Every time, no matter how long or short the line, Mika would have me sit in the harness and I'd have to take a deep breath and every time I asked... "I just go now?" It was absolutely easier to sit into the harness first before shoving off (rather than walking off the platform, which I presume would have a sudden drop/stop) but my heart would still race and my body would shake with adrenaline and fear as my feet gently left the platform and I found myself flying over the jungle. On the longest zipline I had time to scream as I took off, mutter a string of obscenities as I cleared the trees, and then look around and say "wow... that view is incredible!", spinning right and left to see both sides of the river before re-entering the canopy and seeing Gussy on the platform, screaming at me and waving his arms to greet me at my landing point.
G held her own through the entire day, joking with the adults on the tour and giggling excitedly between ziplines. Sometimes we zipped across to a platform with stairs down to the ground... sometimes we zipped across to a platform high in the trees, where we'd stand and wait to get to the next line. At one point, we had to rappel down a tree to the ground... though they didn't have us put our feet on the tree trunk at all.. they hooked us to a rope, pushed us out from the platform, and dropped us, controlling the rope with a pully at the top. It was more of a free-fall than a rapell.
Gussy, getting ready to catch the next person.
D, G and S after rappelling.
By the end of the tour, G had pretty much started talking the way I expected she would... "can we please go again? Can we put a zipline in our yard? Is there a place we can go by our house for this?"
G and Mika on the last zipline
I cannot begin to express how proud I am of her, and how grateful I was to see her wide grin at the end of every line. One of the lines was 13 stories above the riverbed, and she glided into the end as easy as could be without a care in the world other than worrying that the day would come to an end too quickly.
Gussy, D, S, Me, Mika and G
I was so happy with how well Mika took care of G through the whole afternoon.
The price was more than we thought it would be, and being a tourist spot we had the idea that lunch would be overpriced and not all that great, so after procuring our photo CD we headed out to find a local restaurant. We put ourselves into Ty's hands, who drove slowly through Anchovy until he found a stretch of shops, then parked and popped out of the van to check it out. He asked a couple people a couple questions, then walked into a place, and came back out to wave us inside. The place was tiny - one 5 top and one 2 top, a counter that ran the length of the shop, and a wipe board for the menu. There were four items... fried chicken, brown stewed pork, brown stewed chicken, and stewed cowfoot. I opted for the pork.
When you go to Jamaica... eat at local places. This hefty portion was only 350J... something a little over 4 bucks American, and was to-die-for good.
Ty's van in front of the restaurant
Our next stop was the Rockland's Bird Sanctuary - my #2 goal of the entire trip. Here is a blurb from Jamaicatravelandculture.comRocklands was established by Lisa Salmon, one of Jamaica's first environmentalists. Miss Salmon or "the bird lady" as she was affectionately known purchased the Rocklands property in 1954. She spent her time writing, painting and feeding birds. It didn't take long for the house to attract a wide variety of birds and by 1962 Miss Salmon opened Rocklands to the public. Lisa sadly died in 2000 at the age of 96 but her legacy lives on. Rocklands is now run by Lisa's nephew and managed by Fritz. Fritz has been working at Rocklands for over 15 years and has a gift for spotting and beckoning the birds which dwell in the surrounding trees.Rocklands was as peaceful a place as you could ever hope to visit, and exactly what was needed after the excitement and energy of the ziplining. We went from extreme adrenaline to meditation, with a great lunch in between.
When you arrive at the sanctuary, Fritz greets you at the front driveway and walks you back to the patio next to the house, where the table has a bunch of those airplane size bottles of Appleton rum, cleaned out and filled with hummingbird food, and a little hole poked through the top. He shows you how to sit and hold the bottle with your finger out in front for the humming birds to come land on your finger and drink. He then, very peacefully and in a sing-song voice, calls the birds and sings instructions to us... "hold the bottle hiiiigher.... here birdy birdy birdy..." He also spreads some birdseed on everyone's knees to bring down the other finches and parakeet types to grab a snack and pose for photos.
I didn't feed any of the birds, I was so enthralled with shooting photos that my hands never left my camera. I would scan from feeder to feeder, adjusting the settings and zeroing in on birds. Fritz helped point out birds in the trees and would explain their names, which ones are hunted in some parishes, and which ones were males and females. D had the Canon point-and-shoot, which he used to take closeups and flash photos. I wandered the grounds with my SLR, shooting a total of 233 photos in the short hour we spent in the sanctuary.
The front sign.
Part of the garden path
Looking down to the entrance from the patio
Fritz, our host
It is really difficult to not post all the good in-focus shots, but soon enough I'll have them edited properly and on my site. Until then, here are a few of my absolute favorites shot my D and myself.
D took this of me while I was zeroing in on a doctor bird... this is what I look like when I'm just about at the happiest I can be.
After a wonderful late afternoon visit, I packed up my gear and we climbed back into the van for the ride back to Negril... making one more stop on the way. Ty took us to Lucea to see his house. Unfortunately I didn't think to stand back and get a shot of his whole house, it really is an amazingly solid thing. He's in the process of building it, so the downstairs (with a bedroom, bathroom, and entryway/mudroom that currently serves as a makeshift kitchen) is finished, however the upstairs is still under construction. The house is built into a hill, which was dug out to make room for the structure, so you enter on the bottom floor, but the top floor will be the main house, and is flush with his back yard. The walls are built from cinderblock, he hired people to come do the plumbing and wiring, but otherwise is doing the actual building himself, working a bit at a time. The walls and roof upstairs are built, and he is in the process of stuccoing the interior walls upstairs before he finishes with the floor. After showing us which room will be which, he walked us through his garden in the back.
His entire back yard is one large garden, where is he is growing a great deal of his own food. He showed us the three stages of a banana tree...
this is the "bullet" shooting out of the tree
Then the tree produces fruit - one large bunch of bananas per tree
Once the bananas are ripe the tree no longer produces fruit and is cut down. The main tree sends out shoots to grow new banana trees and more fruit. The larger shoot to the left of this trunk is only 1 month old and already 4 feet high.
Here we are in Ty's driveway in front of his entrance gate
After such a long day, we headed back to Idle Awhile, where we showered up and grabbed some dinner on the deck. We stayed up for a bit playing dominoes until the bar closed, then headed in for the night.
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