Jade's Travels: Saturday May 7

Saturday dawned with perfectly blue skies and calm waters. I woke around 7 as usual and put a cup of coffee together for myself, sitting on the porch and checking over my photos from the previous days.

A fisherman on a sit-on-top kayak - there are a few who pass by early every morning.

After having our usual oatmeal breakfast, we gathered up a few supplies and took a cab over to Tensing Pen to show S the place we stayed, and the bridge, and give him the opportunity to jump. D and S jumped from the bridge first, then from the cliff side while I snapped photos and shot some video. We stuck around the property while they dried off, G and I enjoying the air conditioning in the gift shop for a little bit of time, then talked about where to eat lunch.
We'd heard a lot about Push Cart up on the cliff, but we'd passed it on the way in and it looked to me like it was closed... and a long walk. I hadn't reapplied sunblock and could feel the heat on my arms and shoulders, so D grabbed a cab for G and I to take us to the restaurant while he and S walked it, stopping off at the cambio on the way for S to exchange some currency.
The cab had two other passengers in it already, who appeared to not be going anywhere in particular, but were in the cab to keep the driver company. As we approached the entrance to Push Cart I saw that it was clearly closed (huge front gate shut) and a sign in front showing that they don't open until 3. I also realized that my understanding of Patois was coming along, because I understood the passenger in the front seat when she said to the driver... "It's closed, what should you do, are you going to drive them back?" I answered without him having to ask... "No problem, we'll just walk back to the Rock House from here"... (it was right next door) then I paid him and G and I hopped out of the cab and walked what is probably the only 10 feet of real, concrete sidewalk in all of Negril... up to the entrance to the Rock House. She and I took a seat in the bar with a clear view of the front gate, under the ceiling fans, and ordered cold fruit punches to sip on while we waited for the guys.
As it was the only place that was open for lunch on this stretch, we ended up just eating there at the Rock House. Though the food tastes good enough, and the presentation is nice, it is somewhat overpriced for what you get (as compared to local joints) and the service is inconsistent. Today we ordered our food, then watched as two additional tables were seated, ordered, and were served their food before ours made it out of the kitchen. (One of those tables was almost done by the time our food showed up)

I had the fish with veggies - a mixture of callaloo, peppers and onions... served with a fried plantain, veggies and a side of rice and peas.

After lunch we grabbed a cab back to the beach and headed out to the water for more swimming. For some reason unknown to me, G decided she wanted to swim... entirely on her own... out to the buoy line. I didn't want her to go alone (because she still doesn't know how to swim without the snorkel and mask) so D walked with her, staying close enough in case of an emergency, but far enough away that she make the trek completely on her own.

That dot in the center of the photo is D's head... the small stick-like thing in front of him is G's snorkel poking out of the water... on her way back from the buoy line.

She made this trek twice... we got the second swim on video.
While swimming close to shore and watching the fish, G noticed something funny and started giggling. There was a tiny yellow fish with black stripes... not more than an inch from nose to tail... swimming around D's legs. It had apparently decided D's leg hair made the perfect habitat for hiding out from predators... and no matter how fast D moved or where he swam, the minute he stopped that little yellow fish appeared around mid-thigh... dodging around his legs and hiding from me and G.
We were concerned that perhaps he was hiding in the pockets of D's swim trunks, since he couldn't seem to shake the little guy, so I stuck my head underwater to watch and see what happened when D moved. D took off running (as much as you can run in the water) and the motion created a current behind him, which swept up the little fish and tossed him about like a washing machine... until D stopped running, then the water rushed around his legs and the fishy re-oriented around his little "habitat". After some attempts to catch the fish and move him to another part of the ocean, D finally just walked out of the water, with me snorkeling next to him to make sure the little fishy didn't end up in his pockets... then I had to jump out of the water myself to make sure he didn't try to hide in my hair.

After getting out of the water, we watched the wee little guy circle around in the shallows for a minute before paddling off to hopefully find a real habitat to live in.

After these fishy adventures, we called it a day on the swimming action and headed in to clean up for dinner. D hung out at the bar playing dominoes with Shane and Needle for a bit while I cleaned up and snuck in a few photos.
Outside of our porch is a cement path which has the beach on one side, and a garden area on the other. There are always ants in the sand on the beach side, and almost every time I approach our stairs I see a lizard scuttle from the sand to the garden to hide. They seem to enjoy the easy feast of a pile of tiny ants, but want to hide the second I walk up.