Sunday May 8 - a very adventurous Mother's Day.

I shift in my sleep and halfway wake up, still mingled in the dream about flying straight over to another island but having forgotten the eggless dessert I left in the fridge of our room.  I'm somewhat aware that the cricket sounds are gone, and bird sounds are starting.. indicating morning light, then I drift back off to sleep.  At precisely 6:30 I hear the sound of ice being scooped in the neighboring restaurant's kitchen.  It's a little loud, but not bothersome, and it's generally a good time for me to start thinking about maybe possibly getting out of bed.  Perhaps.
This morning D and G are both dead to the world... D went out with S last night to listen to music, and G took a benadryl for particularly irritating bug bites - which makes her sleep hard.  I boil some water for coffee - D bought us these travel french presses that are wonderful for making a fresh cup in the room - and start to pack my day bag with just-in-case items, leaving the biggest compartment for the camera gear.

I use my camera bag to transport my gear, and I'll use it while wondering within the property of Tensing Pen, but as a general rule I don't go out into the countryside with that giant "LOOK AT ME AND MY EXPENSIVE GEAR" bag strapped to my back... so my lenses are sectioned off into individual protective cases and dropped in the bottom of a generic backpack.  The camera itself is usually around my neck.

I sit at the patio table with my mini-pot of coffee and set to work backing up the photos I've shot thus far, a quiet Mother's Day morning sipping the dark brew and listening to the sounds of music drifting from the kitchen next door.  I'm not sure what they are listening to, but it sounds like something appropriate for Sunday morning, melodic and soothing, and I can hear at least two people humming along to it.

After a short while, D and G both come out of their beds and we all head over to the deck for breakfast.  Ty is planning on picking us up to take us out to Floyd's Pelican Bar... however instead of going around the edge of the island to get over there, Ty plans on taking us up through Green Island, over the hilly interior, and down through what he calls the "Real Jamaica".

The drive through the country is stunning, and I spend a lot of time with my Holga poking out the window trying to get drive-by shots of the countryside, the buildings, and the overall majesty of it.  Every so often, when the road is not so bumpy, I stick the point-and-shoot through the opening to catch a few snapshots.

Sugarcane fields on our way out of town - a backdrop of the mixture of trees that grow around the countryside

Sugarcane field

It was Needle's day off, so we had invited him to come along with us.  As we drove up into the hills, the road snaking around with a cliff to one side and a deep valley to the other, he and Ty explained how the area had been planted with crops of oranges, scotch bonnet peppers and mangoes... but the weather could be so rough that people planted banana trees to help block the wind from the crops... so this area had a large amount of wild bananas growing.  I looked down over the valley and saw some amazing greenery... stands of timber bamboo standing easily 80 feet high, if not 100... they took my breath away as we zoomed past.  There were massive, imposing mango trees 20 feet tall, their branches stretching out 40 feet across, the fruit dangling from the branches light bright red gems.  The road was too rough to shoot with my big camera, and too narrow to pull over for me to get out and capture these sights in color... but we'll see what the Holga managed when I get back home and develop the film.

Driving with Ty and Needle was a blast.  They have been teaching us some patois phrases, and it is particularly fun to listen to Ty say a phrase, then explain to us what it means.  He speaks patois in his heavy Jamaican accent, then repeats the phrase in English with a very North American accent (think... Eddie Murphy imitating a white guy)
"So when I say "lickamore"... das what means... 'I'll see you later!'"
The entire ride is filled with conversation about just about every topic one could imagine coming up... over the mixture of music playing and the breeze coming in through the windows.. there is never a dull moment.

On the way out we did stop by Peter Tosh's estate... here are D, Needle and S at the front gate.

Needle said "This is for Facebook, right?  Let me pose for you!"

Along the way we saw these crabs (still alive) dangling outside of a shop to advertise that they were for sale.  Holy Crab, that's huge!

As we dropped out of the hills and back towards the coast, some of the sites began to look familiar.  This is the route we took last year to get to the Black River Safari, and I recognized the town and the roads here.  We actually stopped off at the Safari's new building for a quick restroom pit stop (the place looks amazing!) and then on down the road towards Treasure Beach and the Pelican Bar.

Floyd's Pelican Bar is a spot built out of driftwood on a sand bar about a quarter mile offshore.  The only way out there is by boat... people flock there to hang out, have a few drinks, and do some snorkeling in the conveniently shallow waters surrounding the building.  Their kitchen is minimal and they don't always have food available, but Ty arranged for us to have lunch out there ahead of time.  We had packed all of our snorkel gear and I had originally intended on snorkeling along with everyone else, but while we were out there a boatload of tourists arrived, and I didn't want to leave my camera gear inside unwatched... so I stuck to enjoying the opportunity for a lot of photo shooting.

Needle and G outside of our transportation to the bar.  That black dot on the horizon is the place we are headed to.

There's plenty of room for everyone in the boat... no worries about camera gear going overboard... not at all

Almost there

This is the front entrance to the bar... the boat pulls up and you hop out onto the bottom step

The "back door" has a deck you can hang out on to dry off after swimming, or just catch a bit of sun

The interior of the bar, G and I standing by the pass-through window where you can order drinks

D and G in the hammock to the left of the pass-through window

 There is one low table, and the exterior walls are lined with logs which serve as benches to sit on or rest your bags/towels while you swim.

The most solid portion of the floor in the Pelican Bar

This is what holds up the floor

The deck stretches out the back door

Standing on the deck looking back at the bar

 The kitchen, in it's entirety.

 We are served pan fried snapper for lunch, with some onions/veggies and rice and peas.  Head and tail still on the snapper.

That would be my 9 year old, eating fish that still has the head attached.  She gets mega-points for being so daring with food at such a relatively young age!

 After lunch D and G enjoy some snorkeling.. the water was so shallow G didn't even use her snorkel vest

The only pelican I spotted at the Pelican Bar

 After much snorkeling, and spending a bit of time drying off and chatting with other folks, we packed back into the boat and motored back to shore.  From there we climbed into Ty's van and made the journey around the edge of the island back to Negril.  On the way, Ty noticed a fruit stand with soursop displayed, so we made a brief stop to pick up some provisions.

On the middle shelf to the far left, those are soursop... the green orbs on the bottom center are breadfruit

 After a quick stop off at the hotel to drop our snorkel gear and freshen up, we were all right back in the van and headed out to Green Island for dinner.
D had arranged a special Mother's Day dinner for me with Courtney the chef... though his restaurant is not yet complete, he has access to a place on the beach at Green Island on Sunday nights where he grills up dinners for family and friends.
And I have to say here how much I appreciate Needle looking out for my allergies.  There had apparently been something on the original menu that included duck eggs, and D explained my allergies to Needle, telling him that it needed to stay away from my food.  I can tell my patois is improving because I fully understood Needle when he got on the phone and not only told Courtney to not make that particular dish... he said "don't even walk past an egg with tonight's dinner!"  After hearing that, I felt entirely safe exploring whatever there was to eat.
We pulled up to what appeared to be someone's house, with a few people congregated in front.  We were directed down the driveway, through a side gate, and into the back yard where we saw a fishing boat had been pulled ashore and the children of the fishermen were working to untangle the nets.  To the right of that was a large tree with bamboo benches built around it, to the left was an outdoor kitchen.  Inbetween they set up a small 4-top table with barstools for us to sit at, and dinner was brought out.

The kitchen counter area

The grill...

The fishing boat, after the nets had been stored for the night

Dinner turned out to be one of the wildest and most exotic dinners I've ever had in my entire life.  First to come out was brown stewed conch and roasted breadfruit, along with pouches of grilled fish...

...and then the lobster.  All that stuff in the center of the grill in the photo above.. that was all lobster with an onion/pepper mixture on top.  These three below are the ones that I ate.  It was mine... all mine!

The fish we were served... that was lion fish.  Remember those football sized fish with the poisonous fins we encountered on the cliffs?  That's what's for dinner.

It was the first time I'd ever eaten anything that was potentially poisonous to everyone... not just me with the egg thing.  Apparently only the fins are dangerous... so the fish takes some special handling with clipping all the fins off before cooking.  It looks like Courtney did a great job of it, because we all ate it (save for G) and we are all still standing.

The flavor was incredibly unique... not the least bit fishy... a firm texture but not as steak-like as the mahi mahi.

Conch, lion fish, rock lobster and breadfruit - an amazing combination of flavors and the most incredible meal I could have ever hoped for on a very special Mother's Day.

After we'd all had our fill we stuck around and chatted about food with Courtney - cooking methods for things like shrimp rundown, making jerk chicken properly, and how to manage lionfish without killing yourself.  It was a great evening filled with interesting conversation, but the night eventually came to a close and we headed back to the hotel for a good night's rest.