The time leading up to are departure
was the most frantic we'd experienced... and it was not helped by the
fact that I had not reset my watch for Daylight Saving (because I
hardly wear it) so I operated under the delusion that we had an extra
hour of time up until about 5:00 p.m. But, with a great amount of
team work and coordinated effort, we managed to be packed and sitting
by the front door a full 5 minutes before the airport shuttle
arrived. We hit a little traffic on the way to the airport, but
arrived with plenty of time to check bags, print boarding passes, get
through security, and have a leisurely dinner at Anthony's in the
central hub of Seatac Airport.
The frantic day had in large part been
due to the discovery that our flights had been changed without
notification to us. Our flights over were pushed out by nearly an
hour, but had not had the numbers changed. Our flights back,
however, were completely different flights and had been pushed back
by half a day. We spent the morning on the phone with the airline
trying to understand what happened and why we weren't notified of the
changes (they were apparently changed back in December) and trying to
ensure that our reservations were indeed secure and we would not be
stranded on the island at the end of our vacation. Throughout the
day, D suddenly began receiving frequent updates via text and phone
about the continually changing flight out of Seattle. All told, we
were incrementally pushed out nearly two hours from our original
departure time. This turned out to be a good thing, since we were
able to push our airport shuttle out an hour and take the time to
finish straightening up the house before we left.
Given the disruption of the sudden
changes, and to spite the delays, the airline travel itself was
incredibly smooth. I was able to sleep on the plane for a few hours,
and the Seattle delays meant a shorter layover in Miami. The second
flight was not full, so I had the unusual pleasure of sitting by
myself and being able to choose between the aisle seat (for snack
time) and the window seat (for the view)
Gayle in the Miami airport, catching some zzzz's
Looking back at the engine as we approach Montego Bay
Looking straight down from the plane, a large coral reef off the beach
The flight also landed early, and we
ended up meeting up with my sister and two nieces the entrance to the
immigration line. After winding our way through the ropes to the
counters, down the corridor and through customs, we arrived in the
hustle and bustle of baggage claim... half filled with weary
travelers looking for their bags, and half filled with energetic taxi
drivers looking for a customer. D had arranged for us to be driven
by Errol, of Errol Flynn Tours, so he walked ahead of us to meet up
with our driver.
Almost everyone who comes to stay in
Negril will land in Montego Bay and be driven along the coastline to
the beach, roughly a 90 minute drive (or so). This time, though, D
had been researching some different restaurants and he heard about a
great jerk place up in the hills, so he asked the driver to take us
on the inland route to Negril so that we could stop there for lunch.
This is Border Jerk
The girls digging in
We ordered large portions of jerk
chicken, jerk pork, and festival (a fried bread) which were brought
out to our table in foil pouches along with a few bottles of
sauces... jerk sauce, spicy ketchup, and a mixture of scotch bonnet
peppers and vinegar. We dove in, enjoying it too quickly for me to
get a picture of the food. Once we had reduced the piles of meat
down to bone, we cleaned up and piled back in the van for the rest of
the journey.
On our way down through the hills,
Errol stopped in several places to get us samples of the local
fruits.
Our driver, Errol, jumped out of the van to pick up some fruits for us to sample
We tried jackfruit, naseberry, and a custard apple. I will
have to get photos of the jackfruit on this trip... it tastes
something like a dried apricot that has been rehydrated in pineapple
juice. The naseberry is a small, brown, round fruit with brown flesh
and tiny black seeds... it tastes like a bosc pear that has been
cooked in brown sugar. The custard apple was my favorite... it broke
open similar to a sour sop, and also similar in appearance, with
large black seeds and fleshy white interior. You scoop the fruit
outo f the skin to eat it and it melts in your mouth, leaving you
with a black seed to spit out. It tastes something like a peppery
banana (peppery like allspice, not black pepper) with the texture of
custard (hence the name).
Half a custard apple.. it is better than it looks!
We also picked up some super sweet tiny
bananas, and something called an otaheite apple, which we haven't
tried yet as we were warned to wash it before we eat it.
A short drive out of the hills and we
were in Negril. We made a quick stop at the cambio to exchange money
and pick up a few drinks and snacks at the Hi Lo grocery store, then
headed over to our hotel right around check-in time. We had a little
wait while they finished preparing the room, and G took the time to
show her cousins around the property a little big. Once we made it
to the room, bags were dropped and some of our crew headed straight
out to the water. I had just taken my camera gear out of the bag
when a thunder storm began to roll through... so I put it away and
instead spent some time with the unpacking. The fatigue of travel
crept through the room, and we took advantage of the down time to
unpack a bit more or take naps. We were still waiting for the final
2 of our party to join us (their flights were changed around at the
last minute as well) so we decided to just stay on the property and
have dinner in the restaurant.
The food here is really excellent... I
ordered the jerk shrimp which was amazingly spicy, I believe I drank
8 glasses of water just throughout dinner.
Tonight will be a relatively early
turn-in for myself... I had about 3 hours of sleep on the plane last
night and no nap during the day. Looking forward to our first full
day tomorrow snorkeling on the cliffs.
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