November 4, 2011- Ash to Lime Tree Farm- Blue Mountains
We were up at 4:45 AM and at the Myrtle Beach International Airport with lots of time to spare. We had tons of time, 4 hours, at Ft. Lauderdale. A family with seven kids flew with us and waited at the airport and it helped to pass the time watching them. The scrutiny at Passport Control Kingston took quite a while with lots of questions about where we were staying. Our driver, John Stewart. was there in short while after another driver contacted him. At first we drove through Kingston. There were many small shops like booths often constructed of corrugated metal with windows for passing out things you bought. Schoolchildren were plentiful in many different uniforms. The brightly colored houses had fancy grillwork for security as well as decoration and corrugated roofs. Trash piles were at the side of roads, waiting to be burned as the preferred method of trash removal. The road into the Blue Mountains was rough with lots of hairpin turns where the horn was sounded to warn oncoming drivers. Goats were tethered beside the road, chomping away peaceful as they ignored the cars passing. John stopped once to tip a worker filling in potholes. Suzie met us in SUV for the last of the drive.. A beautiful rainbow hung over the hills, a good omen for the trip! Suzie said yes as a greeting to people on the road and stopped at one store to be given something- maybe a birthday present since we found out later it was her birthday. Charlie, Suzie’s husband, showed us to our room and around the grounds. They grow coffee as well as run their B&B and have a son Alex who’s 8 yrs. old. Charlie is English but his family had long connections with Jamaica. Susie is Jamaican, growing up in Kingston but living closer to where the farm sits when she met Charlie. We had a little bungalow with king bed, shower with cement floor, and rooftop lounge. Charlie showed us a device to discourage mice but we never had to use it.. It was a lovely setting, high in the mountains with flowers all around. They served us carrot cake, and a red juice from sorrel with ginger. At the open air dining- room we had chicken curry, green soup, small pitas, and red wine. A family friend came up with a birthday cake for Susie and we sang to her, then had cake for a second dessert. After a good meal we were ready for an early bedtime
November 5, 2011- Lime Tree Farm, Blue Mountains
We were up in pretty good time to have pancakes and fruit courtesy of Susie and Keisha, then we joined Charlie at 8 on a bird walk. He drove a short way, greeting all he passed on the road. We walked through jungle like plants- many of which are houseplants in other parts of the world. There were lots of flowers and mimosa that shrank away when you touched it. Once we all had to walk together passing the house of a man who Charlie said was crazy and certainly lived well apart from other people. At one point we had to cross a river on stepping stones and got our feet a bit wet. Dick got lots of bird photos including quite a few birds endemic (native) to the area. I concentrated on taking photos of scenes and flowers and whatever else caught my fancy. Charlie took me to see where there had been a marble quarry and got information in the area patois from an elderly man passing by. I probably understood every eightieth word. Charlie let us off a bit down the road to the farm and Dick and I walked up the steep path through the coffee bushes on our way back up. Susie had left a salad with goat cheese and quiches for us for lunch and we ate with Charlie. I showered and Dick worked on his bird photos from the morning. They left to pick up a family from Poland and we wandered around seeing warblers and hummingbirds, especially the streamer tailed hummingbird that‘s the national bird.
When the Polish family arrived the six year old boy was scared by Jet’s barking, but calmed down and came up with his Star Wars book to have lunch. We went back to our bungalow and I snoozed a little, then made tea as Dick worked on identifying the morning’s birds. He was very happy with the number of native birds he had gotten good photos of. It poured some in the afternoon, but we were smugly contented in our little cabin.
The weather cooperated nicely and it was dry by seven when we headed up for dinner. It was a very pleasant affair, talking with the Polish family (mother, father , son, another sister and the grandmother).
Susie and Keisha had made pumpkin soup, fish with coconut sauce, roast potatoes and sweet potatoes, salad, slaw, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Conversation was interesting because the Polish
people spoke good English and had traveled extensively. They stood and sang Susie the Polish happy birthday song complete with a lot of clapping. Alex and Timor, their boy, played Snakes and Ladders and
watched a Star Wars movie. Dick showed the adults the bird photos he’d gotten that day. We got back to our bungalow around nine and after a little bird editing and puzzle solving, called it a very
satisfactory day.
November 6- Lime Tree Farm to Ocho Rios
Dick was up before me and did the circuit going down the road and back by the path to Lime Tree Farm. I showered and had plenty of time to take a walk down the road. Men called out hello and I photographed flowers, the little graveyard and scenes in the distance. At my turning-around point a house was sending out Christian music and in the distance a young boy waved from a rooftop, then did a handstand and walked on his hands and danced- a neat moment. Charlie had coffee beans out drying on a screen. The story they sell with their Ratt Cutt Coffee is that rats pick the ripest coffee berries and pile them under the coffee bushes. At night the rats eat only the covering on the beans, leaving the berries which Charlie and his crew pick up to roast for their finest coffee. It is evidently so good, me not being a coffee drinker, that a group of Canadian soldiers on temporary duty in Jamaica fly their helicopter from Kingston several times a week to pick up their supply of it.
We got back to our Jamaican breakfast- fried breadfruit and plantains and a mixture of vegetables that Dick liked. The Polish family were there too and all seemed well even though Timor, the little boy, had been sick earlier. They were going off with Charlie to walk along the mountain ridges for the morning.
We packed up and took our suitcases up to the SUV. Susie drove us back down the mountain, saying “Yes” or “Good Morning” or honking at people she met. She refused one woman a ride saying she had guests but picked up her cousin and took her down into the city. One car came whizzing around one of the hairpin curves and we had to stop in a hurry to avoid them. Suzie had a few words with the young guy driving and vowed she would “Punch him in da nose,“ if she caught up with him. We hugged her good bye at the airport and went into the terminal to do the paperwork for our car. The drive out of the city went well, but further along we were in a traffic tie-up for an hour and a half at a one lane bridge. People walked along the line of cars with fruit to sell and it was a long hot wait. We went up and over the mountains and found our hotel in Ocho Rios- The Silver Seas- around 4. We had a large room with a patio overlooking the sea, but the beach seemed to be artificially put in there.
After a rest we set out to try to find a nicer beach and hit a few dead ends in our search. Then we were picked out as suckers by a man who took us on a long and winding trip through the market identifying various native fruits and vegetables. It was a bit scary walking through deserted market stalls on our way back and we certainly began to wonder how safe we were at times. But, other than dunning us for a tip and shorting us by giving us $500 Jamaican dollars (about six dollars US) as change back from a twenty when we were supposed to get $10 in change- we only ended up a little sadder but wiser. We tried to walk to Mahogany Beach that our ‘friend’ recommended but it was getting late and a policeman advised us against trying to walk there at this time of night. Guide books and hotel people warned us about being out at night and we listened to them!
Back at the hotel, I did some internet in the lobby and was able to see my email and face book messages. I went back down to the beach and found a second shell and some coral. Then Dick and I went to the hotel restaurant where we were the only customers. After a good wait, where we commiserated with the turtles swimming in a pond along the side of the room, we had jerk chicken and fried snapper for dinner served with spicy bens and rice and slaw. Then it was back to the room to recover from a somewhat taxing day,
November 7-Ocho Rios to Montego Bay
After a cucaracha in the bathroom and a loud argument followed by a cat howling his or her way along the outdoor corridor of the rooms, we were well contented to leave just after 7AM and wend our way toward Montego Bay.
We stopped by a small beach for birds and shells and while I was taking photos, an old man came by on the road and started to talk. He offered himself for a photo and posed with his water jug. He mimed that he’d like a cigarette in exchange but took it well when I told him I didn’t have any. He settled further down the beach, talking to Dick. When I got there he told me the Chinese had bought the property across form the beach to put in a development. They burned his house to get it out of the way and now he was living under a bridge and waiting to get enough money for some bricks and a corrugated steel roof. I gave him the $500 Jamaican dollars our ‘tour guide had given me in change the night before figuring he needed the 6 or so US dollars more than I did.
We stopped in Falmouth and wandered around taking photos of the historic buildings. I bought a bottle of ginger beer from a sidewalk seller to drink as we went. Storekeepers tried to lure us into their shops and I was often called ‘Grandma,’ in an effort to win my favor.
Following the direction we were sent, we found our hotel, the Paradise Clarridge View, high on a hill overlooking Montego Bay. Our room was lovely with an alcove with a twin bed and flowery mural on wall and a large bedroom with an arched wooden ceiling and wonderful views of Montego Bay below. Carved wood and chandeliers added to the ambience. We had the run of the downstairs area too with computer and kitchen. Outside were two small swimming pools and a hot tub which wasn’t running. We ate lunch outside at the Rainforest Seafood Restaurant that we found when we made a wrong turn. Then we drove along the coast and looked for shells and birds on a beach near the airport. Planes landing roared close overhead. I found quite a few cute little shells. As we left, we were offered water, Red Stripe beer, and ganja (marijuana) by a dreadlocked man who sold ‘things’ out of the back of his truck. We paid our $5 admission to Doctor’s Cave Beach a very popular beach with umbrella and chair rentals and lots of sun lovers covering the sand. We both snorkeled and I got some fish and corral photos though I didn‘t see anything I hadn‘t seen before. But the water was lovely- warm and clear. We bought groceries for breakfast and food at Burger King. Back at hotel we did email and washed out a few clothes. Diame, the hotel overseer, helped me get the computer working so I could do email. The lights of Montego Bay below us were beautiful, shimmering in the night air. We went to sleep feeling like we were in the lap of luxury.
November 8. 2011- Montego Bay
Breakfast was bread and juice then we set out to find the Rockland Feeding Station in Anchovy, a small town south of Montego Bay. It turned out to be on a road just a little back from Montego Bay and wasn’t far at all. The road to the bird sanctuary was said to be impassable by ordinary cars, but it wasn’t any worse than the road up to our hotel, filled with potholes but nothing the car bottomed out on. The caretaker was Fritz- a man very knowledgeable about the birds that frequented the feeding station. Plastic bottles of sugar water hung all around as well as water and birdseed containers. He gave me a small bottle of sugar water and before long a red billed streamer tail hummingbird was perched on my finger sipping water from a hole in the bottle cap. Lots of other birds were flying about, eating at their favorite places. Dick had a field day wandering the grounds and snapping away. After a good while it began to rain and we sat under the sheltered portion where we were joined first by a family of four- with two sons who were very into the birds, then by three other people. Everyone was amazed to find the tiny birds perching on their fingers and you could even see the long tongue of the hummingbird as it sipped nectar. There were many kinds of finches and quits and ground doves, but the streamer tail and Mango hummingbirds stole the show with their brilliant metallic green and purple feather respectively.
We were pretty hungry after our birdly adventure so settled for KFC, knowing we’d return to The Houseboat Grill for a more special dinner that night. We stopped for gas and while Dick was paying in the station a guy came out and told me very explicitly his feelings about white people- the only negative experience we’d had with Jamaican people thus far. Before we left a young man from the station came over and welcomed us effusively to Jamaica, trying to undo the bad impression the other man had made. We hung out at the hotel and decided the pool temp was too cool when we attempted to go swimming around four. We played a game of Hand and Foot instead. Dick was very happy with his bird photos and spent a good bit of time going through them
We had found The Houseboat Grill on a trip out to the peninsula in Montego Bay and decided to eat there. We arrived before six and boarded the small barge that went to the moored houseboat. An .attendant
pushed the barge from the dock and that momentum was enough to cover the small expanse of water to the houseboat. At our corner table you could see the lights of Montego Bay and watch the fish and jellyfish
swimming in the water below us for entertainment. Dick had spicy fish and I had pork loin with a cherry wine sauce and glazed carrots. It was one of the most pleasant dining experiences I can remember!
Finding our way back up the hill, dodging potholes on the way, wasn’t as difficult as we anticipated. We told Diane we’d probably be leaving around eight tomorrow so she’d know about
when she’d have to be there to open the gate for us one last time. I managed to get online on the basement computer for a moment, Dick continued bird photo work and we got ready to spend the last
night in our luxurious Montego Bay hotel.
November 9. 2011- Montego Bay to Negril
Diane seemed genuinely sorry to see us go. We stopped at two beaches on the way to Negril. The first had neat sea urchin tests- some white and some with lovely green patterns. The second beach had the most sea glass I’d ever seen- even quite a lot of blue glass which is usually very rare. I picked up a sandwich bag full and wished I had room on my luggage to carry more. A little way down the road we saw a woman and Dick stopped the car. I crossed over and talked with her, telling her the sea glass at the local beach would be of value to Americans, especially if she wanted to make jewelry from it. We had a very cordial conversation and I hope she will try to make a little money picking up beach glass. Dick tried to find birds to photograph but didn’t have as good luck as I did.
We found our hotel, The Oasis Resort, at the west end of Negril by 10:30 AM and Erica showed us to our room which was one of four in a unit past the swimming pool.. It was a very nice room with two queen beds and a patio with grillwork enclosing it. The grounds were lovely, filled with flowering bushes and trees. We walked out and down the road in search of what seemed to be parrot-like sounds, but didn’t locate the birds making the sounds high in the trees. I got a fruit punch at the outdoor bar by the swimming pool.
After a short rest we headed out to explore, driving further west. We quickly found Rick’s Café,voted one of the ten best bars in the world. Because the old Rick’s had tumbled into the ocean after a hurricane, it had been beautifully redone. We sat outside on a circular mosaic bench and shared a dinner of chicken, fish, and beef with mashed sweet potatoes and fresh vegetables. When we finished we went down to the area where Jamaican men dive from high off the cliffs- and visitors jump from lower perches into the clear turquoise waters below. They stand on the cliffs opposite you and make sure you know you are expected to tip before they launch themselves off and somersault down. I had paid a guy earlier and told him I wasn’t sure I got it, so he promised to do it again for me if I didn’t. Dick’s big camera did a much better job and he photographed one diver then the one I had paid. I gave my diver change to thank him again- how can you not when he’s so cute and calls you Sweetie all the time!
After leaving we tried to find places to bird/snorkel. Dick found a few seabirds on a pier, but we found no places to snorkel on the western part of Negril which was supposed to be the best though lacking in sandy beaches. We ended up near the beginning of Negril’s seven mile sandy beach at a city park where we paid $2 admission each. It was good swimming but cloudy and with no reefs to attract fish. I tried but found nothing. But I did find a lot of interesting shells and corals- especially when a man told me an area past some trees had a lot of really big shells. Squeezing through branches, I found three nice conches and a huge sea fan too big for a suitcase but good to photograph.
We stayed until the park closed around 4:30 Then we stopped art supermarket where a young boy begged for money saying he was hungry and men offered to change money for us. I told the young boy I had no money but would see when we came back out. We bought bread, bananas, plantain chips and bottles of the sorrel ginger drink. At the checkout counter we bought a bag of peanuts for the boy and gave it to him when he approached. He wasn’t any too happy, telling me he didn’t eat peanuts. When I gave him the choice of giving it back to me or giving it to someone else, he said he’d give it to someone else, but ripped the package open and began eating the peanuts before we pulled out of the lot! Jamaica has a lot of poverty, but luckily the land produces lots to eat and the people looked very healthy on the whole.
Back at the hotel we went to the bar. Dick had Jamaican Red Stripe Beer and I had the girl mix up a rum and fruit juice drink for me- as well as a really tasty grilled cheese sandwich. Dick and I sat with our feet in the pool, eating and drinking.
Back in our room, Dick worked more on his photos and then handed me the computer to go out to a table by the pool and connect to the internet to see how the family was doing. He checked his email, then
worked on birds again while I watched Survivor, then he watched Nova. We’ve really liked Negril so far and are looking forward to pancakes by the pool tomorrow morning and then seeing what the day
will bring.
November 10, 2011- Negril
We had pancakes and great fresh tropical fruit for breakfast- by the pool. Then we left for Royal Palm Nature Reserve, not far from the center of Negril. We walked the extensive boardwalk around a pond where they used to cut peat for heating houses and out into the surrounding wetlands. Dick got quite a few bird photos, especially the West Indian Whistling Duck, and Northern Jacana, but the naturalists weren’t there and the man who took entrance fees didn’t know his birds as well.
I wanted to do some gift shopping at a store that had fliers at our hotel, but unfortunately the man who owned the store had decided not to open that day- as the girl at Burger King told us when we had lunch there. We stopped across the road from a pier and Dick tried to get some shots, Unfortunately we were beset upon by a man who said he kept the area clean and it was his birthday and asked for money, even pointing to the bills he thought he should be given.
When we got back to the hotel we swam in the pool and I even did a couple of dives, something I hadn’t done in a while. Dick worked on bird photos and I did some internet.
Around five we drove up and down the coast road looking for the Pirates’ Cave Restaurant, having read good things in our guide, but couldn’t find it. Finally I noticed that the sign for Push Cart Restaurant had ‘at Pirates’ Cave’ written in small letters under it. We parked in their lot across the street and found out it was the same place but with a new owner and new rules. Cliff diving was no longer allowed, but we had seen that and didn’t care. We sat at a table by the ocean and had seafood cakes and jerk chicken on skewers with baked plantain and fried sweet potato cubes. As we ate, a glass bottomed boat arrived with two people who snorkeled around and into Pirates’ Cave. Too late we found out how to snorkel in the area. A little while later a larger party boat with about a hundred people moored below us and boys along the cliffs yelled for them to take photos, then dived off the cliffs and climbed onto the boat to collect tips. A water slide was readied on the boat and the guests slid down the water slide on backsides or tummies or jumped in the water to swim to Pirates’ Cave holding lifejackets as they went. The cliff divers climbed up the cliff to where our table was and we were a little dismayed to see that the four boys were between the ages of ten and twelve- very cute but a very dangerous occupation for children! But all-in-all watching the scene below had been good entertainment for a good, spicy meal.
Back at the hotel we sat at an outdoor table and played Hand and Foot. There were few mosquitoes in Jamaica but by the end of the game they had found us and we hurried back to our room to read, work on photos and do puzzles. Although we hadn’t managed to find a snorkeling place or buy gifts, my two major goals for the day, it had still been a fun day!
November 11, 2011- Negril, Jamaica to Ash, North Carolina
This is 11-11-11- unique day. We left at 7AM and headed south then east back to Kingston to the Manley Airport for our departure. We left lots of time to make our 5 PM flight so we could do some stops along the way in places that interested us. It was also a good thing because the driving was pretty awful for a good portion of the trip, with constant vigilance necessary to avoid cavernous potholes especially in towns where roads were more poorly maintained. On slowdowns inside crowded towns, I tried to get good photos of people and businesses with limited success. People, especially the dreadlocked men wanted their pictures taken- for money! So I became a bit shy of taking people in general.
Our first stop was on Bluefields Bay where we saw signs for a town beach. Unfortunately it didn’t open until 9 and it was only 8, but we saw a woman swimming, so Dick donned his swimsuit in the car and put on his snorkeling gear and took a swim. I, being more modest and opting for the dressing rooms when the beach opened, looked for shells and sat enjoying the scene. I talked with the woman who came out of the water and was joined by Kenneth, a grizzly Jamaican man who talked for quite a long time with me before asking for money for coffee. I had no money, having given Dick our last bills, but Kenneth didn’t seem to mind too much. He told me he had lived in Florida for a while before he “got in trouble” and was sent back to Jamaica. He had grown up and gone to school in the town down the road from the park. Now he made money by washing cars for Americans who spent time in the area. I told him I would love to take a photo but I didn’t have any money to give him and he said the traditional, “No problem” and posed for me before he headed out. Dick got out of the water and met him for a minute. Kenneth said goodbye with the traditional fist bump and “One Love” and started away carrying his white plastic pail for car washing. Dick had seen no fishes and didn’t think it worth our time to wait for the park to open so I could change and swim. He had some small Jamaican bills in his wallet and when we got ready to leave, we backtracked and caught up with Kenneth and gave him a tip for the interesting time we‘d had with him.
Our next stop was at Font Hill Wildlife Sanctuary which I saw on the map Charlie had given us which had been a godsend in street -signless Jamaica. We paid entrance and were given the Senior Identity bracelets and charged half price for entrance- very helpful since our Jamaican money supply was running low. It was a nicely maintained beach with changing rooms and bathrooms. There were a few small sandy beaches but surrounding them were wonderful low limestone and fossilized coral cliffs. I walked along and actually saw a trumpet fish and small blue fish in the crystal waters by the cliffs. But there were no reefs and snorkeling was out of the question.
Dick talked with the people at the gate and found that if we wanted to go into the wildlife sanctuary, we’d have to hire their guide. So we did, ducked between strands of a barbed wire fence, and took a walk with the guide who didn’t know a lot about specific birds, but did know which locations they usually hung out at. Dick had modest success, but the guide told us of researchers from the states who came to study the migratory birds that came there in late winter and spring. He also told us that sea turtles laid their eggs there, as did crocodiles, who also used the sand. He said the crocs usually left during the heat of day, then returned to their nests at night to protect their eggs. Several times when he was guiding crocodile researchers they had found themselves in precarious positions wading in croc ponds against his warnings.
We drove on and in one crowded city found ourselves next to a Kentucky Fried Chicken, so stopped for lunch. In front of the restaurant there were a group of Jamaican students so I asked if I could take their photo. I told them I loved their uniforms and one of them said something like we love you and they all dissolved into giggles. Jamaican schoolgirls wore various colored uniforms according to the school they attended from darker greens to turquoises and pinks- very charming. Boys often had tan uniforms. We got food and used the facilities and were on our way again.
We were at the airport by 3. We didn’t have enough Jamaican money left for me to buy a coconut for its milk and jelly, but the vendor was kind enough to give me one for $52 Jamaican dollars- maybe about $.75. He used a machete to hack off the top then gave it to me with a straw to drink the juice. Then the woman who worked with him split it open with the machete and scooped out the jelly (a more liquid form of coconut meat in the coconuts we’re used to.)
We went into the airport got our boarding passes and went through numerous security scans including being patted down and having suitcases and backpacks opened and searched. Then we had to wait upstairs away from the gates until it was time for our flight to board. I did a bit of gift shopping, but without any Jamaican money, and unwilling to get Jamaican change for US dollars, we didn’t get any food even though there was a Burger King there. Eventually we were able to go down the stairs (the escalator was being repaired) and had another wait before we could get on the plane.
We took off only a little behind schedule and had an hour and a half flight to Fort Lauderdale. There we went through customs and settled down for another wait. The plane was about an hour late in taking off, but we arrived in Myrtle Beach around 10:30 and were home just after midnight with temperatures in the low 30‘s. Dick got the fire going and I put the electric blanket on the bed to heat it up. We putzed around putting things away and weren’t in bed until 1:30, still a little wound from the trip, but certainly ready to call it a good time and good night!