Sunsets, Rum, Sand and Gizzadas 97 Days in Negril

[Jamadian]

You have grandpuppies to keep you company Kahuna. If you're down at the beach on the 24th, meet us at a bar and we'll keep you company for a bit. Would love to meet up with Crusher as well and any other boardies that are there at the same time.

[kaycee]

Awww! The beach puppies are so adorable!

[JitterBug]

walter, as soon as i stop working . . . and i can stay a couple of months . . .

[Kahuna3]

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning - walking to the gym. Early. It is blessedly quiet along the road. I know. I frequently complain about the noise. By now you probably think I’m a crotchety old man who mutters and carps incessantly to himself about noise while shuffling along the road. If you do, you’re not far off. Negril is generally a noisy place peppered with cacophonous bursts loud enough to wake the dead from their eternal slumber.

But when Negril is quiet, like it is early on a Sunday morning, well . . . it’s enchanting.

I pass the Shell station. A car is pulled up to the air pump. All of the passengers are out and milling about as the driver fills the tire. They’re all dressed to the nines – decked out in their Sunday best and finery. Two little boys are standing beside the man filling the tire, watching him intently. They’re dressed in natty matching pale green suits with fashionably narrow lapels. Their jackets drape their slim torsos down to mid-thigh. They’re wearing crisp white shirts, broad colourful ties and highly polished shoes. I expect their suits are home-made by a loving mother.

The ladies are in prim dresses and hats. An older man, maybe late seventies, is dressed in a dignified dark suit. He’s wearing a fedora.

I trudge by in my sandals, shorts and tank top.

Further on I pass a small communal grouping of houses; to be specific they’re actually a ramshackle collection of clapboard shacks, but homes to several Jamaican families nonetheless. (I’m not dissing them.)

I’ve noted that on every Sunday morning that I’ve passed these houses one of them has a stack of speakers out on the porch playing Jamaican gospel music. And they play it loud. Today is no exception. It sounds wonderful.

As I pass I look into the sprawling common front yard. Clothes-lines are strung in a haphazard web above the bare grounds. There’s a stand of banana plants off to one corner. A rooster posing near one of the houses crows several times.

The grounds are shaded by a couple of tall almond trees. Several chickens are scratching and pecking in the dirt and a few goats munch on the greenery near the trees. A black dog is lying on its back in a patch of bright morning sunlight; all four legs pointing straight up. A half-dozen pickneys are playing some kind of pursuit game, maybe tag. Overall, it’s a pastoral, bucolic scene.

The gospel music is loud but over it I hear a strong clear woman’s voice that carries out to the street. Someone inside one of the houses is singing along, harmonizing beautifully. It brings a smile to my face and a frisson of goose bumps to my fore arms.

The moment is magical.

I love Negril.

Here's another instance where I wish I'd had a good camera. This beautiful spider hangs out in a mango tree in the yard. Apparently, I'm told, it is poisonous. Look at the tufts of bristles at the joints in its legs. It's body is about 2 inches long.


A beach shot. Lovely tree, eh?

[luvmylabs]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us. You are so descriptive, it's like I'm there, which is such a nice reprieve from snowy, cold Cincinnati.

[Lady Jane]

What a nice visual K3. Thank you
PS I scrolled really fast past the spider. Ewwwwww

[Jamadian]

"K3 what's wrong with you?" There is no such thing as a beautiful spider...Sheesh!!!

[jamaicamarylance]

"K3 what's wrong with you?" There is no such thing as a beautiful spider...Sheesh!!!

I second that.....I was bit by a brown recluse a couple yrs back and still have the nasty scar.

Enjoying your report, you are a heck of a writer.

[Kahuna3]

I second that.....I was bit by a brown recluse a couple yrs back and still have the nasty scar.

OK - no more insect photos - unless I see a really nice one.
Where did you run into a brown recluse?

[Jamadian]

Is a brown recluse also know as a wolf spider?