Sunsets, Rum, Sand and Gizzadas 97 Days in Negril

[yetta]

SO enjoying your reports!! Thanks for taking time to post for those of us stuck at home in the snow.. 9 more days and counting. Love that last photo...especially the "take away" part. Gotta love Jamaica!

[Kahuna3]

SO enjoying your reports!! Thanks for taking time to post for those of us stuck at home in the snow.. 9 more days and counting. Love that last photo...especially the "take away" part. Gotta love Jamaica!

Thank you Yetta and all who have given positive vibes. I'm happy to be sharing with you. There is so much to report and I forget half the things I would like to write. I'm just doing this 'on the fly'.

So the ‘big bug’ incident wasn’t really a big bug – I was just pulling Bea’s chain a bit, but I guess it didn’t totally come off that way. I thought it was a cute little bug, actually.

Last night we decided to stay home for the evening, so we sat out on the patio and watched the sky darken as the sun went down. Just before setting it looked like it snuck below the clouds (it was cloudy and rainy yesterday afternoon) and lit the beach up. We can’t see the actual sunset from our place. The tree frogs started up their nightly chorus (it seems to me that the Redground frogs are more full-throated than their beach brethren) and the bats had started their orbits around the almond tree.

From our vantage point it was compelling; the whole beach was bathed in a bright orange glow from the slanting rays of the sun, with the darker clouds above. It was interesting to see all the flashes popping off up and down the beach as people took photos against the setting sun. It was easy for me to imagine their situation, since I was doing the same thing right there in front of Sunnyside exactly 24 hours prior.

You know how there is a continual parade of people selling stuff on the beach during the day. Well, up here in Redground we also have vendors that regularly pass by on Hermitage Road selling their wares. There is an Ice Cream Man who comes by each day around noon-ish. We can hear him coming from far down the hill. He pushes a bicycle with a cooler mounted on it and toots his little bicycle horn as he goes. Talk about a Pavlovian reaction; at the first far-off toot, Bea announces, “The ice cream guy is coming!” As if I didn’t hear him. Then she speculates as to the flavours he may be toting. “I wonder if he has rum and raison?”

Another guy, also pushing a bike, calls out that he has “Box drinks! Pattiies! Coco bread!” Yesterday I heard a fellow walking by announcing that he had ‘Kingfish!’ ‘Kingfish!’

I think there are more women driving scooters around Negril. I see them regularly scooting around the roads here, not a lot of them, but maybe four or five a day. I talked to a Rasta dude who was riding a bicycle about this. He agreed and informed me that the women only drive scooters because the scooter has an automatic transmission. He said the standard transmission was too difficult for women to master.

Friday morning we were sitting in town, having a coffee and watching the word walk by when a young woman pulled up in front of us and yanked her scooter up onto its stand. She was wearing a very nice short dress, her long hair was done in a spectacular cascade of tight braids and she was all made up. Obviously she was headed for work. She grabbed a pastry inside the shop, then got back on her scooter and zoomed off.

Except the occasional, older tourist, nobody wears a motorcycle helmet here. So the women riders don’t have to worry about helmet-hair.

The car wash just behind Scotia Bank



An early morning nap on the beach. Maybe he had a big night?



Best in the West has a new expanded eating area. My fav jerk chicken place.


Price of gas in Negril. About 20 cents more per litre than I pay back home.