I will package our last 3 days in PA together as they are almost exactly the same. The daytime weather has really improved, the last 3 days we only had a couple very light showers that only lasted minutes, otherwise mostly sunny, today was completely blues skies all afternoon, we baked real good. For a few reasons we ended up going to frenchmans cove each of our last 3 days. Even though it costs 700j a person (today I juiced the guy a bit, I told him I heard that it was pay 2 days, get 3rd day free! He laughed and told us 600 each.), it has a nicer sand beach, gets better sun, the only people selling stuff are the servers delivering beach loungers, food, drinks, its close to PA, you get the picture. The downside is the swimming area is small and its usually too rough to snorkel around the cliffs. Plus, the freshwater river that feeds into the sea makes it colder than the other beaches. The upside of the river though, is once you get accustomed to the cool water, it is pretty clear and a good place to snorkel as its full of fish. I spent at least an hour in the river today, snorkeled up to a bridge crossing and back, hanging out with the fishies. Frenchmans cove is definitely a place where you can relax on the beach, something I like to do. Its the only time I will actually read a book (a novel, not my usual magazines). I managed to finish one this trip, a non-fiction story of a guy that quits his job and hitchhikes his way across the US with no money. Took me probably 5 days to read it, my wife started it this morning, she will finish it before bed tonight.
On Jan 1 we stopped at the villa where our new friends are staying, I think its called Sea View Villas, but it is known here as the black and white villas. Its not far from Trident castle, right on the sea a bit closer to Port Antonio. They had told us to stop by in the morning if we wanted but we waited till after our beach day ended. They were grateful we waited because they ended up downtown after we left Anna Bananas, and were partying till 5AM. Yikes, those days are long over for this guy. Their villa was quite nice, you could see why it is known as black and white. We had a good visit, had 2 beers (sometimes having a car keeps me from getting out of control) looked up where everyone lives on google earth, including our new Austrian friends. Really nice people, we exchanged email addresses and said our goodbyes. On New Years eve while at Anna Bananas we ended up getting invited to some villa up on Fern Hill. There is a couple that owns a bar or something called Mi Yard in Denver. Now I guess they are building some kind of guest house here on Fern Hill. Well these people have a "first Friday" party of some kind, you guessed it, on the first Friday of every month at their place in Denver. I was told to google Mi yard Denver but I have not yet, just thought of it while typing this. So tonight is this party. As much as I would like to go, the combination of us still needing to pack, wanting to get up early, plus needing to get a ride there and back made our decision to not go. It would mean drinking for me and I don't want to be hungover for the drive, nor do I want to sleep in missing the day. Our flight is late so we have all day Friday.
So besides meeting our new friends, the last few days ended the same. After showering and relaxing on our lounge upstairs, we went to TJ's for supper. I am going to write a special report for this guy, just mentioning him here isn't enough.
I have a few more reports to enter before I complete this. Still have all day tomorrow where we should end up on a new beach somewhere and get a final swim in the sea. Plus I want to do an overall impressions and fill in a few blanks of events that are worth mentioning. Writing them down here helps bring back the memories as well as lock them into my brain for a bit. Also, I have way more pictures to download, once I get home I can use my laptop and do a better job.
Thanks for all the positive responses, although I have to admit I did this as much for myself as everyone else. If I hadn't written all this down I would have forgotten a few details already.
