Great way to start you trip back home. You'll be spoilt while staying at Seastar! Waiting with anticipation for more updates. Thank You
Great way to start you trip back home. You'll be spoilt while staying at Seastar! Waiting with anticipation for more updates. Thank You
Hey Bill - I loved reading your stories and reflections and am really happy for you that you are headed back home after such a long absence. We are headed back to Negril in a couple weeks after being away for 7 years and are really looking forward to it. We're both so excited it feels like back in the day, before our 2nd or 3rd trips...where everything is familiar but still SO new and exciting...
I know now that daily updates and even two-day updates are going to be out of the question but I will try to check-in every few days because my good friends use this thread to keep up with my travels and even my nurses at the VA check it out to see if I am keeping with the "program" and not re-injuring myself but I can assure them that the staff at Seastar and my local friends here in Negril are riding herd on me!
I get up each morning at 6:00am to go to the pool to exercise and recreationly swim some laps until the Continental breakfast at about 7:30am. I am eating within my guidelines and I am definitely feeling stronger as the days go forward. Here are a few random shots around Seastar. I am no photographer but I hope they at least give readers a brief glimpse into the property.
A shot of the new Seastar Stage
A shot from the Office to the Bar with the Swimming Pool beyond
The Waterfall and Jacuzzi between the steps to the top balcony and the Swimming Pool Shower area
A shot of the Pool from the shower area with the swim-up bar on your right.
The next shot from the same vantage point showing the lounge chairs and the covered gazebo where I often eat breakfast
Gotta run. Going to the beach today to look up some old friends. Will post more when I return.
Peace and Guidance
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
Wonderful, wonderful. I have been waiting for your safe arrival and trip report. You are an inspiration to us that truly do not have anything to complain about. The pool and beach is wonderful therapy for you!
Jitterbug...pm'd the cell number. Muskie...keep a grip mon..Soon Come! Thanks Peter.
Peckish was on time as usual. He pulled into Seastar right at 11:00am as promised and Shereth assisted him in loading our bags for the two hour trip to my home in Accompong Town. I promised Peckish a fish dinner so we stopped just before Little London at a roadside cook shop where they had some wonderful Jamaican food (including kingfish) for only $400J (at least 1/2 the price anywhere in Negril). Shereth and I had two okra and oats blended drinks over ice. Tasted a lot better than it sounds!
I needed a cheap cell phone and a reliable Internet connection that would work deep in the Cockpits and, with Rob's advice, chose CLARO. We found a shop on St. Georges Street in Sav where I got a cell phone for $1000 J (yes, that is correct.. about $12 US!!!) and a 3-G thumbdrive Internet Connection for about $8000 which included a month worth of service but I had to get it without any chance to return it if it didn't work. You have to simply imagine my joy when I got home to Accompong Town,plugged it in and PRESTO! fast, reliable Internet Service. It makes me so happy!
Marshall has constructed a two-story home made almost exclusively out of mixed concrete and concrete blocks reinforced with over two tons of steel. Structually it is a well-constructed as any structure I have seen in Jamaica but it has been a laborous process as Marshall does almost all the preparation work using the occasional electrician, plumber, tile man and concrete finishing worker when necessary.
My part of the house is the downstairs and it is mainly finished having a bathroom and a living room all plumbed just needing a water source as Accompong Town has no pipe water anywhere so a black tank or a concrete catchment has to be added to supply water and gravity pressure to make it work. I have temporary current until the wire is pulled for the whole house and connected to the meter.
Shereth and I have spent much of the past couple of days cleaning and arranging my things to make it easier for me when she returns to St. Catherine early next week. I like to think of myself as independent and self-sufficient but this still-healing right knee has me needing a little assistance. Between Shereth and Marshall, I am getting around a lot better and with Marshall's Ital cooking I continue to get stronger and (hopefully) thinner too.
Tomorrow I will try to post a few pictures.
Peace and Guidance
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
I got up early to take that constitutional swim in the still chilly water of the swimming pool before the sun warmed it to a tepid temperature. All I could think about was that my best friend Marshall and my driver friend Peckish would be calling soon. It has been almost 4 years since I have seen either of them although I talk to Marshall at least once a week on the phone but giving him a strong hug in person was I am sure on both of our minds at this time.
I showered and sat down for an early Continental Breakfast glancing back and forth at the still silent phone next to my coffee. Just when I was starting to think about other things, the phone rang and Marshall's familiar phone number lit up the dial. "Marshall mi fren" I answered. His voice was so reasurring and that he and Peckish were just outside of Sav and would be here in less than an hour. I could relax a little now and enjoy another cup of coffee and a another slice of wheat toast.
In short order, they pulled into the Seastar Inn driveway and parked next to my chair. Marshall jumped from the passenger seat and literally ran up to me and grabbed me in a bearhug. I don't know about others here on the board that if that often happens to them in Jamaica but I find Jamaicans to be kind of reserved in exhibiting such overert displays of affection. Our 18+ years of friendship have developed a closeness of bond that transcends any normal boundries as we truly "love" each other in a familia/brotherly way. Peckish was right behind and grabbed me as well. I am so blessed to have such good friends and like Martin Luther Wright (Colonel of the Accompong Maroons) once said, "When you have a Maroon for a friend, you have a friend for life". How true I have found this to be so many times over.
Marshall (right) and Peckish with his RAV 4
We went to the verandah of my room to talk. There were so many people to ask about; how they were doing and where they were living (as some had since passed this Earth in the interim) and I simply had to get the latest suss swirling around the community where I would be living. Ha Ha. When I learned that I was not the topic of discussion around town that set my mind at rest as, afterall, I am not a Maroon and they are such a close-knit community that outsiders are sometimes looked upon with a skeptical "cuteye". I knew now my acceptance was fairly universal throughout the community but there would be detractors as there always are in Jamaica or anywhere one lives.
I had told Rob and Lisa I wanted to go on the Pub Crawl bus and Rob said to be ready at 2:00pm for pickup. We had said our goodbyes and I made arrangements for Peckish to return on next Tuesday to take me to Accompong Town at a few minutes before the bus was to arrive and like clockwork....2:00pm on the dot; it pulled up to the gate.
Now, being honest here, I wasn't giving this too much of a possibility in my mind to turn into a extraordinary experience but, as we kept picking up more people from the Cliffs to Coco La Palm on the beach the bus became full and the friendships began to form. We stopped at 7 bars; Corner Bar, MiYard, No Limits, C & D Country Bar, a small bar owned by a lady named Carol, Bella Donna and Firewater where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset to Peter Tosh music in the backround. Just about perfect!
I can't list all the names as frankly I can remember but maybe 10 of them so I don't want to skip a single one by listing those I can remember. To a person, we were as one for the next several hours. I saw a lot of old friends like Delroy at MiYard and Big Roy from Cafe Goa was there too. This is an experience that everyone should try on their next visit. You meet a lot of small business people who go the extra yard to make you comfortable and provide the best service they can as they know a lot of those on this crawl will be returning customers and will tell their friends as well.
The bus dropped me off last as the driver lived near the Seastar Inn. I actually was sorry to see the trip finish. A pleasant surprise and a very enjoyable evening.
I slept with serenity that night.
Peace and Guidance
Free Opinions Offered. No tipping required. Hours: Open when I feel like it.
Hey Bill , It's muskie, be seeing you soon, I'll try to watch the webcast tonight. See you soon.
Wow man, if your out there this music is ****abulous. Cool watching, hoped I would see you roll by or at least stumble, counting down the days .
Well this was a nice suprise
I did not realise a trip report was hiding in here
hey bill
glad to hear you are having a good time . . . hope to catch up with you . . . pm your ja cellie . . .
Posting Permissions
