Clarity, Markus and Jamar in Negril – Nov 2011 Trip Report: Day 1-3

[jamariquoi]

So... We Transitioned from a hardcore partying night to a nice little quiet day excursion… we went to Mayfield falls.

Chicken ,our driver, took us there. What I thought would be a 45 minute drive or so turned into almost 2 hours. This was due to the bad road infrastructure.

What I noticed (and even from talking with Chicken about this) is that the roads where the big resorts are and the tourists gather are of decent quality. Everywhere else appeared to be covered with pot holes every other few yards or so! This is where the people are. Which is sad and we all know why that is..

Well, so we made it to Mayfield Falls and let me just tell you how beautiful it was! It was so amazing… you can drink the water and just the surrounding greenery was just to die for!



I must say that the drive there was well worth it. I’m very bad at remembering names ( I’m sure Markus will mention in his trip report) but our instructor was very friendly and informative. We also
got a chance to meet his family afterwards… He has 2 daughters and 1 son. I quickly gravitated to
his youngest daughter who wanted to dance with me. It was someone’s birthday and they were starting
to celebrate with good music.

I would highlight the experience in Mayfield Falls as the best moment of my trip to Jamaica!



I know that I didn’t go into too many details with Mayfield, but that’s the beauty of it...

This is a memory that will stick with me forever, a memory that I couldn’t do justice by attempting writing it down on a piece of paper... if that makes sense!

Markus is up next

[Hubby-man]

Oh, Wow. Now that Daisy got you all crying I am not so sure how to follow up. So this will be the boring interlude, for everyone to calm their feelings.

It is really quite amazing how your comments become part of this report and make it into much more than it would be without that. Thank you all for extremely insightful comments and contributions. It seems as if we are all together on a mystical trip, full of serendipity, karmic events and most importantly awareness that goes beyond the surface.

You show such incredible kindness when you all re-live this journey with us. I can imagine those offices in my minds eye, where you read with open hearts and some of you even cry. Reading your responses I can feel your presence and the magic net that connects us becomes visible and incredibly real.

So, thank you, Rob, for providing this forum! It's NOT just another website.


Mayfield Falls

With all the new developments, time had marched cruelly onward and it was getting to the point where, we had to go now or never. Jamar had spotted Chicken on the beach earlier. If anyone was going to get us there with such short notice, it was him (That is probably not true, but it sounds great!).

So we split up. Me and Jamar were to negotiate the fee, while Daisy threw the most necessary items into a bag.

***

Chicken was lounging on a picnic table on the beach smoking with his buddies, when two crazy eyed tourists ran up to him through the beach sand, coming to a stop three feet in front of him, panting and doubled over.

“Mayfield Falls”, they panted in unison. “Mayfield...” , -panting- “...fa...” -panting- “Mayfield Falls, can you take us?”

Chicken stared with glazed over eyes. He seemed to be on his day off, but slowly came to and realized there was business being offered.

Chicken: ”Ah, ...Ya mon! You wanna go to Mayfield Falls?”

The crazed tourists:” Yes, Yes!!! Can you take us?”

Chicken: “At this hour, Mon? They will be closed when we get there. Last tour is at 4 PM. If no one is there they will close early.”

The tourists doubled over again, panting and coursing. They started discussing their options while down in a huddle.

In the meantime Chicken had pulled out his phone and was talking to someone in thick patois. “Ya Mon, OK Mon.”

When he hung up, he grinned: “OK Mon!”

The tourists: “OK, thanks, Chicken, we'll see you tomorrow then....”

Chicken: “No Mon, I just talked to my buddy. He will be there. He will be your guide. Yes, We can go!”

The Tourists: “We'll meet you at the lobby in 15”.

***

Daisy was waiting for us with our bags packed and we were on the road in under ten minutes. Jamar called shot gun as always, while we arranged our ridiculously large collection of half broken snap-shot cameras in the backseat, ready to document every angle of the adventure.



Chicken was talkative, which we all enjoyed. He immediately picked up the patois lesson where we left off. The word he wanted us to learn most urgently was “bad”.

Chicken: “Ya Mon, when something is really good, you say 'that's baaad, mon!'. See bad means good! So when someone says: You look baaad, Mon! He means you look very coooool.”, and he chuckled his low rolling laugh. “Ya mon, your patois is gonna be baaad!”

We took the left turn at the Downtown Negril round-about, towards Savannah la Mar, charting undiscovered territory.





Chicken was getting more excited with every mile, because this was home-territory to him. He pointed out all the names of the villages and towns to the side: Cheffield, New Hope, Little London and Big Bridge are a few I remember. He proudly pointed out that Savannah la Mar was the capitol of Westmoreland while he drove more than once on the wrong side of the road to avoid the omnipresent sugar cane vending-carts, that lined the sidewalks of the city.

His excitement reached a peak when we turned the corner into a small side road in Amityville (which is not even on google maps).

“This is my hometown, Mon!” he said after stopping at a little bar, where several elderly men were enjoying a midday drink. The shack was barely big enough for all of us to cram in. The walls were lined with posters with girls in skimpy soccer uniforms and a heated discussion about some sports subject, probably cricket, was underway. Daisy, Jamar and I ordered a round, while Chicken was caught up with the girl behind the bar.

Right after Amityville the road was slimming to a dirt path and sugar cane brushed up against the doors on both sides. Chicken car was creaking and sighing like an old ship in a storm. I suspect the boot on his suspension had a leak and the whole wheel mount was screaming for lubrication with each pothole. (“Car Talk”, lol). Progress was slow, as Chicken did not want to hear a thing about what was wrong with his car, instead he leaned back, stuck the elbow out of the window lit a cigarette and patiently moved the vehicle at a speed of approximately 3 miles per hour through the punishing obstacle course.

The road opened up again at the next crossing, where a semi-paved road snaked up a steep forested hill. As the sugar cane, that had curved over the roof, gave way, and the view expanded around the car, I swallowed in awe.

[Hubby-man]

For the next hour we would follow a winding serpentine ever higher up into the most breath taking landscape I have ever beheld. Every time the thick brush of flowers, banana trees and vines allowed it, we gazed through our cameras into the lushest valleys. This was Forest, Jungle, untamed nature. A paradise with delicious fruit or bunches of beautiful flowers weighing down almost every branch. Oh how I had dreamed of being here! Every night with a flash light under the blanket and a copy of Treasure Island, Magellan’s Journey or Humboldt's Travels I imagined myself cutting through the thicket with a rusty machete, discovering a new species with every step. Now decades later, when I had stopped believing I would ever make it, I was really here, looking at real Cocoa Bean Pods out of the window of a creaking sedan.

Left and right of the road intimate scenes of peoples lives rolled by. Children playing on one side of a Bamboo-pole while their father is hacking away at the other side of the pole, to shape it into construction material. Other kids were chasing the family dog or taunting the goat while their mother had a watchful eye from the stoop often holding another baby on her arm. Family life was everywhere. No view blocking fences or concern, that a stranger might see too much. Instead people where waving and shouting excited greetings as we drove by. Children would follow us a bit down the road, while we were making funny faces out of the back window, cracking them up.



Incredible hardship was visible as well. Especially the elderly seemed to carry incredible burdens, their faces filled with sun-cut lines, their hands gnarly and curled up with arthritis. Yet, when we drove by, there they were, bent over their afternoon labor, building and carpeting, cutting away brush and gathering food. Others stood in front of their houses gazing emptily down the street with a half empty bottle of JB over proof in their hand, resignation written all over them.

Finally Chickens car slowed down and stopped on the top of a mountain ridge with steep valleys on each side. We climbed out of the car with the eagerness of a submarines passenger. I took in a deep breath and then the view.

Airline Commercials, National Geographic and The Bachelor, that's where I had seen such a view before. Florida has nothing like it and neither did the parts of Mexico I had visited. For the first time, I had finally made it. The view was absolutely breath taking.





A few colorful shacks lined the short little road along the crest of the mountain. A young and fit looking Rasta was waiting for us under the sign that said Mayfield Falls.

Chicken: “That's my brethren, Sheldon. Go he is waiting for you!”

I was still busy taking pictures while Daisy, Jamar and Sheldon disappeared down an incredibly steep set of a thousand stairs, and vanished under a cover of Banana leaves and Orange groves.

[Hubby-man]

On the bottom of the stairs Sheldon waited to guide us over a hanging bridge, that offered a first view of the incredibly clear water we were about to enter.



On the other side of the bridge we were led down a footpath to a wide open campsite, while Sheldon gave us a crash course in Jungle agriculture. We examined Coffee and Cocoa Bean, Grapefruit, Ackee, Oranges and Turmeric Root. We picked, tasted, opened and smelled.

Trailing behind with my camera I found Daisy sitting on the side of the path, her eyes acid-trip-wide as she touched the leaves of Mimosa pudica and watched them magically fold up like an enchanted book.

Daisy: “Oh man, I could sit here for hours and just watch this! This is amazing! Why didn't anyone tell me this existed?”

We had to run to catch up with Jamar and Sheldon. They were waiting under a huge round thatched roof in the center of the camp site. We changed in to our bathing suites and put on our water shoes.

WATER SHOES! - Daisy didn't bring any and she didn't want to rent them.

Here is her advice:

[Clarity]

Don't do what I did...

RENT THE WATER SHOES

Trust me.

[Hubby-man]

...With that I have to leave you
We haven't gotten to the falls yet, but now it's late and I have to get up real early (bad combo).
More coming soon!

[irie always]

I can't imagine doing Mayfield without water shoes - Oh my Lord! lots of slippery and sharp rocks to manage. Another cliff hanger ............loving your trip report and pictures - just like being there.

[marley9808]

LOL about the water shoes!
Jamaica is the reason I own water shoes....I never go to the island without them!

I am just loving this guys! Jamar, I loved your "non-description" description of your trip to Mayfield....I thought it was perfect.

I just read this update like I would imagine someone who was stranded on an island would eat their first meal after being rescued.....
I logged in, saw there was an update, got so excited, read through it in a flash and now I am sad that I read it too fast because it is done (for now)....oh well, I guess I will just read it again and wait for the next update.....I swear this trip report is better than any of the books I have read lately or are reading now...thanks again as always for satisfying our needs of trip report updates LOL

I have to say though......BEST quote of the report so far:
From Markus: "Airline Commercials, National Geographic and The Bachelor, that's where I had seen such a view before."

Hahahaha, that one killed me...so funny...and so true!

[Manda81]

Okay did you ever mention that the maiden name was McIntosh??? .. I am buzzing all over lol My friend that lives here is Jamaican he is a McIntosh he has family in Mandeville and Kingston and Lucea and just spent 3 weeks down there with everyone his name is Marvin. He also told me he has a cousin that works in a hotel in Negril. AHHHH Could you imagine if a long lost relative was one of my best friends?? As soon as I can get a hold of him I will be asking about Thomas and Charles McIntosh and see if that rings a bell. I understand there could be no relation but how exciting!!

[Rum-polephoreskin]

We were joking about water shoes yesterday as we were nearing the end of packing.
Your tip has saved us some where and tear.

Beyond that the writing flows as always.
Another A+ (speaking pedagocically).


And thank you.

PS Every time Markus refers to Clarity as Daisy, I think of "The Great Gatsby".