Alix, you mentioned retirement; are you and hubby thinking of retiring to Jamaica? I did that, or more precisely, am in the process of doing that, having recently bought a home in Westmoreland to retire to. It's an adventure. Not scared off by the crime (yet). Drop me a PM if you'd like to chat.

These days I don't go into Negril so often. Shopping is better done in Sav or MoBay, and beaches with less hassle can be found elsewhere in Westmoreland. If I go to Negril it's to go out for a nice restaurant meal or to meet up with friends. There's always been a lot of hassling in Negril, in my experience. My impression is that the aggressive hassling is more annoying than dangerous. Rarely, there is an actual assault, but mostly it's just the hustlers running through their playbook of ways to get money from tourists ("first let's try appealing to pity, then let's try scaring them..."). Whatever works. Which is why I say don't give money to hustlers, ever. It's like feeding the ducks at the local pond. If you do, soon your pond is overrun with ducks looking to be fed.

When I bought the house I thought I might occasionally go into Negril to party, but in fact I don't do that. Mainly because it's too darn scary to be travelling home late at night. Jamaicans in general lock up their homes (padlocked gates, grates around all windows and doors for security) and stay home at night. It's not like the US where I would think nothing of driving home at midnight from a night out in Boston. In Jamaica, the roads are bad, there are no services available at night, and while most people are nice, there *are* some criminals out there. Driving by checkpoints with machine-gun-wielding soldiers reminds you of that. So mostly I stay in at night. Which isn't bad since I've made some local friends I can hang out with.

Here's a little anecdote related to all this. Back in August, I was hanging out at home with one of those Jamaican friends, a young woman from Sav who was planning on staying the night. We were just enjoying an evening at home: a meal, glasses of wine, music. She gets a phone call: a friend of her family has just been shot dead in Sav! She wants to go be with her grieving family. Normally I wouldn't go out driving at night like that, but under the circumstances I thought I should drive her home. So I grab car keys and go. Now, I don't see so well at night, so I drive slow. On the way back from Sav, I got one of those aggressive drivers in a big vehicle with high beams on right on my tail like he wants me to go faster. Roads are narrow and bad so he couldn't pass. Flustered by the whole situation, I somehow made a wrong turn and wound up on an unfamiliar road. Then I hit one of those monster potholes and blew out a tire. Pulled over and thought "oh sh*t". Here I was, violating every safety rule in the book. Lost in rural Westmoreland with a broke-down car late at night and not entirely sober. Returning from a trip to Sav that was precipitated by a murder. I hadn't even grabbed my cellphone before I headed out, which I would normally rely on for maps or to call for help if needed. This could have been really bad.

This is where the "most people are nice" comes into play. Someone came out of a house and offered assistance, and he was soon joined by a couple other guys. They helped change my tire and got me pointed in the right direction to get home. They were very nice and we exchanged numbers and I made some new friends.

So it ended well.

Peace and love,

Richard (still alive)