It’s shortly after sunrise but there is already a fair bit of activity about. It’s fairly quiet though as it seems to be a lot of watering, gardening, sweeping and raking. There are a lot more friendly greetings of passing at this time of the morning. Sweetie Pie has loaded up one of her cargo pockets with dog treats and she is very excited. We pass a street dog at one of the lane intersections and Sweetie Pie tries to give it a treat. The poor guy is extremely timid and won’t go for it. Sweetie Pie is disappointed and says,”Now I feel really stupid, maybe this wasn’t a good idea.” “Caring is never a bad idea,” I tell her and give her a kiss. This poor, frightened dog is the only one all week who avoids Sweetie Pie’s treats.
We pass Mi Yard, home of the latest and earliest cup of coffee in Negril. I tell Sweetie Pie we’ll head back there if the Blue Mountain option falls through. We do end up having a very memorable cup of coffee there later. Just ahead on the water side of the road are a series of shacks all connected to each other, a nice little bar set back in one and the Blue Mountain coffee shack at the end on the right. The windows are propped up but the door isn’t open and we call but no one comes to the door. Sweetie Pie says this isn’t the one she was thinking of anyway. We walk a few more yards down the road and she says, “There it is!”
There is a young man standing out on the road looking a little groggy. He greets us and asks what we’re doing today. “Looking for some good coffee,” Sweetie Pie says. “This is the place, mon! Here, come on in, I’ll take care of you.” I’m not really sure exactly where we are at the moment. We enter through a gate between the German Bar and a large multi-story sort of Spanish looking building with a nice garden shaded verandah on the front and a PADI dive shop in back. There are all sorts of different signs around – German Bar, Mary’s Bay, the PADI shop, Easy Rock, Internet Café and several others. We head toward the verandah.
“Late night, big party, Superbowl,” says our hopeful barista. Initially we’re not quite sure if he is coming in or going home when we show up. We tell him we’ll take a to go cup if he has them if he’s trying to get out. “No, no,” he says, “I’ve got nice big mugs you can walk around here with but they’re not to go.” He starts in on what are obviously opening up chores. “Have a look around,” He says,”I’ll let you know when the coffee is ready.”
Now I love this about Jamaica but I can see how it can frustrate certain personalities. He DOES NOT start on the coffee. He has a few other get the place going things he’s going to do every day regardless of circumstances. Getting the coffee going is probably somewhere between 6-10 on his list. So we walk around and look at the property. It is a gorgeous location that I will go into some more detail on later.
