Back at the crib we have a nice conversation with the landlord. He really puts us at ease. A few classic Jamaican compliments thrown in. We head up to the roof to get the view in daylight. It is nearly as beautiful as Sweetie Pie and I snap a couple of pics as evidence.
On the way down she snaps a shot of me in the yard.
We chill on the porch for a while enjoying the banana rum cream. I check out the view from the left hand side of the porch, it’s beautiful. We’re very happy. It’s after noon now and we start to think about heading up to SeaStar. I ask the landlord if he has a driver he would recommend, we’d like to have someone regular this week and it seems smart for it to be someone our landlord trusts to be stopping at his yard. He says yes and starts to make some phone calls. No one is available until his fifth or sixth call. In retrospect I feel like I should have sensed some sketchiness at this point but I didn’t. Instead, I was fascinated observing the competition and occasional interdependency of competing Negril tourism service networks. In less than a day I had connections to four separate ones from past and current reaches.
Our driver shows up quickly, he lived just across the lane. Up we head to Seastar and we get checked in. We are in 16, way in the back with a great verandah. There is a view of Francine’s nursery and some huge bougainvillea in the yard. We enjoy the room a little and head back down to the bar. We run into Gerry and Suzie Q who are getting ready to go for a scooter ride. Gerry and Suzie Q on the scooter would be a constantly recurring encounter this reach. We are talking some serious mobility here, these cats GOT AROUND. Of course, all you have to do is read Gerry’s trip report to realize this but I’m gonna tell you right now – Gerry left stuff out! He is a man in motion, constantly in search of new experience. This passion for new experience, and perhaps one other thing beyond our shared LOVE of Negril, is the core of the bond I share with Gerry. Much respect on this front, mi friend. Get it all, Gerry, get every last bit of it!
Drinks at the bar get us into the early afternoon. We told everyone last night we wouldn’t shake the tree too early. We give Marley a call. I have the beginning of a hate-HATE relationship with my Digicel coral phone. It has a user interface and particularly a POS predictive text entry system that makes trying to add someone’s name to a phone number an exercise in anger management. It was Monday I think before I got Marley’s name in and then I gave up trying to get anyone elses. I frequently called three or four people before I finally got the person I was looking for.
Marley says they are going over to SeaSplash for a webcast and party. Brasi is going to be there! Didn't expect to see him until tomorrow. We’re in. I DO NOT REMEMBER how the heck we get to SeaSplash but I think we went with a group of people and I think we started by turning left. We’re gonna meet a bunch of boardies…