Chapter 8

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”
- James Matthew Barrie

Right or wrong, sometimes I feel that I do know the right answer. I am generally the sort who wants everyone to agree to the plan before we get underway, but sometimes, I just need to take charge.

Tuesday morning I awoke to sunshine outside and clouds tucked in beside me. Even on his cloudiest days, things are just better because I get to wake up with my Sunshine. As you know, I am a girl with a list of lists for every contingency. It is time to pull out the 'Sunshine is having meltdown' list and see what we can do.

Over coffee and orange juice in the room, I inform Sunshine that we are going to get a cab and head to Blue Cave Castle for breakfast. This gets a mixed reaction. We haven't yet taken a cab, so he isn't enthusiastic about that but he has heard the word castle and he is intrigued.

"Castle what?" he says.

"Blue Cave Castle," I reply, "It is up on the west end road, up on the cliffs. There is a castle there and they have a restaurant; I hear it is pretty good. It should also be quiet there, no hustlers around those parts."

"Fine, whatever," was the best response he could muster, but I know deep down, he is intrigued.

Down to our hotel parking lot we go to get one of the cabs always lingering there. I know we could go out to the road and try and get a route taxi, but that was far more adventure than I was looking for. When chartering a cab, I had pretty much decided from my research that my going rate was $10 to wherever I was going on the beach road or up to the west end. No one ever disagreed. I am confident our drivers came out to the good on that deal, as we never went far. Was I overpaying? Maybe by Jamaican route taxi standards, but I can't get anywhere for $10 in a cab at home, so I was happy enough with the exchange. We normally tipped a few dollars, depending on the stops we made along the way.

We take off down the road and start winding up the West End. Our cab driver pulls up to the doors of Teddy's Hideaway and through the car window starts pounding on the door, which is locked. Oh no, I thought to myself, please tell me this place isn't going to be closed. The top half of the door opens up, and a few words are exchanged. Our cabbie tells us it is all good man and through the blue door we go.

If any of you have ever been back in the actual restaurant part of Teddy's Hideaway, it is fine, but it doesn't have much of a view. It certainly didn't line up with some of the descriptions I had heard. There are 3 or 4 people in the space and they were clearly all local workers.

We are greeted by Teddy himself, sporting a big wide smile. "Wah wah woh wah."

I literally feel like throwing my arms up in the air in frustration. Why oh why can't I understand a word of the English these friendly people are saying to me. Everyone seems to understand me just fine, so we must be speaking the same language.

On his third try saying the same thing, Teddy has taken to talking real slow, explaining again that we can eat anywhere on the grounds and that he will show us around. He takes us through a narrow, sun soaked passage way, introduces us to his pet crocodile.


We emerge into the main yard of the castle, near the Blue Mountain coffee station. There is not another person in sight.


I can feel the shift in the atmosphere beside me almost instantly. It is like someone has released the valve on a pressure cooker and the steam is pouring out.