From the Blog: Rebel Salute (Part 1)

[rastagirl777]

2007

We drove out of Negril heading south and passing through familiar territory – Sav la Mar, Whitehouse, Bluefields and Black River. I was getting hungry and I knew from previous south coast trips that we’d soon be coming up on a row of shacks that sell fish, shrimp and bammy known as “fish alley”. The vendors would approach the van with beautiful trays of Roast Fish, bags of Pepper Shrimp and cups of Fish Tea. My mouth was watering.

I’d never tried Pepper Shrimp and wanted to get a bag but Bird said wait. He knew a place not too far from there where the shrimp were far better and that we would not be sorry. So we drove a while and soon entered a little town called Middle Quarters. Just up the road a bit the van pulled over in front of a blue shack with a sign hanging “Aunties and Cousins”.
The shrimp was sold by the pound and I ordered one-half pound. It was nothing like the shrimp they were selling at Fish Alley – these were actually fresh water crawfish, some as big as baby lobsters. They were boiled and pickled in a flavorful and spicy pepper and vinegar mixture and when you ate them your mouth tingled. I was blown away. Despite the heat I couldn’t get enough. I ordered another half-pound. We all sat in the funky backyard of the place, sucking the life out of these small creatures, tossing the shells to the chickens at our feet. I smiled at Bird as he sipped his Shrimp Soup, the shrimp head bobbing at its surface. This man knows his shrimp. We hosed ourselves off and got back into the van, happily fed.

2008
Despite our tense and late departure we soon settled in for the ride. Our first stop was to be at Auntie’s for lunch. Her Pepper Shrimp had been calling us since last year and we were psyched to heed that call. We were in Van A with Bird’s friend and it soon became clear he did not know where he was going. Van B was leading but soon left us in the dust. Lea’s driver was a bit of a speed demon. Ron tried to do his best with directions from memory but we missed the mark. We took a turn into Black River and soon found ourselves heading towards Treasure Beach.

While we were pretty disappointed about missing our shrimp we soon realized that in life there are no accidents. We were driving through some of the most beautiful scenery I’d seen to date in Jamaica. We drove through lush hills with sweeping views of the sea, lovely homes scattered along the hillside. Brenda commented on how it reminded her of Tuscany. Best of all, there was no traffic and no cops. The “regular” way would have taken us through the congested city of Santa Cruz.

Shortly after we passed through the small town of Junction we were forced to stop to let a train go by. A train! Massive excitement in the van. Few if any of us had ever seen any time of train in Jamaica. This was a very small freight train probably carrying Bauxite from the mine to the shipping port.

Continuing down the road, much to our surprise, we had to stop again to let this same train pass. We were feeling better, especially when we were able to reach Van B by phone. They were at Aunties and agreed to carry an order of shrimp for us to Little Ochie.