Friday February 26 - Adventures in the Jungle

We had planned ahead of time to spend today on a tour of the southern side of the island, and it turns out it was the most perfect day to do so. The morning dawned with mostly clear skies and nice sunshine, but cooler temperatures and high waves, which made the beach not as fun for swimming anyway, but meant that inland would be a nice day with low humidity and no rain.

We started our morning with an early breakfast. This is what I have just about every morning here on the beach... oat porridge, toast, and coffee.



After taking in our fill of breakfast, we loaded up our stuff and climbed into Tyrone's van for the day. The plan... Black River Safari, YS Falls, and a tour of the Appleton Rum Factory.

Traveling with a familiar driver made the tour feel more like a personal hang-out day with a friend, rather than a formal tourist ride. As we rode along he told us about where he grew up, where he hung out as a teenager, his time in the States, and peppered in little facts and trivia about the island... who lives in which village, which city had electricity first, where to get the best peppered shrimp. We zipped along the southern stretch of the island for a while, then turned inland towards the hills, and he described the circle we'd be taking to hit all 3 attractions in one day.

First stop - Black River Safari.

This trip had been on my personal agenda on our last journey to the island, but we ended up not being able to squeeze it in. I'm actually kind of glad of that now, because the drive was so much better with Tyrone taking us, and the weather last year was miserably humid on the day that I had wanted to go.

There are several companies that operate on the Black River (named so because the pete moss on the banks of the river make the water look black) The main tour company has large flat pontoon boats, the interior is very similar to what you see in the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. There are smaller pontoon boats that can go further upriver as well, and it sounds like there are even canoes you can take with a guide (though I personally would not opt for that) When we arrived at the front office, Tyrone set us up with the tour guide for the next large pontoon ride, and we headed down to the dock to load up.

Immediately as we set off, there were snowy egrets just about everywhere...


... They seemed to mostly be on the opposite side of the boat from me, but there were a few on my side that I managed to capture on film.

These birds seem to be pretty common around major waterways... there's a river in Negril where the bushes along the banks are absolutely covered in these birds, though the bridge is by a busy intersection so I'm reluctant to hop out into traffic to snap a shot.

The captain of our boat stayed slow and steady through the beginning passageway, pointing out birds and plants along the way, and then we headed further up river. I settled into the front with G next to me, opting to sit on the floor of the boat with my lens sticking out under the railing. Here is the point where three rivers come together.



As we slipped into more dense vegetation, the captain had us keep an eye out for crocodiles. I spotted this guy sunning on the banks to our right, so he steered the pontoon boat towards the bank and held us there long enough for everyone to get a turn photographing the beast. I stayed sitting on the ground and snapped away happily.


This image was my other major goal for this trip (the first goal being the leap into the ocean) I wanted to shoot a live crocodile, in the wild.
And I did it! WOOT!

I really don't know what it is about reptiles in general, but I find them absolutely beautiful, and fascinating to look at. I always have (even though they creep me out just a bit) This amazing beast was resting amongst the mangrove trees.

Side note: one of the greatest compliments I've received on this trip was when a couple of the tourists next to me asked if I worked for National Geographic, because I kept switching lenses and shooting just about everything in sight. I answered "I wish" - and one of them said "You just watch... you're going to be published and we're going to say HEY! I was sitting next to her on that pontoon boat!"

This was our view as we meandered upstream, mangroves on either side of the bank.



Our captain called this the "rasta trees" because the roots look like dreadlocks.



There was another crocodile sighting - a wee "baby" - and then we stopped upriver for a little drink break. (there are many, many more photos to share... I can hardly wait to get back and properly edit them!) Heading back down the river at a good clip, we came up close to the dock back into where the egrets were buzzing back and forth.


This guy zoomed right in front of my camera. As I followed his flight path, my eyes landed on the bank across the river - to where this guy lay out sunning himself.



He opened and closed his jaws several times while we all pointed our cameras, and the captain patiently held the boat steady for us.


Just as we pulled in, I managed to catch this elusive heron hiding just out of view in the bushes along the bank.

While we were on our safari, Tyrone had kept himself busy visiting people he knew in town, and picking up some fresh fruits from the market. This is what ackee looks like when you buy it fresh - the bag on the top is the "garbage" (the outside of the fruit) You can see the outer shell as well as the black seeds. The bag on the bottom is the fruit itself, picked out of the skins and put in a separate bag. You can see how the shape of it wraps around the black pits and tucks into the odd shaped skin.


The combination tour of Black River and YS Falls usually includes lunch, but Tyrone had them leave that off the price - he had a better place to stop along the way.

This is a fairly common sight here - roadside stands with food cooking over an open fire. Here we are hopping out of the van to go take a look at what they have to offer.



This is the outdoor kitchen, several pots of food to choose from. There is almost always rice and peas, and some kind of boiled or steamed vegetable mix, and a couple of meats. This stand also offers a pea and pumpkin vegetarian soup (which is why Tyrone likes to stop here) Here is the chef serving up a cup of soup.


I opted for curried shrimp - which came with rice and peas and the veggies. This was an amazingly flavorful and filling lunch. I swear, these little stands on the road consistently have the best tasting food on the planet.



Back in the van and up into the hills further, we came around to YS Falls.

Now - on our trip last year we went to Mayfield Falls which was described as a "hike up the falls" and was literally a hike up the middle of the falls. All water, with some points being deep pools to swim through - so I could not bring my camera. YS falls is quite different. YS falls are steeper steps of falls up the river, so instead of hiking through the water you actually take a gravel path up to a staircase that runs along the bank.



Had I known this prior to getting out of the car, I would have brought my big camera and my Holga... but looking back on the day, I realize I also would have spent too much time shooting, and we would have missed out on the rum tour - so it all worked out for this trip... but next time I would dearly love to spend an entire day at the falls with my camera and tripod shooting. But I digress. We did have the waterproof camera with us, so we have some shots from that.

We walked up the steep steps to the top of the falls. Along the way there are several places to step off the staircase and swim in the pools of fresh spring water. This is the uppermost pool, though it was closed for swimming today due to a strong current from the storm just prior to our trip.



The next level down was an open pool, so D and I stepped in and waded around. D took off to the deepest part, just under the waterfall.



I didn't feel comfortable swimming into the current, so I found a nice sturdy rock to lean on instead.



At the bottom of the falls is a freshwater spring pool that stands about 4 feet deep. The bottom is all gravel, like the bottom of a fish tank. We swam around here for a while, enjoying the fresh cool water.



We were cutting close to closing time at Appleton, so we quickly dried off, changed clothes, and caught the tractor shuttle back down to the parking lot. From there we were on our way to the last stop on our journey... Appleton Estate (aka D's Mecca)

Appleton was accepting it's last tour group at 3:30... we arrived at 3:45. The parking lot was full but quite... the front gate was locked. As we approached a security guard came out, and Tyrone started talking to him rapidly in patois. I understood very little of what he said, other than "buy some rum"... the guard walked into the building and emerged a few minutes later, opening the gate and allowing us onto the grounds. In the main lobby of the building Tyrone walked back and forth between two people, and within about 5 minutes he had us set up on the last tour of the day.

Have I mentioned that Tyrone rocks?


D started to lift his left leg into the Captain Morgan pose, but stopped just as I started shaking my head. Wrong rum company.


I found the position of the barrel with the most signatures underneath this sign to be highly amusing.


The aging house is a huge cavernous which the public is locked out of, aside from this front shelf of barrels. Apparently on a hot day the interior of the aging house feels cooler and cooler as the alcohol evaporates. It's also possible to get drunk by hanging out inside on a hot day for about a half an hour, just from the absorption of the vapors.


There were signs throughout the property - this one talks about Blue Mountain coffee. I learned that there is a difference between "Blue Mountain Coffee" and "High Mountain Coffee" (the latter still being from the mountains, just not *the* Blue Mountain)


One of the many pretty scenes on the property of Appleton Estate.

The tour was entertaining - they talked us through the manufacture of rum, how it used to be made, and how they make it now. I was amused by how often D would ask a question just before the tour guide was about to explain exactly what D was asking about. In between stops on the tour, D walk alongside the guide asking specifics about the coconut rum - where is it made, how is it blended, do you make your own coconut extract here or buy it somewhere? In the end we did not come out with proprietary information, but we have a better understanding of why Coco Mania is the best coconut rum in existence.

The tour winds down back into the main lobby, where there are tasting rooms. As D enjoyed his taste tests and decided on what to bring back with us, I wandered the grounds outside with G looking for photographic opportunities.

Appleton has a few resident peacocks and peahens wandering the grounds and as I followed G around the lawn she found a large male who was fond of showing off his feathers. He turned this way and that, shaking his feathers and looking extremely important. I managed several shots with my Pentax and Holga alike.



Fully supplied with rum to take home, and some to enjoy at the hotel, we piled back into the van for the ride back around the island to Negril.

Part of the journey included driving down Bamboo Avenue.



Tyrone pulled off the road to let me hop out and shoot a few pictures, and before getting back in I turned and got a shot of one of the sugar cane fields behind us.



It was a very long day, but full of adventure and fun. G was a real trooper, enjoying all the tours, talking with the other tourists and guides alike, and generally just going with the flow and soaking it all up. About halfway back to the hotel she laid her seat back and zonked out, bouncy and squirrely drive be damned.

Friday nights at Idle Awhile now include an all you can eat buffet and live music, and we arrived at the hotel just in time for the music to start. D grabbed us a table and we settled in - ordering a regular dinner for G and D and I making several trips to the buffet.

This was possibly one the best buffets we've ever been to - mainly because it included lobster. Tails and tails of lobster perpetually on the grill, along with curried shrimp, rice and peas, vegetable mix (green beans and carrots this time) a potato dish of sliced potatoes and onions, and grilled beef. The only thing on the buffet I had to worry about with my allergies were a couple of salad dressings, which were well contained in bottles. I've rarely been to a buffet where I was so free from worry, so I indulged.

What I loved, too, was that after we had our fill of dinner we were still able to enjoy the view of the live music from the hammock on our balcony throughout the rest of the night.

Thursday Feb 25 - beach browsing

This morning we walked next door to Coco La Palm for breakfast. Last year we had a dinner there that was among the worst of our meals, but we were there on a dead night in the off season, so we thought we'd give it another shot when it was busier. I'm glad we did, breakfast was actually quite good.

I veered away from my usual porridge and opted instead for the vegetarian plate - ackee, calaloo, boiled veggies, tomatoes. The ackee is prepared with some peppers and onion and spices, the calaloo has some onion diced into it. Everything had a great flavor, with just enough spice to make it interesting, but not so much that I needed to drown myself in water to eat my food.


My breakfast - D took the photo upside down :)

During breakfast our regular juice vendor, Tony, walked by and D got his attention. Here he is with D on the beach.


The thunder storm the night before kicked up the winds harder than we've seen here before. Though the sky seemed relatively clear, the sea had moved up high and the wind whipped the dry sand so hard it stung a bit. The waves were crashing too hard for G to swim, so we opted for a stroll down the beach on the wet stand instead, heading towards the Waves market area down the beach.


Walking in the wind - the temperature was perfect, but the sea was too strong for swimming this morning.


Inside one of the shops in the market area, after D bought a necklace the vendor gave G a key fob she had been admiring on the shelf - it looks like a little rasta man.


Here I am taking a photo of the little market area. There is a larger one further up the beach, but it's a long walk that we opted not to take.

We've discovered that the vendors who are directly on the beach seem a lot more aggressive than the ones inside the market areas. The beach vendors will walk right up and talk you into coming in to their booth to see what they make, whereas the ones in the market sit and wait for you to walk up, then talk to you and ask you if you like anything you see. I felt far more relaxed and able to browse inside the market area.


Standing on the beach end, looking down the market these are the store fronts. Almost all of them have a second half to them (what you see is the front half, then walk inside and they are twice the size, with a second little room of shelves)



There are a few tables outside - this is D negotiating the price of his necklace. I'm still on the lookout for a carving I like.


Here is the shot of the market area I was taking in the photo above. I love how it's among all the little palm trees. On the beach the wind kept us nice and cool, but the moment we stepped off the sand we felt the heat of the sun directly, and the breeze was blocked by the surrounding buildings.

After some browsing and talking with some of the crafters in the market, we walked to the end to Niah's Patties for a mid-day snack.


This is the exterior of Niah's Patties - looks like it is all made from bamboo.


D took these shots of our patties being prepared. They keep sheets over the table of food - I think to keep debris from blowing onto it, or to keep the sun off of it (or both) They prepare the patties to order, so it takes about 10 or so minutes to receive your food once you order.


Here is the area where they cook the patties. They keep the wood fire fueled all day long and a pan of hot oil going. Once the patties are assembled on the table, they are dropped into the oil for a quick frying before being packed in small paper bags and served up.

We decided this would be lunch, so we ordered 4 different patties - banana, ackee, Irish, and chicken. ("Irish" is another word for potato) D's favorite was the Irish, which had some kind of spice and onion and pumpkin inside... my favorite was the ackee.

Clearly I'm really enjoying the ackee while on the island :)

After lunch on our patio, we cleaned up and rested inside the room out of the wind... reading, napping, and playing games. The wind had died down a bit, but the sea was still rough so we decided to take a taxi down the street for dinner at Canoe.

Canoe was one of our favorite restaurants on the last trip - they have a killer jerk shrimp that we've been craving since we got here. We arrived shortly before dark, and the winds were blowing pretty hard in the unprotected area, so we opted for a seat inside instead of on the patio.


Here we are tucked into the corner bench.

After ordering our food, D stepped outside to take photos of the exterior.


Canoe is literally on the water, though the sea is not usually this high. If you look in the right side of the shot you can see how the water had lapped up over the street the night before.

There was supposed to be a webcast tonight, however just a short while before we arrived the power had gone out. They cook over grills and fires, so they were still open for business, but the busy little place became a romantic getaway as the sun went down and the candles were lit.



We ordered a couple of appetizers of jerk shrimp - which is served with a diced melon salad. The salad is an absolute necessity given the spiciness of the shrimp dish.



I had grilled mahi-mahi for my dinner - served with pasta, and grilled vegetables (that's the chunk of fish in the upper left corner of the plate) It was very well prepared - perfectly cooked and seasoned with grilled onions on top for extra flavor.


Just as we began to eat, power was restored to the restaurant and we were able to enjoy our meals and see them too.

After dinner we asked for a taxi, and the chef of the restaurant called up Tyrone to come grab us. G was feeling chilled wearing just her bathing suit, but still wanted dessert, so we stopped at a little place on the way back to get something for her to eat back in the room.

Tonight the hotel next door had live music, so I settled into the hammock on the porch to swing in the breeze, enjoy the music, and go through my photos from yesterday.

Wednesday February 24 - photo journey and lightening crashes

In this particular room, we are lulled to sleep at night by the cricket-like insect sounds, and stirred awake in the morning to the sounds of the kitchen at the next door resort setting up for breakfast. Some people have complained about the noise in this room (although the windows have actual glass in this room, not just screens, the walls are still a bit thin, and we are right on top of the kitchen next door) but I haven't been bothered by it yet. I think if it weren't for them starting up at 7:30 I'd be sleeping in pretty damned late every morning.

As it is, this morning I woke at 7:30, made myself some coffee in the room, and sat in the hammock to update the blog. I picked up one of the more expensive types of coffee here - normally it goes for $50 a pound, I bought a half pound for roughly $20. I have to say, there is a distinct difference in the flavor, almost an almondy nutty flavor to it without having to add anything. This surprises me, because as much as I drink coffee, it's rare that I notice flavors like that (beyond "this is too bitter" or "this is just right") unless I taste them side by side. This does stand out, and I'll likely be getting some more to take home.

After a few cups of coffee, D and G woke up and got themselves ready for the beach. I met them down on the deck of Chill Awhile for breakfast (oat porridge, toast, and plantains all around) and then we got in our morning fish-feeding frenzy. The water was still a bit wavy, and because of that not quite as clear as I've seen it - I had to swim right up to the fish to see them, and then there would suddenly be a ton of them right in front of my face (and I may have kicked one. I didn't mean to! They zip around so fast they can normally avoid wild feet)

We sat in our chairs contemplating what to do with the day when D suggested we try going to this Rhode's Hall Plantation just outside of town. We've read about it before - you can go horseback riding, or on a tour of the crocodile and bird reserve, or just stroll the grounds, or snorkel just off shore. Today they were having a webcast for one of the travel forums online that D is a part of, so we thought it would also be fun to go wave at the camera.

We grabbed a camera and headed down the 15 or so minute drive out of town to the plantation. The driver took us in a little ways to a parking area, where we were greeted by an American who either manages the property or owns it (I couldn't quite tell which, but she described the plants as being "I've got almonds growing there" and "I've got soursap over here") Being there for the webcast meant being involved in the pizza party - so we ended up having a variety of pizza for lunch, along with rum punch and sodas.

I'm not terribly inclined towards horseback riding myself - due mostly to my allergies - but the price seemed a bit high in my opinion anyway, so we decided to skip the tours and wander the grounds photographing and enjoying lunch instead.
There were many a scene to find, and lush vegetation everywhere, along with some resident peacocks and peahens, and an abundance of lizards. Here is a sampling of some of (and by some I mean a fraction of) the shots.


G and I on the main lawn area of the grounds - there were many picnic tables under thatched roofs to pick from.



Rhode's Hall Plantation is directly on the water - apparently there is some good snorkeling to be had just off the shore.


We believe this is a plantain tree? The fruit grew just above my reach, so this was not very tall (though it looks like the fruit pulls the top of the tree down)


D among some bamboo. I love that he's wearing a bamboo printed shirt for this :)


No matter how much sunblock I put on my face, I still tend to get a Rudolf nose, hence the hat.


One of the resident peacocks. They were fairly tame, but didn't much care for me following them around to get pictures of their full tails.


They didn't mind sitting still for closeups though.


Another example of lush vegetation on the property.


This little guy has a bright yellow throat, that he was only inclined to show off when my camera was not ready.


There were lizards everywhere. I call this one "Lizard Yin & Yang"


We found a soursap tree on the property.


G and I amongst the lush greenery.


WICKED cool spider - he was a good 3 inches in length (body only, not counting legs) and his web was fishing-line strong.


D and G under some gigantic leaves.


Cool cool palm tree stretching up to meet the sky.

Once we'd had our fill of the afternoon's photographic journey, we arranged a ride back to town with Tyrone. Once back at the hotel in the heat of the late afternoon, we all quickly changed into our swimming gear and hit the water for some swimming and cooling down. D and G bounced around in the waves, playing and practicing jumping, while I swam lengths up and down the beach. Waterlogged and decently cooled down, we returned to the hotel to clean up for dinner.

Tonight we wandered down the beach to just see what we ended up walking into. A little ways up the beach - further than we've walked before - we came across a place called Tree House Hotel, with a bar/restaurant right on the water. We ordered, began sipping our drinks, and played with the camera a bit while waiting for our dinners.


Long exposure (the blur int he background is G)


This is a setting called "color swap" - that's my rum and pineapple juice.





My dinner was garlic shrimp, served with the usual rice and peas and some combination of vegetables that looked more like a little side salad to me. D's dinner came with a green beans/carrots combination and I ate probably half of his veggies along with my dinner. On our way back to the room we remarked how cool it had gotten. It's usually decently cooler when the sun goes down, but even so... when we'd walked down the street the night before after sundown we were still sweating by the time we'd reached our destination... but tonight we were quite refreshed by the steady breeze. I thought perhaps it was because we were literally on the water. I hadn't made the connection to my growing sinus headache that perhaps the weather was turning.

As we arrived at our room we cleaned up for bed (this involves G and I washing our legs. We are prone to being bitten by sand fleas at night, so any time we walk on the sand at night we put bug spray on our legs first, and wash it off as soon as we return to the room) I took a couple motrin for my headache, and tucked in for the night.

The headache, it turns out, was from the drastic change in barometric pressure outside.

Sometime in the middle of the night I was woken by the distant sound of a freight train - it was a low rumble at first... and just as I gained some sense of where I was I heard a massive CRASH! I sat straight up in bed and listened... the sky outside the room lit up with sputtery flashes, then another massive rumble-rumble-rumble-CRASH! Next came the plink-plink-plink... plinkplinkplinkplinkplink-WHOOOOOOOSH... absolute tropical downpour, with lightening crashes and thunderclaps and massive wind swooping in out of nowhere.

Well, not out of nowhere... I learned later this came down from Florida.

I scrambled out to the porch to pull in our semi-dry bathing suits - though the porch is entirely covered, everything had gotten soaked in the 2 minutes of rain that had already fallen. I also tried to get some video of the storm on the waterproof camera, but it didn't come out as much other than a black screen and a lot of wind sound - with one good thunder rumble in the middle. I'll try to isolate a frame of lightening when I get back to my computer at home. I did stand in the doorway enjoying the tropical storm for a while, until I began to feel chilled, then I hurried myself back to dry off and crawl under the covers. I listened as the thunder meandered it's way away from us, and the rain slowed from downpour to heavy rain, and then the cricket sounds began. One lonely insect singing, then a distant one responding, and as the rain let up more critters began to sing I drifted back off to sleep.