Saturday February 20 - adventures in the high seas

Saturday dawned for me with the bright sunshine bleeding through the open slats of the blinds. I rolled out of bed and walked out to the balcony, watching the blue water shifting gently below the bridge. I made my way to the restaurant for a cup of coffee, and came back to the room to sit on the balcony and write, waiting for the rest of the clan to wake up. Just as I was getting up to refill my coffee D woke, so I made my way back to the restaurant for breakfast while he worked on waking G up. Breakfast for me was the same continental breakfast from the morning before, D and G ordered up some bacon and eggs to augment their munching. After a bit of visiting with some other guests, I picked up my yoga paws and headed over to the singsong hut to stretch.






I bought a new pair of yoga paws for this trip (www.yogapaws.com) I highly recommend these if you do yoga, whether you travel or not. They are basically little yoga mats that fit over your palms (like biking gloves) and over the balls of your feet, with an elastic strap that goes over your heel to hold them on. The interior is a bright orange terrycloth yoga towel like material on the inside. They stay in place well with little straps between the fingers (like fingerless gloves) and one little strap on the foot pads (so those fit like a flip-flop). They are super convenient for travel, as they work on any surface (carpeting, hardwood... even rock! Though I did very little yoga on the stones mainly because I didn't want to rough up my pads too badly) But they are also wonderful for home or class use with a mat for a little extra slide protection.

We headed back to our treehouse to sunblock up and prepare for an afternoon out in the water. D suggested we take one of the ladders from the other side of the property, so we'd drop down right where the fish were, rather than have to swim out to them. We donned our gear and D helped G down the ladder, with me following close behind. We swam around the immediate cove for a bit, following along the reefs and watching a few fish here and there... taking turns with the camera to get pictures of each other swimming with G.



(Yes, if you look closely below my flipper, we believe that is indeed a jellyfish. Had I seen that at that moment, you can be sure we would have high tailed it out of the water immediately)








My ears handled the water well, thanks to borrowing D's ear plugs. Though they were a bit too big for me, they stayed in and kept my ears from hurting under water. G did really well - a little bit of fear when her flipper started coming off, and again when we swam through some seaweed, but for the most part she was OK. D decided to take her off another direction a little bit, and I swam around following fish, and trying to get around a bed of weeds. The water seemed pretty clear, then it suddenly wasn't, then I felt an abrupt sensation on my upper right arm - like a ton of tiny little rubber bands snapping on my skin all at once.

Normally when I try to talk through a snorkel it comes out like Charlie Brown's parents. In this instance, however, the words "OW! FUCK!" came out loud and clear. And I'm happy I wore my flippers, because I whipped out of that area faster than I could have possibly imagined I could swim. Once I felt I was safe and clear from the jellyfish area I stopped and popped my head up, looking for D and G - they were zooming towards me from (thankfully!) another direction... headed straight for the ladder. I figured maybe G'd had enough by then and that's why they were coming in, but it turned out D had seen an enormous jellyfish out where he had swam, and it was surrounded by a bunch of smaller jellyfish, and he felt something hit his leg and booked ass out of there, hauling G along with him.

G swears she was stung, but it's difficult to tell if she was, or if it's just a spot where the ankle of her flippers had been rubbing. D was stung a bit somewhere on his leg. I ended up with a welt on the inside of my right bicep, and a good amount of tiny little brown barbs sticking out inside it - not a huge area, maybe 2-3 inches long at best about an inch across. We hoofed it back to the room and showered, and I sat on the chair on the balcony with my tweezers, picking out the tiny little barbs left handed. It still stung for a bit, but I put some benadryl cream on it and ice, and now it's just a series of little tiny red marks where the barbs had stuck in. All in all it's not a terrible experience... it stung and was annoying, but not like the trobbing pain of a wasp sting or anything, and at least it hit my arm and not something like my face or neck - but I've decided to avoid snorkeling off the cliffs for the duration of the trip... which is a little disappointing. However, we'll be on the beach soon enough and there's lots of safe wading and floating time to be had there. Plus, even now as I ask G what the thought of swimming in the ocean she says she had a good time and loved seeing the fish, so the sudden end to the adventure doesn't seem to have put her off of the water.

After cleaning up and tending to my wounds (I swear the right half of my body has taken such a beating in two days... I wonder when the left side is going to get it!) we relaxed in the bar for a little bit before heading across the street for lunch.


The stand prior to opening - the middle panel on the right opens up to make a to-go ordering window.

Today we ate at Ras Rody's all natural food stand across the street. This is the little stand where I'd slipped and fallen in front of the crowd of people yesterday, so I was extra cautious crossing the street and stepping over the V-shaped gutter. There's no menu, just Ras Rody behind the counter there to tell you what there is to eat. He serves ital food - which is a form of vegan diet. As he explained it "der are no animal products... if it don't come from da groun, we don't eat it mon". This is my kind of place, because though the menu is limited to just a few items, I can eat every single one of them without fear.

As we were asking him about his food he explained how the food all comes from either his farm, or organic farms near him. He offered us cups of bean soup - which had the kidney beans along with some greens and potato in a decently thick vegetable broth. As we sipped down the soups he served up two large containers of his complete meal for D and I, as G tasted bits of our food but mainly ate festival. His festival bread was made from a combination of cornmeal and bananas, and came out looking like a large, thick pancake. It was like a very dense, flat cornbread with chunks of banana every so often, and the flavor was similar to toasted banana bread. The meal had yams - which were white, with more of a fiberous texture... rice and peas... and a vegetable stew which looked like it might have been curried, or had a bit of scotch bonnet pepper in it, as it was bright yellow. The stew had potato, calaloo, and I believe carrots. He served calaloo on the side (a spinach like green, mixed with small onion) and a shredded cabbage. It was served in a rectangular styrofoam to-go type box, all pretty much melded together. It was incredibly filling, even though it was completely meatless, and Ras' son talked about how they make the food with coconut milk, and the oil helps to extract the enzymes from the vegetables, so you get everthing you need - proteins and omega 3's - without needing to add meat.

Oh and not that I was counting on purpose, but as we stood there I saw three separate people slip in the same spot I fell, so now I don't feel nearly as clumsy.

The sun began to beat down on us at the stand, so G and I went back across the street to the shade of the restaurant, and D stayed behind to settle up and talk to the owner some more. As G and I sat in the heat playing dominoes it dawned on me... this place has a pool that is entirely jelly fish free! So we grabbed D and went back to change into some swimming gear and cool off in the pool.

Prior to heading in that direction though, D wanted to take a few turns jumping off the high cliff



The Captain Morgan pose - got a little captain in ya? Drink responsibly.



To get the full effect of the contemplation pose, you have to see his face close up.



Blogger is rotating this shot. I don't know why, and don't have time to figure it out, so ya'll can turn your heads to see :)

The pool is kept cool and refreshing, and dipping in was quite a relief. We swam around a bit, G was excited to be in the wather without her floaty, and made her way from one side of the pool to the other, giggling through her snorkel. As we swam we noticed the skies growing darker, and the people working here began to pull the orange cushions off the loungers. I looked off to the south and noticed the air looked gray, the horizon line was becoming blurry. It is so strange to actually watch the rain approaching. I slipped out of the pool and gathered up our stuff just as the first drops were hitting, but rather than head straight back to the room, we decided to stop off in the hammock hut and enjoy the storm there.






G and I snuggled in the hammock.

G and I ran back to the hut to dry off a bit and rest in the dry room while D stayed behind in the hammock to wait out the rain. The cloud burst lasted maybe 40 minutes or so, then the sun came back out and began to dry the paths. Most of the guests had retreated to their respective bungalows, and they began to emerge as G and I ventured out to hunt down crabs to photograph, however they move so quick we couldn't manage to catch them.

(Side note: I realize I'm a total nerd for watching the crabs run and thinking "they look just like replicators!" instead of thinking that replicators were designed to look like crabs running.
....ok so even if I thought the latter first, that's still total nerd.)

with the sun coming back out the temperature rose back up - though it was not unbearably hot on it's own, it seems the steam from the drying rain raised the humidity quickly, so G and I hopped back into the pool.




This is the edge of the "infinity pool" - designed to look like it goes right on into the ocean.






Little Swimmer - no floaty in the pool! She was so happy to be zipping around freely.

She did some lengthy swimming while I paddled along beside her, and towards the end wanted to keep jumping into the pool so she could "rocket back up" and have me catch her. Mostly this involved me getting splashed when she hit the water, and then getting sprayed in the face when she surfaced. We swam until nearly sunset, then gathered back in the room to clean up and head out to dinner.

We asked security to set us up with a local cab, and it turns out Ras Rody is also a cab driver, with his car conveniently located right across the street. He took us down the windy road to 3 Dives - a place we've heard a lot about. (This restaurant has been featured on Food Network, and was also a stop on an episode of the Amazing Race.) Some of the reviews on line seemed sketchy - people said that since the place had been on TV the service slowed down, or the food portions weren't as big, but under the advice of the security guard we decided to give it a shot.



Gayle in front of the wall at 3 Dives.

D ordered our food at the window and picked up a few drinks for us and we settled into our table. A couple from our resort - Amy and Christo - sat at the table next to ours and we began talking about where we were from, what we liked about Negril, etc... They've been to a few of the other islands in the area and told us their likes and dislikes. The food did take a little while, but not any longer than any of the other more local venues we've been to. Most of the non-resort restaurants cook all their food fresh to order, so it takes a little longer than the typical American chain restaurant we are used to. The conversation and rum punch passed the time easily enough though, and we were presented with our platters of food.



My dinner - I couldn't finish it all, ended up sharing half a lobster with D.

I had grilled lobster - and considering I was served 1.5 lobsters for less than the Rockhouse, I was roughly getting the same amount of food for half the price. My lobster was served with calaloo and rice and peas, and a little bowl of garlic butter. It was absolutely outstanding.

As dinner wound down G taught Amy how to play dominoes and we continued our conversation a bit longer before deciding to turn in for the night. D called up Ras and his son came and picked us up. Walking back through the restaurant of Tensing Pen we saw they had just closed up for the night. G sounded disappointed, we had promised her desert for being so brave and trying so many new things that day... as she said something to us, the bartender came out from behind the bar and said "Let me see what I can find you" and headed back to the kitchen. There he found some pineapple upsidedown cake, and he came out with a slice on a plate. G took a bite and said "this is SO GOOD! WOW!" and we heard the bartender giggle as he finished closing down the bar. That was so nice of him to have pulled that out of a closed kitchen just for G!

As G finished her cake, D looked up and noticed a gecko on the ceiling, just above where the coffee is served. I high tailed it back to the room to grab my camera, and stood on one of the chairs to get a few pictures. D then took over the camera to play around before we headed back off to the room to get some sleep.


Cute little lizard!



Hangin out in the bar after closing. (The big thing around my neck is the room key)