August 28, 2024 - Week 31

This week, I traveled. I visited five of Jamaica's 14 parishes. For clarification, I count stopping at Jamaica's best Juici Patties at Clarendon and gas at Mandeville as 'visiting'. Honest opinion: I'm not too fond of Juici Patties, it's not Juicy.

The first stop was St Mary to visit the famous James Bond Beach and Reggae Beach, long admired by 007 fans and tourists alike. In confirmation of my suspicions, both beaches were closed due to inactivity. Regardless, I did as the locals did and went next door to Pleasure Cove Beach. And if you have been counting, this is the seventh beach I've visited this month and my 22nd beach visit since coming to Jamaica.

The second leg of the journey was me braving a local budget Jamaican tour to St Elizabeth (and yes, I was the only non-Black/Brown person on the tour). Now, I have ideal expectations, then I have practical expectations and then I have Jamaican expectations. But this tour exceeded my base threshold.

With a 7 am start, I arrived (with a Trini friend) at the designated pickup location, only for them to tell us they had moved the location. Surprisingly everyone else arrived early and we were the 'last' ones to get on the Coaster van. (Note: Jamaicans being on time/early is quite a miracle). To our chagrin, the Coaster was packed save for one seat, and the tour guide said the "middle" seats were left. By "middle" she meant the temporary foldable 'flaps' pretending to be seats that bridged the corridor between the 'actual seats'. I was the unlucky one who had to unfold my middle seat and once I sat, I knew my back and neck would be tortured. It was a full-core workout as the van hit potholes, went up hills, swerved in traffic, and made unplanned stops.

On the highway, the coaster, like a struggling asthmatic, had to stop to 'breathe' from exhaustion and overheating before continuing uphill. There were a few moments where I am sure I would have walked faster than it crawled. This is why it took us 4 hours, instead of 2.5 hours.

Regardless, we arrived in one piece at YS Falls, but our Coaster didn't. It backed into another van...but no one said anything, and no one cared, not even the damaged van.

YS Falls was breathtaking - literally. I decided to be daring and swung off a rope and leaped off the 6m(ish) ledge next to the waterfall where I plunged into the cold water.

The next stop was meant to be Floyd's Pelican Bar. I say 'meant' because our driver and guide got us lost. In typical Jamaican style, they asked strangers on the street for directions, and in typical Jamaican style, they were directed to other people for directions.

We FINALLY made it to the Pelican Bar after speeding along in the fisherman's boat to an architecturally impressive structure in the middle of the Sea - reminisce of Waterworld. There we waited for the sunset but were graced by storm clouds and rain instead. As the sky grew darker and the bar closed, we were told that the storm was coming and we should wait it out - to which we replied we would brave the rain back. As there were not enough boats for all of us (of course), one of the passengers stood without support (she had a takeaway container in one hand, a loaded bag in the other, and a backpack), impressively she did not fall off. And none of us had life jackets on, so if she had that would have been interesting. On this trip back to land, we were greeted by a stormy sunset which became the highlight of my trip.

And after another 4 hours - with the van breaking down on the highway, we finally reached home.