A Look at Amazonia

The leaf of this lily is said to be strong enough to hold a baby. It is used in some Hindu ceremonies to eat out of.

I guess it is because Guyana is Caricom why I often forget that it is really part of the amazon rain forest and does not share anything topographically with us.

So going to the museum was really a pleasurable experience since there I got a real education and an opportunity to view their wide range of animals and birds, all stuffed of course.

For example, while I knew they had monkeys, I had no idea that they had so many varieties including one called the howler monkey which has a swollen throat and neck which allows it to make the loudest noise known to man, louder than even the elephant. And while I always thought that all reptiles ate us, I learnt that the Caiman is really harmless except for the huge Black caiman, found only here, which grows to 12 feet and is the only one aggressive to man.

Interestingly, while sloths are known to have three toes on the hind legs, the only two toed sloths are found in Guyana.

Colourful macaws at the zoo

There are also a wide variety of birds. While we were at Kaieteur falls, the Amerindian guide showed us an orange coloured bird called "Cock of the rock" which he said is very  rare and which bird watchers pay a lot to go to Venezuela to try and get a glimpse of, but because Guyana has so many resources, they do not need the tourism dollar, so make no effort to exploit the many rare phenomena they have here. (Unfortunately the darn bird flew away before I could get a picture of him!)

 Anyway I saw a large variety of their birds at the zoo (no cock of the rock though) but the macaws are quite colorful.

And would you believe Guyana has the largest fresh water fish ever discovered? (I would have expected that to have been found in the Nile or the Amazon river). That is the Arapaima which grows up to 15 feet.

They also have a turtle with a flat head and neck. Weird looking creature. It  only grows up to 18 inches however.

Seriously though, if you are from one of the Caricom islands, you really need to visit their zoo and museum to appreciate the difference.

Black and loving it.

I love my colour. It is absolutely wonderful being black.

Why am I off on this tangent today? Because every time I travel, it feels so wonderful to be able to blend in  with the rest of the population so no one notices you or worse harasses you. (Well that's not quite true for in Negril they are such professional harassers that everytime I lie down on the beach, some asshole appears putting on a fake American accent and which forces me to have to tell him a bunch of badwords!)
Anyway, even when travelling in white countries, being black is an asset, for if anyone looks at you too hard, you can always scream racism at the top of your voice! Lol.

Anyway, here I was in Guyana marveling at how I go everywhere and see no sign of crime (apart from the domestic murders you read about in the papers), not even someone bawling tief in the crowded Stabroek market (a Trinidadian I met agreed with me that downtown Georgetown has to be the busiest city in Caricom, far busier than downtown Kingston or downtown Port of Spain) or women hugging up their handbags under their arms as we do at home.  (I was once in Grenada and a man said to me "You are from Jamaica". When I asked him how he could tell he told me it was because I was hugging my handbag tightly!

 Anyway, back to Guyana. On the trip to Kaieteur falls,  I met this poor American white guy and guess what? He was robbed twice in two days. poor guy. Here he is sailing around the world in his 39 foot sailboat for the past 3 years and when he gets to Georgetown, as he disembarks in the night at the wharf behind the market, he is robbed by a machete wielding man. Then the next day, they steal the dingy tied on to his yacht. Tough luck foon him but i have not been having anyn problems.

Anyway, I have been seeing these boats coming and going behind the market and decided to see where they were going, for they operate in a really orderly and efficient manner and are safety consciousness is the order of the day.

After about a five minute ride across the huge Demerrara river, I discovered that they end up at a small town full of vendors and shoppers called Dreev-en-Hoop. (The Dutch were the colonial masters before the British, hence the large number of foreign sounding names.)

 Anyway, it was just like Georgetown except that whereas there you hear reggae and dancehall music every where you go, here its popular Indian music. 

So I did not tarry long. but boy, I had no idea a river could get so rough. It was as rough going back as I have ever seen an ocean and I was wondering if we were going to end up overboard!! However, I noticed that apart from one lady who screamed out, everyone else appeared calm, so I assumed that was normal  since that section of the huge Demerrara river is almost at the mouth of the fierce Atlantic Ocean.

Thank heavens it did not end up being a case of curiosity killing the cat!

No one is allowed to be on the boat without a life jacket.

Kaieteur Falls, Guyana

Absolutely awesome, is all I could think of after seeing Kaieteur Falls for the first time as our 9 seater plane flew low in the huge gorge following the Potaro river from the Pakaraima Mountains and over the 741 feet falls.

View from above (taken with a cheap camera)

Yes, I had seen the brochures and it had looked fabulous, but my friends were right when they told me that you had not seen Guyana if you had not seen the falls.

Expensive to get there yes, but worth every dollar.

All I could think of was that if Jamaica had something like that we would have 6 million tourists per year, not 3 million. 

Yet Guyana is so rich in gold, forestry, bauxite, diamonds and now oil, that they pay tourism scant regard. 

It is also amazing that a huge country like that with all its natural charm only had just over one hundred and forty thousand visitors last year and most were Guyanese who live abroad. 

To get to what must really be the 8th wonder of the world (the Guyanese call it that) we set out from the International airport in a 9 seater twin propeller plane flown by Captain Anil Ranglochan and believe it or not, I got my first flying lesson. For I had the honour of sitting with him in the cockpit where I got the opportunity to use the foot directional pedals and the steering wheel looking instrument which you pull up to get the nose of the plane up and push down to descend. 

It was quite an exhilarating experience but I didn't try it for too long, thinking I might just dump us all in the thick jungle below.😄

And thick jungle it is for it was not until we had flown about 20 minutes before we saw clearings where the mining sites at Mazaruni where they are extracting gold and diamonds at a rapid rate.

Apart from that there are few clearings before the Potaro River and the breathtaking  plateau and gorge comes into view. When we landed at the small airstrip, we were 1500 feet above sea level. Our guide was a Patamouk Amerindian (that's the tribe that discovered the falls) named Leroy. He lives in a cottage with five other guides at the national park but the nearest village to them is 20 minutes away by foot. The name of that village is Chenapaya and has a population of between 600 and 700, many of whom are Guyanese rastas.

From that village one has to walk for two more days to find another settlement. Deep, deep forest indeed.

We got our first view of the falls from Boys Scout view and that when we learnt that the width of the falls was approximately half of the 400 foot width that you see during the rainy season.

 According to Leroy at full blast, these falls dump 136,000 gallons of water per second in to the valley below. 

Boy those Amerindians were certainly right when they called Guyana the "land of many waters".
The flora around the falls are unbelievable as are the stark raw cliff

 edges.

Next we took in the view from Rainbow View and from the number of rainbows that sprung up in the prisms, the name was well selected.

Next we went to the top of the falls to see the water coming down the huge river to the edge. It was here that a young Guyanese girl on tour, ran past the guide two years ago to her death. This was actually the first suicide at that site in recent times although the legend is that it was named for Kai, a chief, or Toshao who acted to save his people by paddling over the falls in an act of self-sacrifice to

Makonaima, the great spirit.

As I am one who does not like heights, I could not even contemplate anything so dramatic but since I couldn't swim, I doused myself with some of the warm, comforting  water.

After what was a really wonderful tour, we flew over large sections of the Essequibo river and really got an opportunity to see the vastness of that magnificent river with its numerous islands.

A tour that was really worth it all the way.

 For additional photographs, see; 
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150839179986823.470228.763366822&type=1&l=34477082b3

THAT GREAT WALL

When the Dutch built that over 200 mile wall to protect their colony, Guyana, from the fierce Atlantic ocean, they had no idea how important it would become three hundred years later.

For not only does it still provide well needed protection, as the country is below sea level, but also, today the sea wall is a welcome advertising billboard for businesses, a jogging trail for keep fit fanatics like myself, (it is about 4 feet wide) and a favourite lyming spot for all Guyanese on weekends. For in the early hours, the green verges are crowded with tents, food stalls and children rides for families to enjoy and in the nights after the kids have left, it becomes the hot spot for lovers. In fact, a Guyanese friend joked that he thought half of Guyana was conceived in the vicinity of the wall for it is almost every teenager's dream, to lose it there!

Vendors set up stalls by the wall

Eat you  heart out China for there is a great wall here too! 

Madelyn's First

Hip hip hurray, Madelyn turns one today.

I hear she had a big birthday party on Saturday and got lots of gifts to boot, but unfortunately this grandma just could not be there as I am in South America. To tell you the truth though, even if I were at home, you would not catch me alive in Colorado in April as last year when she was on the way, I was very much there and nearly froze to death.

Looking forward to seeing her in July though for that is a very civilized month up there.

I hear she is now chatting up a storm, walking too but no teeth. I will carry lots of yam and dumplings in July for surely she will have some teeth by then!

Suriname

If you are planning a trip to South America, forget Paramaribo!

Naturally that is my opinion and if someone had said that to me, I would have ignored the advice! You see, I have to learn everything for myself! 

Supposedly the largest wooden church in the world.

 Seriously though, unless one is interested in seeing some nice Dutch Colonial Architecture, poverty and underdevelopment, Paramaribo can easily be overlooked. Actually, it is not as poor as Haiti and come to think of it, I did not even see one beggar but while you can visit Haiti , check into an all inclusive and have a wonderful time on the white sand beaches  on a beautiful Caribbean coast and never know that poverty was the order of the day, Paramaribo is not like that. True they do have a small resort where you find Eco inn, Terrica etc. but in Caribbean terms, they are way behind.

I get the impression of poverty there because of the proliferation of derelict looking wooden houses. Granted some of them has expensive looking Japanese cars parked in front or even inside the yard but I still get the impression of poverty. Or maybe they are not really poor but just not into houses. I never went inside one so can't say for sure. But this is the first time in the 21st century that I have been to a city and seen so many derelict looking wood houses with dirt lawns and dirt sidewalks, not even a blade of grass anywhere.

Paramaribo is of course the capital of Suriname, the smallest sovereign state in south America. It is approximately 64,000 square metres with a population of just over half million. It is very much like its neighbor Guyana in terms of climate, religion, proliferation of rivers, population make up and terrain although much more of Suriname is virgin territory, 90% I am told. Also, like Guyana, no retailer takes the mighty US$ and Jamaican music, especially dancehall is king. I was totally amused to hear Vybes Kartel music being played at a store in Paramaribo which sells Hindu paraphernalia including religious material!)

A moslem temple in Paramaribo

To get there we travelled east on excellent roads for about 3 hours to the Berbice bridge. It was when we were in New Amsterdam that I realised for the first time that Guyana once had a motor vehicle industry, for all over the place we saw a vehicle shaped like a fully covered Land Rover being used as taxis. I learnt that when  Guyana had its socialist experiment like we did in Jamaica and there was a shortage of cars, the enterprising 'Guyanese made the Tapir and twenty years later a number of them are still in very active use in the Berbice county.  After crossing the Berbice bridge, we took a ferry at Molson creek to Suriname.(You know when you are in Guyana however by the proliferation of animals on the roads, something you don't see in Suriname.) One does not have to take the ferry however as there are speed boats which also take passengers from one side to the other as there is a great deal of traffic between the both countries, despite the fact that in Suriname most people speak a dialect called Tacky Tacky, a mixture of Dutch, African  dialects. English ....everything. Anyway, most people there speak English to some degree.

Ready to board the ferry at Molson Creek

Then we travelled about 3 hours, excellent roads, scenic country side but far less developed and populated than Guyana, to Paramaribo.
 Paramaribo like Georgetown is not into zoning, so houses and business places exist side by side all over. However while in Georgetown the wooden houses are being replaced at a rapid rate and are rarely seen in the commercial areas, the opposite is true in Paramaribo.

On a morning walk I saw smoke coming out of one of the wooden houses and people frantically kicking in the doors before realising that the place was on fire. I expected  the wooden house to go up in smoke as well as the other two other wooden structures on either side but I must say, their firefighting ability far exceeds ours. For withing 5 minutes 4 fire trucks and dozens of police were on the scene. Within minutes a truck with water was there too but it was not needed and a few minutes later another fire truck arrived.

I was absolutely amazed how quickly they got that fire under control and saved everything else. I guess when you have that many wooden structures you really have develop great fire fighting strategies. Another thing I found interesting was the  many sidewalks which were mainly cobblestone and very wide. It didn't take me long to realise however that they were not only for pedestrians but also bicycles and motor bikes and cars parked all over them too.

What I found most amazing about Paramaribo was the number of casinos, from Royal Princess hotel Casinos and Best Western to non- chain hotels. but they all seemed greatly under utilised!

I just could not come to terms with the underdevelopment of the place considering they export bauxite, agriculture (we saw thousands of acres of rice on the way) and oil. Of course it could be because of the politics as my short visit there gave me some serious insights into the place.

Board houses like these are all over commercial districts

I have long been curious about how Desi Bouterse could have become President after the 2010 elections and even more amazed that he could have been accepted as Chairman of Caricom, considering his credentials. But after hearing the serious allegations about his predecessor,  if these are true, I can see why he could be acceptable to the Surinamese people. (I still can't see how he could be acceptable to Caricom leaders however).

At this time, it seems the Chinese are having a serious influence on Suriname and hardly a corner you pass that does not have a retail outlet with Chinese writing on it. It is alleged that the Surinamese, even the Chinese born are resenting this invasion and they blame the former president who is reputed to have taken away unused land and given the foreign Chinese titles for those properties, making a lot of money for himself privately. When the native owners saw structures going up on their land and checked, they found that their titles were no longer any good! Now such a scenario could really make someone like Bouterse look good although in early 1980 he had led a military coup which overthrew the democratic government and declared a socialist republic.

In what is now recognised as an infamous period, on 8 December 1982, the military under his leadership, rounded up several prominent citizens who were accused of plotting against the government and executed them during the night.

Where the "enemies of the state" were executed.

You know, the late, great Motty Perkins used to say that if robbers could make the law, stealing would not be a crime. 

 Well, I understood the full implications of this in Suriname, for while Bouterse and other officials are currently standing trial for the December murders of 1982, (the trial started in 2007 but has been stalled for several reasons), on April 5th 2012, the government (headed by Bouterse) passed an Amnesty law giving immunity to persons who committed   Human Rights violations between April 1, 1980 and August 19, 1992. 

Naturally the United Nations Human Rights Commission has objected to the legislation, but this seems to have no effect in Suriname or with Caricom Leaders. 

Further, although Bouterse was convicted in absentia in the Netherlands for drug smuggling, this too has had no effect on the electorate or our brave Caribbean leaders.

The president's mansi

Interestingly, I was told by a supporter of his  that the only reason why the Netherlands Government came after him was because he had been acting as their agent in 1980 when he led the coup and he should have neutralized the country's independence status and put the Dutch back in control of the country. (they gained independence from the Dutch in 1975) but he double crossed them.

Boy from what I have seen and heard here about Surinamese politics, all things are possible!

The Mighty Essequibo River

I had no idea Guyana had so many islands and so many with white sands beaches to boot,


until I took a day safari down the mighty Essequibo, the 3rd largest river in south America and the river where miners from all over the world are converging on to  make a fortune from gold, using huge dredges that we saw all over, to bring up the mineral.

Many of the islands you see are huge by Caribbean standards with Hog island being even larger than Barbados. Many are also owned by rich Guyanese who have built "country retreats," none being more beautiful and ostentatious than the house and studio on the island owned by internationally acclaimed Guyanese singer Eddie Grant of Electric avenue fame.

I really have never seen such a large expanse of water in my life either, although I have travelled on the Mississippi river and along side the Colorado river. Just being on the mighty Essequibo is like being on an ocean and it does get as rough in parts with huge swells rising up as the wind comes up. And of course we did not even begin to see the river in full for although it is approximately an hour and a half by speed boat to Bartica, allegedly the oldest village established by the Dutch when they colonized the area, that journey does not even cover a distance of one eight of the mighty river.

Eddie Grant's lavish home on his private island

 We had been on our way for a day trip to the 187 acre resort island in the river called Baganara. To get to  Parika where we were taking the speed boat, we had to drive on the longest floating bridge in the world which spans the Demerara river. This bridge is one and a quarter 1/4 miles long and opens up in the middle to allow through huge container ships which bring goods from all over the world, to the dock behind Stabroek market where  there are several wharves.

The road down to Parika symbolizes perfectly the Guyanese cultural heritage as we saw houses and temples boasting the type of architecture depicting Hinduism, Islam and westernization. You could not miss houses where the residents were Hindu as they tend to fly flags in their front yards each colour selected to inform you whether they were mourning or celebrating some important event. Most of the way down too,  sections of the 280 mile the sea wall built by the Dutch in the 18th century to protect the country which lies below sea level, from the mighty Atlantic Ocean was visible.

Our first stop down the very busy and well traversed river was Fort island which the Dutch colonial masters had used as a look out against their British adversaries and where they also auctioned African slaves. Today the population of that 100 acre island is just 10 families and there is a primary school there with 21 students who will have to travel to  the mainland when they get to high school age.

The banks of the Esiquibo are covered with villages where, agriculture, lumber yards and fishing are the mainstay. River transportation is widely used for all these products. Families of monkeys are also all over going about their business in tall trees along the banks.
We had a wonderful peaceful day at the nature reserve resort of Banganara which is a bird watcher's paradise with some 160 species and several shy small wild animals.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up for that river safari, but I certainly would do it again as just being on that huge wide river and at one with nature was worth every minute.

I can't wait to see more of this vast expanse of rain forest known as Guyana before heading off to Suriname, french Guyana and Brazil.

BACK TO GUYANA

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Protesters calling for removal of Commissioner of Police

I have never been back to Guyana since the the late editor of the Gleaner, Hector Wynter sent me there to cover an election some time in the mid 80's. That was quite an experience since the late Forbes Burnham did not like anyone from outside observing his elections. So despite the fact that I was "Caricom" they only gave me a visa for 3 days! It took me the entire 3 days just to get it extended.

 What I remember most about that visit is how dark it was. The flight had arrived after midnight from Port Of Spain and the trip from the airport looked extraordinarily long and scary, mainly because of the darkness.

 However on this trip although we arrived 1.35am, it was so noticeable how well lighted the route had become. Our local host had however assumed that the flight would have been at 1.35 in the day and was not there. Anyway we met an Italian architect who offered to share her taxi with us, so no problem.

 On the way over, we were stopped by police manning a road block but after exchanging a few words, the taxi driver moved off, telling us it was an "illegal road block". He said if he never had foreign passengers, they would have shaken him down for GUY$1000 (US$20), adding that while the police are poorly paid, they tend to live in big houses, demonstrating that crookedness was the order of the day. Crime here is very low however and I have rarely seen any police presence anywhere else.

Quaint Christian churches, Mosques and Hindu temples are all over

 As I related the experience the taxi driver had to a Guyanese journalist a few days later, I was told that it was no surprise for since the head of the stream was dirty, the force was dirty all the way through. You see, the Commissioner of Police here has been charged for rape and it has naturally caused quite as stink with women's organizations calling for him to be fired. For while they recognise that he has not been tried or convicted, because he is claiming it was "consensual sex" with someone who had sought his assistance as a law enforcer, they maintain that it makes him unfit to hold the office. I agree. I also saw a small demonstration in front of the Court house in Georgetown calling for his removal. However it is not easy to move him as the office comes with serious constitutional protection, but he is "on leave" until  "such time".

A number of things have struck me about Georgetown on this trip. Among them,
1) How dirty it is
2)How cheap it is in comparison to Jamaica
3)How few potholes there are (and it rains heavily every day!)
4) How orderly their transportation system is

City Hall

When I commented to a friend how dirty the place had become, she said it was because the Easter holidays had just passed and they have not had a chance to clean up, but a journalist told me that garbage collection has fallen down badly here. Especially noticeable, she said, if you had been around in the Burnham years, for Georgetown had been among the cleanest cities during that period. "Not because of the government wanting it to be so," she continued wryly, "but because during that period there was so much shortage (of everything) that no one threw away anything !"

Now everyone throws away everything and they dispose of it mostly in the drains. Georgetown needs a serious public education programme about cleanliness, just as we do in Kingston, but I do believe they have the edge here, so city hall which is housed in a very impressive building, needs to step up to the plate! (Would you believe that Hamilton Green, the former Prime Minister, has been mayor of the city for years! Shame on you sir!!!!!!)

Stabroek market

 I must say however Stabroek market was a surprising exception, as for an extremely busy  market that carries everything from good gold jewellery to yam and potatoes, it was surprisingly clean. Another thing that stands out about that market is the fact that unlike Jamaica and places like Haiti and Mexico, no vendors harass you or beg and plead that you buy something from them to save them from starvation!

 Although there are very few sidewalks in the city, the pedestrian crossings are very well marked and a number of roads have sleeping policemen which forces drivers to cut their speed. Walking here is a pleasure too since one does not have not have to put up with the constant barrage of sexually suggestive comments from just about every male on the road as one tries to go about their business. And I'm searching hard, to find potholes in what has become an extremely bustling city.

There is now a mini fuss regarding license plates which I find quite amusing. The private vehicles have license plates with three letters all beginning with "P" followed by four numbers. Because of the meaning, they decided not to use "POO" but now that they have reached "PPP" there is an outcry in some corners. For you see, PPP is the common name of the leading Indian party (The Peoples Progressive party) which is the majority party in the coalition government so APFNU members are incensed at seeing this on the license plates!

Transportation around the busy city is orderly and efficient with only minibuses plying all the routes. They drive carefully (No racing around like ours) and stop only at the designated stops. And they line up at the depot and when one is full, it moves off and the one behind moves up. So orderly! While they are allowed to play music, it is kept quite low and is definitely background music, nothing more, nothing less. Most the taxis are painted yellow and are only differentiated by the company names and logos on the side and travelling by taxi is also very cheap.

A Hindu temple

I have become so accustomed to everything in Jamaica costing an arm and a leg that I have been simply bowled over at how cheap things generally are here (the same things we import and from the same sources). Take the troubling issue of gas, all imported (they discovered gas recently but have not yet started to extract it yet), here they pay around Ja 90 per litre as compared to our $114 up. Liquor is about half the price of ours, cigarettes so cheap it makes you want to smoke and food and clothes dirt cheap by comparison. It really makes you angry to once again be reminded that what makes up the bulk of the prices of goods and services at home are taxes, not production costs or profits!

One can't help but notice the signs of serious progress here as the board buildings of the past are rapidly being replaced by multiple storey concrete ones.( Because of the serious flooding that affects the country yearly as their rivers swell during the rainy season, the houses used to be built on stilts) I had been a bit curious to see that every building had plastic water tanks, surprised since Guyana could never have anything close to a water shortage because of the two huge rivers, Demerara and Essequibo, but I was told that these are only used to build up the pressure, not for storage. The water in Georgetown is not potable however so purified water outlets are making a bag

 While Guyanese often comment on the influx of Chinese businesses "taking over", commerce in general is still controlled the the Indians who make up almost 45% of the population while the those of African descent who make up just over 30% of the population, have tended to control the civil service, army, police and some professions. Apart from the two major races, there are nine Amerindian tribes, Brazilians, Europeans and Chinese here so you know that the food offerings at the restaurants are really wide, reasonably priced, tasty and exotic.  I also love the religious tolerance which leads to churches, mosques and Hindu temples being almost side by side on some streets and in the Kitty market, I saw two stalls beside each other, one saying  'Jesus is lord" and the other beside it declaring "Allah is the greatest". Our host was born a Hindu, married a Muslim and converted then became a Christian after divorce. In fact, everyone I ask tell me they go to all the religious festivities. This religious climate here is really refreshing in comparison to ours where christian dogmatism is so suffocating.

 Incidentally, while Guyana is at  least 20 times the size of Jamaica and their population about a third of ours, based on their economic development they obviously have much more effective politicians than we do. For whereas we have been struggling between negative growth and anemic 1/4 and 1 percent growth., they have been performing well since 1989 and really barreling away since the 2000's with GDP averaging above 5% between 2007 and 2011 with estimated growth to be 4.4% this year.

 This turn around in the economy has led to an steady climb in the number of returning residents in a country that had long had a reputation for the migratory tendencies of its citizens.

Good Friday Ride

Jamaica used to have some very sacred traditions. none more sacred than how Good Friday was observed. For this used to be the day when no fire could be lit until after 3 pm and if you were not going to church, you stayed quietly at home.

The white cliffs of St. Thomas, (just before descending to "Wash Off")

Not any more thank God, for if we still held firmly to these traditions, we would have starved today. For normally when going on a ride we pre order breakfast locally but this was not done today. No problem though, for all the way to Morant bay we saw side-walk shops open and people up and about their normal business and when we got there at around 9 am, Robbies Restaurant in the town had already sold off some of its breakfast items. For example, we could only get one mackerel. But not to worry for they had lots of stewed pork, stewed chicken, calaloo and fish.

You see it has become somewhat of a tradition for the super fit ones in Fun and thrills to start the their ride around the island on Good Friday. We the fun loving ones on the other hand, usually leave earlier and ride ahead of them to Portland and then cheer them on, when they are passing. Then  we go off to the beach or river to have a wonderful time before heading back to Kingston.

Either we were too slow this morning or we did not leave leave early enough, for by the time we stopped at the coconut man just before "Wash off," Barry came barrelling off the hill and flew past us, closely followed by Thomas. Gradually the others appeared one by one, all appearing to feel triumphant that they had reached so far!

As usual Orrel came up in the rear motivating a new rider. We on the other hand, got our refreshments from the coconut man before heading off to Morant bay for breakfast.

We sent Michael Chuck to get the breakfast as at first we had planned to eat and swim in the sea behind Paul Bogle park in Morant Bay but the sea was too rough, so we decided to eat at the restaurant then go to Lyssons Beach. While we were at the restaurant, Grace, David and his cute little dog Davy, came along.

Then we heard that Barry who should have driven back to Kingston with us, ( our original plan had been to go to Long Bay where he would have joined up with us to drive back) had flown past everyone and arrived in Golden Grove.

We had to order breakfast for him and told him to ride back but he luckily got a lift back. He later joined us at Lyssons. While we would have been happy to swim at the public beach, Charles, the mouth, gave the watchman at the University Beach a story and he let us in.

We had a wonderful day there, clean, calm waters and almost white sand on the beach. It was there too that we saw this unusual tree with leaves looking like a head of lettuce. No one knew what it was called.

On the way back we stopped at Wong Ken's place just outside of Bull Bay where the Chucks are having a party on Sunday night. Karen was there with relatives preparing the place and they treated us to home made bun and cheese before we headed back to Kingston to catch up on some sleep, for after all we had set out at 4.30am, a time when most Jamaicans are enjoying a lovely sleep, Good Friday or not.


For more photos see photos; http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150787858491823.464447.763366822&type=3&l=af6319fcd1

Racist Amereicans

I found it quite significant that after reading a very interesting article in the Jamaica Gleaner on Saturday 31st March about the historic village of Stewart town in the hills of Trelawny which was founded in 1912 and where you find  the Baptist church built in 1845, supposedly as a replica of Westminster Abbey, as I walked to a supermarket in St. Mary from where I was staying in Boscobel, I saw the name Stewart town on churches and shops there.

The historic Baptist church in Stewart Town, Trelawny

Unlike the historic Stewart town  which we all know about since it is the home of famous girl's school, Westwood, this Stewart town is on the main road from Oracabessa to Ocho Rios and it is typical of our  rural central villages, in that it is made up of just a few shops and of course one or two churches.

Anyway, I was in the area for the weekend to spend time with aunt May, Camille's relative, who had her 88th birthday on Saturday. Aunt May is a returning resident  and a widow, but if you did not hear her age you would never know she was in the big league..... for she does everything for herself, depending on no one.

Why I like to visit her as she lives across the road from Marley Beach , a lovely private beach just up from Beaches, Boscobel.

This is  a quiet cove with a fresh water spring coming out of the crag to the eastern side of the hill.

A funny thing happened down there this weekend however. While we were swimming, Elaine (Perkins) was under the tent reading. Up came two American couples  in a rented car and ordered food. According to Elaine, they were commenting among themselves on the beauty of the country, then one declared. "If Jamaicans did not drive on the wrong side of the road and if the people were white, I  would come here more often..." She said she was flabbergasted but said  nothing to indicate to them she heard the comment.

When she told us, my friend Michael declared that it was a pity he was not there for he would have reeled  out some claath for him! Naturally we were all upset about that type of red neck, racist  comment, but they had long gone by the time we came out and what the heck, I guess even racist's are free to express their views! (As long as I don't hear them!)

Anyway,  the weather was fantastic, the sea great and the food wonderful so it was another pleasant weekend all around, despite those assholes!