As much as I love the convenience of living in the USA, nothing can equal my annual visit to my homeland, Jamaica.
To begin with, I always try to coordinate these visits with mango season, especially when East Indian mangoes are coming in, as that is my top favorite. Boy, did I ever get a whole heap this year. I was tempted to smuggle some in but luckily, I didn’t as I traveled through Miami airport and they dug up my luggage on my return.
We didn’t
stray much from Silver Sands, as it has the best beach in the island, in my
book.
Milk River spa |
After leaving there, we headed along the South Coast highway (built in the 1970’s) which is almost impassable today, to visit the manatees, called sea cows locally.
They are endangered, and a family is kept at Alligator Hole but unfortunately, we never saw them as the keeper said they were up river.
Incidentally, Alligator Hole is in a swampy section of the Milk River and there are crocs in it but they don’t interfere with the gentle manatees.
From there we wended our way gingerly on the badly
deteriorated South Coast highway over to Little Ochi where the food was great as usual.
A few days later, I jumped on the convenient Knutsford Express to visit friends and family in Kingston.
Thanks to my knowledgeable cousin Dor, I was introduced to some marvelous improvements taking place in downtown Kingston.
For blocks intersecting with that street, outstanding Jamaican artists have given their skills to create murals depicting Jamaican life all around.
A dramatic and
most welcome turn around in the entire area.
When the kids arrived, we visited the Puerto Seco beach and although it has been nicely upgraded and child-friendly, it’s just not as lovely as the good ole Silver Sands beach.
They being adventurous, visited Mystic Mountain, but because of my dislike of heights, I hung out with my friend Chris at her beach house nearby, until time to pick them up.
They had a ball there and at Dunn’s River falls before joining us on the lyme by Chris.
Silver Sands beach |
A section of Seaford Town One was the establishment of a European settlement by Lord Seaford, then owner of Montpelier Estate and Shettlewood Pen which were located in St. James. Over one thousand Germans were brought to Jamaica with the promise of being granted accommodation, land, and employment. This township was entrenched on five hundred acres of land. However, over the years, through assimilation and migration mostly to Canada, (I understand they left in droves during the turbulent 70's when the communists tried to take over Jamaica), there are no more true blooded Germans there anymore and the use of any German language has virtually disappeared. When I asked a young lady at the gas station there where the Germans were, she pointed to the burial ground beside the Roman Catholic church there. 😅 A visit to the cemetary and a cursory glance at the tombstones, definitely confirms that this area was once inhabited by Germans, due to their names. That is the only evidence that this rural middle-class village was ever populated by those nationals. As usual, this visit home was as interesting and invigorating as expected and I cant wait for the next East Indian mango season. Talk Jamaican: Milk River - YouTube |
Memorie
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