Jamaica 2021, what a blast!

 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.

Ass holes.

This year was extra special though, since it was the first time in years that my visit coincided with that of my daughter and granddaughter. Naturally my brother and sister-in-law were already there, so we all stayed with them at their home in  Silver Sands most of the time.

We had a wonderful time using Trelawny as our base. As usual going fishing was on the top of our list of activities and for the first time in my life, I caught a fish that was probably close to a pound!

We didn’t stray much from Silver Sands, as it has the best beach in the island, in my book. Before the younger ones arrived, my brother, sister in law and I journeyed over to the center of the island to the world famous mineral spa at Milk River, as some of us not so young ones were having some aches and pains. 

Milk River spa

We didn’t know it before we drove there, but it had just reopened after having been flooded a few days earlier when the country was inundated with rains. As a result, the water was not as hot as normal, but soothing none the less.

Milk River bath was established some 300 years ago, after a runaway slave who had been beaten half to death by his wicked slave master, found a stream in the hills, bathed his wounds and was miraculously healed. Subsequent tests revealed that the stream coming out of the hills, 

had one of the highest radioactivity levels of any mineral spring The water is promoted as being good for a long list of ailments and although the pool is closed, there are six private baths open for use. 

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. 

A correction though, for while the sign there says Alligator Hole, there are no alligators in Jamaica, only crocs!

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.

These range from strategically placed info boards on many historic buildings to a sculpture of two important founders of our nation, Alexander Bustamante and Norman Manley  and the unbelievable transformation of Water Lane. 

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

We separated for a few days as Michele and Maddy wanted to hang out in Kingston with the Williams clan who celebrated her recent milestone. That was her earning a PhD  after many years of dedicated study and sacrifice. While in Kingston they boated over to Lime Cay to swim before returning to the country to join me for a few days a Bahai Principe in Runaway Bay. It’s not a bad hotel but boy do they need a good chef or two!

While they were away, we journeyed to Seaford Town in the hills of Westmorland, a place I had always wanted to visit. This settlement is called locally, German Town as after the Abolition of Slavery (Aug. 1, 1834), many planters had a shortage of labor so imported indentured workers.

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

Milk River where the manatees are kept

The CCam Race

Caribbean Coastal Area Management  Foundation (CCAM), one of the active environmental groups in Jamaica, had their second fund raising run yesterday. This was dubbed the a 7.5k Green run/walk to raise funds for protection of the Portland Bight which surely needs protection!

 For this year like the first event  last year, Fun and Thrills  was

You see many destroyed buildings like this in Portland Cottage and environs

asked to marshal. A number of our members volunteered through the prompting of our own Nicole Brown.. The good news is that unlike last year, there were far more participants than marshals. Also quite a few of our own members entered and ran or walked the  entire distance.

It appears they had close to a hundred participants this year and the route was also far more attractive, running from the Lionel Town Community Centre beside Bustamante High School  to Portland Cottage Community Centre,  across from the St. John's Anglican church.

Portland Cottage is in southern Clarendon  south of  Freetown. About five miles east you have the Portland Point Lighthouse and they also have a gun club and a small  marina in the vicinity of that light house. To the south east there is also another gun club at Jackson Bay.

The sea and road are almost the same elevation. This is "Salt Pond"

Portland Cottage is quite an unfortunate, for in 2004 Hurricane Ivan devastated the area killing 11 persons in the community of Village alone and in 2007, Hurricane Dean added to their sorrows and even now, they are barely recovering. For all over the place you see several buildings of various sizes and shapes which were destroyed and which people never bothered to try and rehabilitate.

The problem there is that it is extremely flat and the mangroves have been destroyed so as there is no longer any buffer, so every-time a hurricane hits the area, it does maximum damage.

 I suppose it is because this situation has existed for such a long time why the young people refer to that area as "Salt Pond", not even recognising that it is the actual sea, not a little pond, right beside their homes and communities. According to Michael Chuck who knows the area well, they even used to mine salt in that section but it has not been too viable.

The marshals on tour of Barmoth fishing beach

The channels beside  the strip leading to the sea had to be dredged after  Hurricane Dean.

Anyway, the CCam fund raising event was quite good  although it was almost an hour late in starting. I noticed too that like last year, there was no police presence and have to wonder why the Lionel town police had not offered any assistance in traffic control, although  this route was not as heavily  trafficked as the one they used from Vere to Lionel Town last year.

I had ridden down to the end alone before the race started and when they began, I started riding back. However I  had not even gone a mile before seeing the first place winner,  Fraser McCarthy of Portland Cottage, barreling down the road. The second place winner of the running segment never arrived until about  5 minutes after he did!! He seems to be the Bolt of 7k's!

Fun and Thrills entrants did quite well too although I don't really know how many got awards for performance, however I saw Bernadette and Lisa way up front.

Behind us are nice islands where we can swim and frolic, according to Chuck.

While the official part of the function was underway, Chuck took us on a tour of  Barmoth fishing beach  about a mile up the road, where he was warmly welcomed by the fishermen. This fishing beach has a long strip with channels at the sides going out to sea. I had  been told earlier that after hurricane Dean, that channel was nothing but mud and had to be dredged. Some fisher- folk lost boats  which had been anchored in there too.

According to Chuck, to the north, there are quite a few islands even larger than Lime Cay with good swimming areas.

By the time we returned, the official prize giving was over but I understand the results will be posted on CCam's facebook page.

We were happy to help Nicole with this project and get another opportunity to go out of town, exercise and enjoy ourselves although it was father's day and some of our
dedicated fathers had to return early to be lauded by their families.

Photos provided by David Jo