Our second day here, we just hung out on the beach. There is a private beach behind some of the villas where some people who are going to the wedding are staying. We took our caddy (translated to American: golf cart) down the hill that our villa is on to the beach. For all you Easton people, the second I saw the golf cart, all sorts of farm memories came flooding back to me. It's the exact same one that Pop Pop had, but this one has a gas engine. Oh the damage we could have done if we had one of those. But I digress. Back to the beach.
The sand out there is a beautiful white and you can see through the water straight down to the bottom. It was a pretty bumpy ride due to the lack of paved roads up here, but it took us maybe ten minutes to get down there. There was a little concrete building at the edge of the beach by the road that sold hot dogs, which were pink, hamburgers, fries, and most importantly, Red Stripe. It's only about $2.00 for a beer anywhere you go here. It's a nice and welcomed break from D.C. prices.
While we were down there, we saw a boy riding a horse on one of the adjoining beaches. He tried to cross ours, but a woman came over and yelled at him, saying that he couldn't cross our beach. So he did what any logical person would do. He took the horse out into the sea and they swam across. It was quite a funny site. The beach also had some people walking around, selling various kinck-kancks that they had made (necklaces, bracelets, etc.) I cannot imagine making a living like that. Once again, so much poverty in such a beautiful place.
Yesterday, we went to a cook out at the Cranbrook Gardens with everyone who is here for the wedding. While there, we went on a three mile hike up to see the waterfall where the river that runs through there originates. The plants that were there all had some sort of purpose in local Jamaican culture. For example, there were flowers you could eat (which I did and it tasted like a green apple), a tree that you use to make bug spray, and flowers that cure pink eye. Since it had been raining so much, the trail was pretty muddy and the river had a huge amount of water flowing it at a very fast pace. Our guide told us that usually you can see through the water, but the runoff made it look like coffee with creamer in it. When we reached the top of the mountain where the waterfall was, you had to cross the fast flowing waters to get across to the original pool. I was the second person that crossed, holding on to a rope and trying to feel where to put my foot next because I couldn't see anything under the water. Not many people crossed over, and in my opinion, they missed a really cool sight. The trees seemed to go up and up forever and there were little bits of mist spraying everywhere. It was one of the more beautiful hikes that I had ever been on.
When we got back down to the pavilion, we were starving so we ate some pumpkin and tuna fritters, which were so good. Our main course was barrel drum pork and chicken (like this guy ate), along with various other sides including bammy, festival, and fried plantains. For desert, there were two kinds of bread. One was pumpkin and sadly, I cannot remember the other type. After we ate, Mike and I decided to work on our holding a beer in one hand and catching/throwing a frisbee with the other skills (watch out Wildwood) in the beautiful yard. There were peacocks all over the place and Mike's 2-year old nephew had a blast watching them. It was a nice day.
When we got home, we had red pea soup and jerked chicken sandwiches for dinner. Funny language note: pea means bean here. So it was actually red bean (kidney) soup. I'm not a huge soup person, but this stuff was amazing! It had just the right amount of spice in it and was really filling. This morning for breakfast, we had johnny cakes, boiled bananas, and ackee and saltfish. I'm loving the fact that everyone in the villa is willing to try the local fare. And we are all loving it. I really had no idea that Jamaican food would be this good.
So today is the big day. The wedding is going to be this afternoon on the beach and the reception is about three minutes on foot from our villa. It looks like the weather is cooperating and hopefully will continue to stay this lovely. So I think I'm going to go outside and enjoy some of it by the pool.
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