Jamaica was wonderful

What a great vacation! I came home so relaxed and de-stressed, but I was exhausted too! Things are really laid back in Jamaica...it's too hot to get in too big a flap about doing anything! And yet, we were busy the entire time. I still don't think I've caught up on my sleep.

The people were great. I met all the Jamaican people that my sisters have known for a few years and they were as fun and happy as I'd heard. Some of them:

Champion (his nick-name)...he is a 30 something Jamaican man who is a wood-carver, cab/van driver, raiser of goats (he was running off to birth babies the entire time we were there) and a jack of all trades. He helps the gals when they need something...he's always running errands for them and is happy to do it. He's handsome and fun.


Champion

Bunny (also a nick-name)...he is a cab driver that is also always there to help out if he's needed. He's a very nice gentleman and a dear old friend of the girls.

Vincent...he owns and operates a fleet of glass-bottom boats and takes tourists on snorkeling adventures. He's a very responsible, upright sort of man. He's also a long-time friend of my sisters and their American friends. I have to remember next time I go to take lots of "Corn Nuts" (those American toasted pieces of corn that we all love)...Vincent loved them!

Roger, Dude and Shalanda (AKA Shamalama Ding Dong)...these were three young guys who worked for Vincent. Also very diligent and took their jobs seriously when we were out snorkeling. They made sure we didn't get into any trouble while we were exploring the reef. (IE: no contact with jellyfish, sea urchins, the reef...they worried about us and the environment!) They were fun to hang out with after work hours too. Very nice young men. I wanted to adopt them all!! They called me Mama Gin!

Sharon...one of the housekeepers at Xtabi (the resort where we stayed)...she was a joy, so sweet and such a hard worker. I left all my extra food (we took some snack stuff with us from home), toilet items and even a few things I just didn't want to haul home like a beach towel, battery operated fan, etc. with Sharon. I had purchased a few too many souvenirs and didn't have room for them in my suitcases without getting rid of a few of my other things. The people of Jamaica have a very low income ratio to the cost of living. She appreciated all of that stuff!

Donelle...Sharon's 10 year old grandson. He would come to work with Sharon every other day or so. He was diagnosed last year with sickle cell anemia and he was such a little sweetie. He's small for his age and is painfully shy. I have a tendency to attract kids, probably because of my job as a school bus driver...and after he had been around me for a day, he tapped me on the shoulder and said, "if I come here tomorrow, would you talk to me again?" Of course, maybe it was the gummi bears or the orange slices I gave him...haha.

There were so many more, but I won't list them all...I'll just say that I love the Jamaican people I met...they were all so nice.

I can't write this blog without mentioning some of the food we had! OMG, it was out of this world!!! I fell in love with some of it and am searching to find where I can get it from home!

A few of my favorite things:

Festival...fried bread sticks...not like Italian bread sticks more like sweet cornbread,

Bun and cheese....spicy, sweet buns served with canned cheese. The cheese reminds me of the gov't cheese we used to get when we were laid off.

Patties...pie crust with very spicy veg, meat or chicken in them. Very good but I quit eating the meat patties when I saw that none of the Jamaicans would eat them! Wonder what "meat" meant???

Jerk...very hot spicy chicken. Love it!

Calaloo... a spinach-like veg that was pretty good.

Achee...a breakfast thing...veg that reminded me of scrambled eggs.

Conch...I had fritters, fried conch and conch soup... it was pretty good. It's the critter that lives in those beautiful shells you see from the sea.

Pumpkin or squash soup...loved it. They serve a lot of pumpkin in Jamaica.

Cooked cabbage...a mixture of sauteed garlic, cabbage and thinly sliced carrots. I'm going to make this at home!

Porridge...sort of like cream of wheat...a breakfast thing. I brought a few packets of it home with me and love it.

Plantain...a type of banana...not as sweet as what we get here...great fried.

Rice and peas...beans and rice cooked in coconut milk.

Okay, I must tell you about the miracles I mentioned in my previous post.

I'm still having a really hard time believing the first one, even tho I was there and saw it with my own eyes. Donna, one of the gals on the trip (has been going to Jamaica a couple times a year for the past 15 years) had lost her diamond from her wedding ring and her ring was in the shop getting fixed. He hubby didn't go on the trip but let her wear his ring to Jamaica. When we were snorkeling on Monday with Vincent and his boys, she saw a big stingray and it caused her to startle a bit...in the process she lost her hubby's wedding band. We were all just sick about it and spend a good amount of time searching the bottom of the sea for the ring. She dropped it about 15' in what looked like some sort of sea grass which is constantly moving and undulating with the water current. Impossible to see, once it hit the bottom. We all felt so bad. When she got back to shore, she called her hubby and he told her not to let it ruin her vacation and they would try to find one like it when she got home (it was a circa 1970's Art Carved ring). Fast forward to Wednesday when we were spending a day on 7-mile beach at a place called "23/7"...we saw one of Vincent's boats coming and in it were Roger and Shalanda...they beached the boat and came over to where we were lounging. Roger, a man of few words, held up his hand and on it was Donna's ring!!! Those wonderful boys had spent all the free time they had looking all over the area where the ring had dropped and actually found it!!! They know that reef like the back of their hand, but what are the odds of dropping a ring in the sea and actually getting it back??? She gave them a $100 bill and immediately called her hubby in tears and told him all about the heroes who had returned his ring!! Shalanda told me in his broken pigeon English, "We couldn't stand to see Miss Donna so sad...we had to find her ring." (See why I wanted to adopt these boys and bring them home with me!!!)

The second miracle happened one evening to my sister Marsha. A few of them were walking to one of the famous bars up the road from where we were staying...she was wearing a pair of cute open toed sandals that consisted of a soul and a strap or two...essentially bare-footed... and she saw a bug that was a big centipede in front of her on the ground. She started playing with it, with her feet...picture someone dribbling a soccer ball. A Jamaican man she didn't know jumped in front of her and stomped on her little buggy friend, smashed it to smithereens and said, "If it would have bitten you, your vacation would be over." We have since looked it up on the internet and it's called Scolopendra gigantea ...it was a miracle that she wasn't bitten, I guess they are known to be a bit aggressive!! YIKES!!! She bought her hero a beer or two!

All in all it was a wonderful time. I'd go back in a minute!!!


Sunset viewed from inside a cave in the cliffs near where we were staying...we were in Vincent's boat when I snapped this pic.


Another sunset pic


Bi-colord hibiscus...there are so many flowers always blooming in Jamaica!


Self-portrait (before I got tan!)


You can see how far out from land we were when we were snorkeling!