Journey thru Jamaica

We’ve been off the grid the last couple of days.  We had quite the epic journey thru the backroads of Jamaica.  We seriously thought of renting a car and trying to find the cocoa farm ourselves.  Given the only direction we got was that it was between the Blue Mountains and the John Crow Mountains we decided to hire a driver.  So glad we did!  Hunter was amazing.  Not only was he safe and fun he was also extremely knowledgeable and a great source for my constant questions.  Here’s a pic of our journey.  The red spot is where the cocoa farm is located. On another post I’ll talk about the cocoa farm. 

We traveled over mountains, along the sea, thru small towns and big cities, and fields of sugar cane and coconut groves.  Much to my surprise, Kingston was an industrial city of refineries and factories spewing out choke inducing pollution. I was romanticizing it by hearing Harry Belafonte singing, “Jamaica Farewell....had to leave a little girl in Kingston town” in my head.  Rather than tell you about each place, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.  I just wish you could smell the jerk stands, burning sugar cane fields and miles and miles of sweet flowers and ripe fruit.  We traveled thru foliage tunnels of mangoes and bread fruit and were greeted with big smiles and lots of waves.  A journey that will stay with me for a long time. 

Typical mountain village homes. 

Hundreds of fruit stands dotted the roadways, along with trucks carrying sugar cane and coconuts. 

Bustling towns

Loved how the sea changed on different parts of the island.  Much of it reminded me of Northern California, specifically around Mendocino. 

And the interesting people. The picture in the bottom right corner is Hunter, our driver. 

Of course, no road trip thru Jamaica is complete without a jerk stop along the way.  Jerk chicken for me, jerk pork for Ned. We also got plantains and yams.  

Road trip fun...hanging out in the van and finding bathroom stops along the way. My bathroom was a bit more modest, Ned’s was a tad more “open.”  

Low key in Jamaica

Royal Decameron, Runaway Beach, Jamaica

Today was all about chilling out.  Hopping between time zones (ahead 3 hours, back an hour) had me up a bit early.  I decided it was a great time to get in an early morning snorkel before the winds kicked up, then hit some hammock time while I waited for Ned to rise and shine. It makes it so easy to be steps from the ocean. 

Pretty awesome place to have breakfast. 

We did eventually rally from beach time and took a walk about town.  The small town we are in really consists more of roadside stands along a busy highway.  We ran into this guy - who caught all this spear fishing! It was fun to poke around the small stands and hear the locals talk with either their Jamaican accents or speaking Patois.  (Patois is a mix of Spanish, Portuguese, English and African language. I never learned what African language or dialect, was just told African).  On more than one occasion someone would run out of their restaurant or bar and come get us, encouraging us to visit their place.  About every 10 minutes or so we were also asked if we wanted to “buy some ganja mon. For you, white lightening rolled for $10.”  Do they not understand I’m from Nevada County and not one of the Brits?  We go this.  

We had signed up to take a sailboat out this afternoon on the bay with one of the local guides.  It got cancelled due do the winds.  Hopefully we’ll get a chance to do it later this week. In the meantime we settled on just hanging out and enjoying more beach time.  For a couple of hours today the water at the hotel was off and then when that came back on the electricity went down.  What a perfect time to enjoy some rum drinks...

The water here is completely potable, right from the tap.  It comes from the springs in the Blue Mountains and is filtered. So nice not to worry about the water and so nice when it works! 

Tonight’s local fare was Jamaican pepper pot soup, pigtail stew, goat curry and callaloo. It was all sooo good! After dinner we listened to some Raggae music with dancing.  Fun times on our little spot on Runaway Bay. 

Arriving in Jamaica

Royal Decameron, Runaway Bay, Jamaica

Flying over Montego Bay into Jamaica was gorgeous. We had a really easy flight, less than 2 hours, and we flew through immigration and customs in less than 15 minutes. Actually getting to the airport thru Miami traffic was a more stressful ordeal.  Took us over an hour to go 20 miles. But, we’re here and “Ya’ mon” it’s pretty great. 

We’re staying in Runaway Bay a ways from the Montego Bay airport. We had a delightful driver, Abdul, who shared lots of interesting cultural and historical things about Jamaica along the way such as Discovery Bay was named after Columbus landing in Jamaica in 1494 and Runaway Bay was named after runaway slaves.  He also pointed out haunted houses and other fun stories about local places. There are wild goats that roam freely everywhere. We also stopped at a jerk chicken place on the way to the hotel. Great guy.  Our journey to the hotel was almost as long as the flight, but I really enjoyed just taking in all the Jamaican countryside. 

We are staying at an all-inclusive resort, but we really wanted a super low key place, not the typical  blow-out party place. When you’re used to camping and living in Winnie, transitioning to the over the top swanky places can be a bit too much to take. This place is perfect!  We are the only Americans here - as far as we can tell.  Mostly everyone is British, but we also heard German and French.  The drink menu is in French and English, and they are just a bit different from our typical rum drink names. For example, instead of the cocktail “Sex on the Beach” it’s “Sex on a Coach.” (???)  I think there are only about 200 guest at most here.  Everyone has their own little cottage and we are right on the bay.  It was a bit overcast and breezy today, but honestly a nice break from the oppressive humidity and heat of Miami. 

Tonight we opted for a romantic dinner on a terrace overlooking the hotel grounds. We are really looking forward to exploring the local town tomorrow and getting to know Jamaica a little more organically. We don’t have wifi here, but instead are using a Verizon “travel pass.”  Good enough to hopefully post a blog, but not be connected to the news and social media. Okay, I’ll also take a peak at the election returns and try and catch a Warrior score. Ya’ Mon, give me a few more days to chill out.  And yes, everyone really does say that in almost every sentence.  It’s contagious.  

Miami - South Beach

Larry and Penny Thompson County Park, Miami, FL

On our way to Miami today we stopped by Castranova Chocolate to meet Denise the chocolate maker.  Like us, she makes handcrafted bean to bar chocolate from single origin beans. She also makes her own truffles and drinking chocolate. She is a delightful person and we enjoyed talking all things chocolate with her.  I hope you get a chance to try her chocolate, it’s pretty dang good! We bought several bars, now only if we can keep them from melting in this heat - the best way is to eat them😏.

Next stop was the infamous South Beach Miami. It was a scorcher today, close to 100 degrees and not a cloud in sight.  We had fun walking the strip and wandering around.

But, our real mission was to visit Lario’s Restaurant.

This restaurant holds a special place in our hearts. About 15 years ago, when I was working at Apple I traveled to Miami on a business trip with Ned tagging along. Since it was his first time in Miami I thought it would be fun to take him to some of the hot spots.  We had drinks at Madonna’s bar and had a romantic dinner at Lario’s (Gloria Estafan’s Restaurant) where he tried a mojito for the first time. When it arrived Ned very sweetly asked, “What is spinach doing in my drink?”  Oh man, how could I not fall in love with this guy?  Made us laugh so hard. Ironically, Ned is a master at making mojitos now.  If you haven’t had one of his mojitos hanging out on our back deck, come on by! Sooo good. 

We spent a wonderful afternoon having Cuban sandwiches, drinking several mojitos and settled in for the people watching.  

Okay, I was actually VERY selective in the pics I’ve posted here.  Trust me, this is pretty tame and tasteful compared to some of the scantily clothed people walking by. This place is just alive with colorful clothes, food and people. Our Cuban waiter, Daniel, was actually getting a kick out of us taking pics of the scene.  He started telling us stories of some of the things he’s seen working here. 

 Life goal: learn to work it like the people walking the strip in South Beach. 

The Art Deco buildings are the best. I love seeing them lit up at night too with all their neon colors.  Wish we could have hung out longer, but alas we needed to head out of the city before traffic really got worse. As it was, it took us 1.5 hours to travel 25 miles.  

Tonight we are camped at a county park.  It’s sooo friggin’ hot and we were really looking forward to jumping in the pool here.  It’s closed...ugh. We’ve settled on hosing ourselves down with the water spigot.  So, why this wonderful destination of a county park in the city of Miami?  It’s proximity to the Miami Airport.  Tomorrow we head out for Jamaica! Tonight is all about laundry, re-packing our bags, cleaning up Winnie and getting ready for the trip.  I have no idea if we will have internet in Jamaica, so if you don’t hear from me for awhile...stay tuned.  You know I’ll have a few good stories to tell. 

Beach Day!

Sebastian Inlet State Park, Melbourne, FL

Sunday Funday!  We’re not rolling today just hanging another day on this beach. We’ve done beaches in California, the Gulf, up and down the Atlantic Ocean and even The Keys.  I think this is one of the best. Turquoise warm water, great sand, fun surf , and you can’t beat the location - right at our campground!   (I didn’t do any doctoring at all on this shot. In fact, most of my pics are just as is.  I like capturing the realness of the moment). 

We heard there was some snorkeling to do here as well.  Word around the campground was to catch it at high tide at the rocks, under the bridge, in the cove.  We gave it a go.  Meh - kinda a bust.  The water in the cove is super murky and the fish were just fish, nothing showy.  Time to move on to the beach. 

And what a great day it was!  We spent most of the day trying to catch that perfect wave.  We traded off with the boogie board, but honestly best ride of the day was when Ned had the boogie board and I was on my floatie. We both caught this enormous wave together and rode it alllllllll the way into the beach.  I swear I have more fun with my floatie, patched up and all.  

Picnic on the beach. We spent over 5 hours on the beach.  Thank goodness for Aloe Vera for me and the umbrella for Ned! Just LOVE the colors in this photo, it really shows all the beautiful blue hues here.  

Back at the campsite watching the party boats on the Indian River.  I think there’s a big sand bar where all the boats gather.  Music is blasting, people are standing around in the water drinking beers. It’s quite entertaining.  Time to pop a cold one and watch the action. 

We took an evening bike ride and as luck would have it we saw dolphin feeding! So fun to watch them come up and then dive back down.  We were also entertained by the snowy egret.  Such personalities.  

Atlantic Ocean - Sea to Sea

Sebastian Inlet State Park, Melbourne, FL

Well, we made it across the country (zig-zagging a little here and a little there) and reached the Atlantic Ocean.  Hard to believe that three weeks ago we were camped at Doheny State Park with Josh and Marlina.  This ocean is MUCH warmer  than both the Pacific Ocean and the cold springs.  

On the way here we stopped by the village of Cocoa and did a bit of a walk-about.  Cute, artsy village.  If I wasn’t so impatient to get to the ocean we might have stayed longer taking in some of the art galleries, but I was feeling more of a beach vibe and less of an art appreciator.  Several years ago we visited Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral just a few miles up the road.  It is fantastic! If you ever get a chance we definitely recommend spending the day. 

We decided to take the drive down the long spit, thru Cocoa Beach.  We wanted to have lunch at a fish place overlooking either the ocean or the Banana River.  We opted for a place that says “caters to locals” and it was a BIG mistake. We share all the great meals and awesome local food as we eat our way across the country, only fair to tell you about the worst meal of the trip.  We took a few bites and both of us said, “Can’t do it.”  Ned’s beer was warm, the fish was oily and the coleslaw was soggy and limp.  A few miles down the road we saw this hot dog stand, should have stopped there, anything would have been better.  The funniest part was, as we continued to drive down the ocean road a huge banner being pulled by a plane said, “Eat at Squid Lips, where all the locals eat and drink.”  We just looked at each other and groaned. (Note how happy we look in these pics, that’s before the food and warm beer arrived).  And yes, the name Squid Lips probably should have been a tip off.

We are definitely beach camping. This state park is on a small island and we are overlooking the Indian River on the inlet side.  The beach is a short bike ride away. Yellow flags were flying, no red or purple flags, blue skies and warm weather. We found our little piece of heaven and were beach bums the rest of the day. 

This gives you an idea of where we are camped. Makes for great sunsets, unexpected on the East Coast! 

Juniper Springs, Florida

Juniper Springs Recreation Area, Silver Springs, FL

I think we got a winner here.  Juniper Springs for sure is the most picturesque of all the springs we have visited.  In 1935-36 the CCC built a mill house on the spring which just added to the bucolic ambience. Whenever we come across a project the CCC have worked on, you know it’s going to be awesome.  Those boys sure knew what they were doing.  So, what defines a magnitude of a spring?  It’s the volume of water that flows from it. A first magnitude is 64 million gallons per day or more.  A second magnitude has a flow rate from 6 to 64 million gallons per day.  I believe there are 8 magnitude classifications. Juniper Springs is a second magnitude spring. Sure makes it idyllic to float and snorkel around.

As far as wildlife goes, Manatee Springs had more fish, but Juniper did have lots of turtles...and eels. There’s more grass in this spring than any of the others so who knows what else was hanging out in there.  It was fun to see the turtles pop up every now and again, and also spot an eel swimming thru them. Ned is actually pointing to a turtle that just popped up. The top right picture is where the water is bubbling out of this spring. 

We took a nature walk to another spring.  It was incredibly beautiful! Loved the bridge that the CCC built, the boardwalk thru the forest, and seeing interesting creatures like 4 inch colorful butterflies and blue tailed lizards. 

The highlight was coming across Fern Hammock Springs.  Wow!  Pristine clear waters with lots of turtles.  The water was so clear that even when the turtles ducked down into the water as we walked by, you could still see them swim along the bottom of the spring.  The spring water was bubbling up from the sand so it made for some really cool special effects.  The link below is a video of some fish swimming over the bubbling springs. 

See bubbling springs

On our way here we thought we’d be driving thru just pine forest.  Imagine our surprise when we came upon all these fancy-schmancy horse estates. We were driving thru Ocala, Marion County which turns out to be the horse capital of the world. There are 600 thoroughbred farms.  We saw a sign proudly claiming “The 2017 Winner of the Kentucky Derby.” Uh - who knew? Certainly not us wandering yokels.  

Okay, back to what we do know best...

This campground was rated one of the best 100 campgrounds in the U.S.  Yes, it definitely deserves that distinction.  It’s a Federal Recreation campground, not a state park. (With Ned’s old guy pass er Senior National Parks Pass we are camping for $10.)  This is so much more our style than Gulf State Park, with the tennis courts and golf course for 1/5th cost. The sites are spread out and quite private. Everything is also in pristine condition.  This is black bear country, so every campsite comes with a bear box. I almost feel at home, except for the palmetto trees instead of the cedars and the hot tropical sun, and the bugs, and the gators.  But you know what I mean.