Friday Jan 20th

Leaving Duncan's Bay and arriving at Drapers, Portland

Kris and I woke up about at 7 at Jamaica Jewel and went to swim. We were the only people to be seen on the beach but for one shell searcher. It was as if we had the entire beach and sea to ourselves. It was a nice swim. We went back to the house and Cher had some cake and coffee for us. After breakfast we packed up and hit the road with Barry G and his friend. We left Jamaica Jewel around 11 am. The drive was nice. Matt and I had been to Ochi 2 times about 7-8 years ago so it was neat for us to look around and see some places we had been before.

Almost to Port Antonio, there's a big beautiful church. I forget the town's name but this is where things got interesting...real quick. We were motioned to pull over by the police. Not the Red Stripe police but the dressed-all-in-black-holding-machine gun-police. The police asked Barry and his friend to get out of the car first. They were asked a few questions then the police told them to step aside. Then they had the 4 of us get out of the car and stand by Barry and his friend. Matt stepped out of the car in the assumed position. You know, hands up in the air above his head. The officer laughed and told him to put his hands down. It lightened the mood a bit.

They frisked Matt and Louie but didn't touch Kris or I. They asked before searching each bag who it belonged to. I assume they do this so when/if they find "something" you can't deny it. There was one police officer who was serious. He was the one searching the luggage. The other chatted with us and he and Matt were talking guns. The one officer searched all of our bags. The guys' bags were searched with a fine tooth comb. Even disassembling the flashlights. Us girls' bags were not searched as much. As soon as the police would find a bra or underwear they would poke it then they zipped up the bag. I will not say much more about this but the officers treated us with much respect. We did end up giving the police a few batteries when they saw ours and told us that their flashlights were dead. Then they let us go on our merry (but scared/nervous) way. At the end of the search I asked the nice officer if I could take a picture with him. He told me no, that it was bad for relations. Bummer.

We arrived in Drapers about 3 pm. We were greeted at Search Me Heart by Fabiana and Ricardo and the resident cat Bettina. They are an Italian couple who were taking care of the place while the owners Culture and Rosanna were in Italy. The first thing was settling up what we owed. $528 was due which was half of the total rental for 2 rooms for 7 nights. I had sent the first half as a deposit. Then we were asked for our passports. I have never ever had to give out my passport number. I asked why and was told "in case something happens, we have proof that you are staying here". We were handed back our passports after the numbers were recorded. I still don't understand the reason...in case we were hurt?

We were shown our rooms. They were very nice and white. White and clean. Did I mention everything was white? The bathroom that Matt and I used was adjacent to our room in the hallway. Kris and Louie's room had a connected bathroom. After unpacking we headed to the nearest watering hole which was right across the street, connected to a grocery store.

While at Mitzie's Bar we met *Dave. *name has been changed. He was a nice young man (28) who said he'd show us around. He introduced us to some people and showed us the way to the local cook shop where we ate most of our meals for the week. Pakka is the owner of the cook shop and is a fantastic cook and a very nice hardworking man!

We headed to Pakka's and had some chicken foot soup. We've never had this before. It wasn't bad, the soup base was tasty but there was a strange flavor in the feet. A flavor that hours later we could still taste. The soup also had chunks of goat skin, hair included. Like I said, it wasn't bad...but I will pass the next time it's offered. The soup was $200j a cup. Cheap meal and it filled our hungry bellies so we can't complain.

We went back to the house and checked out the yard and the neighborhood. We walked to the end of the lane until we reached someone's yard overlooking the sea. Not wanting to trespass, we waited until someone came out and told us we could come into the unfenced yard and look over the edge. It was a beautiful view.

Later that evening we went back to Pakka's cook shop for fried chicken, festival, plantains and fried sweet potatoes. We were also given some samples of jerk pork. All of this for only $600j a person. We also bought a half "Q" of rum for the chef.

After dinner we headed back to Mitzie's Bar for a few after dinner drinks. We met a couple interesting people. Sarge was the first man we met who was introduced as a police sargent. Later that night we found out he is not a police office of any kind, that's just his nickname. He works at San San beach and we ran into him a few times through out the week. I'm not sure why he was introduced as such but whatever...

I heard someone tell a Rastaman not to come to the bar because the white man was government. They were talking about Matt, who is far from anything associated with the government. I think they figured that out fairly quickly after talking to us for a while as they invited the Rastaman to come meet us about an hour later. The second person we met was The General. He is a sweet old man who partakes in his overproof a bit too much. But who am I to judge, right? By the end of the week we realized he was one of the most honest persons we met. While he was sometimes crude and hard to understand at times due to his libation consumption he was a very sweet and good man.

Beer at Mitzie's bar cost $160 for a red stripe, $180 for a Guinness, Rum Cream was $300 (for my morning coffee), peanuts were $40. A single Craven was $30, a 10 pack was $300 and a 20 pack was $600. Very good prices. It was about 10 pm when we headed back to the house. The music didn't play too loud this night. It was off by midnight. We slept pretty good this night after a long day of travel.

View from Jamaica Jewel in the morning, back yard.

Jamaica Jewel front view

On the road to Port Antonio

Bauxite pier in Ochi

Don Juan Enterprises. I took this because the carver I met in Duncan's Bay was named Don Juan.

The church where we were pulled over

Trident

One lane bridge

New bridge being built by the Chinese

Search Me Heart

Lane at Search Me Heart

View from yard

View from inside the veranda

Our room

Bathroom

Flowers in yard

Mitzie's Bar and the grocery store

View from Mitzie's Bar's stoop.

View from neighbors yard

Pakka's cook shop

Chicken foot soup

Search Me Heart veranda at night

Bettina trying to catch a lizard

Fruit in neighbors yard

Speakers at the other bar next door to Mitzie's.

Sounds like you settled right in...but it's going to get loud?

Loving your report and esp. your pics..I too feel like OhLiz when I seen that pretty picture of the beach and road in Duncans...Want go back tomorrow..

I've never stayed in the Drapers area-always at Ivanhoes which is up the hill from downtown PA...always quiet up there-but go down the hill and Lots going-usually til the roosters crowed in the morning..

Ok..Keep it rolling......

Wow, what a story about being pulled over by the machine-gun-carrying police!! Sheesh! I've heard of this happening more & more. I wonder what they were looking for? I'm glad that you all were treated OK & that it was not an ugly experience (although my knees would be "knocking" too!).

I love the descriptions & pictures of the place where you stayed. Particularly your photos the flowers, especially that 3rd one! Gorgeous, gorgeous!

That Trident place looks like it might be on the Nova Scotian coast - is that correct, Old Timer???

Great trip-reporting, Jeannie, I'm enjoying it so much & thank you!!

thanks for the report. Excellent info for me researching a new area. Good to know!!!