Friday January 27th

Our last full day in Drapers

After all of the excitement of the week, the 4 of us decided to hang out together and not do much of anything. Kris and Louie were still shaken from the night before and we thought it was best to just avoid (almost) everyone. We stayed at the house for most of the morning, reading, listening to music and talking about the days we'd spent in Jamaica. We had a lot of good times and saw a lot of beautiful places in Portland.

Dave stopped at the gate to ask us our plans for the day. We told him we wanted to spend our last day alone. He had heard that Matt and I ate at Woody's the previous night and he was a little upset that he didn't go with us. We told him that didn't see him to invite him since our driver had dropped us off there. Dave was starting to be annoying, asking for all kinds of things and mad when we went somewhere without him. He asked for our phone number, no way Jose...I've learned my lesson from past experience and I am not giving that out. We told him to give us his number instead. Matt and I had a really nice slide-out qwerty keyboard phone that Matt had found in a car. (Matt's family owns a salvage yard, so he finds all kinds of goodies). We gave that to Dave and thanked him for all he had done for us in the week. He was very happy with it. He had asked Matt for his shoes, so Matt gave them to him. Dave also asked for our beach stuff. There was no reason for me to take them home, so we gave him that stuff too.

The 4 of us went to Pakka's for lunch. He cooked up some fried chicken, rice and peas and slaw. $300 per person. Very cheap and very good!

We went to Mitzie's for a while and talked to her. She had some guys making cow skin soup and she offered us some free cups of soup. It was good. Tasted like beef/vegetable. I ate almost all of it. I say almost because at the bottom were the chunks of cow skin...with the hair still on it. I'm not a picky eater and will eat almost anything but this I could not do. I'll eat the steppers in chicken foot soup, but the hairy skin...I just couldn't. Mitzie said she doesn't eat it that part either so I didn't feel too rude.

The four of us went to Frenchman's Cove one last time. It was calm today so our rafts weren't much fun. We found some kids at the cove and gave them away. The kids had fun on them. We left about 4 since the park closes at 5.

We decided the four of us would go to Woody's for our last dinner. The restaurant is noise free and peaceful. It was a little before 5:00 and still light out, we felt safe walking past the Troll in the light. He wasn't around anyway. Good. Dinner was great. Matt and I sat in the back yard at Woody's for while. It was nice and kinda romantic. When dinner came we went back to the table with Kris and Louie. The thing about Woody's is they have a small menu of items served all the time. If you want anything else, you have to call them about 10 am and they will have it ready for dinner.

We went to the store and stocked up on the items we wanted to take home and started the short walk back to the house. It was about 6 and the sun was starting to set but it was still light out. All day long we had avoided drama but then...the frickin Troll came out. First he went to Matt. The same old "what you got for me?". We tried to avoid him, walking faster but he kept up. He got in Matt's face, yelling that Matt was a "bad man". Matt didn't say a single word and I could tell he was getting pissed off. Matt's a skinny guy but he can pack a punch. I could tell it wouldn't be much longer and shit was gonna hit the fan. I zoomed past matt about 10 steps ahead, and yelled "come on Matt, we gotta get going". The Troll turned around and looked at me and Matt was able to get around him and we booked it. Note that it wasn't even dark yet, so we felt comfortable walking to go to eat dinner.
*Matt and I have always had a pact for when in Jamaica. If we ever ran into serious danger it is agreed that I am to RUN screaming. Matt would try to get away if something happened but I am to run like Forrest Gump and keep on running. This evening with the Troll I thought we were going to have to actually act on our pact.

Louie and Kris were behind us and the Troll started in on Louie. The Troll didn't get the chance to harrass them as much, we were at the end of his 'area' when some ladies yelled at the Troll to leave us alone. He slunk away. I honestly believe that if it were not for this guy, our trip would have been a lot more 'easy'. He was one scary guy. He caused us a lot of anxiety and fear.

We got back to the house just as darkness fell. We sat around for a while, complaining about the Troll. Our hosts arranged for the JUTA taxi driver to take us to Duncan's Bay the following day. The driver had previously arranged with us to pick us up at 4 pm but we wanted to get out sooner and didn't want to keep Cher and Barry G. waiting too late for us to arrive. The earliest he could pick us up was at 2 pm. We were counting down the hours.

We decided to go to Mitzie's across the street for a drink. Dave still wouldn't come into Mitzie's bar but he stood outside and asked Louie for a cranberry. Louie ordered him a cranwata. He handed it to Dave, he took a drink and said "this isn't what I wanted, I wanted a juice" and he threw it away. That irked us, big time. Bernie asked me if he could have my flippers for snorkeling. I told him that he could have them and to stop by in the morning and pick them up. The asking was just getting to be too much. Everyone knew it was our last night and wanted us to spend all of our money on buying them drinks. We bought a few for some people we had met throughout the week, we had 1 drink and went back the house. Walking back home Dave asked Louie if he could give him some money. All the money Louie had in his pocket from the day's budget was $150j. He handed it to Dave and he scoffed, saying "this is it? this is all you have to give me?" That comment upset Louie. We had all been very generous throughout the week and now it seemed as if anything we gave wasn't good enough. Our feelings were hurt.

We went home and went to sleep.

PICTURE TIME!!!

Kris and I at Frenchman's Cove

Woody's Menu

This picture was from Thursday night at Woody's. Forgot to post it earlier.
c

The other couple with you - are they your regular JA travel partners?

Oy. The "give an inch they'll take a mile" seems to really apply here.

I don't buy people stuff or give money (other than for a service agreed upon), ever. Well, not if I don't know them really well, then it's more of a friendly thing that gets reciprocated.

Once I was with a driver at Juici in Negril picking up a whole bunch of patties for a wedding after party. As I'm waiting for them to box them up I step outside and a guy asks me for a cigarette. If you smoke, and I used to, you generally DO give them to each other, it's a polite smoker thing. But my driver, who I have known for some time, came out and yelled at the guy, and told me I shouldn't have given him one because it will make him think to bug every tourist he sees. I wasn't taking it back at that point but his point was understood.

I also rarely stay in one area very long, and so would probably have left Drapers when Dave was still in his helpful phase

So sorry you had to deal w/ The Troll again; sigh. And I'm sorry about your ending with Dave also! But so glad that "the pact" thing this time did not end the way you thought it might! You all really handled a lot of things very successfully!

The beggy beggy sense of entitlement and then being ungrateful on top of that..

That's one thing that I really dislike about some of the Jamaicans....

And you are one excellent photojounalist...so much info with great pics to match.And I appreciate your honesty-not trying to sell the everything is Irie -no problem in Jam mon-rose-colored glasses BS. You keep it real which makes it more interesting to read......Ok on with more reporting and pics please.

sure wish u had taken a picture of the troll.!!!

Wow! I just read all your chapters - wow. Great photos and fascinating reading about your experiences, even the scary ones. Glad you are home safe.

Jitterbug said:
i'm a firm believer that none of the ppl on this board need a "guide" when in a community setting . . . there is nothing free in jamaica, nothing . . . when a person walks with you day in and day out, it's like a dog pissing on a post, marking his territory . . . before the tourist realizes what happened, the damage is done...

I agree, there is nothing free in jamaica, NOTHING....I learned this on my first trip there in 1995 and knowing this has served me well on all of my trips to Jamaica.

Liz, I think you have very sound advice there and I may well follow suit.

Jitters, thanks and I will put San San T back on the list of probables.

HaaaaHaaaa!! What a brilliant souvenir JeannieB...love it. I too have collected many flys from various travels and beer labels!! Thanks for putting that up.

MoBay -> Athens Excess Baggage -> 1 x Flat Screen TV Check

i'm a woman, have criss crossed jamaica numerous times alone and have learned by trial and error what works and what does not. . . . jeannie, you and your group did a real jamaican experience and came out of it a much wiser couple i believe.

ditto that Jitters

I'm sorry but there is no place in jamaica where none of this happens. It happens within their own families.

Jeannie, thanks so much for taking the time to post your stories and photo's. Very grateful for the honesty as well.