Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica....

[Nanook]

My first trip to Jamaica was 10 years ago this weekend so I thought I’d take a little trip down memory lane and write a little story about it. There was no Island “tourist” adventure in my future the day we left the travel agency with tickets in hand, except for the 2 nights stay at SamSara in Negril scheduled for the end of the trip that came with the $225.00 airfare. Yes, that’s $225.00 that included all taxes, not on a Charter Flight, but on Northwest, out of Duluth! Our destination was Alligator Pond, in Manchester, a beautiful little fishing village on the South Coast where we were to be the only guests at the pretty Sea Riv Hotel.

How did I end up in Alligator Pond on my first trip to Jamaica? One might wonder….

[BND1999]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica....

((IM)) your reports remind me of when i knew so little of jamaica.. i'd listen to your stories..Seems like eons ago because since that time all ive done is take out my map and go get lost....... looking so forward to this memoir... especially photos before the digital was so popular... and there was no fixing..editing .. cropping... this is going to be good.. meet you here in the morning over coffee!!! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70371-jump.gif[/img]

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

Thank you Nina, I'm glad you're looking forward to it, I'll try not to put you all to sleep but make that coffee strong you might need it. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/704555_dwl.gif[/img] The photos are old and scanned so they'll definitely have a different look to them than what we're all used to. At the time I had a beautiful automatic Minolta that I dumped my manual Pentax for. Sadly, it was the sand in Jamaica that caused it's demise but I still have it here sitting in a drawer, I can't force myself to toss it.

Sigh....

I've been working on this little ditty all day and I'm more homesick for Jamaica right now than I've been in awhile. It's been a fun little trip down memory lane so far.

[Sophie Magoo]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica....

Waiting to hear more, please.

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

My good friend and I used to live on a small private lake in Northern Minnesota, her cabin was just down the lane from my log abode. We’d spend long hours sitting in our paddle boats in the sun out on the water just floating and hanging out, our little boats tied to a Prestone bottle which was tied to an anchor so we could be just lazy, and not have to paddle. Often the Prestone bottle was as far out on the lake as we’d make it, it was pure pleasure just sitting out there like that, just about every day. One of those days Peggy brought her photos from her previous winters trip to Jamaica, and as we ohhh’d and awed I’m thinking this Jamaica looked like a great place, oh look at that little boy practically walking up that tall coconut tree, oh look at that blue sea!

My little log cabin in the woods in November, who wouldn't want to leave for Jamaica!



Up until then, I had never really thought about taking a trip to Jamaica, or anywhere else I couldn’t drive to, but suddenly I knew I had to go experience Peggy’s Jamaica. At the time I had never left the U.S. or southern Canada, not for any reason specifically, mostly because I was happy living my life on a Northern Minnesota lake and chopping my own wood for heat and making ice rinks & taking yearly trips by car out west where I never got enough of seeing Utah and Arizona sunsets. Besides, to get to Jamaica you had to fly and I preferred not to. My world changed drastically after that first trip to the island. Within 8 months I had been back to Alligator Pond and all over Sweden and Finland.

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

Greets Lucija, I have a little bit more that I can share before I get to more scanning and uploading in the morning, thanks.

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

I think Peggy had been to Jamaica and Alligator Pond twice back then. On her first trip, she and Roger (it was his first trip too) found a taxi driver in Montego Bay and told him to take them someplace nice where there weren’t tourists, and off they went, and he brought them to Alligator Pond. They lucked out when they ended up with Shorty for a driver, for he brought them to a very cool place. With each trip Peggy and Roger took would come more pictures, and before I knew it a small army of us descended on Alligator Pond the saturday after Thanksgiving, 6 of us in all.

Peggy took care of getting us a taxi at the airport, and she found us a driver who said he’d carry us to Alligator Pond for $120.00USD, just $20.00 each, a bargin for the distance. She also knew which route to go, which was a good thing, for our driver did not. Our first Jamaica adventure took us through the mountains past Anchovy & Montpelier, and on towards Savanna La-Mar and past Bluefields Beach on the old road that went close by the water.




We stopped in Montpelier at a shop for some refreshments and to use the bathroom but the first real walk on the ground experience I had in Jamaica was under the shade of Allen Bamboo Avenue. I’ll never forget being awe struck at the size of the tall Bamboo Trunks. As we climbed the steep winding terrain there were many small towns where people were bustling about, each small town much the same as the one before it and the next one ahead. Men were dressed in colorful criss looking clothes and going about the business of setting up huge sound systems and ladies bustled about with their hair in curlers still but freshly dressed in their Saturday night best, everyone excited with anticipation of Saturday night partying. The setting sun slipped into the sea as we caught glimpses of it now and then while we ascended and descended the windy roads and it was dark by the time we reached Spur Tree Hill and started our downhill direction towards Alligator Pond, past huge rows of speakers standing next to small shops, the sound coming from them the pulse of Jamaica’s countryside. Though none of us had actually called ahead to the Sea Riv to reserve a room, Peggy assured me that when all of this travel business was over, there would be no problem getting one and I had no choice but to believe that my good friend of over 20 years was not going to let me down now and I just sat back and enjoyed every minute of this incredible adventure.

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

The Sea Riv is a beautiful hotel, so named because of it’s location on the beautiful Caribbean Sea and it’s close proximity to the river which flows right next to it, and the way it wraps itself around the yard and there are two beaches in front, one before and one after the river. Our van driver pulled up to the building and this is where my prayers were answered; they were available to accept guests. Food and drink, however were in short supply as the staff was not expecting guests but Sharon & Ogo did a great job of making us welcome and feeling at home and the kitchen would be restocked the next day.


Since it was dark we couldn’t see much of the Sea Riv yard but we decided on venturing out a little bit anyway, and see if we could find a soda or a beer or something at one of the local shops, but first we had to get over the river via, A) the wobbly rickety old cast iron pipe bridge with no floor, just a metal frame, which was about 8 feet off the ground. Climb up, straddle the iron frame on either side being careful not to misstep, then climb down the frames ladder on the other side, OR, option B)…walk across the river never having seen it and not being able to see it very well now. I chose the rickety bridge and it was big fun, the kind of thing Survivor stunt ideas were designed after and once making it across, came the reward of meeting Brownie who owned a little shop across the river from the hotel, over to the side. Brownie wasn’t officially open, but like most little shops in Jamaica, if the shop owner is home and someone comes calling, they are open for business. We didn’t stay at Brownies for long, our 14 hour journey to this spot after being up all night the night before too excited to even think about sleep, would have us calling our first night an early one, and I had already planned on being up before the crack of dawn to await the unveiling of our surroundings at first light....

You can sort of see the rickety bridge over the river in the left hand corner of the photo. I hear the old bridge is gone now, and I missed taking pictures of it when I had the chance.

[jamaica_dreamin]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

Thanks for sharing IM. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img]
It is threads like this that made me want to get out & see more of Jamaica.

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

After reaching back to the Sea Riv and our room I was in dire need of a shower and Peggy had mentioned that there wasn’t hot water but I was used to roughing it so I didn’t mind and it felt great to wash off that travel grime and wouldn’t you know, as I was finishing rinsing, hot water began to flow from the pipes. The hotel had hot water now, and that just made the place that much sweeter. Sleep came easy after that, but it was short lived. I’ve never really been a watch wearer, I’ve always had a keen sense of what the time is, usually within minutes, and I was on vacation so why bring a clock?

When my sleep was interrupted by excited thoughts of my new surrounds and what was out there I had evidently lost all sense of time. I woke my traveling partner and told him it was almost sunrise so let’s go before we miss it, and that’s what we did. We took a multi colored patchwork blanket with us that we’d brought for just this occasion and spread it on the sandbar between the sea and the river and waited for first light. And waited….

My lost sense of time placed us out there on the sandbar somewhere around 1am I think. Before long we figured out that first light no soon come but then again we didn’t want to go back to the hotel just to have to turn around and come back or totally miss the dawn altogether so we stayed there like that for the rest of the night, camped out on a beach in Jamaica under the stars, just two people and a blanket. On this first trip, I would hear quite a few Jamaican sayings, one of the first ones being “the bushes have eyes”, as we’d be talking about spending our first night camped on the beach under the starry sky instead of inside our room, and everybody had already heard about it.

Let me take you on my first ever morning in Jamaica adventure. We'll start at first light at the hotel and then take an early sunday morning stroll down the beach.

Revelation of the dawn, you're not in Minnesota anymore...

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

Thanks JD, do you ever wander over to Alligator Pond when you're home in Treasure Beach? I'm wanting to go there right now!

[jamaica_dreamin]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

I have been to Little Ochie a couple of times. Once for a party & once for dinner. It's fabulous !

[Nanook]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

JD, then you'll get a kick out of the Little Ochie photos, the place was much smaller back then! My scanner just blew up, I hope a reboot helps!

[jamaica_dreamin]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

[ QUOTE ]
JD, then you'll get a kick out of the Little Ochie photos, the place was much smaller back then! My scanner just blew up, I hope a reboot helps!

[/ QUOTE ]

Looking forward to the photos. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70409-waytogo.gif[/img] I hope the scanner reboots [img]/forums/images/graemlins/70384-praying.gif[/img]

[BND1999]

Re: Alligator Pond & A Decade Of Loving Jamaica...

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/70459-hugs.gif[/img] this is great... you making me homesick now too... im ready to get up and leave for the whole winter...