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This past April, a group of us left Toronto on a mission trip to Southfield, St. Elizabeth. Our first eight days on the island was extremely busy, and so the pictures in this report are of the two days we had to ourselves, plus some from the week I spent in Kingston.
On the morning of the trip, I was extremely tired. I had end of semester exams the previous night and so didn't finished packing until about 3:00 a.m. When my ride came at 6:30, I was looking forward to a nap on the plane, but of course, I came face to face with Murphy's Law. We flew Air Canada to Montego Bay, and it would have been a very pleasant flight except for the toddler behind me. If there was a kid from hell, this had to be him as he whined and cried for just about the entire flight. So much for a much needed rest!
Four hours after takeoff, we arrived in Mo-Bay. Because I tend to travel lightly, once we cleared immigration and got into Customs, I began looking for the "Nothing to Declare" windows. Nada...nothing...not one, so as I stood in line behind people with what seemed like busloads of suitcases and boxes, an airport worker assisting a wheelchair occupant pulled up beside me. We started chatting and I asked her about the lack of "Nothing to Declare" windows. She pointed to an area across to hallway and said that was it. I mentioned there were no signs saying they were, and she just smiled. Alrighty then...\o/
The young lady at the desk would not have qualified for the "Agent of the Day" award, but after some going back and forth about who I had brought my laptop and camera for (they always think it is for somebody), we finally got through, and went out to meet up with our host and our ride. The bus driver was a friendly guy, and when I enquired how far we were from our destination, he promptly replied "About two hours". Cool, I thought.
If the flight was relatively uneventful, the ride to Southfield was anything but. For some inexplicable reason I forgot Jamaican roads are a test of endurance, stress tolerance, and skill; not only for the driver but passengers as well. One of the ladies with us who was in JA for the first time, just about "died" every time we were literally face to face with the vehicle coming in the opposite direction [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70384-praying.gif[/img] . Of course, this is typical when overtaking on those narrow roads, but somehow the roads seem more narrow than I remembered. On some stretches we bumped across some large potholes that had us bouncing around so much so that I felt my liver and kidneys got themselves a really good massage [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif[/img]. Jamaican drivers deserve gold medals for their ability to navigate the roads [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/notworthy.gif[/img] We finally came to a wonderful stretch of road, our driver zooming along at 80 KMh, when out into the road stepped a cop, radar gun in hand, motioning our driver to pull over. The cop showed him the reading on the radar...80 KMh in a 50 KMh zone. The driver pretended ignorance, but when he realized that wasn't going to work, he suggested they settle it as men. The cop wasn't interested and wrote him a ticket for $5,000.
Once we resumed our journey, we found out that driver had charged the host Pastor (who also made all the local arrangements) $7.000 to take us to our destination. We quickly realized with the ticket, plus gas, the driver would be really out of pocket, so once we got to our destination, we promptly chipped in and gave him the money for the ticket.
By this time we were just about physically and mentally tired. We checked into the "Lover's Leap Guest House", a name that immediately aroused my curiosity. Yes, the infamous Lovers' Leap was within walking distance, and I figured that would be the first thing I would see, maybe the next day.
After an absence of 4 years, it was good to be back home.
On the morning of the trip, I was extremely tired. I had end of semester exams the previous night and so didn't finished packing until about 3:00 a.m. When my ride came at 6:30, I was looking forward to a nap on the plane, but of course, I came face to face with Murphy's Law. We flew Air Canada to Montego Bay, and it would have been a very pleasant flight except for the toddler behind me. If there was a kid from hell, this had to be him as he whined and cried for just about the entire flight. So much for a much needed rest!
Four hours after takeoff, we arrived in Mo-Bay. Because I tend to travel lightly, once we cleared immigration and got into Customs, I began looking for the "Nothing to Declare" windows. Nada...nothing...not one, so as I stood in line behind people with what seemed like busloads of suitcases and boxes, an airport worker assisting a wheelchair occupant pulled up beside me. We started chatting and I asked her about the lack of "Nothing to Declare" windows. She pointed to an area across to hallway and said that was it. I mentioned there were no signs saying they were, and she just smiled. Alrighty then...\o/
The young lady at the desk would not have qualified for the "Agent of the Day" award, but after some going back and forth about who I had brought my laptop and camera for (they always think it is for somebody), we finally got through, and went out to meet up with our host and our ride. The bus driver was a friendly guy, and when I enquired how far we were from our destination, he promptly replied "About two hours". Cool, I thought.
If the flight was relatively uneventful, the ride to Southfield was anything but. For some inexplicable reason I forgot Jamaican roads are a test of endurance, stress tolerance, and skill; not only for the driver but passengers as well. One of the ladies with us who was in JA for the first time, just about "died" every time we were literally face to face with the vehicle coming in the opposite direction [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70384-praying.gif[/img] . Of course, this is typical when overtaking on those narrow roads, but somehow the roads seem more narrow than I remembered. On some stretches we bumped across some large potholes that had us bouncing around so much so that I felt my liver and kidneys got themselves a really good massage [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif[/img]. Jamaican drivers deserve gold medals for their ability to navigate the roads [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/notworthy.gif[/img] We finally came to a wonderful stretch of road, our driver zooming along at 80 KMh, when out into the road stepped a cop, radar gun in hand, motioning our driver to pull over. The cop showed him the reading on the radar...80 KMh in a 50 KMh zone. The driver pretended ignorance, but when he realized that wasn't going to work, he suggested they settle it as men. The cop wasn't interested and wrote him a ticket for $5,000.
Once we resumed our journey, we found out that driver had charged the host Pastor (who also made all the local arrangements) $7.000 to take us to our destination. We quickly realized with the ticket, plus gas, the driver would be really out of pocket, so once we got to our destination, we promptly chipped in and gave him the money for the ticket.
By this time we were just about physically and mentally tired. We checked into the "Lover's Leap Guest House", a name that immediately aroused my curiosity. Yes, the infamous Lovers' Leap was within walking distance, and I figured that would be the first thing I would see, maybe the next day.
After an absence of 4 years, it was good to be back home.
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