Jamaica - 12/17 Day 1

December 08,2017

6am flight means up at 3:30. New apartment and new roommates, I was quiet as I could be...hope I didn’t wake anyone. I took an Uber to the airport and it was so quick as there was no traffic.

I had my boarding passes in my iPhone passbook and I am TSA pre-check so getting through the airport into my gate was quick and easy. The flight took off on time and I quickly went to sleep and was able to sleep the better part of three hours of the three hour and 45 minute journey to Miami.

Outbound by Miami layover is no such thing, I am always racing to my connection. Today was no different as I had 35 minutes before my flight to Kingston would leave. Fortunately my gate was in the same terminal and not terribly far away. I made it with a few minutes to spare. There was no time for Miami snack bitch I look forward to as there are several great cafés in Miami airport.

Miami to Kingston Jamaica was only about an hour and 15 minute flight, shorter than expected. There were clouds around when we landed and I Hace missed around the mountains but it was dry and partly cloudy around the harbor.

I was able to use an automated kiosk to get to the country and actually received no stamp in my passport. I asked for one but they would not stamp my passport. Getting through customs was equally quick and I was out front door and only about 15 minutes after I landed which is pretty amazing.

Sheryl had instructed me to wait out in front of arrivals and in about 10 to 15 minutes Richard Sh Sheryl had instructed me to wait out in front of arrivals and in about 10 to 15 minutes Richard arrived. It was in the mid80s and I had a jacket on so off it came and I absorbed the bright Jamaican sun.

We headed out and made her way around the harbor and into downtown Kingston. Richard stopped at a craft market and ask for directions to the art Gallery as he wasn’t familiar with it

The national Gallery of Jamaica has an incredible collection of artistic expression from Jamaica is most creative artists. The groups we’re separated into colonial period, precolonial, and modern

The modern artist were definitely my favorite and the more interesting to me were the ones that showed unique perspective with shape and color versus perfection. I think it’s a shame to come to Jamaica and not visit this place that is a guide to the culture of the people

Next we made our way through quite a bit of traffic for mid day on Friday but we reached Devon House.

Sitting on 11 lush acres in the capital city, the stately Devon House mansion was the home of Jamaica’s first black millionaire, George Stiebel. It was built in 1881, on what was originally a 51-acre property.

Visitors to the historical site can go back in time with a tour of the Georgian-style great house. Furnished with a collection of 19th-century antiques from Jamaica and the Caribbean region, the house tells the tale of privileged West Indian society in the Victorian era. The ballroom still has the original English chandelier purchased by Stiebel for the room.

The finely crafted wooden Devon House is even more remarkable given that it was constructed by a man whose background made his climb to success particularly difficult. George Stiebel, the son of a black housekeeper and a German-Jewish merchant, made his fortune from investments in gold mines in Venezuela. He purchased 99 properties in Jamaica, including Devon Pen.

I decided to tour the house and paid the $11 fee for the tour and a scoop of ice cream at their famous ice cream shop. My guide was Barbara who took me through the mansion and gave me much information on the history of the home and the rooms we toured but also many details of the furniture and the lighting and even early bathroom fixtures that were of interest to me. She was very knowledgeable and I was happy to give her generous tip at the end of the tour and would recommend her to others visiting Devon House.

It was approaching 4 PM and with traffic being heavy I suggested to Richard that maybe it was too late to go to Bob Marley museum and that we should go to the Jamaica store and head up. We stopped at bob Marley museum and it was still open so he stopped and I paid for a tour $25 with a guide. I toured with the couple from Atlanta Georgia. The guide was very informative and I learned much about bob Marley and his philosophy. In Jamaica bob Marley is viewed as a revered man. His movement has a life of its own and seems just as strong decades after his death. I was able to tour where he mixed some of his music and also where he and his family slept. Short film was included about who he was and how he felt about things that are important to him. Also we were able to see where he has wife and manager for when the assassination attempt happened. It was all very moving and certainly gave me quite a perspective on this man that I viewed as one dimensional and he was anything but.

It was Now 530 and evening traffic was miserable. Richard skipped going to the Jamaica store and maybe I can get there on Monday. We needed to make her way into the mountains. The road was very narrow maybe only a car and a half wide at its widest. It was pitch black and sheer cliff on the right side as we made our way up and through the mountains. With each car approaching would have to stop and cautiously proceed to make sure that we could both pass.

At a point where we were high enough for sweeping view of Kingston and it’s harbor I stop for a photo op. I was very fortunate that even though a bit hazy, there was a bit of color showing through the clouds to make for an interesting sunset shot.

We approached the turn off for serendipity, the resort I booked through Airbnb. The road we turn down seems like one from a movie where someone was being taken to be murdered or at least left for dead.. as we drove it I thought of Costa Rica and the “road from hell” experience I shared with Naitro. This wasn’t as bumpy and severely rotted but it was very very narrow, only as wide as our vehicle, and trees and brush or in our way much of the journey . There were points at which we would turn down a path and I was concerned that we would slide down that hill, but we didn’t. It seemed like we had driven about 15 to 20 minutes off the main road and my thoughts were that I would never think of going anywhere from this little spot in the blue Mountains. It’s definitely a place you come to stay once you’re here and not use as a point to go in see other things. I arrived at night so I am hoping what I experience tomorrow morning is worth what it took to get here.

Richard took me to the office briefly, showed me where my room was, and then down to the bar and restaurant where I had stir-fry vegetables and jasmine rice with a serendipity rum punch. The atmosphere was peaceful with the sounds of frogs and other forest creatures and the white noise of the waterfall.