Our Day in Montego Bay

We headed straight to Montego Bay, Jamaica (although we were closest to Cozumel) so we basically did a big loop in the Gulf :). It took us 3-days to get there. And by Day 3, I could have fought someone to get off that dang boat no matter how big it was - I was just ready to touch land!

In Montego Bay, we shopped, well I shopped. And Darryl haggled for me, we had a nice routine (our version of "Good Cop, Bad Cop) - and they called me "Princess", I liked that! LOL. I noticed that most shops seemed to be owned by foreigners, so if you think America is outsourced we're not the only ones. Jamaicans stood on the outsides of stores as greeters and urged you you inside but once inside the owners were mostly of Indian/Asian descent. Kinda like here where Af. Am. hair stores have Af. Am. salespeople and assistants, but are owned by people of Asian/Indian descent. Same, difference...

I purchased several beautiful items nonetheless but only if they were made in Jamaica. I bought a beautiful bamboo clutch and a couple maxi dresses for an inflated price. We were also lured into into several "everything's a dollar" Dollar Stores only to find out that the $1 items consisted of a basket of key chains and refrigerator magnets, but if you wanted anything else best be prepared to pay. Same hustle, different country. Cash is King and equated to no tax and more negotiating power, while credit card purchases = tax, we learned that the hard way too when we ran outta hard cash and couldn't access an ATM.

I would never forget the comedian on the ship asking who's ever been to Jamaica and us wondering why so many people were staying on board when we docked. He said Jamaica was simply the ghetto surrounded by beautiful water, and you know what, it pretty much was. And I have NEVER seen the most blatant selling or attempting selling of marijuana ever - I mean they are not discreet at all. They seriously must be very lenient on their sentencing of marijuana cases or something! LOL It happens to me in the Bahamas too - so maybe I give off a vibe! HA

We took a taxi tour bus with a group around the town that visited some notable areas and saw quite a few sights before spending the remainder of our day at the beach. Besides looking for the seat belts that weren't there and saying a few prayers after realizing that traffic laws were pretty much nonexistent and that they drove on the "European" side of the road, the most eye opening was sight was not a sight at all but a community.

It was actually more like a "shanty town". "The Ghetto",  as the bus driver called it. The people from the rural areas moved down into some dilapidated, abandoned houses and basically formed a "shanty town" right in the middle of the city. I couldn't get a picture because the bus was moving so fast but it was eye opening to say the least. An entire community, right there. They have no public services so if you can't afford a place to live, you're homeless. If you can't afford food, you starve. If your child doesn't have food, they starve. No Section 8, homeless shelters, food stamps, WIC. Its all you and your family. So these people saw the abandoned properties and simply moved in. No one ran them out and they stayed. If there is no wall they scavenge for bricks to build one, if they can't find bricks then they have no wall!

So I simply stared for what seemed like minutes but was simply seconds at two and three-story apartments with no roofs or missing walls, stacked upon each other like Jenga blocks about to topple. You could look right in. Clothes strung on a rope across one side of the room to another to dry - but if it rained they'd be wet again because there was no dang roof! Furniture sitting right on the edge of a collapsed floor. If it were here in the states it would be condemned, uninhabitable for people AND I just knew that children were living there, I knew it. It truly looked as if the placed was being demolished but they ran outta explosives or equipment to move the rubble.

In the middle of paradise. I was starting to wonder why I bothered to get off the ship, myself. Then Darryl told me "This is what you need to see". And it's not like I don't know, but to witness for oneself it always...well, humbling!
So I began to wonder. What if the people by chance did work and save and build the community up to become a place of value, then what? It'll likely be taken. It's not their land or property. They're technically squatters - It's a Catch 22. And just think the people that were living there could have possibly been some of the same people that I just saw down the street in the stores working hard as "front people" trying to make a living. And with all that, I didn't encounter begging from a single people; I encountered from hustlers though. Everyone was trying to do something. They weren't just wallowing in self-pity or sitting still - they were surviving. But this was their existence, and here we were were driving by on our vacation. My "snap shot" was very self-reflective to say the least.

So we had a couple of "folks" on the bus cussing and fussing and causing a pure mess because they wanted to get off and drink and didn't wanna continue with the tour. They claimed that they had been mislead and wanted to go directly to a particular location, Margaritaville... however the rest of us wanted to continue with our tour. These people at one point became so rude and belligerent that another vacationer fed up with their nonsense, right at the point when we all were quiet, looked away from the window and said to the driver how about we drop them off here in "The Ghetto". And then turned to them seriously and asked "Would you like to get off here?" LMBO

The entire bus erupted with laughter - well except for them, of course - and that broke the mood of our somber reflection...

So I hope you got a good visual during my description of the tour because I have very few actual pics! Just add in a KFC "Keep From Cookin'" (as locals commoly referred to it) on every other block and you pretty much have it.

Shoppes at Rose Hall

Outdoor area at the Shopping Mall

Pics outside as we walked down the "Hip Strip" local hotels, store fronts, and restaurants

I had to get a pic of this - check out the emergency #! LOL

BTW
When we got to the beach a young man who tried to rent us chairs and an umbrella asked us where we were from and when we said the MD/DC area he was like "Yeah, Mon? Wha Cha Know 'Bou Me Capital Heights Fam?" (that's my attempt at writing in patois) LOL! Can't get away at all!

Doctor's Cave Beach

Darryl has become my beach baby, just like Garrett and Robert.

I guess I was really doing too much reflecting. It was definitely not what I expected from "Jamaica". It was more on some levels and less on others.  And I didn't make it to the Straw Market because it closed at 5pm, yes it had hours of operation, mind you this was a weekday and it was like half past 4. They operated on the hours of the docking ships - and closed an hour prior. I couldn't even get a private taxi there (insert sad face).

So I must say I'm looking forward to comparing the city of Montego Bay to others on the island, now Javon's wedding is April 30th in Ocho Rios, right? LOL

Stay Tuned for the next island post: Grand Caymen Island in the British West Indies