Jamaica

Writing this post now in the age of COVID (December 2020), it’s easy to see that at the time Amy and I had no idea this was to be our last trip for a while. And then of course there were other things that happened more recently to further that. Anyway, this was February 2020 and we’d heard about the lock-downs in China and I think Italy and parts of Europe, but noting had happened in the US or Caribbean yet. So we went on our beach vacation with ignorant abandon.

We flew into the Montego Bay, rented a car and drove to the West End, the western most part of Jamaica. We stayed at a little place called Tingalay’s Retreat and practically had the place to ourselves. Our little cottage was across the street from the main resort and just a couple hundred feet from the ocean. There were only two cottages there and no on else stayed in the other one. It was quite relaxing.

We didn’t do much. Took a couple drives around the coast, went to a few restaurants but mostly just relaxed, hung out at our pool filled with sea water and talked to our own private life guard, Kevin. One day we went to a fair that was going on in town. That was fun. They had donkey races and a great ferris wheel for the kids.

On our last night, I’d partaken in a little special brownie, and on the way home from dinner I hit a huge pot hole (no pun intended) and blew our two left tires. Fortunately, with the help of the resort’s cab driver and fixer, we were back on the road in about an hour. All in all, Amy and I were glad to have visited Jamaica, but we both agreed we didn’t need to go again. Check that one off our list.