Treasure Beach
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 20/Sep/2010 14:34, 34 days ago
Every time we go to Treasure Beach with the our colleague volunteers, someone always says we should buy a piece of property here and co-own it for future use for the rest of our lives. This weekend was no exception. It's such a wonderful dream that all of us share.In less than 6 months of living here, George and I have been to Treasure Beach 5 times. Each time has been a totally different experience meeting the various locals selling their wares on the beaches and we've never come home empty handed. This week's treasures included a carved wall hanging of a rasta by Stanley who also made 4 or 5 guitar picks out of coconut shell for Dominic and gave Ruth Claire a carved mallet. Stanley wanted to give me some little carvings too but I told him to keep them and give them to someone who actually had somewhere to put them. We have no free table top space or book shelves for knick knacks. He's such a lovely man.We stayed at the Waikiki Guest House. There was a group about the same size as ours staying in the round cabin - they were students from UWI (University of West Indes). We were 7 and stayed in the 3 bedroom cabin below. Dominic's impression was it was just like his grandmother's house in Trinidad, complete with the china cabinet full of china (but locked).Nadine, the next picture is for Eric, please make sure he sees it. I know he's not one of my blog followers. For shame! Every time I see this bar I think of you two...the bar is called Eggy's Bar and there's Eggy, resting out front. As you can see his operation is just inches from the high water mark. Next time you come, I'll make sure you visit Eggy's. For the rest of you, Eggy is Eric's nick name.But we had no need to drink on the beach because we visited the Appleton Rum Estates where we were each given lots of free samples and a free bottle of rum with the cost of our admission. Now don't get me started on that, George and I ended up paying the tourist fee which is always double the resident fee because we forgot to mention we were residents up front and she wouldn't reimburse us for even one admission price even though we had the same ID as everyone else. They were showing their bus passes, which we had too but she wouldn't accept that as ID from us, and we showed our my TRN which is a Tax Registration Number. What tourist has a TRN? My wallet was filled with hospital admission cards and hairdresser business cards, but nothing was good enough. At the end of the day the cashier apologized to me (but didn't refund us any money) and I apologized to her through a whole lot of tears caused from taking 2 weeks worth of pain killers. Next time we know what ID is required for the cashier at Appleton (our passports, marriage certificate and copy of our lease agreement and to be on the safe side, I think we'll bring the originals).While we were in tasting rum, and I was making sure our group drank plenty to make up from my having to pay the tourist fee, Delphine and Ruth Claire were outside exploring an observation tower and when they came in to find out what they had missed they told me Ruth Claire was out riding on the donkey. I believed them! :)On Sunday we visited YS Falls. Only Delphine and Dominic participated in the in-water activities such as getting the back massage from the rush of the falls, jumping off the rope and jumping from one level to the other. The falls steps are very high and the water extremely powerful. None of us attempted the zip line back down partly because it costs an additional $40US. Maybe next time. Luckily for me I have the perfect excuse this time...I couldn't with my broken shoulder.There are very few photos of George and I because our tour guide immediately noticed my camera and took it from me saying he could take much better photos than me and off he went. I virutally did not get to use my camera from the moment he became our tour guide until the tour was over. He loved Delphine and Dominic and thought they were a couple so asked them to kiss for the camera while they were in the water. All giggles, they obliged, strickly for the tour guide...If you look hard in this photo above you will see Delphine swinging from the rope. I think this is the first time she jumped off...the time her bathing suit top fell off completely when she hit the water, tie undone and all. As far as I know nobody saw anything; she was able to get it all back on underwater but the rope operators did invite her to return for a second jump.My flowers for the weekend. We notice that the cactus and bougainvillea are starting to bloom again.But no visit to Treasure Beach is complete without chillin' at Jakes and Jack Sprats. Mostly eating at Jack Sprats and lounging at Jakes. George and I also spent a serenel hour at Jack Sprats before the staff came to open up for the day using their internet to talk to Andrew and Sophie for our weekly Skype visit. We had the beautiful view of the ocean, while they prepared for 12C weather in Toronto. We felt privileged to be in the warmth by the ocean.We also learned this weekend that the owner of Jakes and Jack Spratt's is the son of the producer of the 1972 movie The Harder They Come. You can actually buy copies of the film there. The next time we're visiting we'll probably pick one a ccopy since we haven't seen the movie yet.And our luck held out for us. Even though there was a lot of heavy rain, probably a result of Igor and Julia working their way northwards, the rains held off until we were on our way home. And typically, the roads flooded fairly quickly. Driving through the flooded roads is particuularly slow since there are potholes the size of craters all along the roads out of Treasure Beach.Another magical weekend in Treasure Beach. Thanks to everyone who came with us this weekend for such a wonderful time and fantastic memories.To see our previous trips to Treasure Beach:http://mwapoleni-bunty.blogspot.com/2010/04/easter-weekend-at-treasure-beach.htmlhttp://mwapoleni-bunty.blogspot.com/2010/04/this-first-picture-is-of-pelican-bar.htmlhttp://mwapoleni-bunty.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.htmlhttp://mwapoleni-bunty.blogspot.com/2010/06/ital-rest-guest-house-treasure-beach.htmlhttp://mwapoleni-bunty.blogspot.com/2010/08/treasure-beach.html