We are home now, having arrived as snow was falling Friday night into Saturday and, after ten days of sleeping under a single sheet as fans chased air around our 26-degree room, we embraced our beds, heavy with covers, in our night-chilled rooms. Here is a little summary of our 10 day stay in Port Antonio, with Christian’s brother Michel at the Oratorians.
First, this is a view of the house on a peninsula that welcomed us:
This is the view from the kitchen, into the backyard and beyond that, onto Port Antonio’s harbour.
And this was our room:
The boys were quickly used to jumping into the pool after breakfast.
Separating the backyard from the port is the Errol Flynn Marina.
Cruises dock here,
…as one did on a rainy day at the end of December:
Which, seen from the upstairs of the house, still looked imposing.
The Marina has a small beach, which we happily took advantage of, often feeling like it was a private one.
A little past the beach, the view rounded a bend and you could see the lighthouse in the distance.
On one of our sight-seeing expeditions, we visited the lighthouse:
Marie-Helene took this picture of it:
And she took a picture of us taking a selfie:
Nearby was Folly Ruins.
We climbed them and took more pictures…
Admired the view…
And climbed down again…
Sightseeing lead to more views…
And spotting the parish’s church from a distance:
The house had four guard dogs who lounged around the yard between their guard-dog duties to which they readily rallied at the least sound with a salvo of barking for anyone walking past in the street.
Above is Franco and Bernedetta, the oldest dog’s name is Zoé, but the kids had a soft spot for Davidé, whose birth defect, a slightly smaller lower jaw, often caused his tongue to stick out a little…
After 10 days with these giants, the kids find Enzo to be puppy-sized and have taken to calling him Tiny.
We spent time at Frenchman’s Cove, where a chilly river flows into a warm ocean bay.
We were guests at a parishioner’s whose house in San San, up on the side of the mountain, offered a stunning view of limitless ocean.
Now, Errol Flynn, besides having a marina, apparently “popularized trips down rivers on bamboo rafts” (Wikipedia) and we took such a trip, which was a pleasant three hours, on one of the many Spanish-named rivers in Jamaica, the Rio Grande.
Christian even took a turn being Captain for awhile…
It rained while we were visiting, but only three days of the ten had dampened plans. One day we ventured out for lunch and hustled to find shelter to eat our KFC. A stray dog found us and we fed it scraps…
On another sight-seeing expedition, Michel took us into the mountains to visit a church and school in Avocat:
And then we visited one of the many places that grows famous Blue Mountain coffee… This one, Devon’s Coffee Ranch (website), gave us a tour and we learned a lot about coffee and drank a delicious cup.
The coffee was for adults, but the kids were offered fresh oranges, so sweet and succulent that we took some too, and this was the view:
We had lunch, higher up the mountain, at a place called Blue Patio.
And Michel took us even higher into the mountain until the view became greenery and clouds…
And since they would not part, we came back down.
Another day, we went looking for souvenirs and found them at the Craft Market.
The day before leaving, Michel took us to Boston Beach…
…where the highlight was the waves:
And Cedric built a castle.
Then it was evening and we took a group picture, had supper and went to bed for the next day’s early start of driving and flights back home.
Jamaica, it was a treat!
