Dawn:
I said to Stephen and Sputty that maybe our destination is named Forever Cottage because it seems to take forever to get here! The moniker really comes from the home's proximity to the small village of Strawberry Fields, apparently established by hippies in the 70's but now inhabited by around one hundred very friendly Jamaicans. When you walk by the small cluster of structures in town where folks hang out, people extend their hands, introduce themselves and say Welcome.

Stephen:
Sputty is our driver.

We are here for a week at the Forever Cottage in Robin's Bay in St. Mary's Parish, Jamaica. It is out on the Northeastern corner of the Island. This is a last minute trip, so there are some inefficiencies like we flew direct to Montego Bay which is good, but then we needed to be driven for three hours, stopping for ATMs, bathrooms, and food shopping. Sputty took care of everything and we arrived safely although being driven on the other side of the road in the dark was a difficult thing to experience. For the last half hour he had to pick his way over a broken road to reach our Cottage.

Grace, our host, greeted us warmly and soon we joined her and her sister at the fire pit next to the pool with some wine that Grace had kindly left for us. It had been a long day of travel, but this was the perfect ending especially when a nearly full orange moon rose over the ocean peeking at us through the clouds.

Since then we have been in a learning mode. What and where to eat. Did we buy enough at the grocery store? What to do? Where to hike. When will the water be calm enough to snorkel? Are we going to be too isolated?

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Sunday

Stephen:
We got up early to enjoy some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee that we made in the French press and then walked down to the pool that overlooks our small cove. We dried off the chairs and did the New York Times Crossword puzzle (some things do not change).the sun was coming up slightly to our right as we looked out on the ocean in the direction of Haiti.

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Breakfast on the Deck - fruit, a star apple surrounded by papayas, then two wonderfully fluffy pancakes and finished off with a small omelet, all with coffee. Just delicious all of it. We talked with Grace about the area and some hikes that we might do. All this at the civilized hour of 8:30.

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Dawn:
On the way to find dinner we found Bobby's bar in the center of town. We had a drink and a chat with him. We decided on a couple of straight rums. He was born here, but like many Jamaicans, spent some time in the States. He has relatives in NY and NJ. His place of business is a larger version of the structures built from various available materials. It made me sad to see young people come to the bar to buy cigarettes, bought by the piece, not by the pack, they being too expensive, I imagine. The photo is of a Red Stripe in its natural habitat, a beer that is also enjoyed back in Boston by a few cognoscenti.

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Many of the homes in Strawberry Fields are small and constructed of various found materials. I think some lack running water, judging by the bottles of water sold in the convenience store. Grace assures us that tap water here on the island is perfectly safe so we have been drinking that exclusively. As we chatted with folks in this area, we found that many had either traveled in the States or had worked there, some in high end jobs like pro- gramming, but they came back here to live. Most are quite au courant with what's going on in our country right now. We assured them that we did not vote for the current occupant of the White House and are horrified by what's happening. Stephen keeps saying that we will get our country back. I have already been to three protest demonstrations since January 20 and will keep at it. So far, it's not helping.

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Jamaine, a man we met in the street agreed to make us our first dinner, fried fish, which we shared, along with fried plantains and a little cabbage and carrot salad. I think a bottle of water came from across the street for washing dishes, and Jamain borrowed a hanging light bulb that he plugged in overhead so we could see our food.

The food was pretty good. Jamaine miscalculated the price, but the new price at around $20 US, was okay. It fit bether with the estimate that Grace gave us.Friendly dogs patiently awaited our leftovers. Much to my surprise, the dogs here eat fish bones and seem to be okay.

Stephen:
Afterwards, we stopped across the street to check out the convenience store. They had some beer, trinkets, some clothes and surprisingly an angle grinder, a hand tool for grinding steel or concrete or anything you felt like making disappear. We were not going to buy anything but when we found out that it was Abby's first day, we grabbed some Red Stripe and Dragon Stout.

Some time between our walk back from dinner and bedtime we went for a night time pool swim. I knew where to turn on the gazebo lights but since Grace and her husband Lloyd have the switch to the pool in their place, we Whatsapped them to ask them to switch them on. A couple of minutes later it came on magically.

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Monday

Stephen:
Coffee by the ocean. Calmer water and the sun blasting us really making the ocen sparkle, really different, Same thing for the coffee except I learned how to make two rounds in one pot so that I did not have to clean it twice.

Breakfast - 3 soft boiled eggs with cherry tomatoes with toast with burnt marmalade

We are now dealing with the decisions we made at the grocery store. We were confused by the prices which were all in the thousands given that one US dollar got you 156 Jamaican dollars. We got some wine and bubbly for Dawn's Birthday which was going to be on Friday. Also the tomatoes and bread in the refrigerated section, some broccoli and a jar of marmalade. Some granola too. The tomato with eggs was surprisingly tasty. The tomatoes were sautéed in a jerk marinade and some oil and mixed in with the eggs. The toast was great also. The only strange thing was this would be our breakfast for three more days.

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We had skipped meditating on Sunday, but today we walked around to a lookout across our cove and meditated there. Both of us took the opportunity to mediate with water. I was trying to feel the difference between the water and the waves. I have learned some ideas about this, but I was was trying to jettison those and just feel into the situation. Getting away from ideas is very dizzying.





Dawn:
We are not renting a car here so our experience of Jamaica is limited to this small part of the island. It is a land of contrasts. Grace took us on a walking tour of the grand houses that are being built on this peninsula. They are quite luxurious with all high end amenities, and each has a pool and beautiful handmade stonework walls and walkways to the ocean. Nevertheless, access to these homes requires a slow 20-30 minute drive on a deeply rutted dirt road, the same road that goes through Strawberry Fields.

Stephen:
We also got to know Luna who came along for the walk. She craves affection and showers love on anyone who gives her a scratch. Later, we will will get in a little troubles with her, bu twe do manage to work ourselves out of it.

Dawn did not mention that it is Grace who is designing all the walkways and outside walls of these houses. Also, one day a helicopter buzzed us pretty closely as he flew by. I could see it outside our window from the inside. It was decided that they were looking at shoreline property. There is some land where the asking price is $8 million US dollars. Helipads may be the way of the future. The local neighborhood airport is named after Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books, and Noel Coward is the most famous of past residents.

Dinner - Broccoli with cherry tomatoes - Feeling very Buddist now. A scant bowl of food, but we are happy to get away from all the cheese that we eat in our normal lives. We swam after dinner, deciding we did not need the pool lights.

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Tuesday

Coffee by the ocean - By now you know the drill.

Breakfast - 2 microwaved bananas on toast. Now this is different. We can not eat eggs every day. So after mentioning to Grace that we melt bananas in the microwave, she got us a couple to try them here.

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Ballast Stone Art

Here is art on our floor. The building that we live in, all the decor that is inside and the gardens that surround us were all designed by Grace. The vision is hers and it is a very personal one.

These three pieces are made from the stones that came as ballast on the sailing ships that came from Spain. They were dumped and replaced by the New World products that were going back to Europe.

Lunch - Yoghurt with grapes and cereal. Yes we bought cereal and with the grapes both were available 24/7.

We WhatsApped Grace that we were leaving for Fansos, a highly recommended fish restaurant about a 45 minute walk down the road. Before we got 3 minutes away she responded that we should hang on and she would drive us. We said great and returned. The trip turned into a mini tour where first Grace stopped along the road to take pictures of some illegal construction preparation on a friend's land.She said this happens occasionally where someone thinks the owner is too far away and not paying attention.

Then she drove us past the Green Castle Estate, where we saw an old stone tower for which there were many estimates of its age and purpose. It might have been a windmill in the 1700's.

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The last stop was a Blue Hole of the Green Castle Estate. The ocean waves undermined the ground and then the ground collapsed at the end to create the sink hole. We took some pictures and then she dropped us off at Fanso's for fish dinner. The name of the cook was Beulah. I had talked to her on the phone to verify that she was open and now we were there.

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Dawn:
Beulah's dinner was really good. We picked out a fish from their catch of the day. After weighing it, we decided to share it. It was steamed with veggies on top, including pumpkin which was delicious. From the picture of our shadows, you can see that we could have eaten at that table overlooking the sea. However, we opted to stay close to the cook which meant closer to the music too. Music is everywhere here.

Beulah and I had quite a chat about American politics. She was very knowledgeable about wha's happening in our country and said that the politicians in Jamaica are no better.

We headed home on foot. It was an interesting walk and really did not seem too long. Cars honk and wave as they go by, so we wave too. At some point, a young man stopped and offered us a ride. Maybe he thought our waving meant we were hitchhiking. We got in, had a short chat, and very quickly we were in Strawberry Fields where he dropped us off. We were surprised the village was so close since the walk did not seem terribly long. We mentioned the good fish at Fansos. He said he was vegan, and Stephen mentioned that she made great veggies too. I had read that Rastas are vegan and don't drink alcohol. However, judging by the number of bars in this small community, maybe all Rastas, like any religious group, are not strictly observant!

Stephen:
Our shadows joined us for a pre-dinner kiss. After dinner, we took a pool swim by ourselves. Why not?

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Wednesday

Coffee by the ocean

Breakfast - 3 eggs soft boiled with cherry tomatoes sauteed in jerk marinade with toast with burnt marmalade

Yoga Class at the Gazebo

Dawn brought her Ipad down to the cove to teach yoga class to a group of friends. The class has been going on since Covid.

We set it up and put the zoom link in and clicked some buttons and finally put in our VPN and that seemed to make it work. Yoga/Chat was on the air. People signed in from their vacation spots around the US and the world and it was time to find out how everyone was doing. then don some yoga. I hung around as tech support, but the whole was smoother than at home. In fact, it was during this Yoga session that I started writing this travelogue.

Video Piece - We shot some video clips after lunch, but it may all be cutting room floor material. We will see. But we decided to show part of one clip. I added some music. We have lots of cutaways and other stuff, but I just wanted to show something simple in a great setting.
In celebration of the yoga class and the video session, we broke out our bottle of white wine and had a little cocktail hour with some nuts we had bought at the convenience store. Next will be dinner.



Today the restaurant closest to our house opened up. It is owned by a German woman but someone else cooked. As we started over, Luna and Bag, the other dog, decided to join us. It went well for a while but then Luna got really interested in the goats that graze along the road. She ran up the steep hill on our right and chased a baby goat back down the hill and across the street. She had her mouth around the neck of the kid and amidst a lot of shouting and running around we got her under restraint and started to take her back home. We explained what had happened to Grace and were happy to tell her that there seemed to be no damage to the kid. On our return without Luna, the goats were gone and so were the other people who had been there. We had escaped a close one.

As we got further up the road, we could hear the music. When we walked in, we saw a pool table and also a parchesi table and one guy sitting there. We guessed he was the cook and it turns out he was also the bartender. We introduced ourselves and found out he was Arnold, like in Swartzenegger. How the food gets portioned out around here is complicated, so we went back in the kitchen and worked out what we wanted. The chicken and vegetables were already cooked but he would do some plantains.

We got some drinks, I do not remember the exact details but some rum and some Dragon Stouts were involved. We sat a large round bar and soon are food came out. It all tasted pretty good but except for the plantains the food was barely warm. I suposed we could have negotiated, but we were hungry so we just ate it. We ate the chicken but it was a large amount so we took the rest home for lunch the next day. We reheated it in the microwave and it was better hot. We got this nice picture of Dawn and Arnold.

By the time we left it was dark and we needed our cell phone flashlights to find the path that led to our way out. A dip in the pool mostly finished the day off.

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Thursday

Coffee by the ocean

Breakfast - 3 eggs soft boiled with cherry tomatoes sauteed in jerk marinade with toast with burnt marmalade


Using a snorkel makes swimming in rocky turbulent water possible. You can actually see where you are going. This is really necessary when the water is shallow and has sea urchins growing on the bottom. The amount of fish was a little thin but when they appeared they were wonderful. They are like tropical birds, but they are so much closer. I could almost reach out slowly and touch them.

I love our full face snorkel mask. Your face is mostly dry and there is no mouthpiece.

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We heated up the leftovers from last night's dinner and had it for lunch. Warmed up, it was better than last night. I cracked open a Jamaican Dragon Stout to share. We melted our last banana in the microwave, put it on toast with cereal and burnt marmalade for dessert. For Thursday's dinner we went back to Natural Vibe, but did take out so we could heat it up in our microwave. It was the way to go.

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Friday

Then, Coffee by the ocean

Breakfast - 3 eggs soft boiled with cherry tomatoes sauteed in jerk marinade with toast with burnt marmalade. Our last.

Hike to Nikki Beach

Dawn:
It was pretty hot, humid day, and the hike was somewhat arduous. Here we are at the fork between the waterfall hike and the beach hike

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Once we did some climbing, the coastal views became fantastic. This was our first glimpse of Nilli Beach.

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We anticipated getting to a beach good for snorkeling. Stephen carried our water shoes so we could walk out over the rocks, coral and shells in the water.

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Here is our changing area. I think it is the path on to Black Sand beach, but it was the only shady place where we could see the ground and it had a place to sit. Sadly, the water was too shallow, with sea urchins to be any good for snorkeling, so we headed back. I was pretty wiped out so when we got home I opted for rest before my birthday dinner. Stephen went off to the Happy Hour that Grace had told us about.

Stephen:
Dawn forgot to mention two items. First, just to emphasize how far away from everything we felt we were, a group of vultures shadowed us for a while. Usually, shadow means following someone in their shadow. Here it meant that the vultures flew their shadows onto us. Maybe, seven or ten of them. We just kept walking (and breathing), just exhibiting our life force. In the end they gave up.

Second, Isabelle called us from Paris. I did not catch all of the conversation, but I think it was to wish Dawn a happy birthday and ask about Jamaica. A call from a center of civilization to a center of nature.

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Happy Hour at Doggies

Grace had worked out the weekly Happy Hour at Doggies for us. We would hike the come back and shower, go to the bar, come back have dinner. But Dawn wanted more relaxation on her birthday so she passed on the bar. I decided to go although I am not that social. I sort of dressed up and headed out.

I finally met Pet who is a laundress. We have passed her place every time, seeing all the clothes hanging on her line and saying hello to the man who generally plays guitar on the front steps. She came down on the road and solicited my business. I said we did not need any laundry done, but we would bring our laundry the next time we came. We are at the end of our time here and it feels like we are just getting started.

Arriving at the bar, I grabbed at Dragon Stout and walked over to who looked like a couple of ex-pats and introduced myself. They were the German women who owned the Natural Vibe restaurant and two friends who were visiting her. We chit-chatted about where we lived and how much we liked Jamaica and this area. We all agreed that Berlin is a city for the young. It just hops.

Dawn sent me a picture to say that she was ready. I did not pick it up.

Elvira and Beth, two women that we had been introduced to earlier in the day, came over after ordering complicated drinks at the bar. They both live here most of the year. The last people to arrive were Dori and her partner Rashan. They had just finished building a house after renting a place for a couple of years. She had taught West African dance in Michigan and it turns out that she knew DeAma Battle, the main West African dance master in Boston. Amazing to have a mutual friend in a place that seemed to me to be one of the ends of the earth.

Dawn cracked a beer open and sent me another photo. I missed that one also, but I got the message through the air.

Although it was an interesting and diverse group and I was enjoying myself, I knew it must be time to return and celebrate Dawn's birthday.

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Birthday Dinner

While at Forever Cottage, we enjoyed two delicious breakfasts made by Grace and a lovely dinner on my birthday. Dinner started with a small salad of shredded, sweetened cabbage, sliced carrots and tomatoes. This combo seems to be a tradition here. Then we had a Kingfish steak alongside half a lobster, with some small potatoes and nicely cooked veggies! Stephen had bought some bubbly in Ocho Rios on our way out to Forever Cottage.

We asked Grace and Lloyd to join us for a toast, and they also brought out an assortment of lovely desserts. A lively conversation ensued. Although I was to enjoy a big family celebration the following week, it was really sweet to have this delicious dinner in a beautiful, warm place with new friends.

Thank you, Grace and Lloyd.

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Later, we packed to go home. It was easy. Very little decision making. One just needs to keep the warm clothes for Boston on the top of the suitcase. We did a little cleaning and straightening.

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Saturday

Coffee by the ocean. Our last! Followed by breakfast on the deck. Another wonderful meal. We dawdled over the food and coffee and then had our farewell photo taken on the grand staircase. Dawn is holding on to the last of her coffee about to return to our apartment pack the last of our stuff

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The ride with Sputty back to the airport was smooth and uneventful although we got a text message that our flight would be delayed by an hour. We learned later that the plane in Boston needed to be replaced. So we had plenty of time when we got the the airport. Once we were inside, if we stopped walking for a moment or two some one would come up and ask us if we needed help. In fact, someone ask me if I needed a wheelchair. This would mean we could skip the line and he would earn a tip. I said no because we had plenty of time.

We got through and got our way through the duty free area and finally at the gate. I had a couple of bucks in Jamaican dollars but I could not find anything I wanted to buy. We ended up in the bar Magaritaville and had a drink or two and some food. Our flight was called and we went back and got ourselves aboard and flew back to Boston.

We waited about an hour at the gate, first waiting for a jetway operator and then for them to unload the baggage. The high wind that we experienced during our landing also prevented them from attaching a tailstand that would keep the plane from tipping back when the passengers got off and unweighted the front of the plane. All new to me.

A cab brought us home. We remembered to start the heat remotely so the house was warming nicely as we walked in. A hug and we were done.

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Wrap Ups

Thoughts from Dawn

Forever Cottage - Longer Review than AirBnB

Dawn:
Grace and Lloyd are wonderful hosts, very welcoming and knowledgeable about the island, both having grown up in Kingston. This was our first trip to Jamaica and they made it a magical visit. We enjoyed Grace's delicious breakfasts twice during our week's stay, cooking for ourselves the other days. Our last day was a "big" birthday for me, and Grace made us a beautiful meal. We invited them to join us for our bubbly; they brought dessert and a lively conversation ensued.

A week of living with the constant presence of the ocean is wonderful Each day is different, some calm, some choppy, and some with magnificent waves breaking over the rocks. The saltwater pool is a delight. They created various stone walkways and shaded areas for meditation or just enjoying the views. Gardens are lush and lovely.

At Grace's recommendation, we hired Sputty to drive us from and back to Montego Bay Airport. He was great. We stopped in Ocho Rios for an ATM and groceries.

As other reviewers have said, the last half hour of the drive is on a broken half paved road which we were glad not to be driving ourselves, especially since they drive on the left side here, a remnant of British influence on the island.

Strawberry Fields is a small village and home to probably less than a hundred friendly people. Folks will cook for you there, but there's really no market or roadside fruit/vegetable stands. So if you are on foot only, as we were, make sure you buy what you need at a market on your way there. You can also hire Sputty to take you to a market or anywhere else you would like to go.

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Thoughts from Stephen

It was planned as a trip down to the South with its sun and its heat. It certainly turned out to be that and much more. At the last minute, Grace offered us the apartment with a kitchen, so we cooked more than I thought we would. But it was easy. The whole time was relaxing. Speaking English was different.

We shot some video but there might not be anything there. We will see. If we come back, maybe we would do something along the lines of a documentary.

Thanks for reading.

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