Saturday 17 February 2007 --
Tucson to Miami
We left Tucson after 8am
on
the first leg of the flight to Jamaica.
Nice easy morning; we stayed overnight near the airport instead
of
having to leave the house before dawn. The
other benefit of the overnight was that we were able to have a nice
dinner in
Tucson, namely, at Casa Vicente.
Located downtown on Stone, CV is a Spanish tapas restaurant that
Bob and
Pam Deichmeister had recommended. (We'd
tried several times to get there but always seemed to find it closed.) Excellent food, well worth it.
We got into DFW after 11
local time, had a couple of hours to kill before the next flight to
Miami. Sadly I
had a favorite lunch spot in the airport, Au Bon Pain, where we split a
wrap.
Unfortunately I had a
nasty
sore throat that I really hoped would pass.
In Miami...it was
somewhat
unobvious where to catch hotel shuttles ( on the departure level?) -
there were
zip for signage a la LAX. Eventually
the shuttle for La Quinta arrived. We
packed in with a party from someplace with zero spanish clues as they
persisted
in calling the hotel "la kwinta".
The restaurant situation
wasn't bad but most were too far to walk (at least, in the dark). In an adjacent office-type park, though, we
found a "mediterranean" restaurant named Zeitoun -- Arabic for
olive. All the usual suspects: stuffed
grape leaves, kabobs, hummus, nice little desserts -- what a deal!
The hotel wireless
internet
bit, probably should have tried the freebie at the restaurant, oh well. It worked enough (barely) from the lobby for
me to send a short message to work.
We had to catch the 6:30
shuttle in the morning, flight isn't until 9:48 but they say 2 hrs
advance and
the shuttle only runs once per hour.
Likely we'll breakfast at Starbucks!
Sunday 18 February -- Miami to Montego Bay
Hearing we needed 2 hrs
minimum at the airport, we got downstairs early for the 6:30 shuttle. We must have been the only ones as the driver
took us immediately and we wound up at the airport 3 hrs early. Security did take awhile, but still we had
time to kill, and not much in the way of food choices past security. We went with Starbucks but it was a long
walk for Roberto from the gate.
We arrived in Montego
Bay at
11:20 or so after flying over Cuba.
Beautiful balmy weather, not too sticky. There
was no sign of our ride, and we were early, so we took a
taxi to the first hotel, the Emerald Escape Beach Resort.
Situated on a little cove with mangroves on
the opposite side of a little inlet, the main green and yellow building had nice rooms with balconies
facing the water. A thatched-roof
gazebo stood at the end of the little jetty surrounded by turquoise
water.
We walked around a bit
and
decided we'd try for lunch in the dining room.
Another couple with binoculars joined us, and turned out to be
our guide
Brennan and his wife Brynne from Key Largo.
Apparently they were on our flight from Miami, as well as
another tour
couple, and the driver was outside the terminal not holding up his sign. So much for that $25!
Lunch took awhile but
was
good -- steamed bammy with calaloo -- the bammy being a polenta-like
cake made
of cassava, and calaloo a dark-green vegetable like kale.
Our first Red Stripe beer (and likely not
the last) completed lunch.
What was left of the
afternoon was largely spent in the room, dozing off and intermittently
watching
a film about King Tut in French.
Outside we could hear the water lapping the beach and the breeze
in the
palms, very relaxing.
Monday 19 February -- to Marshall's Pen
The wind blew pretty
hard
all night, whistling through the window cracks, and the room was a
little warm,
but we didn't want to run the A/C (if it even worked).
Nice temperature, though. We joined
the group to Bird the
wind-sheltered courtyard while waiting for breakfast...which was
predictably
slow to materialize. Robert and others
had the ackee and salt fish, a national dish we were told.
Ackee had the consistency of soft-scrambled
eggs but apparently is some type of fruit?
Silly me, I ordered cold cereal, which never arrived. "we don't have corn flakes is oatmeal
ok?" after nearly all had been served.
"Yes." Much
later..."oh did I not tell you the oatmeal was bad?"
sigh.
There was plenty of toast on the table at least, and I got a
banana from
Brennan, so no worries. The coffee was
good too, if in short supply.
We drove to the Rockland’s Bird Sanctuary, a little
place up a steep
winding road from the bay. The prime
attractions there were the red-billed streamertails and jamaican mangos
that
would literally eat out of your hand (well, out of small sugar-solution
bottles). Also there were tons of
bananaquits, yellow- and black-faced grassquits, orangequits,
black-throated
blue warblers...the grassquits did eat right out of my hand, and their
little
toes had a good grip. We also had good
looks at jamaican oriole and jamaican woodpecker.
Continuing on we came
around
the west of the island to the southern coast, then back up into the
interior
near Mandeville, to the home of Ann Sutton, Marshall's Pen. Who Marshall was or what he had penned were
mysteries from long ago. Ann is the wife of the late Rober
Sutton, generally
considered to have been Jamaica's leading ornithologist.
The house was 200 years old, give or
take, and looked it...Victorian England meets tropical benign
neglect...but it
was charming enough. Lunch was an
assortment of "loaves" (thick bready turnovers filled with
vegetables) and "patties" (thinner meat-filled pastries).
Plus salad which I studiously avoided and
Robert ate, and some yummy fresh fruit juices.
We had a short siesta in
our
room (complete with lizard)
and while they
sprayed for wasps outside I can muse over some of what we saw en route.
A
couple of
hours of late afternoon into dusk birding got us a few more goodies
including a
beautiful lizard cuckoo, and a jamaican owl right before dinner. We did the list over rum punch before a very
nice dinner; Robert tried the fish while I stayed vegetarian (I signed
up as
such so he and I could split the difference, so to speak).
Rice and peas (really red beans), calaloo,
and creamed pumpkin -- yum! Also a
chocolate-type dessert that also had either fig or dates in it.
The
shower was
hot after dinner - woo hoo.
The
generator
went out the previous evening around 11pm, but was not on this morning,
so at
5:45am Robert showered by flashlight while I used my flashlight to put
myself
together. (It was a good excuse to give
up on makeup.) We had a quick cup of
coffee and a nibble of spice bread, then birded the immediate grounds
for a
couple of hours before breakfast.
Chestnut-bellied cuckoo was the prize of the morning.
For
breakfast
I got the cereal I wanted yesterday...yum.
Passed on the eggs and ate the toast.
We then regrouped and birded what could best be called the sand
tick
trail. Small buggers that look like
dirt until they move. Luckily they were
fairly easy to brush off. At least for
our efforts we got a couple more good birds, arrowhead warbler, vervain
hummingbird, loggerhead kingbird, and the unforgettable jamaican tody,
a little
green lightbulb of a bird with a bright red throat.
After
lunch we
left quickly for an afternoon of drive-by birding, hitting a number of
spots in
a big loop that took us back down to the coast and to some different
ponds,
ending up at the Black River upper morass zone, a freshwater marsh. Lots of shorebirds, but the highlight was
the rare west-indian whistling duck, apparently only about 600 left in
the
wild? We saw about 6, 4 who swam away
quickly, and one very cooperative pair.
The road out to the duck area was "single track" and basically
seemed to get cleared by buses like ours ( e.g. a big van) going
through. Several locals were out fishing
for perch;
when they caught the armored catfish they'd throw them on the bank, so
there
was quite the display of dead to long-dead catfish littering the path. A mongoose ran around furtively hoping for a
fresh catch, and was rewarded when our driver threw him some tidbits.
Long
day,
though; we weren't back for dinner until nearly 8:30pm. Our
late arrival was a tiny bit explained by
stopping for spectacular looks at barn owls on fence posts lining the
road. Dinner
was delicious but there was little time for talk (or the
list) as we would have an early call the next day (out by 5:15) and
nearly
everyone wanted to go shower before collapsing for the night.
On
the bus at
0-dark-30...or so it seemed. Really at
about 5:10. The
morning was spent in Cockpit Country,
an area of valleys hemmed in by ragged, steep limestone cliffs,
so named
for their resemblance to cockfighting pits.
The drive in wqs described by the Rough Guide as the "best
white-knuckle driving in Jamaica", and we didn't doubt it.
So glad to not be driving ourselves; the
roads are nearly single-track, and very curvy, so horns get honked
liberally as
warning.
Anyway,
there
we saw yellow-billed and black-billed parrots (Amazonia, so no clap no
roll),
jamaican crow with its weird gobble call, jamaican elaenia,
yellow-shouldered
grassquit, and blue mountain vireo.
Breakfast was picnic style upon arrival, and then we walked up
the road
birding for 3+ hours. Besides the birds
mentioned I also watched the turkey vultures -- Brennan had said that
they flex
their wings periodically, and hawks/eagles don't; I'd never noticed
that
before.
We
tried for
grasshopper sparrows on the way back, to no avail, but did "rescue" a
young steer on a tether who had managed to hobble himself pretty
thoroughly in
his rope. One of the group got Milton,
the driver, to help, which I'm sure he'll be laughing about
forever...the steer
probably found himself in that predicament often.
On
the way in
at Marshall's Pen we saw the elusive caribbean doves just off the
driveway.
Lunch
was back
at the house, a nice vegetarian lasagna, kicked up a bit with the
ever-present
hot sauce on the table. My own
preference was for the Pickapeppa fruit sauce, which had raisins and
mangoes in
addition to pepper, like a hot worchestershire. Rum
raisin ice cream followed for dessert.
The
afternoon
was free for a few hours at least, leaving us free to write, shower,
sleep... A few went out for the late
afternoon walk,
including Roberto, but I half-snoozed an extra hour before going
outside. There was a futile potoo hunt
before the
list and dinner.
Today
was a
national holiday (Ash Wednesday?) so there was a serious party nearby
with
thumping loud music. Seemed like it
would be a long evening. :-(
We
birded
trails at Marshall's Pen this morning, walking out in the morning cool
and
warming up nicely as the sun came up, and getting a ruddy quail-dove
for our
efforts. Really could not complain
about the weather -- even when warm it wasn't oppressive.
Following breakfast we walked another 90
minutes or so before returning to the house for a house tour by Ann
Sutton. Her husband's predecessors, all
named
Robert, have been in Jamaica since the late 1800's.
The house was actually used for coffee production, and our guest
house for storage, and was retrofitted in the 1940's.
Following
the
tour we ate, again (can't complain about a lack of food!) and headed
out for
Kingston. We stopped in Lionel Town at
Brandon Hay's (our in-country guide) office, the Portland Bight
Protected Area. From there we birded the
mangroves at Portland Ridge, finding bahama mockingbird (bigger than
expected)
and stolid flycatcher, not to mention great, extended looks at clapper
rail
(very unusual).
We
arrived in
Kingston at 6:30pm. The drive in was
through a depressed area but the hotel, the Courtleigh, is in a very
nice hotel
row. Wireless internet, even!
Dinner in the hotel was at
7:00pm...excellent red-pea soup (really small red bean soup with a hint
of
coconut), and vegetable stir-fry roti for me, pasta alexander (crab,
corn) for
Robert.
We
were out of
the hotel just after 5:00, managing to sleep despite the thumping bass
of the
music in
the restaurant immediately below us. We
were getting an early start for the twisty drive up into the Blue
Mountains. We made good time, and were birding a very steep
road,
Woodside,
by 6:30. There we did see the elusive
crested
quail-dove, among other goodies.
Farther up the main road we easily found the jamaican blackbird,
which
surprised Brandon; he said it was too easy, it was a difficult bird who
would
"destroy your soul".
Lunch
was at
the Starlight Chalet, a beautiful inn high up in the mountains, makes
you
wonder how all those materials got up the road. Too
much food as usual...chicken, rice and peas, etc.
It
was raining
pretty steadily by the time we finished eating, so we went straightaway
to the
Twyman Plantation, a coffee grower.
Relatively small operation, the couple who own the place have
about 200
acres planted, and have about 35 employees.
They have a complete operation through roasting, packaging, and
distribution. The wife explained a
little about the process, had us try coffee beans of different roasts,
made
coffee for us to sample...I bought two half-pound bags for $31 and plan
to buy
more once home, with shipping works out to about $40/lb.
It
continued
to rain at elevation (4000-5000 ft) so we came on down "early",
carefully given the wet roads, sharp turns, and steep dropoffs...which
did not
seem to deter other drivers. Hit rush
hour traffic in Kingston nevertheless after 4:00pm, getting us to the
hotel at
5:00pm. Dinner (slow) and list followed
at 6:00pm, where it was Robert's turn to have his order lost -- and he
didn't
even get an appetizer. So he
re-ordered, and got it quicker than I would have thought, although it
wasn't
what he originally wanted, and well after everyone else had finished. I had soup again and an appetizer of ackee
and gnocchi in coconut sauce for dinner, while Robert had chicken off
the
"express" menu ("served in under 45 minutes!"). There
were many jokes about cereal,
too.
That's
definitely one thing we've noticed...food service is generally pretty
slow. Hard to say whether it's due to
insufficient staff, bad technique, or just general somnolence.
Anyway,
after
all that, we retreated to our room, moved from the previous evening's
bass
thump-fest. I was able to arrange that
upon returning to the hotel, something that did occur rapidly and
efficiently,
so kudos to the hotel staff for that.
Up
and at the
bus at 4:00am. I slept for nearly all of the 2.5 hr drive
into the John Crow Mountains -- named for the turkey vulture, not a
person. First order was a picnic
breakfast which was rapidly devoured -- fruit, cereal, granola bars,
yogurt --
quite good, as was the coffee. Then
after making a deposit in the "first natural bank" :-) we were off on
foot in the intermittent showers looking for the black-billed
streamertail.
The
shower
turned into a substantial rain so we retreated into the vehicle to
drive a
little further along the road and wait out the worst of the rain. It let up soon enough and we spent the
remainder of the morning birding the road.
The black-billed streamertail was seen, completing our sweep of
the
Jamaican endemics, 28 in all. Also got
nice looks at worm-eating warbler, ovenbird, and a bizarre mottled
turkey
vulture with big white wing patches; Brandon said the occasional mutant
is
called a parson bird.
For
lunch we
went to...a jerk centre! In Boston Bay,
we pulled up to what looked to be a fairly popular stretch of
restaurants. After a few of us took photos
outdoors we
were ushered into a room of one of the centres, with a simple table and
rickety
stools. The food came to the table
(fast!) just wrapped in butcher paper -- spicy chicken, pork, and yams
(african) all cooked over coals outside, and some yummy fried corn
bread sticks
somewhat similar to hush puppies.
Washed down, of course, with Red Stripe beer.
After
that
feast we drove along the coast, enjoying the ocean view and rocky shore. We stopped at one turnout vainly looking for
white-tailed tropicbird, and did purport to see one on the far horizon. Just a flash of white in the right place,
identified by circumstance more than good visual.
Our
final
dinner at the Courtleigh was a bit of a splurge, given that both of us
downed
Jamaican Mudslides, three large scoops of rich coffee and chocolate ice
cream
with pecans, caramel, and rum cream.
That was actually my entree following an appetizer of smoked
marlin
(which Brennan said was illegal in the states?) and another Red Stripe,
while
Robert had a caesar salad, the beef pot pie with a lovely puff pastry
crust,
and a Guiness. (There are benefits to
Jamaica being part of the commonwealth!)
Anyway even planning for dessert it was still larger than we
expected or
needed...but it was good!
We
also voted
on the trip bird, with the green lightbulb jamaican tody winning, and I
believe
the red-billed streamertail and the west indian whistling duck were
tied for
second.
The
evening
wrapped up around 9pm. We would all
leave the hotel at 5:30am the next morning for flights, half of us
going on an
American 7:50 to Miami, us and one other on to Dallas, then the third
leg for
us to Tucson.
Great
trip
overall...now we can sleep! :-)
Last
note: the
Air Jamaica logo, we now see, is the streamertail.
Really
the
last note: the bottle of jerk sauce bought in the Kingston
Airport
got
confiscated in Miami when we had to go back through security after
customs
(boo). Bottle was too big (5 oz limit
is 3). Good thing we didn't buy any
liquor!
An
even later
footnote…we found Pickapeppa sauce in our local supermarket after
returning
home! :-)