Above a Cloudy Canopy

Categories: Nature, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Cloud, Joni Mitchell, postaday2011, Travel, Travel and Tourism, WeatherAuthor: Marcia Mayne

Whenever I travel, I always opt for the window seat so I can enjoy the scenery. But for most of this flight over the U.S., thick clouds prevented me from seeing the terrain below.

Clouds and sun

So I decided to look at them instead of reading or snoozing.

Break in the clouds

Each time I looked, the pattern and thickness had changed.

Soft clouds

Cloudy canopy

Finally, it covered the land below. And I remembered the line, I really don’t know clouds at all, from Joni Mitchell‘s song, Both Sides Now.

About Marcia Mayne

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.

14 Mar2011 3 Comments

How Will I Postaday When I’m on Vacation?

Categories: Blogging, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Kingston Jamaica, London, postaday2011, technology, Travel, Wi-FiAuthor: Marcia Mayne

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with my 80 year old aunt who, except for a spell in Canada, has lived in the U.K. since 1954 – way before I was born.

Lebara SIM

I’m not sure how the conversation veered towards her trip from Kingston, Jamaica to London but for the first time I heard that she and 16 others had traveled on the Reina del Pacifico, the ocean liner aboard which a former British Prime Minister, James MacDonald, had died and King Peter of Yugoslavia had sailed.

But that’s not what caught my attention. According to Aunt Connie, her voyage had lasted three weeks. Three weeks?!

Could I survive being unplugged for that long? I doubt it seriously.

When did I get so connected? Every so often, I leave my phone at home intentionally or turn off the television.

But I’m getting ready to go on vacation and remaining connected is my biggest concern. Always has been.

Living in the U.S., I’ve become so used to being always ‘on’ that I take for granted the limitations of technology elsewhere.

On my last trip, my laptop traveled with me as it always does. However, in two and a half weeks, I got online for only a few minutes. When I did, it was like winning the lottery – miraculous and unexpected. My first few days had been tortuous. Like quitting smoking cold turkey, I felt ‘whole’ again once I got online.

So how will I be able to postaday when I’m on vacation?

My phone

I plan to have a few posts queued up and ready to go but I love to share my experiences shortly after they happen – not when I get back. So I’ve spent the last day trolling the Internet to make sure there’ll be free WiFi hotspots near my hotel (T-Mobile tells me I can turn off the data service and connect using WiFi but I’d rather have my phone off completely) that I’ll be able to find a convenient location to buy a SIM card when I arrive (I have an unlocked phone that I use whenever I travel) and that my adapters will work (They didn’t in South Africa). I’ll buy a few minutes on Skype so I can call home in case there’s an emergency or use GoogleChat.

I’m confident these steps will keep me connected so that I can keep my commitment to postaday while I’m away. I’ll know for sure once I arrive.

How do you stay connected when you’re traveling outside the US?

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About Marcia Mayne

13 Mar2011 0 Comments

Soulful Sundays: Tarrus Riley

Categories: Jamaica Travel, Music, Postaday2011, Soulful Sundays, TravelTags: Dean Fraser, Jamaica, Music, postaday2011, Reggae, Reggae Musica, Tarrus Riley, Treasure BeachAuthor: Marcia Mayne

Sundays, for me, are usually lazy days. I putter, lounge, read, snooze and, of course, listen to music. What I listen to depends on my mood. Sometimes, it’s soothing jazz. Other times, it’s music that gets me on my feet – I just love to dance.

For this week’s Soulful Sundays post, I want to share the work of a musician who has become one of my favorites.

I was first introduced to reggae musician, Tarrus Riley a few years ago when I heard his anthem to women, She’s Royal. Then my friend, Sandra, and I attended his performance at the Calabash Literary Festival in Treasure Beach. We enjoyed it so much, we concluded we had to see him again. We did, in New York, a few months later and we weren’t disappointed. I even went back stage to get his autograph – something I never did when I was a teenager!

So here now, is I Sight

Hope you like it as much as I do.

If you like what you see why not Share, Tweet, Digg, Like, etc. You never know who you might be helping to make a difference.

Tarrus Riley: “Shaka Zulu Pickney” (theiiirdworld.com)
Jamaica’s Caribbean Marketplace 2011 (repeatingislands.com)
Catching the Vibe in Treasure Beach (insidejourneys.com)

About Marcia Mayne

12 Mar2011 2 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

Categories: Blogging, Photography, Postaday2011, Weekly Photo ChallengeTags: Photograph, Photography, postaday2011, The DailyPost, weekly photo challengeAuthor: Marcia Mayne

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home (Photo by Marcia Mayne)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home (dailypost.wordpress.com)

About Marcia Mayne

11 Mar2011 0 Comments

Out of Many, One: The Outameni Experience

Categories: Culture, Jamaica Travel, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Christopher Columbus, Jamaica, Jamaican history, Montego Bay, postaday2011, South America, Spanish colonization of the Americas, Taíno people, Trelawny ParishAuthor: Marcia Mayne

My cousin and her husband kept raving about this place he said they knew I would love. But they wouldn’t say what it was or why they were so sure I’d love it.

I was curious.

We loaded up the car and headed north east from Montego Bay towards Trelawny. Once at the sign to the Outameni Experience, we turned off the road.

Sign to Outameni in Trelawny

So this is where we were going!

The Experience starts before you enter

Outameni, the Jamaican lingo for Out of Many (as in Out of Many, One People – the Jamaican motto) is an interactive look back at Jamaica’s history from the time of the indigenous people, the Arawak or Taino, as they’re now called, through the present.

Jars like these were used to keep drinking water cool

Copper pot

Costumed tour guide

Our entertained us with mento dancing and storytelling while we waited for the tour to begin.

Traditional Jamaican house

Each period is represented by its own display with guides in period dress narrating the story of that time.

Taino woman grinding cassava

The Taino arrived in Jamaica around 650 A.D. from South America. They were said to be peaceful people who planted cassava, corn, sweet potato and got most of their food from the sea. When Columbus arrived in 1492, it was the Taino who greeted him. Unfortunately, within a few years of his arrival, the Tainos in Jamaca were exterminated. It is said that some killed themselves rather than be put to work by the Spanish, others died after coming into contact with European diseases for which they had no immunity.

Descendant of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus and his merry band of sailors stumbled upon Jamaica on May 5, 1494 on his second voyage on behalf of the King of Spain. Thus began the period of Spanish settlements in Jamaica which lasted until the British took over in 1655.

Slave woman about to begin her story

The first Africans in Jamaica came as servants of Spanish settlers. These were freed when the British took over Jamaica in 1655. As sugar production exploded, Africans were again brought to the island, this time to work on the plantations.

Maypole dance pole

The Massa's wife

Our Indian connection

Nearly 40,000 Indians were brought to Jamaica beginning in 1845 as indentured workers to work in the sugar cane industry after slavery was abolished. Many were repatriated but far many remained. Today, their descendants make up the second largest racial group in Jamaica.

The Chinese story

The Chinese began coming to Jamaica in the 1845 to work on sugar cane plantations. Today, they make up the majority of the merchant class.

Present day

The Outameni Experience ends with Jamaica today, a vibrant country that approximately 2 million people – African, Indian, Chinese, Jewish, Lebanese, Scottish, German, Cuban, Haitian, American, Canadian and Latin American – call home.

If you like what you see why not Share, Tweet, Digg, Like etc. You never know who you might be helping to make a difference.

Taino Symbology Review (carolefdee.wordpress.com)

About Marcia Mayne

05 Mar2011 1 Comment

A Step Back in Time: Greenwood Great House

Categories: Jamaica, Jamaica Travel, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Caribbean Culture, Caribbean history, Caribbean Sea, Caribbean travel, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Jamaica, postaday2011Author: Marcia Mayne

Great houses provide a wonderful opportunity to step back in time to see how life was lived in a particular period.

Greenwood Great House, which is located on the border of Trelawny and St. James in the

Ring the bell to enter

town of Greenwood is a time capsule that has carefully preserved the legacy of its previous owners.

Part of an 84,000 acre plantation, Greenwood has an impressive pedigree. Built in 1790 by Richard Barrett, a custos of St James, Speaker of the Assembly and cousin of the British poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, it has been in continuous occupation since.

Chair with Barrett family crest

Greenwood boasts the original Barrett family library complete with leather-bound books dating to 1697, china and original furniture, some with the Barrett family crest.

What impressed me most about this house is that is has never been abandoned. It still has original furnishings and artifacts, a lot of which I had never seen before.

Bob and Anne Betton, its proud current owners and operators, opened Greenwood as a museum in 1976.

Main bedroom

Greenwood Great House, 876-953-1077 is open every day from 9-6. Tours cost $14 for adults, $7 for children under 12.

View of the Caribbean Sea from Greenwood

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About Marcia Mayne

04 Mar2011 2 Comments

Rose Hall, Jamaica’s (Haunted) Great House

Categories: Jamaica, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Annie Palmer White Witch, Caribbean, Caribbean travel, Christopher Columbus, Jamaica, John Rollins, Montego Bay, postaday2011, Rose Hall Great House, Samuel SharpeAuthor: Marcia Mayne

Jamaica, the third largest island in the Caribbean, was ‘discovered’ in 1494 on Christopher Columbus’ second voyage to the New World. He was in search of silver and gold. Columbus declared Xaymaca, as it was then known “the fairest island that eyes have beheld.”

Among the ‘gifts’ he brought to the New World was sugar cane, but the indigenous Taino (Arawak) population was decimated before it could be developed into a viable industry. This forced the Spanish to look elsewhere for cheap labor. They turned to Africa.

The slave trade was well underway in 1655 when, after 150 years of colonial rule, the British wrested control of the country from the Spanish.

Sugar flourished and Jamaica was, at a time, its largest producer. The wealth sugar generated made plantation owners extremely wealthy. Some of that wealth made its way back to Britain. Some of it was spent building lavish ‘great houses’ that demonstrated the wealth and power of the owners. About 700 existed on the island — all but fourteen were destroyed during and after the 1831 slave revolt which was led by Samuel Sharpe, a local Baptist preacher.

My next few posts will be about this interesting aspect of Jamaica’s history. Walk with me as we take a step back and discover Jamaica’s Great Houses.

Rose Hall

Built as a ‘calendar house’ in 1770 for John Palmer, custos of St. James and his wife, Rosa, Rose Hall has 365 windows, 52 doors and 12 bedrooms. The house eventually passed to Palmer’s grand-nephew, John Rose Palmer and his wife, Annie, the infamous ‘White Witch.’

Annie's bedroom

Annie, Palmer’s second wife, is said to have killed three husbands and several slave lovers at Rose Hall before being murdered in 1831.

The slaves were so fearful of her that after her death, they burned all her possessions, including her photographs.

The property was in ruins for several years before being restored to its former glory by the owners, John Rollins (now deceased) and his wife, Michele.

Truth be told, like a lot of Jamaicans, I’m afraid of ghosts and the stories of the brutality at Rose Hall more than clouded my image of the place. But I realized later that those

Going down to Annie's tortue chamber

stories were keeping me from enjoying something that was almost in my backyard, a place that I now find intriguing because of its history.

I can’t say that I saw any ghosts at Rose Hall but several of the photos I took inside the house

turned out blurry, a few had shadows where I know there hadn’t been any.

Walking down the steps to Annie’s torture chamber, the last thing you see is the azure blue waters of the Caribbean Sea just visible through the doorway. It made me wonder what went through the victim’s mind as he (or she) was being led away to be tortured.

Rose Hall pool

The day I visited, a soft breeze brushed my cheek as I sat near this man-made pool. The peace and beauty surrounding the house seemed incongruous with the stories of destruction inside.

Rose Hall Great House is located about a 20 minute drive from the airport in Montego Bay. Open 9-6. Tours are given daily with the last tour given at 5:15 p.m. Call 876-953-2323 for information.

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About Marcia Mayne

02 Mar2011 11 Comments

Jamaica: In Search of The Real Jerk

Categories: Food, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Caribbean travel, Jamaica, Jamaican foods, Jamaican jerk spice, Montego Bay, Pork, postaday2011, Red Stripe, Scotch Bonnet, Ting, TravelAuthor: Marcia Mayne

Scotch Bonnet

The first thing I do when I arrive in Montego Bay is find a spot for jerk pork. I’d start tasting it, and yes, it’s always pork, before the plane even lands.

For years, Scotchies, a little joint about 2-3 Jamaican miles from the airport on the north coast road between Montego Bay and Falmouth did the trick.

But the last time I went to Scotchies (MoBay), my mouth watering in anticipation of the jerk pork that I knew would be succulent, seasoned through and through with the right balance of Scotch Bonnet peppers, scallion, thyme, a little mace and sugar rubbed in, then slowly cooked over pimento wood, I was disappointed.

While the pork was succulent, it was bland! Nary a Scotch Bonnet in sight!

Who ever said jerk should be this bland? By definition, jerk, The Real Jerk, must have a reasonable amount of Scotch Bonnet.

A trip to The Pork Pit on Gloucester Avenue in town was marginally less disappointing.

I blame the need to please visitors and make more money.

At Scotchies, Montego Bay

Jerk has been a part of my life since childhood. As a little girl, I remember a man (known only as “The Jerk Man”), who would ride around our district usually on a Saturday evening selling jerk pork – it was only pork then – from a pan that was attached to the handlebars of his bicycle. The pork was suspended on a mesh layer over pimento coals in a tray just below. We could smell it way before The Jerk Man arrived at our gate.

Sometime between my childhood and high school, jerk pork all but disappeared, perhaps because of the influence of Rastafarianism and their abhorrence of pork. When it came back in the 70s, it had expanded to include chicken, fish, even sausage.

In time, the knowledge of how jerk was made went from a few cooks, mostly male, who knew the (then secret) ingredients to a bottled wet or dry rub that became available locally and internationally initially to satisfy the palates of the growing number of Jamaicans who lived abroad.

But something got lost in the transition from a few local cooks to international recognition – everyone was free to put their own interpretation on what jerk was supposed to be. But I knew I could always count on finding the Real Jerk in Jamaica.

Not anymore. At least, not in any area that sees a lot of visitors. Something about wanting to make jerk palatable to them and therefore make more sales produce a jerk that’s nothing like how I know jerk is supposed to taste.

(A few years ago, even the Jamaica Tourist Board announced a culinary Jerk Trail, which allows visitors to sample real jerk.)

For true aficianados of The Real Jerk, come with me to one of my favorite places. It’s right on the border of Hanover and Westmoreland and called appropriately, Border Jerk. (I also have to mention Boston Jerk in Boston Bay, Portland, the jerk capital of Jamaica.) There you’ll get some good jerk pork. For those who don’t like pork, there’s chicken, Festival (flour and cornmeal mixture) and soup. If the jerk’s too hot, wash it down with a bottle of Ting, a carbonated grapefruit drink. Me, I prefer an ice cold Red Stripe beer.

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About Marcia Mayne

01 Mar2011 6 Comments

Jamaica: Little Ochie Delivers Big Taste

Categories: Food, Jamaica, Photography, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Alligator Pond, Caribbean, Caribbean travel, Jamaica, Manchester, postaday2011, Red Stripe, TravelAuthor: Marcia Mayne

The Little Ochie restaurant on the beach.

Image via Wikipedia

Way down on the southwestern coast of Jamaica, just over the Manchester border from St. Elizabeth is a seaside restaurant called Little Ochie (not to be confused with Ocho Rios on the island’s north coast).

Started in 1989 by Evrol “Blackie” Christian, this little spot has become a favorite destination for Jamaicans (some of whom travel 2-3 hours to get there) and visitors alike who are looking for freshly caught fish and seafood cooked to order.

Strewn on the black sand of Alligator Pond as if they had been scattered by some unseen hand, are canoes – the primary means of getting the fish that’s served and sold here – that now have been raised off the sand, outfitted with tables and benches, and sheltered by thatched roofs.

Red Snapper steamed with carrots, okras

Once you place your order, for fish or seafood, and decide how you want it done – steamed, jerked, fried or grilled – it is prepared and brought to your table.

Jerked Lobster

I’ve had the steamed snapper and it is delicious. The jerked lobster is to die for but if you visit between April 1^st and June 30^th, you’ll be out of luck. It is illegal in Jamaica for anyone to have or serve lobsters, whole or in part — this is so that the lobsters can breed and replenish.

Festival (a flour and cornmeal mixture)

You can also select sides: roasted breadfruit, bammie or rice and peas.

Bammie

While you wait for your order, grab a cold Red Stripe, rum and Coke or any drink from their extensive selection, or watch the fishermen push off or return from fishing.

Little Ochie boats

Pushing out to sea

Little Ochie is more than a restaurant, it’s an experience that delivers big taste without breaking the bank.

Little Ochie,  876-382-3375  or 876-610-6566

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About Marcia Mayne

28 Feb2011 16 Comments

[Home = Jamaica] Where My Heart Is

Categories: Health and Wellness, Jamaica, Postaday2011, TravelTags: Caribbean, Caribbean travel, Jamaica, postaday2011Author: Marcia Mayne

Until I purchased my apartment several years ago, home, for me, meant the place where I grew up in Jamaica; the place I go to relax and recharge when life in the U.S. takes its toll, the place where my heart really is.

Then, it became “home, home” to differentiate it from my “home” – the place I owned.

When I go “home, home” I revert to the person I was when I lived there, except now, I’m the adult. I have the freedom to do whatever, go where ever.

So I explore. I explore the place and I explore the me I am when I’m there. The me that feels free – to engage, to push back, to confront, to love, to be passionate, to be playful. It’s the me that sometimes comes to the fore when I’m in the States but takes so much more energy to be.

And simple things, like drinking the juice or water of a freshly picked coconut, makes me smile.