Jamaica 6 – Treasure Beach 2
Dec 23 (Sun) – 28 (Fri), 2012
We stayed at Nuestra Casa in Treasure Beach for 6 nights.
They served breakfast and each day we had a different one. A lot of variety: Jamaican and Western! I liked them all.
Every day, we got nice portion of really fresh fruits. So energizing.
This leaf veggie is called callaloo. I think I had this for the first time. This one was mixed with salted pieces of fish. It seems to go well with a lot of things like rice or omelettes. I like to eat a lot of veggies. It’s going to be my regular order at restaurants in Jamaica, I think.
Another day, we got served poached eggs:
Another day, scrambled eggs with beans:
With the owner, Roger, and our Spanish friends, X and S.
Another day, Ackee and a young banana (they are not sweet! They are like potatoes):
Usually baked sweet banana and avocado came with the dish and sweet potatoes were often there too. Quite filling and healthy.
This guesthouse has a nice rooftop with some nice shade. We spent time there and on the beach as well.
We had dinner at Roger’s. This is pumpkin soup.
The staff was digging the pumpkin this afternoon. They made it from scratch.
We really loved this tasty thick soup!
Lobster, mashed potato and beans:
Thank you for making the table romantic!
24th was the Christmas Eve.
We took it easy this day as well.
We had dinner at Jerk again. The chef was there and cooked meals for us. Swordfish and shrimp dish:
Dessert was baked banana with ice cream. Yummy!
Jamaica 5 – Treasure Beach 1
From Montego Bay to Treasure Beach Dec 22 (Sat, 2012)
Bye bye Montego Bay!
Now we are moving from Montego Bay to Treasure Beach.
We paid for a pick-up from the next hotel. One way takes about 2 and a half hours.
We were imagining that a Jamaican driver would come to pick us up, but the hotel owner, Roger (a Brit), came for us.
We chatted a lot and he told us interesting stories, tips and info. That was great.
The road condition got worse. The roads are asphalt, but they have a lot of holes. You have to be paying attention all the time, otherwise it could lead us to have some accidents or punctured tires. The government takes a lot of tax from people but no improvements on daily infrastructure.
Roger asked us if we wanted to go and visit Peter Tosh‘s grave and his home. My husband wanted to very much, so he got really excited! Roger said he’s never seen a guest who got that excited. That was lucky for David!
David has been playing Peter Tosh’s music on the car often around that time, so I was getting familiar with his music also. He was in the band, The Wailers with Bob Marley and other members. If Bob is a figure like Paul McCartney, Peter is a figure like John Lennon. Roger and David agree with the idea and that definition gives me a good idea about them! Peter used to be called Stepping Razor. He was short tempered but had direct political messages in his songs.
Peter Tosh: Equal Rights:
This page has the song’s lyrics and its Japanese translation with notes. It’s great!
I don’t want no peace.
That sounds a bit shocking, but when it’s explained, it’s really understandable. If you don’t fight for equal rights and justice, there is no peace to begin with.
From Montego Bay to Treasure Beach, if you go via a town called Savanna la Mar, you’ll find his grave and home where his 96-year-old mum still lives. It’s there along the seashore. We were able to see her and took some photos with her.
There is no fixed rate, but a donation would be required.
Getting there, but the roads are getting worse as well.
The name of the guest house is Nuestra Casa (Spanish “Our House”). People call it Roger’s place.
Dogs are so cute. A father and a daughter.
The house was designed by Roger. Wow! He and his mother also live here. It catches the nice breeze from the ocean and it’s really nice.
He, himself, was teaching drama before. Now he is managing this guest house. After Lonely Planet listed this place as a recommended one, it seems to be keeping him very busy.
We hadn’t had lunch yet, so we asked for it, and had an easy afternoon this day.
The beach in front looks like this:
We walked and spent some time here and then went to an early dinner @ Jerk.
Jerk is the best restaurant around here, Roger said. You can have 5-star meals with the 2-star prices. The chef here usually is usually cooking in Cape Cod in the US (that’s where we were 5 months before and had great seafood there!) comes back to his hometown and cooks here.
We were there a bit too early, I guess, and he wasn’t cooking at this moment. A staff cooked for us. The dish was tasty, but the fish was a little too hard. I know this swordfish is quite hard, but it wasn’t too great.
* I didn’t know this, but after we came back from this trip, my doctor said I should avoid eating this fish as it contains a high-level of mercury. I also checked on the web later and the Japanese gov also warns not to eat more than twice a week. If pregnant, we should avoid it as much as we can…. Oh no! I had this fish twice in 3 days…
Back in the guesthouse, David asked for coffee and I asked for Christmas cake & ice cream. I think I haven’t had ice cream for a year or more. I can not remember the last time when I ate it. Even in the hot New York City last summer, I don’t think I ate it even once! I didn’t realize that. Wow. I don’t hate it, but we just don’t eat it at home. I don’t eat parfaits and sundaes any more since I don’t know when.. I guess I have no more interest in them. I’m getting old and tastes are changing, I guess. I still love cakes and sweets though.
The cake is home-made and Jamaican style. At a glance, it looks like a chocolate cake, but it is a fruit cake. It was yummy!
Jamaica 4 – Montego Bay 3
We went to Jamaica in winter 2012-2013 for a holiday. I already wrote 5 entries regarding this trip, but they are only in Japanese. Sorry!
Dec 16 (Sun) to 22 (Sat), 2012
An old lady was selling fruits on the street in front of where we were staying. We bought some a few times. The things we ate for the first time were:
- Sweetsop (the ones with green skin)
- Custard apples (the ones with pink skin)
Both were really tasty!
She said custard apples are not in the market so often. We were lucky we were able to try it. The name for it is perfect. It is really like custard.
One of the highlights of the trip for me.
Custard apple:
Sweetsop:
According to this page, they are both the same family, called Annona squamosa. Sure they look almost the same inside, but not outside…
Doctor’s Cave Beach was right out front.
It was $6 each to rent a parasol and 2 chair beds for a day. It’s better to stay longer than an hour to make use of it… We spent like 5 hours enjoying the beach each time we came here.
Lunch (Fish cake and salads) @ Sands:
Another day, we had fruits for snack and lunch at Sands again. Nice heaven.
With my condition of morning sickness, I couldn’t drink water very easily… It’s very important for a pregnant woman to take in enough liquid: 8 cups a day or even more in this kind of hot climate.
I could drink iced water. So when I had a chance, I tried to drink as much as possible. Otherwise, I was taking liquid from fruits, fruit juice and soft drinks. I usually don’t drink soft drinks and didn’t want to, but no choice. Still as they are so high in sugar, I’m afraid I was taking too much sugar daily…
You can rent snorkeling equipment here as well ($6/day).
I saw a lot of sea urchins in the water! I heard Jamaicans don’t eat sea urchins. It’s a delicacy in Japan and we like it. I was born in Niigata, Japan, but I didn’t take a lesson on catching urchins (there are traditional professional lady divers who get sea urchins with only one breath). Now I regret I don’t have that skill here… too bad. We could have had all-we-can-eat sea urchin buffet! Sounds like individuals are allowed to take some fish from the sea like fishing is allowed.
* When I uploaded the photo to Flickr and said the same thing, someone commented saying that the urchins here are not so tasty. Maybe would it taste like the ones in Chile, not such a deep flavour?
I saw beautiful fish too! Changing subject? Yes, I shouldn’t talk only about food….
The restaurants we went to in Montego Bay were all pretty good.
We went to this restaurant, Golden Dynasty 3 times (dinner 2 times and lunch once) !
I love Mapo Doufu (麻婆豆腐) but it often contains some ground meat. So it’s tricky for me to order. This Mapo Doufu doesn’t contain any meat to begin with! Great. My hubby didn’t eat this much, so I had to eat it almost all to myself. It was a great meal. Got so full.
This one was a lunch. I think it was a $6 set meal. All brown! 99％ is made of oil and carbos.
Another day, we went to The Pelican. It was a nice family restaurant with comfortable sofas, but it was quite chilly inside. Some DJ event was getting prepared at the park in front of the restaurant. It went on and was very loud even at midnight. We could hear it well from our room.
There is a delicacy called ackee & saltfish in Jamaica and we wanted to try it. At this restaurant, we tried an appetizer, “ackee with bammy (a type of potato)”. It was good, but the fried bammy pieces were quite heavy on my stomach. I didn’t need 6 pieces… My hubby also ordered the same one as an appetizer. One order was enough, we realized later.
We had rum & raisin cake and a lemon pie for dessert! I shouldn’t have any alcohol, but I ate it and it was delicious.
We had a room with a kitchen! So we ate our breakfast in the room everyday and made dinner 3 times during 7 nights staying here. Jamaica is not cheaper than Canada or the US. So eating inside makes some difference. And because of my condition of getting worse morning sickness at night, it’s more convenient that I can go to bed as soon as I want after dinner. I really went to bed early everyday. I felt much better in the morning.
During the stay in Montego Bay, I was reading “A Bad Novel (「厭な小説」)” by Natsuhiko Kyogoku. It was really bad. It was sicking. I know it says so. So I can’t complain. It was really interesting and good, but maybe you should avoid reading it if you are pregnant. It gives you more nausea.
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