We had Burger King for breakfast again this morning and afterwards decided to give ourselves a tour of downtown Montego Bay. We also wanted to check out an old fort area where they currently have markets that was on the way.
As we walked out of the tourist area we noticed that there were no longer “street patrol” people around whenever you wanted to cross the street. On the “hip strip” they were all over ready to stop traffic for you, but here it was just normal streets. As we got closer to the market area we noticed ladies standing on both corners of the street. Before we could even pass the one on our side of the street she came right up to us to start a conversation. It went a little like this, all while we are still walking:
Lady: “Hello there! Are you looking to do some shopping today ma’am?”
Susan: “No thank you, we’re just walking around.”
Lady: “Oh ok, well maybe on your way back you’d like to stop by our market (pointing across the street up the hill) to buy some souvenirs. What’s your name?”
Susan: “Susan.”
Lady: “Susan! Oh that’s a Jamaican name you know.”
Susan: “Oh is it…”
Lady: “Yes! You have such beautiful hair, maybe you’d like to have some braids? We could braid it for you.”
Susan: “No thanks…(as she begins to get the point that we want to keep walking)…bye.”
Susan, a Jamaican name…you learn something new everyday! :o) We kept walking and we then approached, from behind, by a guy. At this point David is walking slightly in front of me, and the guy walks slightly in front of David. He begins a conversation with David, also while we continue walking and he never looks at us in the face…the entire time he is walking slightly ahead of us, talking to us, but never looking at us:
Guy: “Hey man, what’s up?” (holds out his fist to “bump knuckles” with David)
David: “Not much, just walking around.”
Guy: “What’s ya name man?”
David: “David, and you?”
Guy: “I’m (I don’t remember…) and the lady there?”
David: “That’s my wife Susan.”
Guy: “Nice to meet you man. So, where ya from David and Susan?”
David: “The United States. Georgia.”
Guy: “Georgia, yeah, yeah, nice place. So, you are going to see a little of the city huh?”
David: “Yep.”
Guy: “Ya know, there is no racism in Jamaica.”
David: “Really? That’s good.”
Guy: “Ya man, ya man, you don’t have to worry about none of that here. No racism at all.”
David: “Hadn’t even though about it actually.”
Guy: “Well, if you head that way (pointing) you’ll go downtown, and if you walk over there you can go to the farmer’s market…”
(After realizing what was going on and what was going to be expected of us, I chimed in) Susan: “Are you expecting us to pay you for giving us a tour? …because we aren’t going to.”
(He begins heading away from us and across the street mumbling under his breath)
Guy: “mumbles…racists…mumbles”
Well, that was interesting. David was glad that I caught on to his intentions, and I was kind of surprised how bold I was. In the end I’m glad that we were up front with him, because I wouldn’t have wanted him to continue “showing us around” and then gotten mad when we didn’t give him anything for it. So we got called racist instead.
I’m sorry, but after walking around Montego Bay and getting asked by every taxi driver that we walked by if we want a ride (to go 5 minutes down the same street), or asked by the ladies who work in the shops if we are doing any shopping and want to check out their store, I decided to be as direct with them as they were being with us. I was beginning to feel like just because we were visiting their country they assumed that we had a ton of money to just throw away on any and everything. Maybe a lot of visitors they see do, but we sure don’t. So if they were going to assume I’m made of money, I was going to assume that they were just trying to hassle me for it. And in this case I was right…and it had nothing to do with race! When are people going to realize this?
When we walked into the downtown area we felt a little like we were back in Kingston, because we stood out so much. There were a couple guys who said hi to us, and welcomed us to Jamaica. But no one else stuck around to give us a tour. Then, when we walked through a central area of downtown, we walked by a mother and her two kids. We smiled at them as we walked by and then heard the mother say in a normal voice: “Look, white people!” So we turned around to look at them, and waved…because they were already waving at us! It was hilarious. I would never have expected that to happen. I think this is a sign that more people need to go visit Jamaica. More people from ALL over the world. And go explore more than just tourist areas…it’s more fun!
On our way back to our hotel, and lunch at Chilito’s again (we love it!) we saw the lady that spoke to me across the street. We were wearing our sunglasses, and had no intention of going shopping, so decided not to acknowledge her unless we absolutely had to, since she was so far away. We heard her calling to us: “Yoo hoo! Hello! Yooooo hooooo!” I guess she couldn’t remember my common Jamaican name. :o)
We also stopped by Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, just to check it out as a possibility for dinner. It looked fun. David especially liked to idea of a water slide. We also asked if they could make us milkshakes (since we were craving them after last night’s dinner). We were assured that our dining experience would be fabulous.
After eating at Chilito’s for lunch we spent some time talking with the girls that were working there, and their manager. They were all about our age and very nice. They asked what had brought us to Jamaica, so we told them about the translation project. They were really interested to hear about it. So, while David kept talking with them, I went to get our last book mark from the hotel room. We gave it to them and they had fun trying to read it. The two girls who worked behind the counter were really excited about it, but the manager was a little hesitant. She was more educated than them and even told us that her parents spoke to her in English at home, so she considered English a native language just like Patois. But she did speak Patois with all her friends. She was very open minded about the whole idea in the end though.
Then we went to the beach again. We did some more snorkeling and David found a whole conch shell! “Way cool!” as my mom used said.
Then we laid in the sun a little more and I noticed a bunch of scruffy looking people hanging out along the back of the beach. They were selling marijuana! Not just selling it either, smoking it too. It stunk pretty bad. I also saw a group of American guys, who came off a cruise ship, go and buy some from them. Shame.
Our plan at this point was to head to Margaritaville in time to see the sunset while we ate dinner. So we got ready and headed that way. When we got there the place was almost completely empty. One other couple was there eating. We walked over to the water slide and noticed it was CLOSED!
David’s evening was ruined. He wore his flowery bathing suit for nothing, oh well. Then when we ordered, we were sure to order our milkshakes…and they told us they didn’t have milkshakes! Someone lied to us pretty bad. But, our waiter said he thought he could whip something up for us. They turned out to be delicious and he only charged us for one.
We were able to see as much of the sunset as possible from Montego Bay. I guess going to Negril really is the thing to do to see the sunset in Jamaica. We’ll have to do that on our next trip :o)
We did get to see the cruise ship leaving the bay, and a police boat that was speeding around. We also saw a night snorkeler. I’m sure it would be a lot of fun to do something like that, as long as the police boat doesn’t get too close to you. Seriously, he could have died.
After an extremely filling burger dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Our last night in Jamaica.
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