Things don't always go as planned. I wish Japanese people understood this more. While I had some concrete plans while in Jamaica with the family, that's all they were plans. Things we plan to do. On this day, the plan was to go to the Bob Marley museum, check out a café up in Irish Town in the mountains and possibly go to Bolt's Sport's bar.
All those plans got derailed as my wife got an upset stomach and was bed ridden for the entire day. So what ended up happening? Well we left my wife and her mom at the Airbnb, while the kids, my dad in law, my younger brother and I took a trip to the beach. The kids really needed this, I really needed this and so did my younger brother.
We headed to Fort Clarence beach in Portmore, about a 30min drive from Kingston. But it was actually closed on a Monday. Luckily, they have beaches right beside it. What would Jamaica be if all the beaches were closed on a Monday?
The boys really enjoyed the beach, the twins were the first to ride this horse for the day, creating a domino effect of costumers to fall right onto the saddle.
Initially, the island cowboy told us $1,000 JMD for the twins to ride the horse up and down the beach. But that was if they were riding at the same time. You know damn well my boys ain't gonna be riding with each other so $2,000 JMD it was. It was worth it though. Aijah, my youngest, had no interest at all in the horse. Neither did I. I've never ridden a horse and have no intention to, that would be cruelty to animals.
Aijah mostly played with his Japa Grandapa or "G" as we call him. Thank God, because it is not easy watching all 3 of them boys. And what the twins want to do, Aijah does not and visa versa.
For some reason Aijah was very interested in this coconut that washed up on shore. He had a blast just throwing it back into the sea and tryin to recover it to throw it back in again.
Mixed that in with a little playing in the sand and a few dips in the ocean and the kiddo was happy.
Young bro
My younger brother accompanied us to the beach and gave all the direction to get there. Though I was prepared to use good ole google maps to get to the location, it was good to see that my young bro new the way like a pro. He said he learnt by going there with friends back in the day.
For my young bro it had been a long time since he ventured to the beach. That was quite surprising to hear but I guess when you have the beach so near, you forget that it is there. ( What a rhyming spree).
It felt good to be on the beach with my young bro, spending time together, catching up and reasoning. It also felt safer being accompanied by a local. Yes, I have finally come to the realization that I am a tourist. What made me even more touristy was being accompanied by my family who mainly speaks Japanese. I couldn’t hide the tourist label. If you have been out of the country of your birth for some time, newsflash, YOU are a tourist.
Ah Red Stripe beer! How I missed you! I’ve only met one person in my life that hates this beer and he is my cousin. In my opinion, it’s one of the best tasting beers 🍺 in the world!
There goes that coconut 🥥 again.
Finally took a swim
It was refreshing swimming in the Caribbean Sea, not as carefree as it used to be as I have many responsibilities now aka kids.
I handed my phone to my younger brother and he took these pics and also some vids of us. Give thanks bro 😎.
I felt a little guilty, while my wife was battling some kinda stomach flew, here we were enjoying the beach. I also had a sense of paranoia as it has been a while since I’ve been in yard. I was constantly watching our bags from the sea. Shiiit, if I was still living in yaad I’d still have that paranoia.
Nonetheless, I managed to enjoy the first of many beach days on this trip
Money
Being back in JA, it was my first time seeing the new notes, I've been away that long. They feel really good in the hand and are water resistance-plastic-ish. Which makes a lot of sense. Why the hell would you make money that is easy to be destroyed?
While the new notes look good, of course, it has lost value over the decades thanks to inflation.
Consumer price inflation in Jamaica averaged 5.8% in the ten years to 2022, above the Central America and Caribbean regional average of 3.4%. The 2022 average figure was 10.3%.
Source
But it's not just Jamaica, it is the entire world and the truth is it cannot be helped as it is built into the monetary system. Money printing literally occurs in every country. The few that have the right to basically turn on the photocopy machine and make money out of thin air and then charge YOU interest for borrowing the magical free printed money. It just doesn't make sense but we try to make sense of it as it's the only system we know. And that is why I own some Bitcoin, limited supply, no one can print more.
Food
No here is what really caught me off guard at the beach, the price of fish! But it seems I have just been out of touch with the beach-anomics. We ordered 3 decent size fishes, I don't even know what the price is per pound, maybe something like $3,500, but how much can a snapper really weigh? I am no fisherman and Japan got me used to kilograms.
So instead of going for the smaller fish the seller recommended for my kids, I went for the bigger fish as I figured the bones would be easier to manage. I ordered 3 decent size fish, a few festivals, 2 bammys, 2 Red Stripe beers and some drinks for the kids and my young bro. The bill came up to $18,000 JMD.
I was shocked, my younger brother was too.
"Bro, it looks like she gave you the tourist price cause thats outrageous for 3 fish and some festivals n ting."
I started to feel cheated but then my bro said:
"Don't worry about it, you are on vacation, just enjoy it. Next time, you know better."
But after doing some research ( asking relatives and friends) I came to realize these are the prices. I was not cheated, I was just out of touch with Jamaican economics, especially on the beach ( it seems my brother was too). It was normal for someone to go to the beach and spend $5,000 JMD ( around $32 ) for fried fish, festivals and bammy. Converting it to USD makes it not seem as expensive either. But when you hear $5,000 it sounds EXPENSIVE. This is what inflation does. What 5,000 dollars could buy 10 years ago, it cannot purchase today. Just ask any long time home owner how much they paid for their homes. Or just think back to childhood what 50 cents could get you.
Now I see why every other party of people on the beach brought buckets of KFC chicken. $6,000 JMD can get you a bucket combo to feed a large number of people. A $5,000 JMD fish plate can feed one, if you aren't greedy. 🧐
Everyone really enjoyed the fish though. For some reason I only ordered three and figured we would all share. I thought maybe someone wouldn't like it and we'd have excess fish but the twins went through the fish so fast you would think they were sharks. They managed the bones like a pro. I barely ate any and my younger brother ate before we went to the beach. G and Aijah shared a plate.
*We packed up and started moving before the would be rain 🌧️ fell. And off to halfway tree we went to run some errands aka buy some shit. 💩
Until next time folks,
Walk good!
