Parasailing and Cliff Jumping in Negril

Heather and I touching back down after parasailing
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This morning my walk took me right into the town of Negril, which has scarcely changed since I last visited about 10 years ago for a wedding.  The road was filled with locals heading to work in the many hotels.  Taxis whizzed by, honking their horns at me in case I wanted to ride.  Dogs ambled along, always on the lookout for food along the way.

At its heart, Negril is still a small town of yesteryear.  Its all-inclusive hotel self stays well hidden behind fancy gates. Some of the guests at these places never see outside those gates.  At the airport, or on the plane, they will tell me, "We loved Jamaica, it was great, we never even left the hotel."  So I wonder why they don't just go to a fancy hotel in their hometowns where food and drink are included.  But I digress.

1000 things to do before you die

Group photo taken after Heather's cliff jumping adventure
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In the town, I was approached by a man who told me I was the first tourist he had seen out walking this morning.  I told him that indeed I had not seen any other tourists yet, but that they would probably soon come.  "Soon come" is the typical Jamaican expression for something that is about to happen, or someone who is about to arrive, or, more commonly, for someone that the speaker hopes  is about to arrive.  My new acquaintance smiled as I used the expression and asked me how I knew it.  In the ensuing conversation, he told me that he was a writer, and had lived in England for 30 years, coming back to Jamaica about 15 years ago.  His writing includes three books, he told me, books about Jamaica's music legends.    [One is about Peter Tosh, another about Bob Marley.]

Sunset from the deck of Rick's Cafe, Negril
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Our conversation moved on to language, and especially the patois http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Patois that makes up the dialect of most Jamaicans, even those who speak the proper "Queen's" English to tourists.  He bemoaned the fact that many Jamaicans cannot read well.  I mentioned that when I had worked for the Jamaican Ministry of Education, there had been a reading program even for preschoolers. "Oh, they learn to read some words, sure enough.  But the language they read, they cannot speak, and the language they speak, they cannot read.  It will never work for them." I saw the lack of change in a new light.

The view along my morning walk to the Negril town center.
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After my walk, and a leisurely breakfast, I walked through the open air lobby to the beach.  Heather and Colin were already lying in chairs sunbathing.

By noon we were sufficiently toasted to call it a day, and Heather and I decided to try parasailing.  Parasailing is just like water skiing, only instead of holding onto a tow line in the water, you sit in a harness beneath a parachute attached to the tow line.  Where the parachute goes, you go.  For some reason, I expected it to be noisy, but instead, it was a quiet escape from the noise of the waves and the clink of glasses at the bar. Soaring high above the sea, we could see the outline of the Negril coast, the mountains east of the town, and the tiled roofs of hotels dotting the shoreline.

Typical scenery.
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We touched down easily, and walked back to our beach towels and chairs.  We still had some time before sunset, so I suggested a trip to the landmark Rick's Café, to see the sunset.  Seeing the sunset from Rick's is one of the 1000 Things to Do before You Die, according to the book of that name.

The south end of Negril has a rocky shore, and in most places there are steep cliffs at the sea's edge.  I told Heather she might consider jumping off the cliff at Rick's, which is the thing to do just before sunset.

The Negril River lazily reaches the sea.
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to be continued...