Negril

"The rum is fine any time of year." Relaxing at the seaside bar with Colin, Heather and Len.
see all photos »

Len drove down to see us today, so we spent much of the day at the fresh-air beachside bar, the sea lapping up on the sand just a few feet away. The rum was fine, and we drank our share.

Len hadn’t been to Negril for a few years, so he was surprised that it was so cool and pleasant; the sea breezes kept us quite comfortable. We found ourselves wishing for a time machine so we could go back to 1973 when I first visited Negril, and invest in a small hotel there. We laughed and said we’d be sitting back counting our money today, selling the drinks instead of buying them.

The world's best cricket fans

Colin mans the bar.
see all photos »

But instead we are sitting at a beach bar buying rum and watching a cricket match on TV. It was sort of an “all-star” match, with some of the best cricketers in the world playing in India for a “Twenty20” (20 overs per side only.) Initially, the match was just background noise, although I must admit I was taken by surprise - it was the first time I had seen cheerleaders at a cricket match.  I later learned that the Washington Redskins cheerleaders had performed at one of the matches.

At the start of my interest, the underdogs (or at least the team we believed to be the underdogs!) needed 89 runs for 29 balls, and it didn’t look too promising. But a few 4’s followed a 6 or two, and suddenly winning was a possibility. Once the game got close, everyone at the bar became an avid fan, and we all started rooting for the team, cheering whenever a batsman hit a 2 or a 4, roaring and clapping for the sixes. And finally, when they made the required runs with a few balls still remaining, I felt like I had been rooting for people I really knew instead of an unknown team half a world away.

And that’s the power of rum in the afternoon in a beach bar in the Caribbean.