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At 6:30 am we met Cory on the hotel balcony for a Big Sit: 90 minutes to see how many species came through before breakfast. The majority were repeats but good looks, plus a Cape May Warbler. The morning light and temperature were lovely. Breakfast was in the garden again. Russ had an omelette, I had a traditional Jamaican breakfast of shredded cod mixed with white beans, onions, tomato, seasoned well. Fried bananas and fresh fruit made a good meal. The remaining seven of us lingered, then five as people left for early flights. Nice conversation, comfortable temps before the sun broke over the wall.
At noon Donovan (driver) picked four of us up, two for the airport, then drove us on to the Hilton Rose Hall where we're relaxing for three nights. We arranged for him to tour us around this afternoon.
Greenwood Great House (1800), further east, was the home of the Barrett family, relatives of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. Their estate, including other homes, spanned 12 miles along the coast, 84,000 acres, and held 2000 slaves. Today it is occupied by a family that opens it up for visitors. We were the only ones on a private tour of the house. Filled with antiques and unearthed relics, an expansive second floor porch had such a wide view of the ocean horizon that you could see the curvature of the earth.
Afterwards Donovan took us over to Falmouth, once a rum, sugar and slave port, now servicing cruise ships. It boasts Georgian architecture, streets laid out in a grid. We walked through the central square and pedestrian street, obviously the only whites anywhere in sight. Reggae music blared from a balcony, street vendors catered to local Saturday afternoon shoppers: clothing, fruit, appliances. We stopped by men holding a checkers board on their knees; Donovan explained the game of Draft, a variation on chess/checkers with pieces that look like large bottle caps.
Our last stop at dark was at the Luminous Lagoon, where dinoflagellates emit a phosphorus glow when disturbed, one of only four places in the world to see this phenomenon. Many people swam off the boat in the shallow water, the glow around their movements.
A good day, change of pace, only tempered by the loss of a filling, then part of my tooth before bed. I guess it's soft foods for a couple of days!
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