FIREFLY, NEAR ORACABESSA, JAMAICA, HOME OF NOEL COWARD

VISIT TO THE HOUSE CALLED 'FIREFLY' BY NOEL COWARD, THE ENGLISH SONGWRITER, PLAYWRIGHT AND ACTOR


Lovely place, fantastic views over the bay. Statue of Noel Coward is placed on the hillside overlooking the sea and mountains.

We have the contact number of a nice taxi driver, called Desmond. He quoted us a price to drive from Dunn's River, Ocho Rios, to see Firefly and also to call at Harmony Hall art gallery.

It is so nice to get away from the hotel complex, although it is pleasant enough with friendly staff. However, you are in a kind of false environment with all your needs - or almost all (no newspapers, no book library, no UK TV ) catered for. However, at Firefly what struck me at first was the wonderful quiet - no piped music!

Desmond, an excellent driver, took us to Firefly, up a terrible rutted and holed track. Potholes big enough to swallow a small goat, I think!

The hillside gives stupendous views over St Marie bay, and the air is full of the scent of herbs, like wild thyme.
There is a small stone built house with gun slits which was a relic of when Henry Morgan the pirate had his base there.

Inside the house you can visit the small kitchen and dining room, the main room with two baby-grand pianos, and upstairs to the terrace and bedroom, where Noel Coward died. The views from the house are stupendous.

The complex is now used for weddings, apparently, especially the pirate's house!

THE JEWELL, OCHO RIOS, BEACH PARTY TEAM

BEACH PARTY IN THE EVENING, UNDER THE TREES AND PALMS ON THE BEACH, AND DANCE SHOW

The entertainment team at The Jewell does a fine job. Several young women and men run events, its a bit like being in an upmarket Butlins holiday camp, though I have never been to a holiday camp in England. The family used to watch a TV comedy program called Hi Di Hi! about the imaginary holiday camp in the UK. Hands up if you remember this!

Here the The Jewell the visitors are not encouraged to go off the site, so things have to be devised to entertain them. During the day there is sometimes a quiz show with a prize of a bottle of rum, held by the side of the largest swimming pool, (passing by, I realize the questions are outside my experience, since I am ancient and English - all about US sports and pop stars, it seems).

Sometimes there are beach volley ball games, which include people of quite a lot of shapes and sizes; I have done photos of these, and made a few sketches, and plan a painting when I get back to UK.

One evening a week there is a Beach Party. This starts at 6 pm - it is almost dark here by 5 pm - and food is arrange on side tables displaying salads, hot meat, hot fish, cold cuts, cakes, and also a collection of coconuts and sugar cane.

Large round dining tables and chairs, seating about eight people each, are on the beach with tiny little lights, so you cannot see what you are eating. (Though I am sure this is not intentional).

The entertainment this week, was a kind of coaching session by the young team for a few guinea pig guests, at how to dance a rather restrained reggae.

Then a professional troup of dancers performed, very well. Five girls in colonial era costume did a folk dance. The men were very energetically dancing, jumping, summersaults. Finally there was a display of limbo dancing, pole dancing, and fire eating.

Congrats to the team, Jason, Antonia and the others.

DUNN'S RIVER FALLS, OCHO RIOS TRIP WITH TAXI DRIVER DESMOND

DUNN'S RIVER FALLS, NEAR THE JEWELL, POPULAR WITH CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS AND OTHER TOURISTS

We got the phone number of Desmond from a friend here. We did not want to take the organised tour which is expensive, about 90 dollars each. We noticed the entry to the Dunn's River Falls is very near this hotel, but too far to walk. There is a big car park. My guide book suggested going there early in the morning, or late in the evening. The Falls opens at 8.30

My plan worked. Desmond turned up as agreed at 8.30 and as the Falls is not far away, we were the firt in the car park, and walked to the main buildings where you can change to swimsuit if you want. Entry fee reduced for older people, so only $20.

It was nice to have the place free from anybody except the staff - there are numbers of guides in blue tee shirts. We climbed down to a viewing platform where you can see the course of the river down the falls, the force of water is stupendous.

I think the rounded rocks are limestone. The sound thunders in the ears, and huge trees shade over the white water.

A nice middle aged lady came over, and told me that she did not recommend me to climb the falls, saying it was slippery and dangerous. I was quite happy to take her advice because actually the route you have to take, to climb up from the beach looked quite scarey and probably requires a lot of arm strength to pull yourself up via the hand-holds set into the rock at the sides.

I stepped into the water from the platform, to see how cold it was. The force of water then quickly washed away one of my new Jelly shoes, so I discarded the other one - hard luck! Lots of other shoes lined up the bank, lost by other people

We walked all down the side of the falls, on the wooden walkway (they call it a boardwalk) where it is also made in concrete in places. There are plenty of places to stop and admire and wonder, and take photos.

The beach at the bottom of falls is well-served with toilets, changing cubicals and places you can hire towels. The sea there was bright blue and very inviting, calm and safe-looking.
The atmosphere was calm and relaxed, we had no hassle.

Then we climbed up again on the walk-way and steps to the exit where we expected to be harrassed by traiders, but actually nobody addressed us at all, it was absolutely no problem as they day out here. And we met up with Desmond about an hour after first arriving.

OCHO RIOS SHOPPING TRIP, COST, AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The hotel is known as The Jewell, locally, or 'the new one'. Actually it had been a holiday building here for many years, since the 1950s, and was a casino at first, so I was told by Leabert, the garden guide. It has just been refurbished throughout recently. Its last incarnation was as Sandals, Dunn's River.

Staff here excellent, very well trained, and obviously chosen for their friendly personalities, attractive appearance and ability to remember people's names! They have one day off a week, I believe, and work really hard. After being there some time, they have 2 weeks holiday.

Went to Ocho Rios on a 'Shopping Tour', this cost 20$ for two- cheaper than the taxi fare which is quoted as $30 - it is only about 3 miles away. The Tour vehicel was a small bus, and we were told to come back to the same spot two hours later, in the Craft mall, full of Bob Marley sourvenirs.

I wanted to buy a sim card for phone, so we walked to the Digicel shop, where the credit card machine was out of order. We also had to provide proof of identity which could have been a problem, as we did not know about this prior to our visit. Lucily I had a photocopy of my passport. We managed to pay with the few US dollars we had (we had not planned to buy anything much). You pay for minutes of calls with this service, not by the cost.

Afterwards stopped at very nice coffee shop in another mall, and got information about a driver who could take us to Wassi Arts the next day.

Met a couple of Yanks who invited us to have a drink with them the next day, at their hotel which is the neighbour of ours at Dunn's River, called Rui I think. (Its so big it looks like a small town)

GUESTS AT THE JEWELL, OCHO RIOS - MIXED BUNCH

THE JEWELL RESORT, DUNN'S RIVER, JAMAICA

The resort is fairly full now, beginning December 2010.

Last night the staff were putting Christmas lights in the large sea grape trees outside, and there is a Christmas tree in the lobby, near where I am typing this, covered in silver cupids (or angels) and glitter.

The guests are mainly American. The majority seem young couples, I think we must be the oldest, and being from UK, are more or less the only Limeys here. The American voice can be very loud and somewhat grating on the ear, but I am presuming that this is because the various states have different ways of expressing themselves. Not everybody is like that, of course.

A lot of Americans come from Florida, which is only about an hour away.

Another big group are from Canada.
We have spoken to from people living in the States who originated from Russia and speak Russian to eachother.

Also there are a lot of Jamaican guests here, particularly at the weekend. I think they can get day passes, and maybe they have a cheaper rate being residents - not sure about this. But some are obviously staying here over night. Last weekend there was a large group of young women staying.

I asked a few of the staff here if they get prejudice from the guests because they are black Jamaican, and was told that some of the black American guests are a bit rude and unpleasant, as was one couple of Russians. Of course this is just the experience of one or two of the staff, so maybe this is uncommon, I hope so - the staff here are without exception polite and charming.

And amazingly they remember names!

The group we met most were the Entertainment team, thank you, Jason, Sasha, Antonia and all the other boys and girls!

MONTEGO BAY AIRPORT, JAMAICA, AND JOLLY BUS RIDE TO OCHO RIOS

Arrived Montego Bay in sunny weather, bright blue sky, what a change from dark November in the UK.

We had to get a porter for our baggage to go a few yards from the area where you have to leave the airport trolley, to the bus arrival area, and that cost $5. A bit over the top!

Long ride from MoBay to Ocho Rios, seemed to go on for ever, I guess it was under two hours but seemed longer. Driver gave a running comentary on the size of the huge hotel complexes along the way. We stopped off for beer and restroom (toilet)use. My first Red Stripe of the holiday!

Driver was cheerful, but none of the passengers were anything more than anxious to get to their destinations.

Luckily the hotel complex we are staying at was efficient and there was no delay on showing us to the room on first floor. Nice, large room with four poster bed, balcony (without a view, unless you crained your neck to a tiny glimpse of sea), New bathroom suite and plenty of space everywhere.

Too late to eat - by the time we had had a shower and changed clothes, in any restaurant, but had jerk chicken at the grill place in the grounds, where it was too dark to see much, despite a minute candle on the table.

GATWICK AIRPORT AND COPTHORNE HOTEL - PROBLEM!

Set off for our holiday, and spent night before flight at Copthorne Hotel, which is a taxi-ride from the airport. Taxi cost £8.50.
The staff promised to wake us at 6.15 and said they had never missed a wake up call! Needless to say, they missed ours, despite us reminding them the last thing at night. Luckily I woke at ten minutes to 7 and we had a rush to get to airport. They had messed up on ordering taxi too. Told us it had already been and gone without us!

Another problem was the weight limitation on Thomson flights. Carry-on is limited to 5 Kg and hold bags to 20 Kg. So the carry-on cases had to be weighed by me several times, at home and later at Gatwick, as by that time I was manic about having to discard stuff at the departure point.

Of course, nobody weighed anything at Gatwick so we need not have bothered and could have packed an extra book to read!

Flight was truly dreadful. Thomson was the one we booked because seat pitch is 31" but Thomson rep at Gatwick said they had to transfer flight to a Thomas Cook 767 airplane because of a technical fault.

The Thomas Cook planes are very cramped. I asked a flight attendant what is the seat pitch? He guessed 28" or 29", and the aisle between seats was so narrow you had to walk sideways. The attendants were good, pleasant and helpful but food was really the worst of air travel food, no choice, overcooked and tasteless chicken, cold fried potatoes and peas. Also you could not see the tiny TV screens up on the ceiling from where I sat. Not that I really wanted to see a film, but some people did. A very long ten hours, but I am glad to say the plane left and arrived on time, with no further hitches.

We then found where we had to get on the mini-bus supplied by Jamaica Tours to ferry passengers to hotels in Ocho Rios area.