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Published: March 24th 2023
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One of the important lessons of travel in the "developing world": don't plan to do more than one thing in a day. We had already visited the Orthodox Church today, and that was realistically all we were going to get done. For some reason, we forgot this rule and also planned to go to Montego Bay in the afternoon and visit Ras Flako Tafari. Unfortunately, that did not work out.
I have known Ras Flako for probably 15 years. He visits Seattle rather frequently in his capacity as an Ancient of the Nyahbinghi House. We also talk from time to time over Facebook Messenger video calls, but I've never visited him in Jamaica before and this sounded like a good idea. He said Sunday would be the best day to visit the Nyahbinghi grounds in Pitfour (near Montego Bay) and check on the construction of the house for Bongo Cecil. I intended to make a video to support the fundraising for this ongoing project.
However, what actually happened was... As soon as I returned from the church, we changed our clothes and got out on the road. It was close to 4pm already and It's about a 2-hour drive
from Ocho Rios to Montego Bay. After that long drive, we were famished (we hadn't actually eaten anything more than some little snacks all day). So, Chelly Googled some restaurants during the drive and found a nice place she wanted to try.
She is the Chef and the culinary arts student, so being a foodie is like part of the gig. She knows what she is doing. The place she found for us was fantastic. It was called "House Boat" and it was literally on a boat. We pulled up shortly before sunset and were able to enjoy the lush greenery and gorgeous views of Montego Bay from this old-time steamboat turned restaurant.
This was easily the best food I'd had yet on the trip. Was it a bit overpriced for rice and veggies? Yeah, of course it was, but with the setting and the service and the outright quality of that rice and veggies, it was worth it. Chelly got surf and turf (she wasn't fasting).
We made small talk with some other couples who'd also come for a romantic Sunday-night dinner. One African-American man who had married a Jamaican woman and was planning to retire
soon and move down to live with her. Another African-American couple from Vegas who were escaping the snowstorms. It was fun to interact with other tourists from the states. We hadn't done that anywhere else on this trip.
By the time dinner was done, the sun had gone down, and we still had to find the Pitfour Nyabinghi tabernacle. The waiter at the restaurant warned us that it was a dangerous neighborhood. We were in no way worried however, we're pretty used to this travel thing and the good vibes travel with us. I've made some of my fondest memories in so-called "third world", "ghettoes", so places like this do not scare me.
There was no address for the Nyabinghi grounds, just a set of rough instructions. We got lost once or twice and had to ask for directions. Part of our instructions was to ask one of the elders on the square how to find the place. Since it was late, there were no elders on the square, but we did find an elderly Rastaman in the neighborhood who guided kindly us to the place.
By the time we got there it was too late, too
dark, the gate had been locked, and Ras Flako had long ago gone home. I couldn't reach him on the phone or on Messenger (his phone had probably lost battery power). So, we gave up on this mission and called it a night.
Back in Ocho Rios a couple hours later, we went for another walk into town. This time we stopped at place called Rastafari House of Cannabis. It was part bar, part restaurant, with a night club in back, and a full selection of high-grade herb for sale. I picked up some excellent kief that I sprinkled around my plate of excellent Ital food. This was hands down the BEST food I had in Jamaica on this whole trip, bar none. Yes, better than the House Boat.
The owner and I got into a fascinating conversation about the origins of Rastafari. We convinced each other that we were going to develop a movie about it, and who knows, maybe we will. We stayed pretty late, the three of us talking and enjoying music and having fun. I went home from there and stayed up writing until 4am.
The best laid plains oft go awry, but
regardless, we had a great day.
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