Before leaving home, I bought a hat with an insignia on the brow reading “Life Is Good,” which is how I felt almost every minute of every day on this trip. That insignia was like a tatoo on my mind. Feeling so positive about life, the universe and everything.
Today off to Round Hill Resort on South side of Mobay where Roger and Paula are staying and an old acquaintance is getting married. The resort was the peak of elegance, very chi chi in a relaxed, Jamaican sort of way.
Found Round Hill’s dive club, went out w the master diver on yet another gray day. Two miles out to a cave called Swim-Thru. At 80 ft. down two reefs rose up and met, creating a long natural tunnel. Took just a few minutes to get through. Wish it could have been longer, or that we could have done it again. Sea life similar to the Negril dive but the formations much more dramatic. On other side of cave started a drift dive at 60 ft. Always beautiful but visibility low – around 30ft. Still dozens of types of fish I didnt see in Negril. I desperately want to dive w sea turtles. Alas none today. Nature offers no guarantees.
Dive master kept mask defogger in his shorts, but Jamaicans pronounce “or” as “ar” and I thought he was saying something about “sharks” rather than “shorts.” “We’re diving with sharks?” I asked. They had a good laugh at my expense. Jamaicans have two languages — one, a heavily accented English with some patois mixed in, is used to communicate with tourists, in radio and TV broadcasting, etc. The other, spoken informally to each other, is the full patois, a syncretic blend of English, Spanish, and African languages.
Another hard rain – swimming in the inlet at Round Hill. Love to swim as rain dances hard on the surface. Decided to photograph, thinking the G2 would have a few rubber seals. Wrong. Later, camera would not boot. My goose was cooked. Have rarely seen Amy so mad. At hotel opened all compartments and hung camera from a bedpost near A/C. Six hours later tried again and it hummed happily back to life.
Unfortunately, the camera was not working in time for tonight’s sunset, which was every bit as incredible as last night’s.