Let’s back up. Some time in March, I was sitting at brunch with friends, a little mute from all the deadlines darting through my mind. Talk ricocheted around the table about a Carnival Cruise with the Morrow Family headed to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Mexico. A karafe of mimosas later, I was sending my payment in to hop on board, realizing how disconnected I had been from my friends and how tired I was of missing out on cool experiences with them. It’s surely the price I’ve paid to have my own business and while it was necessary to go head first into work this past year, I still needed balance and I wanted my friends. Little did I know that the balance I needed turned into a near month of traveling where I landed back in the US from the Cruise one morning and flew out to South Africa for a photography project that very same night. That story is coming soon. We all talked about what excursions we should try out during the days leading up to our departure but something had me interested to see the inner side of Jamaica. Once the Carnival Magic docked, I was off and away to a hostel I had scoped online. Once acclimated, I just walked around in the streets, popped a top on the infamous Red Stripe, climbed to a high point to see the Carnival Cruise Ship in all her glory from a distance, and met a welder who told me that we are all one blood and not to be shy to talk with him. Then I met a most intricate bearded man who was more taken back by me than I was with him. My fascination with his oddly beard made me fearless, so I marched right up to stick my camera in his face and told him to smile.

I bought what appeared to be fresh…err fruit out the back of a car and then my attention slid across the street to a goat who was on some kind of a one track minded mission to somewhere.

Then I met Elroy as we both turned onto a same street. Elroy is a sheetrock builder who was on his way to grab some lunch. We chatted as we made our way down the steep hilled street and I found out Elroy had lived in Canada for a time until he was sent back to Jamaica for not having the proper Visas. He said he loved Canada and would one day return. I loved the fire in his eyes. An interesting man he was, with kind eyes.

At day’s end, I found my way to Doctor’s Cave Beach to take in the water, the air, and the sand for a lasting stretch before heading back to the paradise of the Carnival Cruise Ship again.