Meandering4Money

Jamaica Photos

Ξ June 13th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Jamaica, photography |

Jamaica: Leaving the mundane behind

Ξ June 7th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Jamaica, Life, Road Life, World Travel, travel |

“Don’t move… Wait. Look. Notice.  If you keep those three words in mind, you just might survive the next few days…  You’ve left the safe and mundane world you once knew… You must learn to… wait before moving, to look before stepping and to observe everything.” ~Nicholas Flamel, the Alchemyst {Secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flemel} by Michael Scott

 I read these words the night before we left for Jamaica but, I had no idea just how important they would prove to be during our trip.  The book I was reading is a fictional story about a real person who was born in 1330 and is now considered as the greatest Alchemyst of his day.  In the story, the immortal Nicholas Flemel is living in present day San Francisco with his wife Perenelle.  They look to be roughly 50 however, in reality they are closer to 700 years old…

Anyway, none of that matters.  What matters is that we can easily forget just how lucky most Americans, and others, are to live in their safe little neighborhoods with their privacy fences and security alarms.  Regardless of what we know is going on in other neighborhoods and cities, other countries, weg feel a detachment from it all when we think the danger is safe inside a neat box i.e. TV, radio, newspaper, computer etc.  However, when a person travels outside of their safety zone into unfamiliar territory, be it another town, state or country, the veil falls away and we are suddenly slapped in the face by reality in all of it’s scary and wonderful facets.  If we were prepared for the unveiling and keep our wits about us we will be fine.  However, if we’re unprepared for our journey, we stand a chance of being eaten alive by any number of the new and possibly strange characters we might meet.

Even though we are always traveling in the US, we are novices to overseas travel. This was M’s first time and my second.  My previous trip had been to Europe over 10 years ago, well before 9/11 and the regulations that followed.  I tried to read as much as I could about Jamaica before we left however I was still very unprepared and M even more so.  In fact, I’m embarrassed by my naiveté but, we did pull through unscathed except for our nerves.  By the time our 10 days was over and we landed at St. Louis we were all very tired, quite sick of each other and starving for some familiar food.  And, even though we’d barely been off the island for 10 hours, it already seemed like it was all only a dream but, a dream we’re sure not to forget.

While I can’t possibly convey to you exactly how great our trip was, I’d like to share our experiences.  The next 10 posts will be excerpts from my daily journal.  Follow this link to Day 1.