Portie Weekend! Yay!

Winifred's Beach

Once gain I braved the tumultuous road to Port Antonio, through the winds and turns of the Junction Road in the highlands of St. Mary, along the intermittently paved roadway under construction in Portland. The road to Port Antonio, although extremely terrible, is much better than it was the last few times I dared to travel along it's rocky, precipice infected pathway. There is a good stretch of paved road now starting from Annotto Bay, and trust mi it feel sweet! There is also a very long section that has been prepped for paving, so it is slowly looking like a road again.

My weekend getaway from the City was wonderful as I got to spend times with a few of my good friends and of course I went to the beach! I got over at about 8 pm on Friday evening and was quickly ushered to a little restaurant on the outskirts of the town in Breast Works, called... shit, I forgot the name. Anyway, it's not one of the official restaurants you are used to, it is actually located in what appears to be someones front yard. but the ambiance created by the bamboo seats and bamboo roof was a welcomed change from the traditional food places. The food was pretty decent apart from the steamed bammy, which was more like bammy porridge! We all had Cray Fish soup which was actually a combination soup of craw fish, conch and bussu (a small river snail) with more cray fish to distinguish it. We also had some curried goat and roti and some jerked chicken.

On Saturday, it was off to the beach! This time, we opted for Winifred's instead of Frenchman's Cove, even though we swung by Brian's Bay as that was also an option. Winifred's Beach is one of the largest beaches in Portland even though it is only an arm length when compared to the 7 miles beach of Negril. It is located in the Fairy Hill district of Portland just below a housing scheme. But it will take a lot of patients, nerves of steel and possibly a good 4X4 vehicle to drive down to the beach, so I drove as far as I safely could, parked the car and we trekked down by foot through the short-cut. This was the first time I have been to Winifred's Beach in almost four years.It was just as lovely as it was when I last visited, nice expanse of white sand and inviting turquoise water glistening in the sun. The only difference was that once I entered the water I noticed that a great portion of the beach was rather stony. Hopefully, the authorities will initiate a cleanup of this lovely beach and fix that damn road down to the beach! We eventually found a spot with little or no stones and soaked up some of that nice Caribbean Sea sun and sea. but for some reason though, that beach seamed pretty salty, yeah I know the sea is salty, but this is one was double sized! After swimming we replenished our bodies with a cup of Chicken Foot Soup and boiled corn. We again linked up at a little lounge and bar where we chatted, drank liquor and played dominoes until about four in the morning before heading home and passing out.

Me eating boiled corn

On Sunday, it was time to head back to the city and to leave the beautiful mix of lush green and turquoise behind, and say good bye to a wonderful weekend. How was your weekend? Yeah I know, I just had to ask!