Went for a walk on the beach, Ronan and Zhara and I. We walked down to Rio Neuvelo, the site of an English and Spanish war in the 1600s. The English won. Essentially the English outflanked the Spanish with about 600 soldiers. The Spanish fled – and this is how Jamaica came to be colonized – with 600 soldiers. Hard to believe. Such arrogance to believe that a country is yours when you win a war in just a few square miles. Anyway, I guess that is how it was.
We went onto the beach and walked along. There was quite a bit of garbage; we picked up as much as would could. We came to a little “cave”, just a place where the water had washed out an inlet in the rocks and we decided to make a home. The kids really got into it. We set up house, a kitchen, a fence around our yard, and a path down to the road. I said “Lets sweep the leaves out of here; the ants seem to be coming from the dead leaves.” Ronan said “I am the guard.”, I said “Well, let’s sweep the leaves” He said “Guards don’t sweep.”
On the way down Ronan was telling me about all the animals in Jamaica. He has incredible knowledge, he could tell the birds apart, recognized the nightingales and their songs. I asked him how he knew so much about birds and he said “I have a bird book” I thought to myself, I have a bird book, but I don’t seem to be able to recognize the different between most birds in my back yard.
I saw a frog, or thought I did. Ronan said “ That is not common, not common at all, frogs come out at night.” He told me all about Mongooses, and how they were imported and killed all the snakes in Jamaica. I told him about a story I read about Mongoose in Africa. He said “Mongoose don’t live in Africa.” He was certain. I later checked on the internet and found that they do live in Africa, predominantly in Africa.
Zhara started walking down the beach. I followed her and finally caught up, I asked her where she was going, she said “Home.” No need to check, leaving was just taking too long so she left.
We went to the Rio Neuevo river estuary and there we found a great place to paddle around. Ronan caught minnows and Zhara and I went swimming. We had a fabulous time. Then we walked home
What a great day.