Jacmel

We are at the resort in Jacmel, which we reached by a nearly two and a half hour drive this morning (leaving the mission at 7:30 and arriving here just before 11:00), over the dramatic and sometimes disturbing Jacmel Road. Crossing the mountains, it is full of switchbacks and curves, and not overly wide, by any means—Mary Jane said it was built by American engineers back in the thirties or forties—and even though Mary Jane reassured us that our driver, Felix, is a very good driver, I was not convinced that the same could be said of all other drivers we saw. At one point, Mary Jane noted the several vehicles backed up behind us, but not long thereafter they beeped their horns in frustration and passed us, on mountain curves (!). In fact, at one point, there was a double pass, as a vehicle passed us, while a young man on a little motor scooter passed him.

When we could bear to look, though, the scenery was spectacular. As this picture shows, we saw clouds in the mountains.

Once we got here, swimming in the Atlantic was presented to us as an option, and though I was eager to update my blog, I decided I needed to get into the ocean first. The view below is from the upper area where we first arrived, with a significant drop along paths down to the "beach."

 I decided to get the ocean plunge done first, and so changed and made my way down to the cove. It was quite rocky, and, as I told Mary Jane, I grew up on a lake and was outdoors barefoot all day every day from June through August—but it's amazing what a half century and a couple of hundred pounds has done to my ability to walk barefoot on rocks! Anyway, I did get out into the water for a while, and was the first one to do so—after my brief encounter with the Atlantic, others followed me down there. Mary Jane went down with me, and kindly offered me her arm to help me across the rocks. Though the following picture looks fairly sedate, there were some fair waves crashing in once I waded out into the water, knocking me down a couple of times.

Anyway, the first thing we did when we arrived was to order our food, because Mary Jane said it takes them a couple of hours to prepare it. So now, we are all relaxing, resting from our time in the ocean, and awaiting our meal.