A Day in the Life:
Christmas Morning Walk Through North Kingston
Walking under the palm trees, worrying about sunburns, it was strange to hear faint Christmas carols coming from the hills around us. Christmas morning was bright, sunny, and more humid than most winter days in Jamaica.
We celebrated breakfast that morning with a braided Finnish bread spiced with saffron, candied lime peels, and almonds. The recipe (“Finnish Festive Wreath”) came from my bread machine book and, provided you have a bread machine, it’s highly highly recommended.
After breakfast and opening presents, we decided to take a walk out in the sunshine.
Our apartment complex is like a citadel on a hill in North Kingston. Going one direction down the hill leads to a nice walking loop through the estates of the city. Going the other leads to a major highway and is not an option. Cars are relatively few and far between, although people speed down the road since it’s one of the few places in Kingston without traffic.
Several of the hill estates on the walking route are thoroughly landscaped. There are mango trees, coconut palms, cacti, butterfly bushes, breadfruit, and banana forests lining the slopes up from the main walking street. Other houses are in a state of continual construction. Concrete and other building supplies are pretty cheap. Many Jamaicans constantly renovate their homes and at any given time part of the house may be unfinished, lack windows, or have no walls.
Upon leaving the front gate, we noticed the ackee fruit on the trees outside our apartment were turning red and a few had opened. Closed ackee are poisonous and can kill you if you eat them. Open ackee are the national fruit of Jamaica and cooked as a quasi-substitute for scrambled eggs. Think about what a fruit would be like to be used in lieu of eggs.
We turned right after the ackee trees and were barked at by a new dog that was defending its territory behind a wall of ferns, bromeliads, camelias, and palm trees. Kate and I are on somewhat friendly terms with the normal guard dog. This one less so.
The road goes through a shallow valley with Kingston mansions perched above the trees. The roadside overgrowth gets bad enough that the government has to hire squads of machete men to come whack down the brush so cars can get through.
We turn, hike up the hill, and come out with a view looking over our apartment to New Kingston, the Kingston Harbor, and Port Royal. There are a few broad traveller trees at the top of the hill. The trees frame a breathtaking view of Powell Plaza and the Blue Mountains behind.
With our walk finished, we decided to fill up a cooler with Red Stripe and continue our celebration at the complex’s swimming pool. Not a terrible Christmas morning.
