Today we ventured out to Fort Clarence, which is just before Hellshire Beach. It is past a suburb of Kingston called Portmore. We caught the bus from the downtown area, actually we missed the one that would have taken us right to Fort Clarence, but we managed to catch another one. I did not mind the detour, as I had not yet been to Portmore. It is so different from Kingston out there. Flat, hot and dry. And what you might imagine a Caribbean suburb looks like. Lots of one-story, concrete, colourful homes with painted fences and grilles. Lots of people walking around, children playing, even the requisite malls and plazas, complete with KFC and Burger King.

We finally arrived at the beach, which is gorgeous. Turquoise water, soft sand, and not that crowded. We sat under the shade of sea grape trees, me reading a magazine and Brianna studying for her GRE exam, which is next week. We swam and napped. A trio of dogs hung out beside us, and a random fellow also sat right next to us, with not a word spoken. It was kind of weird, but he did not bother us at all, so it was okay. I got a picture of Champagne and his horse Kunta Kinte, who is nine years old. Champagne has been offering people horseback rides for 23 years. After a final swim, we departed for Kingston.

We caught a route taxi, which was a sedan intended to fit maybe eight people max. There were 12 of us, all squeezed in. But we made it safely an caught the bus back to Kingston. The bus route took us all through the suburbs again, adding an extra hour, but we made it back to Halfway Tree in time to walk home while it was still light.