My First Kidnapping in Jamaica

Not because I like to blog in the chronological order that things happen but this whole kidnapping story all happened within my first 24 hours on the island last month.  It’s an awesome story and it’s the first significant thing that happened last trip.  I feel like I swooped in at the right time and saved a life!  If not a life, an otherwise skewed and tainted opinion of Jamaica.

Last month, for the first time in 13 years I flew into Jamaica at night.  It’s an odd flight time compared to my usual afternoon landing.  Also for the first time, my Canadian BFF and I flew in on the same flight.  We usually meet in Jamaica but this time we arrived together and by the time I got my Budget rental car sorted out it was well after 9:00pm.  Our plan from the start was to grab a room at Hotel Gloriana in Montego Bay for the night and then trek down to the south coast the next morning.

After checking into our room we sat out on the veranda having some drinks when a foreign gentleman walked over and greeted us.  His name was Harald and he was from Norway so we invited him to have a seat and the chit chat commenced.  Through conversation we learned that Harald is an author, is very well traveled and this was his first time in Jamaica.  We also learned he was having a pretty miserable experience in Montego Bay, from high pressure street hustlers, overcharging on items, paying for beach access, etc.  We agreed and told him that this little piece of Montego Bay is a pretty lame cross section of what Jamaica truly is.  Then we kind of cracked a joke that in the morning we were taking off to a part of Jamaica where NO ONE would bother him and that he could hitch a ride with us if he wanted to.

After a really nice visit Harald would be turning in for the night so we said our goodnights and parted company.

The next morning we were all dressed and rolling out the door with our bags when guess who showed up on our doorstep?  Yup….it was Harald and he was ready to DO ROAD!  We didn’t know he took us seriously but there he stood with the clothes on his back, $50 in his pocket, no plan and a ticket to ride!  I was in my glory because I LOVE showing people what I love about the real Jamaica….so off we went with literally no plan for Harald.

All we knew is that he had to be back to Mobay by the next afternoon and that the Knutsford Express stops in Black River.  We had no schedule for the bus but we assured him everything would work out somehow.

Off we went through the hills behind Montego Bay, weaving through the winding mountain roads and learning more about Harald and Norway as we drove.  I made sure to tell him that if he saw anywhere at all that he wanted to stop and look around then I’m more than happy to stop.  We did just that at some point between nowhere and nowhere, to get some refreshments.  Our  stop turned into a really awesome exchange of pictures and conversation with some locals at a small roadside shop.  Harald showed them some pictures of where he’s from and we all shared some great laughs.

One thing I always wonder when I stop at places this random and converse with locals – will I ever see those people again?  Will they tell their friends the way we tell our friends about random people they / we meet?

After the short stop we hit the road again and I made a phone call to my bro Shelly down south to tell him we kidnapped someone and wanted to show him a really nice time.  Shelly knew just the ticket and he was on standby with his boat.  We were going to take Harald out to sea!

Once we reached the south coast we pulled up to the house where we’d be staying, dropped our bags, dug out our swimsuits and jumped back in the car heading for the seaside.  Down at the beach is where Harald got a real taste of some local life.  Shelly’s boat which was parked in a yard needed to be rolled down the beach into the water before we could go anywhere.  Rather than standing around watching the event Harald decided to jump right in with the guys and get dirty!

The eight men rolled the boat over logs all the way down the beach and into the sea, where they then installed the motor before we all jumped in to head to Pelican Bar in the middle of the sea.  I’m positive Harald never knew this existed but oddly enough he had brought a snorkel with him so it was going to be perfect.

By the time we reached Pelican Bar it was very late in the afternoon and my fingers were crossed for a clear sky so we could not only enjoy the awesome ambiance but hopefully a fantastic sunset as well.

Over the next couple of hours we had a stellar time!  Harald was all over the water with his snorkel taking underwater pictures, Shelly and I were swimming in the warm water under the beautiful amber glow from the sky.  It was perfect and I felt happy that someone who said they’d never come back to Jamaica was having the time of his life!

And the best part of all?  As the sun went down this turned out to be the most gorgeous, perfect sunset I saw in my entire two weeks that trip!  Sunset was stunning and we got to watch it all from the middle of the sea.

Our boatload headed back to shore after the sun disappeared and we realized that none of us had eaten since breakfast.  Ugh.  So our next mission was food and we didn’t even bother changing out of our wet clothes.  We decided to introduce Harald to our favorite fried chicken and rum spot and our favorite bartender in the south.  Dinner was fantastic as usual and the evening turned into some hilarious conversation and antics.  This dude is some great company as you can tell by whatever the heck is going on in the picture lol.

With rum and chicken in our bellies, we eventually headed back to the house and kindly put a sheet on the couch for Harald to sleep.

We had checked the bus schedule earlier on and found that the bus would leave at 8:30 the next morning – there’s only one bus out of Black River each day.  So off we went to the bus stop, loaded him aboard like we were sending our child off to college and waved as he rode off towards Montego Bay.

I have never talked to Harald again but we know he’s alive and well because of Facebook.

Mission accomplished.  A successful kidnapping!

In case any of you can read Norwegian here is a link to Harald’s author website.