Barrel Heroes in Jamaica

Just by reading the title I KNOW you’re dying to find out what a “barrel hero” is!  I just made it up after sifting through pictures from my last trip and I’ll explain to you exactly what it is.

Jamaicans who have family living abroad often receive shipping barrels from farrin (foreign) full of goodies such as household items, brand name clothing and many other random goods that either aren’t easy to find in Jamaica or are cheaper to buy abroad.

A “barrel hero” is this guy in the picture on the left LOL.

I followed….rather, was stuck behind this guy…..all the way from Montego Bay and through the slow, winding mountain roads heading to the south coast.  And it was painful.  Why?  Because even driving a normal car on those roads is a slow go with the hairpin turns and mega potholes.  But this guy was driving a little pick-up truck that was a low-rider BEFORE two giant barrels were loaded into the back.  Take a low-rider with no shocks, plunk two heavy barrels in it and mix that with potholes deeper than his wheel wells and it equals the slowest, most frustrating drive EVER if you happen to be stuck behind him.

This dude was a hero in more than one way on this drive LOL.  #1, he made it to his destination without losing major pieces of his truck.  And #2, every single Jamaican that he passed on the roadsides and in the towns gawked at him with envy that he just picked up two full barrels from abroad.  Like seriously, EVERY Jamaican for miles and miles (and miles!) waved and stared at whoever was driving this truck.

Although I couldn’t help but be amused by the whole thing I was also annoyed at the slow drive and afraid that one or both barrels would topple out and smash into my little rental car.  I was also in suspense wondering if the entire truck and its undercarriage would just give out.

Finally, after about forty minutes he turned off the main road and got out of my way.  In that forty minutes I only covered about fifteen minutes worth of road.  Ugh.

So if you’re reading this and you happen to be this guy’s peeps in New York who sent these barrels (I could read the address written on the barrels), yes….he received them and got home safe.  Next time send him a new truck!