A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Jamaica for a Year, Part VIII

Share

June 14, 2010

As I reported in this post on living and working as a freelance writer in Jamaica, Sunday is family day. So yesterday, my sister and I went for a 7.5 mile walk – yes, 7.5 miles in the hot boiling sun! We’re training for the full marathon here in December. But, that’s a side point. FYI, a listing of all entries in this series can be found here.

Note: Learn how you too can live and work from an island paradise!

How to Work and Live Abroad from the Caribbean: It’s Easier Than You Think to Make the Move to an Island Paradise

We packed our backpacks with our beachwear so we could spend the rest of the day at the beach. FYI, we started walking at 8 a.m. and walked for just over three hours.

At any rate, my sister says, “I know this cool little beach area that’s not too crowded where we can rent beach chairs for 300 JMD (about $3.50).” I said, “Cool. Let’s do it.”

Well after our walk, I was dog tired (the heat here is friggin’ unbelievable – I’m quite frankly scared of August) and ready to flop my behind on somebody’s beach chair – anybody’s beach chair – anywhere! We get to Cosmos, the name of the beach place . . . what a friggin’ rip! I’ll never frequent the place.

You Have to Pay to Pee In the Beach!

My sister and I were all excited because the nice young lady at the booth informs us that chairs are only 100 JMD. After finding this out, we went and scoped out the menu to see what the food prices were like because we were thinking, “Maybe we can get some lunch if it’s reasonable.”

Note: Some of the places here on the beach can be a bit outrageous in their prices on food and drink.

take-a-beach-peeWhile the prices on the menu were good, there was almost a 30% surcharge on every check (17.5% sales tax and a 10% tip). Even though we were a little bummed, we were like, “Okay, it’s not sssooooo bad. Let’s go get our chairs.”

So we go back to the nice young girl and tell her that we want to rent two beach chairs for the day. Then, she promptly informs us that it’s an extra 300 JMD if we want to get in the water.

I uttered a Scooby Doo like “Huh?” My sister piped in with:

Are you saying we can’t get in the water if we rent the beach chairs? And, who’s going to stop us if we do?

The girl responded:

No, you can’t get in the water – even if you rent beach chairs. Someone is assigned to watch guests who haven’t paid the extra 300 JMD to prevent them from getting in the water.

As a native Floridian who has never paid in my life to get in the water at a beach – I was apoplectic! I was like:

You mean to tell me you have to pay to pee in the beach?

The girl burst out laughing, but I wasn’t kidding. My sister said:

But that’s God’s water. You can’t control who gets in and out of it.

While an extra 300 JMD was not a big deal – it was the unmitigated gall of the place to say you can rent a chair and look at the water, but someone will physically prevent you from getting in that unnerved both of us.

After barely uttering a civil thank you to the girl helping us – we left.

Negril, Jamaica: Discrimination against Locals by Beach Establishments?

no-beach-accessIt was then that we realized, a lot of places on the beach are like this. Unless you have your own beach chair and umbrella, it’s hard to find a place to just hang out on the beach where it doesn’t cost you anything.

Immediately, I thought of the locals. As in, Jamaica is a poor country and a lot of the hotels and establishments along 7-mile beach require you to “pay to play,” so to speak. For example, we finally wound up at a place where we paid $10 to rent beach chairs. You either had to pay $10 or drink at least that much in order to use the chairs.

Luckily, neither of us had a problem (or mind) spending that much on drink, but it weighed on me. It’s like the beach establishments here don’t consider the locals. This is, after all, their country.

Now of course, you can plop down any place if you don’t care about whether or not you have a chair and/or umbrella. But most of the beach establishments set their beach chairs and umbrellas out and don’t allow those who aren’t guests to set up within a defined area. And forget getting close to a tree if you’re not a guest in a hotel. All the choice areas are taken.

So while theoretically a local (or anyone else) can set up anywhere they please, it’s not possible without infringing on “hotel/restaurant guest space” in most places.

It seems that no matter where so-called progress happens, it always shits on the people who were there first!

And that’s the rather downer of a report from this Girl a Go Go today.

Yuwanda
P.S.: Want to start a successful freelance writing career where you have the mobility to live and work where you please? Visit our freelance writing bookstore.

P.P.S.: Want an easy, fast way to get started in affiliate marketing, making as much as $50, $100 or $150/day? Get How to Make Money Placing Ads on Free Classified Ad Sites (ie, Backpage.com). If you want to make some easy money promoting affiliate products on free classified ad sites, this ebook is for you. I’ve personally sold tens of thousands of dollars of e-products (my own and affiliate products) doing this since January 2009.

P.P.P.S.: Find this post informative? Follow Me (Inkwell Editorial) on Twitter.

Copyright © 2010: All material on this site is copyright protected and cannot be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without my written consent (linking to is fine).


Related Posts

A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Jamaica for a Year, Part XI
A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Jamaica for a Year, Part VI
A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Jamaica for a Year, Part V
A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Jamaica for a Year, Part II
A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Negril, Jamaica for a Year, Part I

Share and Enjoy!

Share

One Response to “A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Jamaica for a Year, Part VIII”

  1. A Freelance Writer’s Life Abroad: Inside Peek at My Life as an American Living in Jamaica for a Year, Part XI : Inkwell Editorial says:
    June 22, 2010 at 5:15 pm

    [...] just darn hot here in Jamaica. As I said in this post on living in Jamaica, I’m quite frankly scared of [...]

Inkwell Editorial

Learn how to start a career as a freelance writer -- full-time or part-time. These instructional guides on freelance writing teach you everything you need to know. You can get started right away.

Inkwell Editorial

How to Start a Successful Freelance Career Newsletter: Get concrete specifics on how to start, grow and run a successful freelance writing career.