The Savvy Villa Traveller

So Hurricane Dean came and went - thankfully! The news and the internet had shown projections of a category 4 hurricane passing right over Jamaica - and we were worried. We remembered Gilbert and more recently Ivan and the damage that they left behind. How would we survive a direct hit? The power company shut off the electricity from early Sunday evening in preparation for the hit. We had 1200 gallons of water stored in the water tanks. We had food and candles. We had no internet access and no cellphone service. When the hurricane landed we were fortunate that it had shifted about 20 miles south of the island. As a result, we got primarily wind without much rain - which was unusual. We went up on the roof deck and watched as the sea got angrier and angrier. With the high winds, we were worried about projectiles and so didn’t stay long. In our area we were fortunate. We had only a few downed trees and a lot of broken branches and fallen leaves. We had no structural damage. Electricity did not return until five or six days later. Most businesses were closed or had reduced services in the interim so we didn’t go out much. Strangely enough, this was a great vacation. We read a lot of the books from the villa’s library. We played games like Scrabble, Bingo and Taboo - something we hadn’t done in years. We had candlelight dinners. I didn’t get a thing done (business-wise). I came back to New York on Saturday August 24th more well-rested that I have been in years. What a vacation!

Mais Oui is ready and waiting to host your next vacation! Come visit us soon in Jamaica.