Sunday Morning at Mona Reservoir

A popular and safe place to walk/run in Kingston is around the Mona Reservoir. It is a open from dawn for a few hours and monitored by security guards. Friend, Kate, often runs there on Sunday mornings to get her weekly two-hour run.  This morning Brianna and I met Kate there, Brianna running for 1 hour and me walking and enjoying a morning with my camera. B & K are running the Reggae Marathon (half) in Negril, early December, so have great motivation!  I just needed the exercise - no hash this weekend - and enjoyed the morning air.

On way back we walked to Martha's Corner, stopping at Cafe Blue in Sovereign Centre for delightful coffees and croissants - thought we were back in Canada! - then taxi home. 

A rather lazy weekend of housework, errands, emails, and CDN consulting . . .  morning respite was perfect.

Very Jamaican: one sign says it is 1600 metres; other says it is 2600 metres. From experience, we would all say the latter. 

Heading out on the trail - the 2600 metre trail :-) The morning mists were delicious.

Great egret (egretta alba)

Great egrets and Night Heron (nyctanassa violacea). The buildings in the background are the University of the West Indies (UWI)

White Ibis (eudocimus albus)

Half way around the reservoir, looking back towards northeast Kingston

Two brown pelicans (pelecanus occidentalis) with friend, great egret

Mexican Vine (antigonon leptopus), very common in Jamaica though very beautiful. Particularly with the reflections of the hills in the background.

 I so envied Brianna and Kate with their "young knees" and ability to still run :-(

Looking back toward Long Mountain

Old aquaduct that used to supply the sugar plantation, on which the reservoir and University of the West Indies now sit. The Blue and John Crow Mountains in background, to the north of Kingston.

Tower on the aqueduct

Hard to believe we were 15 minutes (by taxi) from uptown Kingston

Long Mountain from the far side of the reservoir