In the Caribbean countries a Jumbee is a type of spirit. To escape from being possessed by this evil shapeshifting entity, you should consider walking past a river, or a pond (would sailing on an ocean do?) as legend has it that Jumbees cannot follow you over water.
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We made our way to the salt pond, well hidden just behind the beautiful idyllic white sand beach lined with palm trees.
The sense of foreboding of something creepy should have assaulted our senses by this point, somewhat like the pervasive smell that assaulted our nostrils as we hiked in the afternoon heat, every inhale akin to walking through a hot fish market perhaps.
This area is, believe it or not, below sea level, and as such water (from the breaking surf perhaps) collects here. With the intense sun and heat, it would begin to evaporate leaving behind some real sea salt crystals, free for the scooping.
"Look guys", I said, "Let's collect some salt" perhaps a bit excitedly, as my eyes scanned the edges of the murky looking pond, except that what I thought was salt,
was disappointingly not. Perhaps it's just as well, as we didn't quite like the look of the quite ugly looking mud where the salt would have collected, much less sprinkling any of this
white stuff over food we might be serving.
The wind blew a gusty gust, and the salty foam that had gathered there just wispily blew away and disappeared over the flatlands.
The bed of water had an eerie reddish to dirty brown hue,
probably a result of the red algae on the seabed bottom, as the water, if you approached the pond, was quite clear to look through.
Quite pretty all of it, in a mystical and magical and eerie sort of way.
We hiked on following the trail,
in the heat of the afternoon sun, the otherworldly silence sometimes broken by the birds sweeping their way across the calm pond. Our noses full of the odd smell, our eyes saturated with the strange colours.
We reached the end of the trail and the wind instantly slammed us backwards in greeting.
As if to say, beware, all yee who enter here.
The rugged nature of this coastline a sharp contrast to the calm and tranquility we had just walked through.
The shoreline is littered with boulders and rocks and coral and perhaps even some flotsam, no swimming or wading through the water here.
But, wait. There's some else. Something that takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to.
Do you see them?
Allow your eyes to focus for a moment,
and you start to see things.
And at first you question yourself, saying, hmm, did I just see that?
And this ?
A haphazard collection of corals merging into a form, a shape?
Jumbee's are known to be shapeshifters.
And you may have read earlier that they cannot cross water,
the salt pond probably keeping them at bay,
as they lie here on the beach, waiting for unsuspecting visitors to come their way so they can enter your body and take possession.
There are large shapes,
even some Erotic ones?
Teeny little ones.
Look, but don't touch as Jumbees have a habit of taking on animal like shapes,
or perhaps disguised as turtles,
with a pretty shell.
in the hopes that if you touched them, they could merge into your body and take hold of you...
As we walked away from the area, smiling and laughing at our discovery, we were also a little spooked.
And so, "just in case" we made sure to walk pas Salt Pond Bay, just in case some evilness was wanting to follow us home.
Or perhaps it's just Drunk Bay Art??