Category: Jamaica

My Year of Travelling in Jamaica & Elsewhere, Pt II

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

As 2012 drew to a close, I was plagued by the notion that I didn’t do enough travelling. It was making me feel a bit regretful so I started making a list — I love lists! Sure enough, I realized I had done a lot of travelling in Jamaica and that made me smile. I had even managed to slip in a few trips to New York and Toronto.

My photos helped to bring back memories of each place I’d visited, the people I’d met and the experiences I’d had. In the end, I realized that it wasn’t a bad year of travel after all.

Appleton Rum Tour
Appleton Rum Tour

Rum has become my drink of choice and in 2012, I was fortunate to visit Appleton Estate, the undisputed home of rum, twice. While the first visit was an amazing experience (we were offered rum punch and 13 rums to sample!), on the second visit, I joined the Jamaica Rum Society on a deluxe tour that came complete with a complimentary bus, tour guide, and bartender who served us sandwiches and as much Appleton Estate Extra and the Master Blender as we could handle.

On arrival at Appleton, we were welcomed with complimentary breakfast. We did the usual tour but at the end, we had a private tasting with four premium Appleton rums. Afterwards, we were certified as Appleton rum ambassadors.

The Colors of Independence
The Colors of Independence

In 2012, Jamaica hosted a year-long celebration of her 50th anniversary of independence from Britain. In August, I took these photos at the Independence Village that was set up at the National Stadium in Kingston.

The Colors of Independence
The Colors of Independence

In St. Ann, my cousin pointed out this statue of Christopher Columbus, near Seville – the place where he landed when he arrived in Jamaica in 1494.

La Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus Statue, Jamaica
La Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus Statue, Jamaica

Continue reading “My Year of Travelling in Jamaica & Elsewhere, Pt II” →

My Year of Travelling Jamaica, Part I

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

As 2012 draws to a close, I’m eagerly anticipating another year of travel and discovery. But before I start the New Year, I wanted to look back at my year of travelling Jamaica.

Since January, I have logged hundreds of miles around the island. Sometimes I traveled solo, sometimes I was with friends who were visiting. Each trip though, brought me face to face with intriguing individuals, or took me on explorations of interesting and historic places, or opened my eyes to things I’d missed or just hadn’t paid attention to before.

The best times during the year though, were the simple ones. At those times, my camera felt intrusive. I didn’t want to break the flow of conversation or make notes. I only wanted to savor the moment that I was no longer observing and reporting, the moment I felt a part of the story.

Here’s some of what I experienced.

Sunrise over Negril Jamaica
Sunrise, Negril

At dawn one morning in February, friends and I walked the beach in Negril from our hotel near the center of town to well past the Hanover border. It was the first time I’d done that and I loved the near emptiness of the beach and the pinkish color the sun had painted the sky as it climbed above the horizon to start the new day.

Herb vendor, Jamaica
Herb vendor, Negril

The first person we saw was this guy who was walking the beach selling various herbs. After chatting with him, I bought a bag of ground bissy or kola nut. Bissy came to Jamaica from West Africa and is used to help digestion, and fight fatigue and hunger. It’s also good for the heart.

Tall and cruise ships, Jamaica
Two ships docked at Freeport, Montego Bay

Two, sometimes three times a week, ships dock at Freeport in Montego Bay. Usually, it’s a ship from the Carnival fleet but early in 2012, I spotted this tall ship. It looked impressive even from a distance and I watched it almost all day.

Pink skies over the Blue Mountains Jamaica
Blue Mountains

In March, I fell short by a few hours in my attempt to hike to the top of the Blue Mountains, Jamaica’s tallest, to greet the new day. I was very disappointed but on the hike back, I was able to see what I had missed in the 2:00 a.m. walk up. These views almost made up for the sunrise I didn’t get to see.

Coffee Beans on the Blue Mountains Jamaica
Coffee Beans, Blue Mountains
Clouds and house on the Blue Mountains Jamaica
Clouds on the Blue Mountains

One day, I visited King’s House, the official residence of the Governor General who is the Queen’s representative in Jamaica. A few days later, I was at the former home of Bob Marley, the King of Reggae.

King's House external view - Jamaica
King’s House
Bob Marley Museum Jamaica
Bob Marley Museum

Two places of worship caught my attention during my travels: Holy Trinity in Kingston and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in St. Ann.

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Jamaica
Holy Trinity, Kingston
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Jamaica
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, St. Ann

In July, I discovered Fay who still practices the (almost) lost art of making peppermint candy by hand. I also found out that it was a skill my paternal grandmother had.

Fay, the Peppermint Candy Lady, and her family
Fay and members of her family
Peppermint candy swirl Jamaica
Peppermint candy mixture

It was fascinating to watch Fay’s mixture turn from brown to white then, as she added coloring, to red and white. (More about Fay in an upcoming post.)

Hope you’ll check back for Part II of highlights from my year of travelling Jamaica.

This is my submission to this week’s Travel Photo Thursday series, which is organized by Nancie at Budget Travelers Sandbox. Hope you’ll head over and check out more photos from locations around the world.

 

 

Pigeon Peas

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

One of the sure signs that Christmas is around the corner is the flowering of the pigeon peas. Also known as gandules, they are called gungo or pigeon peas here in Jamaica and are the essential ingredient in the rice and peas dish most families prepare on special occasions and, in particular, on Christmas Day.

Pigeon Pea plant
Pigeon pea plant

The pigeon pea originated in eastern India and was brought to east and west Africa, and eventually to the Americas by African slaves probably around the 17th century. It has been cultivated for at least 3,500 years.

Small in size and light green or white in color, the pigeon pea takes on a light brown hue when it’s been dried. Besides its use in rice and peas, pigeon peas can also be used in soups.

Pigeon pea plant
Pigeon pea plant

Pigeon peas are rich in protein, fiber and essential amino acids.

What fascinates me about the pigeon pea is the plant. The leaves look velvety and the ‘flowers’ are so colorful, they look as if they could be cut and put in a vase. These ‘blooms’ will last about a week then will be replaced by pods that are long and have individual pockets that hold each pea. Each pod can hold up to 8 peas, and grow in bunches of 5 to 7.

The green pigeon peas can be frozen for later use. When cooked, they have a slightly different taste from the dried ones.

Have you tried pigeon peas?

This is my submission to Travel Photo Thursday, which is organized by Nancie at Budget Travelers Sandbox. Be sure to head over and check out more photos from locations around the world.

Boats

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

I was so taken by this boat – its color and design, and the way it contrasted with the blue of the water – that I had to take a photo.

Dragon boat near Montego Bay
Dragon boat

It also gave me the idea for today’s Travel Photo Thursday post. Here are a few other ‘boat’ photos I found in my archives.

Treasure Beach Boats
Fishermen and their boats

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need: a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing. – Jerome K. Jerome

Glistening Waters Boats
White boats

Any damn fool can circumnavigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk. – Sir Francis Chichester.

Falmouth Boats
Lazy boats

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has the time to rock the boat. – Jean Paul Sartre

Boats going out
Little Ochie

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. – Martin Luther King

Boats waiting for sunset
Negril

I still remember my first time on a boat. I was nervous as we sailed away from shore, and overwhelmed by the vast expanse of water around me, and the smell of it. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for the early navigators and explorers who set off in search of lands they thought were there; how endless days at sea could easily discombobulate and disorient.

I’ve been on many boats since then, though I’m not confident that I could navigate one, even with a compass. There are no reference points on water!

What do you think of when you see a boat?

This is my submission to Travel Photo Thursday, which is organized by Nancie at Budget Travelers Sandbox. Be sure to head over and check out more photos from locations around the world.

Eating Lionfish

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

I love fish, especially red snapper and salmon but I’ve found a new love lately: the lionfish. I’d been hearing about the lionfish since I arrived here last year but I was nervous to try it.

From news reports, I learned that the colorful spiky fins of the lionfish are full of venom and that makes them deadly to other fish and potentially dangerous to fishermen and swimmers. If stung, the venom can cause a variety of illnesses from numbness, pain, nausea, headaches, redness, dizziness, difficulty breathing, fever, and vomiting to, in rare cases, heart failure and death.

No, there was no way I wanted to endanger my health by eating lionfish.

But I kept hearing more and more from people who’d eaten lionfish, without ill effects, and my curiosity began slowly to overcome my initial apprehension. A few weekends ago, I decided to give it a try.

Continue reading “Eating Lionfish” →

5 Reasons to Get Out of Ocho Rios and Visit St. Mary Jamaica

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

One of the smallest parishes in Jamaica, St. Mary has been home to the powerful and the famous. James Bond came to life in the St. Mary home of his creator, Ian Fleming, and Noel Coward lived and entertained at GoldenEye.

St. Mary is located next door to the parish of St. Ann, and is approximately 2 hours from Kingston.

Its capital, Port Maria, was the site of the most serious rebellion in Jamaica’s history. The 1760 revolt spread almost island-wide. Five years later, another rebellion in the parish was suppressed.

St. Mary was also the location, at Rio Nuevo, of the last battle between the English and the Spanish, who fled to Cuba after their defeat. A monument commemorating to the English leader, General Doyley and the last Spanish Governor, Don Cristobal Ysassi, was erected to commemorate the take-over.

Following the decline of sugar production, the parish turned to bananas and began shipping them from Port Maria, Annotto Bay and Oracabessa as early as 1887, making Jamaica the first commercial exporter of bananas in the Western Hemisphere.

In addition to bananas and its famous former residents, St. Mary is also known for the beautiful James Bond Beach, and White River and Wag Water Rivers.

St. Mary is also the location, at Boscobel, of Jamaica’s third international airport, named for Ian Fleming. It was opened in January, 2011.

Brimmer Hall – Located in Port Maria, Brimmer Hall produces bananas and coconuts. There’s a pool, gift shops, restaurant and a bar.

Castleton Gardens – Established in 1865, Castleton Gardens was once the most richly stocked botanical gardens in the Caribbean. About 400 specimens from Kew Gardens in London were transplanted there. Castleton is located approximately 20 miles from Kingston. Admission is free, however tips for the guides are welcomed. Combine with a visit to the Wag Water River.

Boulders in the Wag Water River, Jamaica
Wag Water River, St. Mary

Firefly – Noel Coward fell in love with Jamaica in 1948 while on holiday at Ian Fleming’s GoldenEye. He eventually moved from his first house, Blue Harbor, which had become a popular spot for his celebrity friends, to Firefly, the house he had built. Coward is buried at Firefly. The property is now a historic site owned partly by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, and the Noel Coward Estate.

Firefly Estate, Jamaica
Firefly Estate
Statue of Noel Coward at Firefly Estate, Jamaica
Coward’s View, Firefly Estate

Golden Eye – The former home of James Bond’s Ian Fleming, Golden Eye is now owned by former Island Records owner, Chris Blackwell, who has kept it furnished as Fleming left it. Unfortunately, bus tours are not allowed.

Wag Water River – The Wag Water originates in the parish of St. Andrew, flows through St. Mary, and empties out into the sea near Annotto Bay in the parish. Combine with a trip to Castleton.

White River Rafting – Take a leisurely rafting trip down the White River to Dunn’s River Falls. Your hotel can arrange a tour with a rafting company.

The Jamaica Visitors Rarely See

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

Less than 20 minutes from the Montego Bay International Airport, we ditch the car and begin what turns out to be a 50-minute hike up into the hills overlooking the second city.

Within minutes of leaving the main road, we are surrounded by dense vegetation. All around are mahogany, cedar, mango and other trees, many of which no one in my party recognizes, small clumps of sugar cane, succulent and creeping plants, moss and vines. The trees grow close together and straight up in an effort to find the sun. Their leaves form a protective canopy.

It is cool here – at least a degree or two below what it is in town. The air is fresh and clean.

We leave the feeder road and take a path that is wide enough for one person, or a donkey, the only mode of transporting heavy loads in these remote areas.

Pipes taking potable water stop at the road. There’s no electricity, and the only people we see are the ones in our party.

Each careful step takes us higher into hills, further away from the noise of the city. Except for the sounds of the birds chirping above, it is peaceful here. I have to remind myself that another Jamaica exists just beyond the trees.

We spot a neat little house, fronting a lush vegetable garden, its doors and windows open but not a soul, not even a dog is in sight. Sometimes, when his farms is in a remote area, a farmer will build a hut nearby with a bed and a kitchen in case he gets trapped by rain, but this isn’t a hut. I wonder how people find these places and how they decide to build where there are no modern conveniences. Not even cell phones work.

But it’s the view that captivates. Through the clearing, we can see directly out to the airport and the hotels at Freeport. It feels like you can just reach out and touch them. We watch a plane descend slowly over the Caribbean Sea until it comes to a stop on the tarmac.

Freeport and Mobay airport, Jamaica
Freeport (in the foreground) and Montego Bay Airport

Men Are in Charge of the Cooking

By the time we arrive at our destination, cooking is well underway. It’s the men who typically do the cooking here in the bush. It’s their domain.

There’s curried goat, (the goat had been killed a few days before, cut up into chunks and left to marinade in curry, onions, thyme, garlic, pimento, salt and Scotch Bonnet peppers), rice and peas, roasted yam and breadfruit, dumplings, fried chicken, boiled green bananas, and yellow and white yams. All this will be washed down by copious amounts of JB (affectionately called, Jamaica’s Best) over proof rum, that promises to ‘come in like a lion but leave like a lamb, a Trojan horse in reverse.’

Between now and the end of the year, the bush around the island will come alive with events like these as Jamaicans begin to celebrate the holidays.

This is the Jamaica that visitors rarely see.

Mango tree with few leaves, Jamaica
The largest mango tree I’ve ever seen
Yellow Slipper, a tree with spikes Jamaica
Yellow Slipper
Green bananas, Jamaica
Bananas
Three large pots with dinner, Jamaica
Dinner’s on!
Cleaing the rice, Jamaica
Preparing the Rice
Chopped vegetables for the soup, Jamaica
Preparing the soup
Man checking curried goat, Jamaica
Curried Goat
Man checking saddle on a donkey, Jamaica
Saddling the donkey to leave

Hiking or running shoes are advisable here. We also wore long pants, and packed hats and mosquito repellant but there were no mosquitoes or bugs, and the trees provided shade.

Jamaica Travel News: Direct Flights from Central Europe to Begin Soon

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

Direct flights from Central Europe to Jamaica to begin soon

Tourism Minister, Dr. Wykeham McNeill announced recently that Transaero, Russia’s second largest carrier, will begin non-stop service from Moscow to Montego Bay starting January, 2013 and run for three months. Discussions continue to extend the flights into the summer.

Service has also been confirmed from the Czech Republic, Stockholm, and Paris.

Readers of Check In Magazine Vote Jamaica ‘Favourite Worldwide Destination’

Jamaica beat out more than 70 other destinations to take the ‘Favourite Worldwide Destination’ in the British Travel Awards’ (BTA) new online Check In magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards.

Riu Hotel, Jamaica Travel
Riu Hotel, Negril

The British Travel Awards, the largest travel awards program in the UK was created to recognize the most successful travel companies and destinations. Continue reading “Jamaica Travel News: Direct Flights from Central Europe to Begin Soon” →

Getting Married in Jamaica

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

Approximately 5,000 couples get married in Jamaica each year making it one of the sought after locations for destination weddings.

With miles of white sand beaches, historic great houses, and beautiful gardens, it’s no surprise that the island has been voted among the most romantic wedding destinations, and counted among the Caribbean’s and world’s leading honeymoon destinations.

Riu Hotel, Negril
Getting married in Jamaica

Jamaica makes it simple for straight couples planning a destination wedding. There are no residency requirements, however, couples must have been on the island for 24 hours. No blood tests are required.

Couples who have been granted a marriage license by the Ministry of Justice can be married on any day of the week, however the nuptials must be performed by 6 p.m. (or by dusk) on any day of the week, and must have at least two witnesses, aged 18 or older, present. Continue reading “Getting Married in Jamaica” →

Jamaica Travel News: Green Globe Certifies Tryall Resort

Posted on by Marcia Mayne

Green Globe Certifies the Tryall Club Resort

Green Globe announced the recertification of the Tryall Club Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. For the past few years, Jamaica’s premier private club has taken a proactive role in preserving and protecting nature in all its forms. Tryall Club’s community outreach and social responsibility programmes did outstanding work, promoting awareness and educating locals on environmental practices on all levels. A long-term Sustainability Management System is in effect at the Tryall Club, and the property was one of the first in Jamaica to introduce a recycling program. A special Green Team, formed of a group of employees from different departments, monitors the progress of green measures, shaping and realizing the resort’s environmental goals. To complement the existing eco-friendly ground management system, the Tryall Club is currently developing an organic garden. – From JTBonline.

Disney Cruise Line to Dock at Historic Falmouth

Following an eight-year courtship spearheaded by the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), Jamaica has sealed a first-ever call by Disney Cruise Line into Jamaica’s Historic Falmouth Cruise Port beginning October 2013. The 1,754 passenger Disney Wonder will visit the island’s newest port in Falmouth as part of the ship’s latest seven-night Western Caribbean itinerary. “As we’re constantly seeking opportunities in an array of target markets, Disney’s arrival will further strengthen Jamaica’s positioning in the family market. Our Historic Falmouth Cruise Port was built specifically for the island to have the capacity to receive mega ships, which has resulted in substantial growth in our cruise passenger arrivals,” said John Lynch, Jamaica’s Director of Tourism. – From JTBonline. Continue reading “Jamaica Travel News: Green Globe Certifies Tryall Resort” →