Seaford Town is probably the best known of the German settlements in Jamaica. Nestled in the Montpelier Mountains on western end of the island, Seaford Town is a small community that, in 1835, welcomed approximately 300 German nationals.
Sacred Heart Church, Seaford Town
There are at least two versions of the story of how they came. By one account, the planters, who were outnumbered by the slaves, feared for their own safety following the 1831 Christmas Rebellion. The presence of armed men, they felt, would deter future revolts so they looked for men who would have been trained and would have had weapons. Since German men were required to serve in the military and were equipped with rifles, they became the logical choice.
Another account is that the Jamaican Assembly appointed a Prussian, William Lemonius, to recruit “bountied” European immigrants to establish settlements in the island’s interior. Their presence, it was felt, would encourage the ex-slaves (slavery was abolished in 1834) to work harder. They were promised housing and a salary, which would be paid weekly until their crops began to grow. They would also be given title to their lots.
Sacred Heart Church, Seaford Town
Upon arrival from Bremen in December, 1835, they had to build their own homes, were expected to work long hours and exist on very meager rations cornmeal, flour, lard, beef and saltfish. Within a few years after they arrived, several died. In time, they learned how to grow bananas, ginger, cocoa, cassava and coffee.
Descendants of those Germans who came to Jamaica in the 19th century and earlier can be found in St. Ann, St. Mary and Trelawny but of all the communities, Seaford Town has the strongest retentions. Other evidence of the German connection can be found in place names such as Manhertz Gap, Bremen Valley, Hessen Castle, Mount Holstein and Charlottenburg, among others.
Sacred Heart Church, Seaford Town
Seaford Town is located about 25 miles from Montego Bay. A small museum containing artifacts, photographs and other documents can be found there as well as the Roman Catholic church, the first church built in Seaford Town. Entrance Fee: J$500, roughly US$6.00.
This is my submission to this week’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday series. Be sure to check out other photo and story entries on their website.
When I climbed Dunn’s River Falls several years ago, water shoes were optional. Back then, climbers locked hands with each other, formed a human chain and scrambled up the falls, one step at a time.
Climbing Dunn's River Falls
Now guides lead daisy-chained groups of climbers and water shoes are strongly recommended. But that hasn’t dampened the fun. The Falls are easily navigated. Missing your footing and falling into one of the many plunge pools on the terraced steps or having water cascade over your body, especially on a hot day, is part of the fun.
Climbing Dunn's River Falls
The guides cheer you on, point out best places to walk, take your photo, and even hold your glasses or any item you don’t want to have fall into the water. The climb takes approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the group you’re with.
Climbing Dunn's River Falls
Called Las Chorreras by the Spanish, Dunn’s River Falls is located in Ocho Rios, St. Ann. From the beach below, where it empties out into the Caribbean Sea, to the top, is approximately 600 feet.
Dunn’s River Falls was featured in Dr. No. It was the location where Ursula Andress emerged from the sea.
Climbing Dunn's River Falls
Hours: Daily from 8:30 – 4:00 p.m., from 7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. on cruise ships days.
Cost: US$20 (Adults), US$12 (Children); water shoe rental is extra.
What to wear: Bathing suits, shorts, t-shirts, etc., anything that won’t sag or separate when you’re in the water and water shoes.
Guides have cameras and will gladly take your photo for a fee, so leave your camera with a friend or at the hotel. If you decide not to go into the water, you can watch the climb from the look out area.
One of the guides I spoke with said the best time to visit is right after it opens as the water is very clear and you have a better view of the rocks below. I thought it was still clear when we went – around midday – but he said it was even clearer early in the day.
After you’ve climbed the falls, you can relax in the park, take a swim or a stroll of the gardens. And if you’re looking for a place to tie the knot, Dunn’s River Falls is the perfect spot.
In New York City, contrasts between old and new buildings are everywhere. I used to walk by these two almost daily and see but not see them until I started taking my camera with me.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast
This wasn’t the shot I aimed for but I like what I ended up with.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrast
The contrast of the colors caught my attention. Individually, each flower is striking; together, they are a knockout. I just wish I knew their names.
Byron Lee, founder of the group Byron Lee and the Dragonaires passed away in 2008 but his band, originally Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, renamed Byron Lee’s Dragonaires, continues to entertain. The band has more than 30 albums to their credit.
Byron Lee, photo from the Internet
“From my mother, who was of African descent, I received the soul, rhythm and love of music and from my father, who was Chinese, I received my shrewd business sense.” Byron Lee
In the 1950s, Lee started playing music with Carl Brady, Ronnie Nasralla, Alty East and Ronald Peralto. They used a door, box for drums, spoons, grater (the kitchen implement, used in mento, traditional Jamaican music) for percussion and Lee’s antique guitar. Their first gig was at St. George’s College from which they had graduated. They continued playing parties, weddings and school dances until 1957 when they turned professional.
Lee was a both a musician and a businessman, and from the start presented a band that was well dressed, took minimum breaks, played good music and gave its audiences their money’s worth.
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires became one of the best ska bands of the 1960. In 1961, they were cast as a hotel band in James Bond’s Dr. No that was filmed in Jamaica and in 1964, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires represented Jamaica at the New York World’s Fair.
In 1965, Lee who was also known as the Dragon, began incorporating calypso in the band’s repertoire and touring Trinidad & Tobago and other islands. They performed for the first time in Trinidad’s annual carnival in 1974. In the 1970s, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires were better known in the rest of the Caribbean, which played largely calypso music, than they were in Jamaica, where reggae dominated the airwaves.
In 1990, thanks to Lee’s efforts, Jamaica had its first carnival.
“This is a dream I have nurtured for years and the right time is now. I wouldn’t be a Jamaican if I didn’t try to bring to my country, some of that happiness I see Carnival brings to other people.”
Byron Lee lives on in the music of his band, Byron Lee’s Dragonaires.
Prince Henry of Wales, popularly known as Prince Harry, arrived in Jamaica yesterday for a four-day visit, part of the international celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth II, his grandmother’s Diamond Jubilee.
Prince Harry in Jamaica, inspecting JDF soldiers, photo from the Jamaica Observer
Queen Elizabeth II was crowned queen on June 2, 1953. She is the queen regnant of Jamaica and several other Commonwealth countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Malta.
This year is also significant for Jamaica as she celebrates 50 years of independence from Britain.
When I heard about Prince Harry’s, I couldn’t help thinking about the statements made by our new Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller. At her inauguration in January, the prime minister is quoted as saying that her administration would be moving to replace the Queen as Jamaica’s head of state in order to “take full charge of our destiny.” The prime minister’s follow-up comment sounded hollow and downright condescending.
““It is not about getting rid of the Queen. Who can get rid of the Queen? I admire the Queen. I am fond of her, she is a wonderful lady, a beautiful lady. I had the pleasure on one of her visits to Jamaica to be sitting there. She was such a warm beautiful person. But, in terms of our history, we have some things to do.”
Yeah, like fixing our roads, attracting investors, create jobs, control crime, corruption, mismanagement, put our schools back on track, etc., etc., etc. The list of things we have to do is as long as my arm. Removing the Queen as head of state doesn’t merit a footnote. That does not affect our quality of life.
As some of you who’ve been reading my blog know, I’m not a fan of the monarchy. But really, Sista P?
Our politicians just don’t get it and they don’t seem to want to. As far as I’m concerned, they all need to be put on a leaky boat without food and water. They are a pox on the country.
To be fair, the visit was more than likely planned well in advance by the previous administration and the current one wouldn’t have had time to change it. Nevertheless, I’m still scratching my head over the PM’s comments.
The $3 million visit will take Prince Harry to Falmouth (Trelawny) and Montego Bay as well as the customary visits to hospitals – the Bustamante Hospital for Children and the Victoria Jubilee Hospital. Also included in his itinerary is a visit to the Usain Bolt Track at the University of the West Indies where it was reported this morning that he beat the track star in a 20m dash.
Prince Harry, who also visited Belize and the Bahamas, leaves Jamaica on March 8th, his last stop on his tour of Caribbean Commonwealth countries. This was also his first visit to the Caribbean.
Almost everyone I talked to said I had to see Glistening Waters Luminous Lagoon but when I asked why, the universal response was, see for yourself. As we drove from Montego Bay to Falmouth, I found myself questioning my decision. I hadn’t had time to do much research so I was flying in the dark. And at 7:00 p.m., it was also dark.
Glistening Waters Luminous Lagoon
We bought our tickets a few minutes before departure and were handed a glass of rum punch. So this is the kind of tour it’ll be, I said to my friend.
At 7, we joined several visitors on a small boat and set off. A few yards into the marina, which is formed from the confluence of the Martha Brae River and the Caribbean Sea, and the boatman stopped and killed the lights. It was pitch black.
Jeffery – I think that was his name – our tour guide, explained that the brackish marina water, which is only between 3 and 8 feet – contains millions of micro-organisms (dinoflagellates) that live and thrive where the layers of salt and fresh water meet. When the water is disturbed, they cause it to glow. Think fireflies. Sure enough, as the boat moved forward, the wake became a luminous blue while everything else around us was inky black, I couldn’t see the person next to me.
When we stopped again, Jeffrey asked if anyone wanted to take a dip. Only a few people did. We couldn’t see them but as each person moved around the boat, we could tell exactly where they were as the water glistened. They looked like snow angels.
As Jeffrey continued to explain, this luminous water phenomenon is found in only four countries, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Indonesia and Jamaica – Jamaica’s apparently is the brightest.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able take a photo. The luminosity is best viewed when it’s dark and the flash on my camera popped up automatically as soon as I touched the shutter. I tried holding it down but I didn’t catch much and I couldn’t see to fiddle with the settings. But here’s one I grabbed from their website.
Glistening Waters Luminous Lagoon, photo via the Internet from glisteningwaters.com
In addition to the lagoon, Glistening Waters has a restaurant that serves fresh seafood, bar and boat marina with full hook-up for daily, weekly and long-term rentals, as well as charter boat rentals for deep sea sport fishing.
Glistening Waters Luminous Lagoon is located in Falmouth, Trelawny, which is roughly a 45 minute drive from Montego Bay. Tours start at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. and cost US$20 per person, inclusive of rum punch.
The first thing that popped into my head when I saw that this week’s photo challenge is indulgence, was, of course, food. But there are so many other ways to indulge and fortunately, I was able to find one non-food photo that captures it.
Jamaican tenor saxophonist, Rolando Alphonso, was born on January 12, 1931 in Havana, Cuba. He was brought to Jamaica by his mother when he was two years old.
Rolando Alphonso, photo from the Internet
In Jamaica, Alphonso learned to play the saxophone and worked as a studio musician, backing performers such as Jimmy Cliff, the Wailers, the Maytals and most of the other leading performers of the 1960s. Alphonso also worked for two of the most influential music producers in Jamaica – Duke Reid and Clement “Coxsone” Dodd. It was while working Dodd’s Studio One that he and fellow musicians, Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Jackie Mittoo, and Jerome Hinds, among others, formed the ska band, The Skatalites. Ska was the new music at the time in Jamaica. The Skatalites disbanded a little more than a year after they formed and was re-formed in 1983. They continue to play.
Alphonso was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government in 1977.
He moved to the U.S. in 1980 and lived in Brooklyn. He died from an aneurysm in Los Angeles in 1998.
Greenwood Great House has the best collection of Victorian-era furniture, musical instruments, and china in Jamaica, perhaps even the Caribbean.
Part of the 84,000 acre estate that belonged to the wealthy Barrett family whose relatives were the British poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her aunt, Sarah Moulton Barrett, who was also called Pinkie. Moulton Barrett was born in Jamaica and was immortalized in the painting, Pinkie, by the British artist, Thomas Lawrence. Both Pinkie and Thomas Gainesborough’s Blue Boy, hang in the Huntington Gallery in San Marino, California. A copy of Pinkie’s painting can also be seen at Greenwood.
Not only does Greenwood Great House have the best collection of antiques, it is one of a few great houses that were never burned during the 1831 slave revolt that destroyed most of Jamaica’s great houses. It has also been occupied continuously since it was built in 1790 by Richard Barrett, a member of the family and a former speaker of the Jamaican House of Assembly.
China cabinetStep ladderStep ladder unfoldingStep ladder chairAntique furnitureScrew press
Household linens were put between two pieces of flat board. The top piece was then lowered all the way down by a screw, that way flattening and smoothening the clothes.
Chamber potAntique bedWind organRosewood inlaid piano
This rosewood inlaid piano was built by John Broadwood, who also made pianos for Beethoven.
Greenwood Greathouse is located in the community of Greenwood, St. James. It is 15 miles from Montego Bay and 7 miles from Falmouth. Open daily from 9-6 p.m. Guided tours cost US$20 per person.
This is my submission to this week’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday series. Be sure to check out other photo and story entries on their website.
Greenwood Great House, the entertainment home that once belonged to the family of Pinkie, subject of the famous painting by Thomas Lawrence, looks largely the same now as it would have when she left Jamaica more than 200 years ago.
Though she died of whooping cough at age 12, about a year after its completion, because of the painting’s resemblance to Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy, she has become more easily recognizable than her famous niece, the poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Pinkie was born Sarah Goodin Moulton Barrett in Jamaica in 1783. Her father was Charles Moulton Barrett. She left the island with her brothers around 1793 to further her education in London.
Greenwood Great House, image from the Internet
The Barretts had established themselves in Jamaica in 1655. Hersey Barrett, was an officer in the unsuccessful 1655 raid on Hispaniola (now known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic) that was led by Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables. Following their defeat in Hispaniola, the British captured Jamaica, which was less fortified, from the Spaniards later that same year and Hersey Barrett was granted lands on which he settled.
Greenwood Great House – dining room
In time, the Barrett’s fortune from sugar grew. They owned 84,000 acres straddling two parishes – St. James and Trelawny – and 2,000 slaves. When Pinkie’s brother, Edward, father of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was head of the family, he reportedly received income in excess of 60,000 pounds a year, a considerable sum in those days.
Greenwood Great House
The family resided at Barrett Hall, which was located in the hills a few miles from the border of St. James and Trelawny, and entertained at Greenwood Great House, further down the hill. They also owned the nearby Cinnamon Hill Great House, and a house in London, which is near what is now Selfridges.
The 15-room Greenwood Great House is a Georgian-styled mansion that was built in 1790 by Pinkie’s cousin, Richard Barrett, who was a speaker of the House of Assembly and custos rotulorum (representative of the governor) of St. James.
Greenwood Great House – Pinkie painting by Thomas Lawrence. Image Wikipedia
During the Christmas slave revolt of 1831, many of the more than 200 great houses in Jamaica were razed. Fortunately for the Barrett family, they had been good to their slaves and their properties were spared.
Greenwood Great House, which was purchased in 1976 by Bob and Ann Betton and carefully maintained, has always been occupied. It houses the finest collection of antique furniture in the Caribbean, the Barrett family’s Wedgwood china and their library numbering about 300 books with some first editions dating to 1697.
Also included in the collection is a grandfather clock which tells the time and date (it was accurate the day I visited), a punch clock, clothes press, desks with secret compartments, a step ladder that unfolds into a chair, paintings, letters, and rare musical instruments, among them a rosewood inlaid piano made by John Broadwood, who reportedly was the only piano maker whose work satisfied Beethoven. The instruments have been restored and are all in good working order. In this video, Bob Betton, demonstrates one — the polyphone, an upright music box that plays parts for several voices or instruments.
One fascinating piece is a chatelaine, which the lady of the house would have used to keep items such as scissors, thimble, notebook, pencil, etc., handy. It would have been worn attached to her belt.
Greenwood Great House – Chatelaine
Just outside the main house, are two posters: one advertising for the purchase of “Negro Coopers,” the other announcing that a slave woman, Mary Gold, had run away. It’s unclear whether they are connected to Greenwood. There’s also a mantrap, a horrific looking contraption that was used to capture runaway slaves, as well as a bathtub that was carved out of a single piece of wood, water jars and farm implements.
A few yards from the house is the kitchen, now a licensed bar called The Level Crossing. Our guide explained that as the slaves carried food from the kitchen to the house, they were required to whistle. The thinking being that if they whistled, they wouldn’t be able to steal the food. On the other side of the kitchen/bar are the souvenir shop and garden.
The 17-foot verandah at Greenwood Great House provides a commanding 180 degree view of what would have been the Barrett family holdings, which stretched east to west as far as the eye could see and right down to the Caribbean Sea. From this vantage point, you can also see how the land curves into the sea. Standing on the verandah, it isn’t difficult to grasp what it must have been like to be a Barrett, with all you own — land and slaves — right at your feet.
Not surprisingly, Greenwood Great House is said to have its own ghosts, two to be exact, but the Bettons do not emphasize that information. They don’t have to — there’s so much more than that to see and experience at Greenwood, a magnificent relic of 19th century plantation life.
Greenwood Great House — part of the view from the verandah
Getting there: Greenwood Great House is located 15 miles from Montego Bay, 7 miles from Falmouth, off the main highway in a community called Greenwood. Make the turn at the shopping plaza and follow the signs up the hill.
