Winter in London is long, grey, wet and draining. The "great British summer" as they call it does not have a good reputation either. Based on that we decided to go on a summer vacation to the Caribbean. After much debate and searching on the web we settled on Jamaica. It is an island I have always wanted to go for its history, surf, weather,food, music and people.Julie and I are definitely travellers. We don't like the idea of going to an all inclusive resort with its own private beach and security but instead feel that to experience the real culture of a country you have to meet the people. Jamaica is an interesting country. By definition it is a third world country but in reality it is only the majority of the local people that live there who live to this standard. The rest of the people live in lavish private resorts surrounding the once best and most beautiful parts of the country. The resorts do provide jobs for local people however the majority of the money earned by the resorts is not kept on the island.
Third world countries/islands obviously have there problems. In Jamaica it appears to be the crime. We had been warned of how dangerous the place was before going but were not quite prepared. Once we had left the airport our driver a man called Michael Fox, who we later found out was a drug lord of some kind, drove us through the capital Kingston. Well what can I say. I didn't take many pics, kept the doors locked and the windows up. We were not welcome!!! We drove on the outskirts of Trench town where our guide explained why we couldn't go down certain streets as the locals would barricade the exit and rob us.
We headed for the mountains driving up a windy road past large ripe wild mango trees to a place called Newcastle to stay in a spectacular guest house called Mount Edge. Being very tired from the trip all we could manage was a bit of gazing at the view and spotting of lizards scuttling around before being served a delicious home cooked dinner by our first dreaded Jamaican host of the trip, Ox. It was the first of many delicious meals we had in Jamaica, they certainly know how to get the most out of the many natural ingredients they have growing all over the island and we made it our personal mission to try as many of the local specialties as possible!
Up early and feeling more alive the next morning we were on the move deep into the Blue Mountains in anticipation of climbing Jamaica's highest summit. Once the two wheel drive road finished we transferred to the back deck of a Land Rover for the final hours drive to our guest house called Jah B 's. This was the real Jamaica we had come for. A Rastafarian Family house in the mountains. 
We set out to climb the mountain. It was about 33 degrees with no wind. Julie started to find the going tough as the heat took hold. I on the other hand was blown away by the amazing flora and fauna. Gnarled trees covered in Lianes and epithets with various types of endemic hummingbirds buzzing around bright hibiscus flowers. Meanwhile Julie was faining. We made it to the top which was when the heatstroke really kicked in. Julie started to spew repetitively. After walking to a lower point away from altitude Julie had a wee sleep in the shade while I kept her body cool with a wet towel. We finally made it down the mountain and after a sip of pepsi and some more sleep Julie was better. 
Dinner that night was amazing. Called Ital stew it is the standard Rastafarian diet consisting of no salt, fish, red meat, sugar, eggs, diary products etc. Topped of with mango, ginger and carrot juice that took our host two hours to make it was fantastic. Nothing but natural food mostly grown on site. Oh and also an unlimited supply of Blue mountain coffee grown and roasted by Jah B himself.
We headed back down the mountain and straight to the coast to our next destination which is where the surf was. On the way we stopped off for some rum and a swim at Long Bay which is one of the best beaches on the island.
The next five days were spent visiting local attractions in the Portland Parish. This parish is famous for its beaches its jerk meat, rum and its surf. That's meat, surf, rum and beaches. Is there anything else one needs to have a good holiday. Our accommodation was amazing. Staying in sand bottomed hut in the forest with a path directly to a cliff jump that put you out the back of the surf straight away. A paradise!!!! For Julie, while I was surfing there were hammocks on the white sand beach that were so comfortable it was hard to stay awake.
The water was amazing. Outside it was 33 and in the water it wasn't any cooler. It was the clearest water I have ever snorkeled in which we were able to do on two separate reefs. To get to one of the reefs we had to catch a bamboo raft to an an island called Monkey Island. Our guide provided refreshments by jumping up a coconut palm with his trusty machete. After snorkeling around the island we finished our trip with a quick dip in the famous Blue Lagoon, we didnt spot Brooke Sheilds but Julie did her best impersonation!
On Tuesday night the locals held a Jerk fish party. What a night!!! Playing dominoes and dancing to the biggest speakers I have ever seen throwing out nothing but reggae. The food was awesome as well. Jerk meat is cooked in a large charcoal pit and has a special seasoning which is damn hot. A quarter chicken with rice n peas and festival breads was about $6 - delicious.
The next day we needed to seek out cooler waters and made the trip to Reach Falls, it was beautiful with clear cool water and stunning scenery. It was nice to swim in water that was refreshing for a change.
Portland was amazing but we felt we needed to visit another parish with more tourists and more action. This was a pretty dumb idea in retrospect. We paid a taxi to drive us to other side of the island to Negril where all the big resorts and party atmosphere was. When we got to our destination it wasn't long before we realised just how relentless and annoying people can be when they are making there money from tourists. Being "rich white man from England" was the call of the day. The people on the beach followed us relentlessly trying to take us on tours sell us crap wooden crafts as well as mushrooms, cocaine and of course ganja. It was all "no problem mon, good price." It was really hard to get rid of them as if you were to impolite there was always the possibility of being sliced up with a machete. Despite this the beach was amazing and being on this side of the island meant we had the sun set of sun sets.
Back to Kingston on a death taxi which was a Toyota Hi ace van with 20 people in it driving at 140 km down small crowded streets. We made it alive even after being dropped right in the thick of the slums. We had one more box to tick which was Bob Marley's House. What an amazing man and an amazing place to visit. Its hard to explain the feeling you get sitting under Bob Marley's favourite mango tree where he spend a lot of his time singing and writing music.
All in all it was an adventurous trip that left us exhausted but happy. Jamaica was certainly an interesting destination, one that we won't be forgetting any time soon!
