I’m sitting at the moment on my balcony in some desolate place in Jamaican Blue Mountains. After tropical paradise of Antigua I decided to see something different and went to Jamaica. I started to regret that decision even before boarding a plane. My luggage was searched at the airport, however much less thoroughly than the other passengers – possibly because I was the only white person boarding this plane. In Jamaica I was pleasantly surprised with Kingston Airport – it’s one of the cleanest and nicest airports I’ve seen so far. I’ve encountered first trouble during the immigration check. “So, you were born in Austria, live in UK, have Polish citizenship and fly here from Antigua? Can you please sit there, sir, there will be an officer with you in a minute.” It was much less serious than it looked – I just had to answer few question about my reasons for visiting Jamaica and pay 20US$ visa fee. I left the airport expecting my guesthouse to send a cab for me like they were supposed to do. They didn’t, so I was forced to use the ridiculously overpriced airport cab. After a short discussion I’ve managed to haggle the price down from initial 93 to 60US$. I’m sure it’s still a rip off, but at least I haven’t been robbed and dumped somewhere in the sewers on the way. Short trip trough Kingston slightly freaked me out. The Uptown is a reasonably nice place, but horses won’t drag me to the Downtown. Most of the Kingston is a slam, seriously, I haven’t ever seen anything like that. Ruins, dirt and stray dogs everywhere. It’s supposed to be reasonably safe for tourists, except for few really rough areas – but somehow I don’t really trust that.
Place I’m staying in is located high in the mountains – about 40 minutes by car from Kingston. The distance isn’t really that great, you can see Kingston Harbour from here – but it’s difficult to get here. Roads are really bad – it’s basically just a collection of potholes with some asphalt in between. Additionally no one seem to have heard of hard shoulder in here, so our trip war rather exciting. When we have finally arrived, I’ve found out that my room is literally hanging over the Mount Edge (as the name of the guest house suggests). I’ve found a small lizard and a large cicada in my room (at least I hope that it was a cicada, they look kind of similar to cockroaches), but the view from my balcony is almost worth it.
The place is very small and completely isolated, there’s only one more person except me staying in here at the moment – constantly stoned German medicine student. The nearest village is Papine – small place on the outskirts of Kingston. It takes about 25 minutes drive in a cab to get there. Taxis are the only mean of transport in the mountains. They take as many people on the way as possible, so by the end it’s getting pretty crammed in there. But thanks to that, they’re pretty cheap (150J$ – around £1.50 – for 30 minutes ride). The cars are usually incredibly old and tattered – forget about luxuries like seat belts or wing mirrors – which is slightly scary – as it doesn’t seem anyone heard about highway code here. People here are really nice and talkative, I’ve spend my short, bumpy trip to Papine listening to a life story of one of the other passengers. He spoke with a very strong Jamaican accent, so I could understand only every third word or so, but I kept nodding politely wondering if he’s going to leave anytime soon. I’m pretty sure that something fell out our car on the way – but after a short stop, when driver had examined his car from the outside – we’ve resumed our trip with maybe more squeaks and screeches than before. Our destination, Papine is a small place with few shops, vegetable market and one bank. The biggest problem I had there was getting some money. There are four cash machines, two of them only taking cards from local banks and one broken. I’ve managed to find the fourth one by pure accident, when I’ve already given up looking. This one took my card without complaining and for a moment I could feel almost like a millionaire with 30 000$ in my pocket (Jamaican dollars of course – roughly worth £270).
After short meal and some essential shopping I’ve decided that I had enough of excitement and called it a day. On my way back I’ve bought some freshly roasted coffee straight from the plantation (Blue Mountain coffee is considered the best in the world). Tomorrow, I’m planning to see some more touristy places; Port Antonio, Blue Lagoon and Long Bay.
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