After my yesterdays rant I’ve decided to dig out the old posts that I’ve meant to post ages ago but never got around to do it. So here it is. This one was written on a plane back from Jamaica (hadn’t got internet to post it right away, and then just forgotten about it).
It’s took me few days to get used to Jamaica, to Jamaican people and their ways. I don’t know when it happened that I’ve actually started enjoying my stay there – but it did. The first two or three days I was seriously thinking about re-booking my flight and coming back to UK earlier. I’d probably do that if it was just one flight, but I was connecting on Antigua, so it was more complicated.
The first time I’ve started enjoying my stay here was probably Monday – I’ve stayed for quite a long time in Kingston, so when I went back to Papine it was already dark. In the darkness the village looked completely different – things that annoyed me before – crowds and noise – suddenly started making more sense – the dirt and poverty weren’t so obvious anymore – and more importantly - the village was alive. People dancing and singing on the streets, Rastafarians’ rallies around bonfires, etc. The atmosphere of the place was difficult to describe.
The next day I went to the downtown market and Port Royal – for the whole day I was only using local transport – haggling for prices of the tickets – waiting until the bus gets so full that you can’t cram any more people inside. I’ve travelled quite a lot this day – and overall it cost me less than £4. First I went to the downtown market – the place where most of local buses depart from. I’ve decided to leave the sightseeing for later and got a bus to Port Royal straight away. I’s approximately 30-40 min trip – bus goes through the downtown, Kingston's harbour, Norman Manley International Airport and then finally Port Royal. The port used to be an island, but now it’s connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land, barely wider than the road. The island used to be a British fortress – protecting the entrance to Kingston’s harbour. Most of the old British installations were however destroyed in the XVIII cent. by the earthquake that sank half of the island. Few years later fire destroyed the rest of the island – it has never recovered after that and consequently changed from a most important trading port in Jamaica to the quiet fishermen’s village it is now. Ocean currents have changed the shape of the island moving the shoreline. The only surviving fort – Fort Charles – lies now in the middle of the land – nowhere near the shore it was supposed to protect. The earthquake rendered the fort useless, moving it’s powerful batteries below the sea level. The most interesting point in the fort is the Giddy House, old armoury (or ammunition storage) that was tilted during the earthquake. Most of the people entering there lose their balance and feel “giddy” – I must admit that the feeling is really weird.
The next day I had to get up quite early, as I planned to finally got to Port Antonio and the Blue Lagoon. Quite unfortunately there was no road taxi going down to Papine for a long time – I had to walk all the way to the Red Light (30 min walk). When I finally got to Papine it was 8am. Then it took me another hour to get to Half-way Tree, where I was catching a bus to Port Antonio. The traffic jams in Kingston are just horrendous and you always have to include the time you wait for the bus to get full. So when we finally departed it was already around half nine. The bus trip to Port Antonio took about two and a half hours and then another 30 min to the Blue Lagoon. As I was already used to bendy and horribly dangerous Jamaican mountain roads, the trip wasn’t really that exciting. So I was glad when we’ve finally got there. But only just to meet another disappointment. The restaurant overlooking the lagoon was destroyed in the hurricane – and the whole area was closed. The only way to see the lagoon was to take a boat trip with local fishermen, which i decided to skip. So I’ve only took a few pictures from behind the trees and took another bus towards the Long Bay. This time I wasn’t disappointed. The beach was beautiful and almost completely deserted. The sea was really rough, so I was somewhat surprised that there was no one surfing. But I suppose,it must be much more busy on weekends. For me it was perfect.
We’ve spend there most of the day – and then took a long ride back… On the way I’ve took some pictures of Kingston by night. That was the first day that I was actually really sad to have to leave Jamaica the next day.
Hope I will come back here some other time.
