A Weekend on Jamaican's North Shore
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 19/Jul/2011 00:17, 34 days ago
On Saturday morning I traveled up with Delphine and Dominic to Jamaica’s north shore.Here are most of the places we visited either in words or pictures.First we stopped at Harmony Hall just before Ocho Rios with its art gallery upstairs featuring local artists.Toscanini’s Restaurant is downstairs.http://www.harmonyhall.com/Gallery/gallery.htmAfter passing through some downpours we arrive at the Seville great house estate with its water wheel used for powering the machinery to grind sugar cane.The rain was still dripping a bit as we took photos.The other side of the wheel showing the building that no longer had a roof, but had interesting Jamaican plants:Photo from the Internet - the Great House was being renovated when we were there so we did not get in.The Green Grotto Caves was the next stop. Underground disco parties were held there until recently.Now you get a well-lit passageway through two of the caves with handrails too.This is at Discovery Bay/Runaway Bay area and was used as a hiding place by escaping slaves. The trees at the entrance were huge and very interesting.Dominic and Delphine at the helmet issue point at the start of the tour:The disco area. The vibrations from the parties were starting to affect the stability of the limestone, so they were stopped.The guide advised that this hole in the caves was pretty well in the same shape as Jamaica. True enough.Next stop was Columbus Park right by the side of the main road to the west and within sight of the bauxite plant.It contains various old interesting machines that are a bit rusty as they are in the open air.A new restaurant is in the process of being built.I'm not 100% sure - the next picture may be an old astrolabe.After much sightseeing along the way we arrived at Montego Bay where we met up with Delphine’s friend Danielle in Montego Bay. Then we went to see the luminescent lagoon just to the east of Falmouth once it was dark.The luminescence is caused by microscopic sea creatures called dinoflagellates that shine when they are aggravated or disturbed. It's a good thing they are microscopic if they have this power to shoot out light.They weren't shining brightly enough for my point and shoot camera, so all that remained after uploading to the computer was one photo of Delphine and Danielle.http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/what-causes-bioluminescence--0863/The above explains bio-luminescence that is a form of energy. Most creatures emit heat energy like the types of things human eat to acquire the energy, but some emit light energy instead. Seeing as none of my photos worked, I took one from the Rio Mar destination website at www.rmdestinationservices.com. It's in Puerto Rico that is not all that far from Jamaica and clearly has the same type of water favourable to the dinoflagellates.The captain of the sightseeing boat encourages the adventurous passengers to jump overboard to stir up the shallow water.This causes the luminescencefrom the dinoflagellates to start in the disturbed area of the water although it fades away after a few seconds.The luminescence was not as bright as some people remembered.For example, Delphine mentioned that once when she had water on her after a swim that she could see shiny points of light on her wet skin.As the boat was heading out you could see that the wake was glowing slightly.And at times when the boat had stopped in the darkness, I thought that somebody was playing a flashlight over the surface of the water.Based on some consultation with Varun and my own observations, the best viewing occurs as follows.1)At least the previous day needs to have been sunny so that in a way the little creatures can, so to speak, recharge their batteries.2)It is preferable that there is no recent rain that would affect the balance between the fresh and salt water boundary line.Also rain decreases the temperature of the water and may affect the creatures who prefer warm water3)Pick a dark night with no moon for maximum visual effect from the water4) See the luminescence before pollution eliminates it, for example Varun was concerned that dredging the harbour at nearby Falmouth - about a mile away, might affect the water quality and endanger the luminescent creatures that live in it.We closed off the day with a delicious supper at the Montego Bay Yacht Club– Danielle is a member.Next day went to the Doctors’ Cave beach in Montego Bay.It certainly had the softest nicest sand I recall for a long time and it is right in the middle of the Hip Strip.You wouldn’t expect so nice a beach right in the middle of a town.Currently admission is $450 Jamaican - about $5 Canadian.After our swims at Doctors Cave beach it was about lunchtime so we headed towards a funky beach-side restaurant past the airport. But it was closed for a funeral, however I took a photo of the interestingly decorated outside wall before we headed off to the close-by Scotchies instead.