Independece Day Weekend
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 08/Aug/2010 20:14, 34 days ago
On Friday Jamaicans celebrated Independence Day, bringing Emancipendence Week to an end. Jamaica has now celebrated 48 years of independence and party, to celebrate, they did. The celebrations looked like a lot of fun beginning with a parade of military and Girl Guide types that started at Kings House at 9:00 a.m., an afternoon parade with colourful floats and loud music, of course, followed by a show in the stadium in the evening. As we were waiting for our taxi to arrive on Friday morning to take us to Holywell Park in the Blue Mountains we saw a float drive past which looked pretty impressive and I was sad we were leaving town and going to miss the celebrations. Note to self...next year go some where fun for Emancipation Weekend but stay in Kingston for the celebrations on Independence Day, then leave town for Saturday and Sunday.We arrived at Cabin 1 at Holywell Park in the Blue and John Crowe Mountains National Park and found that what we had been told would sleep 8 really only slept 4 and there were 7 of us. Plus Cabin 1 didn't have a refrigerator as we had been prommised for our three days worth of groceries. But in typical Jamaican style the ranger came up with solutions to our problems while we moved all the chairs out to the verandah and set up our old folks home. That was George's joke. He thought we looked like old folks in a retirement home perched on the porch.The ranger and the housekeeper went off together, him on his motor cycle and her walking behind in order to bring us 3 mattresses, bedding and a refrigerator.Twenty minutes later they returned without the motor cycle but with a refrigerator on his head coming from the direction of cabin 3 where there were no occupants at this point. Fortunately for us we checked in slightly earlier than they did. Later still he returned with mattresses and bedding from another direction so we were good to go. Everyone had a mattress to sleep on and we didn't have to eat all our perishables on our first day.One of the first things we noticed were these two ghekos happy behind the front door.This is the park ranger station where everyone rides motor bikes. Seriously the best form of transportation for the Blue Mountains where the roads are often washed out and difficult to pass for cars.We only hiked on one of the park trails, this one was described as the most difficult and longest but was only 1.3 kms long. The only real difficulty about it was that it was on the mountain edge and there were sections I wouldn't want to be hiking if it rained and I certainly wouldn't want to take young children on it ever.The men, waiting for the stragglers to return to the van on our way home. From left to right, Dominic Bertrand, Robert Trudel, Dominic Ali, George and the CUSO-VSO driver, Neville Mason. who we can hire when we have large groups. He has a van that seats 12 but Candas laughs about one time when they had 19 passengers in it.These trumpet flowers have a beautiful fragrance which fills the air with perfume.There are several waterfalls in the area, this was the one on our trail but Marlin, the park guide told me later about another larger waterfall where he takes park guests. Next time.Saturday was a very interesting day because most of it was cloudy and we were in the clouds making visibility zero!Two of our three new volunteers, Dominic Ali and Delphine. Delphine has only been in Jamaica for 3 days so didn't stay with us, but came up with Mr Mason our driver to drop us off and pick us up again just for the ride.Marlin was amazing. His brother operated the park store and didn't have the supplies we needed (more bread and orange juice) so Marlin went off on his motor bike and returned a bit later with our shopping. He did this more than once. Then on the last morning he and I were chatting while the others were still getting up and I discovered the coffee plantation we wanted to go to was only a 20 minute walk (for him) up the mountain. Actually it turned out we were at the top of this peak and the plantation was down the other side. During our conversation, we agreed to hire him to go with us because he promised as a professional guide he could tell us things we would otherwise miss. And he was true to his word.He picked us rasperries, showed us fresh water springs, told us about the vegetation and even pointed out the sound of Jamaica Tody (the rasta bird with the green back, yellow belly and little red chin). He told us there were lots of them where he lived in a community we could see in the valley below.Marlin pointed out a house which had peacocks just because they could and showed us the peahen sitting on the roof. We would never have noticed it by ourselves.Can you see the peahen on the roof?He told us about all the houses we were passing and that the one above is the weekend home for the man who owns Tru Juice, a local juice company which makes excellent tropical juices.This property is for sale and we volunteers thought about how we could pool our money together and start a cooperative housing project.On the way up to Blue and John Crowe National Park you pass through a military training camp which was originally a British military camp. The Brits built it up in the mountains because it was safe, isolated and it's much cooler up here for their soldiers.The canon at the bottom right hand side was brought up the hill from Port Royal (about 40 kms away and 20 kms of that up the steep mountain roads) by mule when the roads would not have been paved and in much worse condition than they are today.We met a couple riding their bikes up through the mountains.Delphine, the flower girl, and newest volunteer. She gave me a blossom she found on the ground on our way up the mountain and when we returned she found another for herself.This looks like someone's Hansel and Gretel trail marker that we noticed on the road.But what is the Blue Mountains all about? Coffee. The red beans below are ready to pick.On our way up the mountain we stopped at the Japanese plantation but there was nobody there. It was Friday, Independence Day. so closed for business and tours.Above is the luxurious plantation house and below, in contrast, as is always the case in Jamaica, we discovered this house and laundry where we suspect one of the workers lives, tucked away out of sight.And we bought a bag of coffee from this lady with the bananas on her head. She owns 4 bushes and sells the coffee in her bag by walking through Holywell Park.And again, in contrast to the luxurious large-scaled Japanese plantation where all the coffee and profits leave the country and go to Japan, we visited the wonderfully homey Old Tavern Coffee Estate owned by Dorothy Twyman. We were here once before with Nadine, Nicky and Jessica and wanted to go back to buy some more coffee for Eric who loved it.Above is the lovely Dorothy Twyman.Inside, after showing us her operation we sat down to sample a couple of her coffees with home made banana bread. The couple next to Dominic (the lady in blue and man in grey) were here visiting from Nigeria. He knew all about CUSO-VSO because he hired them for his environmental operation in Nigeria. Candas and he had a great conversation because she had turned down a position in Nigeria just before coming here so they knew lots of people in common. Small world. We also found out from them that it is impossible to drive through from Green Hill where the plantation is to Bluff Bay, a journey George and I had hoped to do some time. The road is washed out and the only way through is to walk. It took them 4 hours!Then in the evenings, the magical evenings, everything changes in the mountains. We settled down to playing games. George, Dominic, Alastair and Robert played cribbage, while Dominic, Candas and I played Skip Bo.The talented Dominic entertained us with his recorder. I'd forgotten I'd given it a try until I saw this photo that the other Dominic had taken.On Saturday night as we sat on the porch watching the lights twinkle in Kingston below, we told funny stories and listened to the music which we thought was coming from Kingston. As it turned out, the next morning Marlin told us that in fact the music was coming from the town in the mountain range between us and Kingston which we could see directly below us. The band played solidly all night long starting out with gospel music for the elderly people before midnight, progressing to reggae as evening turned to night. The same band played all night long. We thought it was to do with Independence Day celebrations but it turned out someone important in the community had died and this was a tribute to the man. When we woke the next morning, the band was still playing. They didn't stop until about 7:30 in the morning, about 12 hours after they started.That's pretty much all of Kingston (above) by night. This was the view from our porch and the reason we sat on it so much. Again, we'll be back and there were no regrets about missing the Independence Day celebrations, this weekend was magical, spent with wonderful people.The weekend cost us $65 US each which included our accommodation for 2 nights, transportation and all our food. Come to Jamaica!To see other pictures of Dorothy's Old Tavern Coffee Estate and doctor birds when Nadine was visiting, go to:http://mwapoleni-bunty.blogspot.com/2010/05/visit-to-coffee-plantation.html