Brent Pin­heiro

brent.pin­heiro@guardian.co.tt

They say con­fes­sion is good for the soul, so here’s mine. When I got the mes­sage from Caribbean Air­lines invit­ing me to a FAM Tour in Ja­maica, I was not su­per ex­cit­ed. Grate­ful? YES! But I’ve been to Ja­maica three times al­ready, in the 2000s, and while I know things change the itin­er­ary in­volved go­ing back to some of the same places I’ve been to be­fore.

But I de­cid­ed to go with an open mind and soon re­alised ... the Ja­maica I thought I knew is not the Ja­maica that ex­ists now. From the street sell­ers deft­ly weav­ing through the traf­fic to hawk fresh­ly picked ly­chee, to the reg­gae and dance­hall blast­ing out of tiny speak­ers on the beach as the lo­cals took an ear­ly morn­ing dip, there’s an en­er­gy and a vi­bran­cy that I didn’t quite no­tice be­fore.

Down­town Kingston, a must-see city that comes with an as­ter­isk due to the crime sit­u­a­tion, has seen re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion. Many see it as just a place to overnight be­fore head­ing to the more pop­u­lar ar­eas like Mon­tego Bay and Ocho Rios. But take the time to look, and you won’t be dis­ap­point­ed. Art lovers head over to Wa­ter Lane where you’ll find the Wa­ter Lane Mu­rals–vi­brant street mu­rals de­pict­ing var­i­ous themes in a ri­ot of colour. If you hap­pen to be in Kingston on the last Sun­day of the month, Kingston Cre­ative, the non-prof­it be­hind the project, hosts an Art­walk Fes­ti­val fea­tur­ing domi­noes tour­na­ments, live per­for­mances, prod­ucts from lo­cal ar­ti­sans, and more. Oh, did I men­tion it’s free?! Reg­gae mu­sic lovers, you’re go­ing to want to head up­town to the Bob Mar­ley Mu­se­um. The leg­end was a gi­ant in the in­dus­try, and you’ll be greet­ed at the en­trance by a life-sized stat­ue of the late mu­si­cian. No pho­tos/videos are al­lowed in­side the house that Mar­ley once called home, but the guides will have you so en­thralled with sto­ries and his­to­ry of Mar­ley’s life that you’ll soon for­get about your phone/cam­era. Af­ter all, how of­ten do you get to sing a Bob Mar­ley song in the same record­ing space where Bob once sang?

And when it’s time to re­lax, head north to Mon­tego Bay. No longer does it take three-and-a-half hours to get there, the new high­way cuts through the moun­tains and will have you in the coastal town of Ocho Rios in less than an hour … per­fect for a pit stop at the world-fa­mous Dunn’s Riv­er Falls–one of the few wa­ter­falls in the world that flows di­rect­ly in­to the sea.

Peo­ple come from all over the world to climb up the falls, the nat­ur­al steps in the rocks make it a rel­a­tive­ly “easy-ish” trek. But be warned, the one-and-a-half mile jour­ney will have you work­ing up a sweat–I know I did. Thank­ful­ly, there are nat­ur­al pools at every lev­el where you can just take a breather, or if you pre­fer, step un­der the small­er falls for a free back mas­sage.

Don’t get too com­fort­able in Ocho Rios though be­cause rest, re­lax­ation, and ad­ven­ture, if you choose to ac­cept, await in Ja­maica’s sec­ond city, Mon­tego Bay. Lov­ing­ly re­ferred to as “Mobay”, it is home to fa­mous beach­es like Doc­tor’s Cave and sev­er­al ma­rine parks.

When you get tired of re­lax­ing on the sand, head out to the wa­ter! The calm wa­ters are per­fect for snorkelling, swim­ming, cruis­ing, and my per­son­al favourite–para­sail­ing. It’s rat­ed E for every­one and the feel­ing of float­ing/fly­ing high above the wa­ter is just one way to make your trip un­for­get­table.