Black River

Bamboo Avenue

Black River was the next town we came to as we headed clockwise around Jamaica. With a population of little over 4000 people, we felt that almost all of them came to greet us as we pulled the dinghy up to dock alongside the river. This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but we were instantly bombarded with offers for tours, to buy wood carvings, to watch the dinghy, and more. All we really wanted was to get off the boat for a couple of hours and go for a walk and explore. But the best offer of all came when we stepped inside the town bakery: “would you like to try some coco bread?” came a voice from inside a metal cage (really, is this necessary? maybe) guarding the day’s fresh bread. We gladly accepted and bought two pieces of the fresh, warm, melt-in-your-mouth coco bread. What a treat!

Rasta George in Black River

We quickly decided that 20 minutes was enough to see everything there was to see in the town of Black River.

However, there was plenty to do in the surrounding countryside. The next day we found a shared taxi that could take us to the notorious YS Falls, a beautiful property in the hills with a cool river, several waterfalls, and some very nice natural pools for swimming.

YS Falls

The driver of the shared taxi spent his summers in my hometown of Niagara-on-the-Lake, picking fruit in an orchard owned by a family whose children I went to school with. As we drove along the country roads of Jamaica we reminisced with him about eating juicy warm peaches off the tree and his love of Tim Hortons coffee.

Neil: Taxi Driver in Winter, NOTL Fruit Picker in Summer

Long-tailed Doctorbirds

The following day we met “Rasta George”, a quiet, well-spoken Rastafarian with a car that took us to the Appleton Rum distillery. The Appleton tour had been closed for several months for renovation and had just re-opened. Although the entry fee was steep, the rum samples were very generous. Let’s just say we’re glad Rasta George was our designated driver.

Appletons!

Helping to Extract the Sugarcane Juice

Molasses Mmmmm...

Enjoying the Finished Product

On the way home we stopped for some much needed lunch in Middle Quarters and had a delicious shrimp curry, fried chicken, and peanut and bean soup with “festival” (big lumps of fried bread that we remembered from Haiti - similar to the hushpuppies of the southern USA). It was an incredible lunch and we certainly didn’t need much dinner.

Lunch in Middle Quarters

Curried Shrimp

On our final day in Black River we did the shopping and went for a dinghy ride up the Black River itself to see if we could spot some crocodiles. We did see a few, along with quite a few birds, and lots and lots of water vegetation (that would cost a lot of money at a garden centre to add to your water garden back home) that was being swept out to sea so it could get stuck on our boat.

Croc in Black River

Up the Black River

Black River

Black River

Our next destination was Whitehouse, home of Sandals South Coast. We were expecting a load obnoxious resort with music through the night but this place appears to be quite classy. The staff and resort-goers were all very friendly and curious about us and were fine about us taking the dinghy down past the resort to the stretch of deserted beach nearby (but quickly mobilized into action when there was a chance we might be walking towards the resort’s beach…). The anchorage was quite lovely and sheltered by a reef so we stayed a few days here before deciding to head around the corner to Negril. 

Heading to Negril