If you know Travis, you know he’s a nature guy—loves bush, adventure, and a body of water. We share a similar rhythm, vacillating between deeply pondering life, family, and our future, and being fully present to appreciate the simple things. We’re kindred spirits in that way, and everything we did together on this trip felt like a balm to both our souls—or so I believe. He may have just been counting down the time until I left Jamaica 🤣.
In true Travis fashion, he took me to meet a fellow bushman in the top hills of Yallahs, where we toured 15 acres of fertile land. We saw breadfruit trees that ‘stay up inna sky like light posts.’ I also came across soursop trees. My dad has been hunting soursop trees for weeks in Trinidad without luck, and here they were in abundance. The soursop leaves help lower high blood pressure so I picked a couple to smuggle back home. Our resident bushman pointed out some water catchments and told us stories that showed he is a hard worker, with his hands in many things—carpentry, farming, processing ackee, etc. Yet, he struggles to get workers because the young people don’t like hard work. Mhm. Hard work is becoming the theme of these next couple of years. God is teaching me that while people chase influence, I need to renew my mind and my capacity for hard work. That’s how I’ll break out of the mundaneness of the 9-to-5. That's how I walk in purpose.
In retrospect, the bushman has more freedom, happiness, money, and peace than us six-figure techies who live in zombie land, paying $1.25 per load of laundry and stepping over human shit to go buy coffee. His style of entrepreneurship is what I’m now attracted to—full responsibility for getting things done, boring, hard, and providing essential or natural services. What impressed me most was his way of speaking. You’d ask him something, and he couldn’t give you a straight argument. His mind would take you in a roundabout way to the destination he wanted you to reach. Now that’s creativity—thinking outside the narrow lines of expectation, not the monotonous voice of a TikTok voice over.
On our way down the mountains, I saw the most beautiful thing on the side of the street—a bubbling pot of crab. We pulled over. At first, I was willing to forget it because we had already passed it by the time I registered what I was seeing. But Travis asked me again if I was sure I didn’t want to stop and turn around 🥹, and I was encouraged to say, 'Yes, let’s stop.' I’m so happy we did because it turned out to be one of the best food experiences I had in Jamaica. We got a $1,000 JMD / $6 USD bag of land crab. Omg, it was so good—I was addicted.
It blew my mind that this was Travis’ first time having street crab too. I had been seeing it all over Jamaican IG, so I was on the lookout. But Travis didn’t know about it. If you’re Jamaican and reading this, let me know if you know about this street crab and if you’ve ever had it.
But to be fair, I’ve learned there are many reasons Jamaicans may not have explored their own country—whether that be places or food. Some are lucky if they even left their parish growing up. Others were focused on education as their ticket out of Jamaica, so everything else wasn’t on their radar. Many were impoverished and were lucky to have bus fare to get to school and back. Even those with families willing to venture out were blocked by bad roads, and so the list goes on. Yet, I’m always surprised when I talk to my Jamaican friends—one might know about something, and the other has absolutely no idea about what they ah talk bout. The variety of subcultures and experiences throughout Jamaica is vast for a Caribbean island. Comparatively, as a Trini, I feel I have a relatively good understanding of 95%+ of Trini experiences and culture.
After getting the crab, which I devoured for the rest of the ride, we headed to Devon House, where I had another foodgasm. Their curry goat patties were everything. I really can’t eat any other patty but that one now. When I bit into it, I went completely silent in awe, mid-speech, with no inclination to do anything but savor the flavors in my mouth. Travis couldn’t help but laugh at my reaction.
Next, we went to Port Royal to my favorite restaurant, Gloria’s, for dinner. During my time in Jamaica, I ate there three times 🤤. My favorites were the steamed fish I had on the first night (though the quality wasn’t quite the same after that) and the coconut curried shrimp. The seafood was fresh fresh and well seasoned.
At this point in my trip, I still hadn’t been to a beach where I could really dip in and enjoy myself. The free beach we went to in Ochi was too murky for me to feel comfortable in the water, and the sand had trash. Bob’s beach had nice sand, but it got deep too quickly, and I’m an island girl afraid of the deep. So I was like, 'Travissss, I need a good beach experience!' In my mind, I had pictured my trip to Jamaica with white sand and clear, blue waters all day. I quickly learned that not all of Jamaica has great beaches. You have to go to Negril fi that. The more you travel, the more you know. The beaches around Kingston have been overfished, so the coastlines are destroyed, and if they aren’t, they’re often trashed and polluted 😪. I guess just like we have to go to Tobago for good beaches, Jamaicans have to go to Negril or enjoy their numerous rivers.
Travis, being the host of the year, had an answer for my problem. We had to go to Lime Cay, but we needed a fisherman to take us. Since we were in Port Royal, a fishing town, we went on a hunt for a 'reliable' fisherman. We asked our waitress for a contact, and as we stepped out of the restaurant, we saw a sign on a light pole with a fisherman’s number. We gave him a call, and wouldn’t you know—he asked how we got his number 🤣! I’m like, 'Bruh, your number is on a cardboard sign stapled to a pole, and you want to know who leaked it?' LOL. Spoiler alert: we never made it to Lime Cay, but when I’m back, I’ll definitely use the fisherman from the light pole ad. His price was good.
A fun, somewhat anal fact about me is that I walk 10k steps every day. I give myself grace if I miss 1-2 days in the week, but when Saturday comes around, I do whatever it takes to average out to 10k steps for the week. My worst attempt was walking for six hours straight on a Saturday 😭. There was no way I was letting my 10k streak drop just because I didn’t walk for three days.
All this to say, the only way to drive to Port Royal is by crossing Palisadoes, a long, thin highway that connects the mainland to Port Royal. But the government did a wonderful thing and built a nice promenade where locals can walk, run, picnic, or meditate at any time of day. That’s also where I found the best coconut vendor in Jamaica. He and his wife sell out of a white delivery truck—don’t buy from anyone else! One day we bought six coconut waters from him to stock up because everywhere else either didn’t have coconut water or it just wasn’t as good. When we didn’t have his coconut water, we were dehydrated, yf.
That Saturday, I walked a couple of hours up and down the full length of Palisadoes with the ocean on both sides of me, listening to Toast by Koffee on repeat. At one point, a huuuge fish jumped out of the water, making a big splash, and everyone was like, 'What the hell was that?' Definitely not a regular fish.
At the beginning of Palisadoes, I saw a Maggi ad saying, 'Welcome to Jamaica, the land of the real cock soup.' All I could do was shake my head. Lies."
We did make it to another beach in Portmore— Fort Clarence Beach—where we had a proper family day. We ate KFC BBQ and spicy chicken, drank soda, and I slept deeply under the shade of a tree. There was a lady selling pepper shrimp, aka crawfish, along the beach. It was a relaxing day, even though I didn’t dip in the water. At that point, I was not getting into any water unless it was top tier Jamaican beach.
My last noteworthy experience in Jamaica, before driving pon the Chinese toll road to catch my flight back to Trinidad, was a night out in the hills of Kingston at Dub Club. This experience encapsulated the vibes I expected from Jamaica. It was pure ital—true Rasta man vibrations. You can share the experience with us through this playlist of Shazam-grabbed songs from the night. I had the best Gizzada, salmon sandwich, and fresh juice in all of Jamaica. Light it up!
The curry goat from Chillin’ was okay as well. I can definitely see myself visiting Jamaica regularly—it’s now my second favorite Caribbean island. It’s a place where, if I had to stay for a couple of weeks or more, I’d be properly entertained. Be warned, though, driving at night is no joke here. I found myself gripping the steering wheel with two hands. There are no street lights in most places, so everyone drives with high beams—and they drive crazy. Praise God for the nationwide infrastructure development we’ve been blessed with in Trinidad and Tobago. Other countries are really strugglinggg to catch up.
Sigh Jamaica my first love 🥺 thank you for sharing your journey