Portland

Of the parishes on the island, Portland is the one that is most often cited as the favourite, or the most beautiful.  It's not a tourist hot spot, and it's not a major urban sprawl.  It's natural, unspoiled Jamaica.  That's not to say it doesn't have its tourist attractions, but the ones that are there are less crowded and less noisy.  The cruise ships don't have a place to dock, and there are few all-inclusive resorts (I'm not sure if there are any actually). All in all, I think it makes for a really nice weekend getaway.  There are probably even more isolated and quiet areas of the island, but at the same time, I don't want to feel like I'm the only person around.

Last weekend, I went to visit the parish with some of the other volunteers.  We rented a car and drove up to Frenchman's Cove and hit Reach Falls.  We also stopped by to explore anything else that was interesting in between.  This time, I remembered to take my camera to snap a few shots.  Since they are few and far between these days, enjoy!

Crossing a random hand-made bridge

How did that get there?

Laundry day

007

007 knows how to live

Pastor Brown's house (has been in National Geographic, issue in 1985).  Seriously wacky.

Pastor Brown

View from Frenchman's Cove Resort Villas

Bottles of sauce... and ketchup! To go with the jerk pork and chicken

I feel bad, I didn't actually get any shots of Reach Falls, probably because I don't have a waterproof camera.  But in any case, it's one of my favourite spots and a really neat and fun activity to do in Jamaica.  You climb the falls, and in the process, a guide will take you through some small caves in the waterfall.  If you can swim, you can also dive off the waterfall and swim underneath the base of the falls.  Awesome!  Except I still can't swim.