Jamaica

Arrived in Jamaica for a trip around the island. Spent six nights in Portland (in the east). Not a very busy or touristy place with a couple of grocery stores, a library, and a gas station. From here we went to Blue Lagoon where we went snorkelling around Monkey Island, visited Dragon Bay (where Cocktail was filmed), went up to Reach Falls, and as an added bonus got to go to the Boston Jerk Festival (we even got into the newspaper). Jerking of meat is basically barbequing with hot sauce. The festival included live music, loads of jerk meat (we even tried goat), bar tents & other stalls. We met Debbie in Portland, a really nice Jamaican lady who looked after us and cooked us good food in her little restaurant/bar. We even went to the local Friday night party with her.
We spent one night in Montego Bay, it was over developed and very tourist orientated, not so nice. We enjoyed Margaritaville (bouncing on the sea trampolines) and the markets.
Four nights in Negril was next, we stayed in the best place (Alfred’s Ocean Palace). It was right on the beach and had live reggae music on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The Tuesday night show was the best with stage shows and fire dancing. We also went up to Rick’s café where Duff jumped off the cliffs and we swam around. We met some cool people, and spent most of the rest of the time floating around in the sea.
We then went to Treasure beach, which is in the south. It is very remote, everyone waves to you when they drive past. We rented a two-bedroom cottage on the beach. Went on a trip up the river at Alligator hole to see the sea cows (manatees) and checked out Lovers leap. We managed to catch the world cup final at a local supermarket as well. The last couple of nights we spent in Kingston where we went to Port Royal and to the Bob Marley museum.