Jamaica Tours, Guides and Vacations

So I tried to make it to the Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival in time to catch at east one days ride but things simply did not work out. On the way from Negril to Ochi I was forced to make a stop and repair the front brakes on the Vannette. I have been having some trouble finding the parts for it and we had to take advantage of the opportunity to get the repairs done before we continued on any further long distance trips. The brakes were in need of repair and so we took a half day break in Mobay at the auto mechanics. This blew out the rest of my travel plans and we ended up arriving in Ocho Rios to late in the day for any riding with the crew in Robins Bay. We decided instead to spend the day at Cranbrook Flower Forest which was absolutely awesome but probably not quite as much fun as mountain biking for dad at least. We did however make it over to Oracabessa in St Mary and spent the day at James Bond Beach for the 1st Annual Jamaica Bicycle Bash put on by SMORBA, the Saint Mary Off Road Bicycle Association. SMORBA is a not for profit organization affiliated to IMBA that is actively engaged in building and maintaining bicycling opportunities for local residents of Jamaica’s famed North Coast.

SMORBA is supported by Island Sports , a non profit organization sponsored by Island Outpost which manages the James Bond Beach complex along with a number of large properties on the island, and their goal is to promote their Bicycling Works program to the benefit of area youth. The Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival has been held in Negril over the past 8+ years and was primarily an off-road event limited to participation of 3 to 5 Jamaicans and a larger number of international competitors. This years goal was to open the event up for more community participation and the number of races days was paired down in favor of cycling activities for locals such as the ramp for kids to jump on, the big dirt jumps pictured below we’re reserved for professional dirt jumpers who put on a show and the highlight of the day had to be the Rambolympics.

The Rambolympics were staged to show the ingenious usage of bicycles in Jamaican society. A bicycle can be much more than a form of recreation in an impoverished nation like Jamaica and in many cases it can be the sole form of transportation for a person and even an entire family. Watching Jamaicans ride their bicycle to work in the morning one can never expect what to see being carried away in a basket or dangling from the handlebars in a grocers bag as the move about their day. The Rambolympics were broken down into three events, the most popular event was a skill test to see how a rider dealt with carrying odd objects that you may find a Jamaican carrying on their bike each day. The ride was three laps around the oval track with the rider being required to pick up a large cumbersome item on each lap. The first lap a rider had to carry and empty Red Stripe case around the field and proceed to the empty gas cylinder so common in kitchens around Jamaica. The Red Stripe Case and the empty gas can seemed difficult enough for most riders but it was the final piece that gook most of them out. The number of Jamaicans seen walking around with a weed whacker can only be surpassed by the number of Jamaicans you see walking around with a machete. Carrying one on a bicycle in the streets of Jamaica is a whole different trick and riding with a weedwhacker, an empty gas gan and a case of Red Stripe makes for some damn good fun for everyone. This was without doubt the most fun and most popular event with everyone enjoying watching the locals spank the international professionals in every event except of course the pro dirt jumping.

Jamaicans are very resourceful people and they seemed to be more adept at carrying odd loads on their bicycles when compared to their “farrin” competitors. The “white boy” riders from America and Canada were not prepared for the sweltering heat and excitement of the days events and you can see it in their faces. The Jamaican riders are more at home in the tremendous heat and better able to deal with the physical activities of the Rambo race. I predicted a Jamaican youth would win and I was right. The young man being covered with flour below was the winner of not only the most favored event but he also won the most challenging event when he took the “5 Mile Rambo Race around Oracabessa” which is a three lap loop through the city center ending back at James Bond Beach. IN Jamaica it is a tradition to cover a person in flour in their birthday. This was a pretty hot day and it was obvious the sun was taking its toll on the vacationers who had already ridden for 2 or 3 days each.

There was a lot of bike riding going on throughout the day and some of the most action was at the dirt jumps with professional riders from around the world showing off their talents to the local youth. Of course the local kids were just waiting for the pro riders to crash on some of the big air jumps they pulled but everyone had a good time and the kids were super stoked to see these pros do their thing. Professional Riders Cam McCaul and Kyle Ebbet did some superman style dirt jumps and the residents of Oracabessa loved it.

The Rambolympics and the Rambo Race around Oracabessa were big fun for the older riders but I think many of the youth actually had more fun riding bikes on the ramp and participating in the bunny hop contest. Jamaicans are very competitive people and each of them was looking to win the Red Bull bunny hop challenge. The goal was to bunny hop your bike over the bamboo rail set on top of stacked cases of Red Bull. I think they got up to 5 cases before everyone started missing them.

SMORBA is working to teach local youth on how to own and operate their own mountain bike guide services and JamaicaMAX.com is going to help. If you want to do some mountain bike riding in Jamaica or take a Jamaica mountain bike tour then contact us so we can arrange a mountain biking trip in Jamaica for you and your group for a small donation to SMORBA. What they actually need is some equipment such as used mountain bikes and cycling gear to outfit local youth and begin their training. If you donate a Jamaican youth a quality mountain bike then JamaicaMAX will deduct 50% of the value of the equipment from your tour costs. For more information about SMORBA and what they do visit their website at http://www.smorba.com or look for our upcoming article featuring more details on their program.

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Our trip to the Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival gave us an excellent reason to spend some time on the North Coast and East End of Jamaica. We spent nearly a week on the road and we had a blast in doing so. We got to see some parts of the North Coast of Jamaica that we have never been to and also as far as Port Antonio where I have not been in some time. The Fat Tire Festival was schedule to begin on Feb 5th and we of course had plans to go the Bob Marley Birthday Bash at MXIII which turned out to be a huge disappointment. I am certain I would have much rather taken the time and either gone to 9 Mile for the real birthday celebration or gone riding with the SMORBA crew but I did not.

We took off early in the day on Thursday Feb 7th but were forced to spend a half day in Mobay as we had the brakes on the Vanette repaired. Thats another story there but we’ll skip it for now. Suffice it to say you should plan everything in Jamaica and if you give even a hint that you are in a rush or stuck without their help most Jamaican businesses will take advantage of you. I paid a premium to have my brakes repaired while we waited but they work great now. We rolled into Ocho Rios later in the day and I as unable to make the ride for that day. We ended up going to Cranbrook Flower Forest on the first day and had dinner at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville on the first evening. We spent our first evening at Circle B Farm which is a super cool place to stay just outside of Ocho Rios in Priory. Look for my upcoming review of Circle B Farm if you are looking for inexpensive accommodations near Ocho Rios and want to spend a morning hiking around a beautiful Jamaica Plantation.

Our 2nd day in Ocho Rios was supposed to be spent at the White River Valley for some river tubing but when we arrived I was notified that the youngest riders age was 6 and Robby our 3 year old son was not allowed to float down the river in a tube with us no matter that I had life jackets for everyone so we were forced to bail on that and ended up going to Dunns Rivers Falls instead. We had much fun here and ended up spending most of the day running up and down the falls and swimming the reefs off the beach below. A blog post about Dunns Rivers is on the way. We liked Circle B so much we spent the 2nd night here as well.

Our 3rd day was spent at the Bicycle Bash in Oracabessa which is featured in the previous post. We had lots of fun at the Bicycle Bash and I realy do like the surrounding area. Oracabessa is another one of those quiet Jamaican fishing villages with nothing more than a few small shops and a few fancy resorts like GoldenEye and James Bond Beach. The area was made famous as the home of Ian Fleming while he wrote a majority of the James Bond books and thats their only claim to fame besides one of the best venues in the world for a concert at James Bond Beach. While in Oracabessa we spent two nights with Domenica at her home Nix Nax Resorts where she also has a school the Rainbow Isle of Light is a basic school offering local children a chance for a decent eduction. It’s a laid back hippie commune in many ways and one of the more popular places to stay in the area. I was told by a local Jamaican that if they ever see a white couple walking the beaches of Oracabessa they most likely stay at Nix Nax with Domenica.

I did take the time to head over to Robins Bay so we could see some things I was interested in. We stopped in at Green Castle Estate and Strawberry Fields to meet with the owners and talk about their properties. I was intrigued by what I read about Green Castle and I wanted to know more about their sustainable development plans for the 1600 acre plantation which dates back over 100 years. Another blog post about Green Castle should be up next week. On our way to Green Castle we stopped in at Strawberry Fields to visit with property owner Kim Chase to discuss her plans for a Strawberry Fields Reunion concert to be announced at some time in 2008. Here place is fabulous and it shot straight to the top of one of my fav places in Jamaica. The location is simply phenomenal and the property is nothing more than breath taking. The natural beauty of these two coves and private beaches is unmatched by any other property I have visited yet. The facility is laid out to perfection with beautiful little beach side cottages each with their own undisturbed view of the Carribean Sea and include some nicer upscale rooms as well as a full restaurant and bar for entertaining a few dozen friends and family.

After the bike riding and touring of the East coast we decided to move on towards home and we headed out for Duncans Bay where we spent two nights with Cher from Jamaica Jewel as we helped her with her new website and blog. Cher has a beautiful little spot just across from the beach at Duncans bay and offers apartments for rent in Trelawny at affordable rates. We toured the area and visited places like the Arawak Cave and Glistening Waters but we did not take the boat ride with Glistenging Waters.

I think at that point in our trip we were overloaded by all we had done and we just did not need another trip on a boat at that time. We are going to have to go back soon to catch all the things we missed but I can say we certainly did a lot in our trip to Ochi last week. Look for a series of articles over the next week or so about things to do and places to visit on the North Coast and Ocho Rios.

When the time came to head back to Negril from Duncans Bay I decided that rather than ride through Mobay and Lucea as we usually do we would cut south at mobay on the B2 highway and visit some places along the ay. We stopped in at Rocklands Bird Sanctuary and had one of my best wildlife encounters in Jamaica to this date. It was simply to cool to hand feed the doctor bords at this bird feeding station and having a hummingbird land on your finder and sip sugar water from a bottle in your hand was one of the highlights of my trip thus far. I simple adore nature and the natural beauty of this country and Rocklands Bird Sanctuary has all of Jamaicas beauty right there in one place. They have a beautiful collection of rare and exotic flowers and during the peak of feeding times there hundreds of birds flying about feeding on the sugar and feed left by caretakers for the past 50 years. Yes, I have a blog post coming soon with some video from Rocklands Bird Sanctuary.

There is so much to do i the Ochi area that it would take us weeks to cover it all and a fortune to do so. We’ll bring you more about Ocho Rios in followup posts about area attractions and resorts.

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Shipping a barrel from the US to Jamaica was relatively easy but picking up a barrel in Kingston was a separate matter. I have spent a considerable amount of time in Kingston and consider myself very familiar with the town layout and transportation systems. I have driven all over the city of Kingston and most outlying areas but for whatever reasons I have never spent a lot of time in or around the Kingston harbor and wharves. The port of Kingston is where most of the countries import and export takes place and some 70% of the the total goods imported are processed on the Kingston Wharves.

Our barrel was shipped over on an ocean going vessel and dropped off to Jamaica customs in Kingston harbor per our instructions. We could have picked up in Mobay or even had it delivered direct to our home here in Negril but we chose a road trip to Kingston instead and as usual I am glad we did. We had a great trip and the worst part of it was dealing with driving around the Kingston Wharves. It’s a pretty backwards system of one way roads and no signage that kept me spinning in circles quite a bit. I arrived on the first day with the wife and kids in tow but quickly realized I needed to come back on my own so I took care of the first step in paperwork and returned on my own the next morning. Things went much smoother at the harbor before 9AM and it is suggested you arrive as early as you can.

The first step in retrieving our barrel was to stop by the local office for Finlays Shipping which was only two blocks away from the harbor but one of the most difficult streets for me to find me. The Jamaican lady in the office kept giving me bad directions and it took me almost an hour to find it once I arrived in the general area. At Finlays I paid the $2,000 JA for local handling charges and received my Arrival Notice and Bill of Lading documents to be presented to Jamaica Customs agents. Finlays filled out all the necessary documents for me and made things quite a bit easier in doing so. I only had to make one simple modification to any of the paper work we received from Finlays in order for Customs to accept it and all the document transfers went pretty smoothly. I bailed out here and came back the next morning with the necessary documents in hand ready to deal with the Jamaican customs process all in one day.

I got to the docks at roughly 8:30 am and things we’re still kinda quiet. I grabbed a banana porridge and coffee from one of the many vendors in the area and hung out in front trying to catch a photo opportunity. The entire area is a security zone with no children and no cameras allowed. The first time I pulled up to the gates in the van I had my camera on the seat next to me and they told me I had to take it home. No cameras allowed. I came back with my smaller camera and was only able to grab the one shot above without being seen.

They have a special parking lot for individuals picking up imports and the parking lot attendants are the first to verify you have the proper docs before you even park. Once they let you in they will send you across the street to the clerk in the Customs Manifest Branch where your documents are processed. You have to present identification at this step and all persons receiving imports must now have a Jamaican TRN number as well. I paid roughly $2000 JA for this service to the Jamaican government and was sent over to the Warehouse manager who would find my barrel amongst all the others. The warehouse manager actually waited about 30 minutes while a number of us finished the first stages paperwork that morning and then he disappeared into the warehouse for about another 20 minutes before returning with everyones barrel on one flat trailer. All the barrels were lined up in front of rows of tables and each of us was told to stand before our barrel as we awaited the customs inspections.

Personal Imports information from the Jamaica Customs website

Persons to whom packages have been sent from overseas

1. Take your Arrival Notice, Bill of Lading and identification paper to the Freight Agent who is responsible for receiving and handling your goods.

2. The Freight Agent will process your papers and collect all fees due to them (not Customs import duties) and advise you when and where (wharf or warehouse) the package(s) will be available for inspection by Customs.

3. Take your documents (including Customs Form C78X) to the Wharf or
Warehouse at the appropriate time and present same to the clerk in the Customs Manifest Branch. The documents will be processed and returned to you.

4. Take these documents to the Wharf Authorities or Warehouse Keeper so that your goods can be located and placed in the Customs Examination area.

5. The Customs Officer may request that you open your packages for inspection.

6. After inspection of the goods, you will be sent to the Customs Cashier to pay the necessary duties and fees. On your return, after paying the duties and fees, the Customs Officer will issue the Customs Release.

7. The Customs Release should be taken to the Warehouse Keeper’s clerk who will supervise delivery to you of your packages.

The customs agents are fairly thorough in some cases I guess but they surely did not search my barrel at all. Not that I brought in anything illegal but I could certainly have carried a firearm amongst the many tools and other metal objects that walked right through untouched. I brought over a small tool chest full of hand tools and things and no one ever looked through any of it. I was open and honest and told them everything I shipped was my own used personal effects and they let me through pretty easily. Some Jamaican families shipped over lots of new commercial goods and they went over those guys much more thoroughly. It was obvious to me they were more interested in those shipments then they were in my crap.

My barrel was valued at just under $24,000 JA and my import duties were $3500. They underestimated by quite a bit. The total cost for shipping my barrel to Jamaica was about $170 for 260 lbs in a 55 gallon steel drum. I brought over a full tower pc with loads of accessories, a medium sized tool box of hand tools sockets and wrenches, power tools including a circular saw and a reciprocating saw, corded and cordless drill, most of my housewares and small kitchen appliances including my grind and brew coffee maker, a nice stainless steel wok and bamboo steamer, a counter top deep fryer and some new pots and pans I bought over the holidays and used at moms so they look old. We now have a complete kitchen and cooking is much nicer for us now. I grind and brew fresh coffee every morning and I’m loving our new place that much more. It really has become our new home and I can’t see any reason for us to ever leave this place.

Here are some relevant websites for you.

Jamaica Customs Website

Jamaica Customs Fact Sheet from E Jamaica

Finlays Ship to Jamaica

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Come on and smile, we’re in Jamaica. Smile Jamaica Africa Unite is the theme for this years Smile Jamaica concert to be held in Oracabessa at James Bond Beach where we just went to the Jamaica Fat Tyre Festival and Bicycle Bash about a week ago. Its a really beautiful part of the island with more natural beauty around you at all times. The East Coast of Jamaica is what is left of the Real Jamaica in many ways. Look for that article coming up soon as I get back from this show. I have never seen Jr Gong perform and it will be a real pleasure to be able to see him and his brothers on stage performing at a concert their father started back in 1976. Damian seems to be the favored brother here in Jamaica and no matter what part of the island I go to someone has his music blasting almost as often as you here his fathers music. I think Ziggy plays better to white America with his happy cheerful melody makers than he does here in Jamaica where the Tuff beats of Jr Gong better reflect life in Kingston. Damian seems to me to to have been influenced by his fathers more militant side (or was that Peter Tosh?) and maybe Ziggy is the hippy kid who thinks we can save the world with one good spliff.

It should be awesome to see them both perform in front of their fellow countrymen so I can see how the crowd feels about them at a show. I know that I sometimes get people calling me Jr Gong when I go to Kingston because apparently I look more like him than I do Ziggy to the average Jamaican on the street. I get very strong reactions from older Jamaicans and especially older Rastas for my resemblance to the Marley clan and I have had it happen over and over that they think I look like Damian more than Ziggy or Bob himself. I don’t think I look like any of them but I guess i can see the confusion for some Jamaicans who rarely see a brown skinned Taliban looking dread like me. I also want to see how the boys handle the commercialization of their fathers image and his being packaged more as a product than a person here in Jamaica. I sure hope not to see his image used like it is all over the island. Bob Marley is used to sell Jamaica more like Colonel Sanders sells chicken or like Ronald sells McDonalds most often and I personally am disgusted by how “The Legend” is treated by most Jamaicans. Bob Marley has become a cash cow for almost the entire country and he’s rolled over in that mausoleum in St Anns a few thousand times I bet. I sure hope his sons maintain the high level of respect for him at this commercial show that I have seen in their commercial music and they don’t disrespect the King of Reggae during Reggae Month in Jamaica.

Go-Local Jamaica

Kingston, Jamaica:– Oraccabessa St. Mary will come alive on Saturday February 23 when the Marley Legacy is unleashed at the James Bond Beach. Bob Marley foundation and Ghetto Youths in association with The Rita Marley Foundation presents ‘Smile Jamaica – Africa Unite’ in tribute to the work of the late Nesta Robert Marley. The event follows an initiative of the Marley family to unite Africa and Members of the African Diaspora through Music and to perpetuate the message of Love, Strength and Hope that was the hallmark of Bob Marley’s career.

This is the second staging of the ‘Smile Jamaica’ concert since its rebirth in 2007. The first concert was held in December 1976, at which the legend himself, Bob Marley, headlined the show at the National Heroes Park in Kingston. Despite being attacked the night before, he bravely and defiantly stepped out and said he would only do one song, but ended up working the stage for ninety minutes. This year’s staging of the event represents an intersection, where The Africa Unite concert staged in Ethiopia and Ghana previously merge to create an experience that transcends culture, language, race and economic barriers.

The show features for the first time in Jamaica, on one stage, the Marley Brothers, Stephen, Ziggy, Damian, Julian, Kimani displaying their unique talents. Having amassed their own career wealth Grammy winners Stephen Damian and Ziggy are eager to display their unique magic on stage. Stephen is touted to take the stage with a new accolade as he is nominated for the coveted Grammy Award for his debut solo album ‘Mind Control’ the Awards will be staged on Sunday, February 10.

Other acts booked to appear are Rihanna, Javaughn,Elephant Man, Sizzla, Queen Ifrica, Capleton, Richie Spice, Lutan Fyah, Spragg Benz and Tarrus Riley and is touted to be the most colourful climax imaginable to the Month now Dubbed Reggae Month.

Smile Jamaica – Africa Unite takes place on Saturday February 23 at the James Bond Beach. Patrons will join in this historic event for $1500.00 and are guaranteed a wonderful demonstration of The Jamaican Motto ‘Out of Many, One people’.

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