Jamaica Tours, Guides and Vacations

Jamaica offers some unique travel adventures and scuba diving the Caribbean Sea is one of the more popular sports vacations in Jamaica.

The Caribbean is well known as a dive destination with hotspots like the Cayman Islands and Cozumel Mexico just a short distance away. Jamaica’s waters are not quite as nice as many of our neighbors but the diving is considered well worth the effort by those who venture out with a Jamaican dive shop on a proper trip to one of the many scuba dive attractions in the country.

Jamaica has a number of popular dive locations on the North Coast with both Montego Bay and Ocho Rios offering a wide range of great dive vacations. The Widows Maker Cave is the most popular dive in Mobay. The cave starts in about 35 feet of water and goes down to about 80 feet. Most people enter the cave at 80 feet and slowly rise through the cave to exit through a chimney 10 feet wide at the 35 foot mark and you can also go in the opposite direction by entering through the chimney and swimming down to the 80 foot depth. Ocho Rios has the wreck of the Kathryn which is a 140 foot Canadian mine sweeper from World War II which was sunk in 1991 by a Jamaican dive company as an artificial reef and dive attraction. Its a popular dive spot for first time wreck dives and intermediate divers looking for a new adventure.

Negril is the laid back side of the island but don’t let the image of beaches and bars fool you, there are a number of extreme adventures in and around Negril which is known for the best diving in Jamaica. Scuba diving is a dangerous activity which requires certification on specialized equipment before any reputable dive operation will take you out. There are different types of certification and even different organizations and standards that you can be certified with. PADI is one of the most popular diving certification programs and the standard here in Jamaica. Much of the diving in Negril is run from scuba shops at local resorts but the best diving in Negril is with a professional dive shop that caters to certified divers.

If you already have your dive certification you won’t want to tag along with the resort divers because they usually spend their time on easy dives. You’ll appreciate contacting an independent scuba dive operator like Negril Scuba which will be able to build a custom itinerary around your certification level and personalize your dive vacation.

Negril Scuba began as a small resort shop but has grown into a professional dive shop with three locations in Negril offering the best scuba diving in Jamaica. Owner David Wallace started running dives from his fathers resort, known in those days as Mariners Inn, after a guest told him that the diving in front of the property was “better than sex”. Today the property is known as Negril Escape but David still has his dive shop and they still run daily dives from the convenience of the resort for guests who book dive vacations.

Negril Scuba also offers two beach locations with boats taking dive trips to the best dive spots off Negril Beach including reef diving and night dives. Advanced divers usually opt for dives at locations such as “The Arches” and “The Throne Room” or one of the many wrecks in the area including an airplane and shipwreck. You can visit their website for a list of all the dive sites in Negril or just give them a call and book a dive vacation in Negril for your next adventure.

I’ve been pretty lucky with opportunities since moving here and over the last year alone I have met a lot of important people and done a lot of really cool things. The camera has been a great source of many of my opportunities and it was good to have to use for my latest super cool adventure to Kingston for the Private Party and Tribute for Olympic Gold Medal Winner and the Fastest Man in the World, the new king of Jamaica Mr. Usain Bolt.

Usain Bolt and his Triple Gold Medals have captivated the country and caused a gush of national pride to roll across Jamaica like a tidal wave of yellow, green and black. Nothing is more in fashion than wild use of the Jamaican national colors and almost everyone has their Jamaican flag flying somehow or someway. His amazing performance and bravado on the track have struck a chord with all Jamaicans and Usain Bolt is without a doubt the best thing to happen to the countries morale in a very long time.

I hope they don’t politicize it but I’m afraid it may be to late for that already. He received a personal phone call from Prime Minister Bruce Golding just after his World Record Breaking performance in the Mens 100M. I doubt the opposition parties Portia Miller had the same access to him in China.

So, I was riding in a van with my good friend Ras Slick and I picked up a Gleaner newspaper to read as we took a little trip up to Orange Hill. There was a full page ad on the inside of the front section with details on the week long tribute to the Jamaican Olympic team including two motorcades from the airport and around the island plus awards ceremonies, parties and all sorts of things. It should be noted that Negril was completely ignored in these celebrations but I understand they have plans of their own. The most interesting of these was the private party which would offer the best chance to meet people or the open event at National Stadium which should have been the largest single crowd.

Slick has a link that allowed him to request an invitation to the private party at Club Quad and he was able to grab tickets for us. I was glad to go just for the photo opportunities and to see the athletes up close but it turned out to a great club and a wicked party until the early morning hours. Usain seemed to enjoy himself and he spent much of the night dancing with his fans in a room full of people who loved him and what he had done.

I hope that Usain will make it over to Negril in December for a tribute event being considered here.

The wounds on my knees from my fight were pretty deep and once again I did not pay close enough attention to the fact one knee was becoming infected. I ended up with a pretty nasty hole in my knee from the fight and the infection became bad enough I needed an antibiotic.

I have decided I don’t want to take any more antibiotics so I decided to do some research online. I found that honey is a natural antibiotic and has been used for centuries to heal wounds and infections. I’d prefer any form of natural healing over prescrioption drugs so that sounded just like what I wanted and lucky for me I had a bottle of pure Jamaican honey to pour over my wounds.

The pictures here are the 3rd daily treatment and it looks much better than it did before the honey treatments. The honey cleared up the horrible infection in 4 days and the wound went on to heal just fine.

The pics below are big and show how nasty the wound was. It’s gross so be warned. They are a part of my collection of scars received in Jamaica.

This story is two months old now but I decided it was too funny not to post. It was a long summer. The kids and I had lunch at Jennys restaurant in Negril one afternoon. I drove down the cliffs from our home here on West End and ended up parked directly in front of the restaurant on the wrong side of the street.

While pulling away from the restaurant I had to leave with a large truck in the road in front of me. I saw a van coming down the hill and he saw me coming out. The idiot decided he could squeeze between me and the wall and ended up bumping my front bumper. I stopped instantly and barely had even moved. I was only traveling like 3MPH at the time of the accident.

The other driver came out with his arms swinging in the air and he was already cursing me. He walked over to my window and yelled to me that he was calling the police. I looked him in the eyes and said, “Go ahead call the cops. I have insurance”. He turned away from me and went back to his van where he reached in the window and came out with a machete. It was a nice long one and he proceeded to slap the windshield and side of my van with it. He was unaware the kids were in the van but he stuck the knife inside the rear window where the kids were and shook it around inside my van.

I did not even think about it. I started my van and drive off. I took back streets and ended up on the road to Sav. I decided to take the kids to the grocery store and we made an afternoon trip out of town. I made it back home at around 5pm and apparently just in time to meet with the lunatic cab driver who had somehow tracked me down to my apartment. This nut met me here at my home with a metal pole he found poolside.

This was a little too much for me and I took his road rage and added a double dose of my anger management to the situation, thats one dose per kid he endangered. I was glad to fight any ass who threatened me and my kids and then had the balls to bring it to my home. We battled in the yard for a minute or two. I took a whack with the pole over the head and shoulders that was hard enough to knock me on my knees but I was able to tackle him on the concrete and remove his weapon in the same motion. I did loose an inch of flesh on both knees as I landed on the sidewalk and he proceeded to drag me around a bit.

This guy was nuts and the only way I could get rid of him was to hurt him which I did not want to do. I ended up holding him locked on the ground until we agreed to go our separate ways. They called the cops who I was actually glad to see until they decided to try to blame me for the whole thing. They took me down to the Negril police department and tried to say I was going to be arrested for fleeing the scene of an accident. I told them I was forced to do so by a man with a machete. It got kinda heated after I told them I had expected this to be turned against me. I explained to them that in America its always the black mans fault and in Jamaica its the white guy. I am considered a white man by most people here and the cops normally try to blame me for things.

I told the lead cop there was no chance I would be treated fairly and he should just go ahead and do what he had too. I told him this was the second time I had been sat down in the same room with the handcuff chains hanging on the chair in front of me and for the second time I sat in the station as a victim while the criminal walked free. I asked him how a man could attack me with a knife and I should be arrested for running away.

After quite a bit of loud talk and explanation on my part I was released with no arrest. They decided to drop everything and leave well enough alone. I think it was the blood running down my leg and all over the floor that set them straight but I’m not sure still. They may have simply been tired of my mouth as most Jamaicans will after awhile.

Look for some pics and more as I heal my wounds with a natural antibiotic in the next blog post.