Driving in Jamaica is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

I have written about the hassle it was to get my Jamaican drivers license and for those of you who have actually gone on tour with me you have been told my opinions on driving a car in Jamaica but I thought I would put together some information for those interested in driving in Jamaica who are not familiar with what it is like to drive a car on the left side in such a dangerous country.

I get lots of questions about renting a car in Jamaica and my advice on driving yourself around on vacation and my first reaction is almost always to warn persons against doing so unless they have already driven on the left side and they have already been to Jamaica before. if you are considering renting a car on your first visit to Jamaica I will strongly advise you to reconsider because that is certainly a more dangerous and risky adventure. Trying to learn and understand a culture and drive around in a foreign country all at the same time as trying to enjoy the surrounding scenery and sights is simply to much for any person or group to manage. It’s a recipe for disaster in a country with so many beautiful scenes to stop and see.

Driving around Jamaica requires a prior knowledge of Jamaican customs, an understanding of the language and some familiarity with how to interact with Jamaicans because there are hardly any road signs in Jamaica and the even the Jamaican road maps are often useless enough that you are going to have to ask directions and know that you have been given good ones at that. Finding someone who knows where you are going and is willing to direct you there without misdirecting you is hard enough but finding someone who can properly explain how to get there and for you to actually understand it is actually far more difficult and even impossible on many occasions. Most Jamaicans do not drive and sadly many of them do not travel much outside of their parish or local area. A large percentage of Jamaicans have never traveled at all and are totally unfamiliar with how to get to places off the main road that circles the island. You will often find it harder to receive anything more than a hand gesture as the direction to travel and a grunt like “likkle more dat way” from people in rural areas or when dealing with those Jamaicans who are unfamiliar with tourists.

Jamaican road conditions are horrible and many of the roads on the interior are the original roads laid down in the 60′s and 70′s and they have never been maintained or repaired and they are littered with potholes or just plain washed out and difficult if not impossible to navigate without destroying a car or flattening a tire. You can’t imagine how many horror stories I have heard about folks getting flat tires in the worst places or a car stuck in a heavily damaged road conditions or even sliding off the side of ravines and into the gully. I have actually witnessed a car accident in the mountains where a tourist drove a car over the side of a mountain road and right into the top of a house that luckily was empty but still destroyed by the incoming car. Those people lived but they will never try driving in the mountains of Jamaica ever again and rightfully so, they had no idea where they were and they were heading down a hill in rainy conditions like some kind of suicidal maniacs trying to make it back to the hotel before before dark. They ended up almost killing themselves and ruining a perfectly good vacation and there was no reason to do so.

I started out driving in Negril Jamaica with an international drivers license I got from AAA which is enough if you want to rent a car and drive around on your vacation but I had to get the drivers license when I bought my own van. I drive around Jamaica very safe and cautiously and I always have because I can see how dangerous the roads are and I have seen many bad accidents and even more bad Jamaican drivers and I just knew you have to be a defensive driver and you cannot trust any other drivers skills or abilities. There is a dirty little secret in Jamaica that no one will speak much about but that certainly has caused a large number of deaths and accidents. Jamaica has around a 70% illiteracy rate and driving cars is one of the best jobs an average person can get so a large number of Jamaican drivers cannot read and they did not take a drivers tests.

They bought their drivers license from a crooked official for about $200US and next they rent a car from a local taxi cab service who rents a car to anyone with a valid license for about $40 US per day for vans and nicer cars to as low as $25 for certain route taxis. So for about $250 a Jamaican can buy a license and rent a car one and be on the road without ever passing a test. These guys are the hustlers you see speeding around Jamaican roads trying to make money to cover the expense of the car and maybe put some cash in their pockets and food in their families belly. You can’t blame a man for trying to take care of himself when you see the pressure these guys are under to make the ends meet but the idea they are risking not only their own lives but everyone else on the road is the scary part.

I have been in two car accidents in Jamaica. I can say that both of them were not my fault but I did let my guard down and forgot where I was at the time and both situations were made much worse because of me. I wrote about the first accident and road rage incident back when it happened but only those of you have met me know that I was in a very bad car accident in Jamaica that nearly cost me my life. I was driving my Nissan Vannette on a dark road in Gutters heading up Spur Tree Hill on my way to a reggae concert with my friend Ras Slick when I stopped to turn. There were 4 adults in the van and we were having a conversation when someone barked out stop because I was about to miss the turn. I came to a full and complete stop in my lane but apparently I was too close to the line and a driver coming down the hill who swerved around a car making a turn on the same road smashed into the drivers side corner of my van where I was stuck behind the wheel after the van came to a stop down the side of the road. It all happened so fast that I could not react but it happened so slow I can play it back in my head like it was in slow motion.

I actually saw the other drivers face of shock as he hit me and I remember watching the Jamaican youth who was seated in the front with me as he was thrown out the window and onto the street when I looked away from the oncoming car. My first reaction was to look back at my wife and kids in the back seat to verify they were alright and I remember asking my wife if the kids were alive. All three had a nice big red spot on their foreheads where they slammed into the back of the seat behind me but everyone was doing well otherwise. I yelled out for everyone to get out of the van and this was the moment of greatest fear in my life. I realized that my I could not feel my legs and they were pinned by the crushed van and steering wheel which was firmly planted in my crotch. I was stuck in my bus and I could not move and that’s when my head started whirling thoughts of dying in a blazing fire as my kids sat listening to my screams.

Alfred Moya crashed his van in Jamaica and lived!!

It was the most horrifying thought I had ever had and I immediately yelled out for them to remove my children because all I felt was liquid pouring out from the motor and I thought it was fuel about to burst in flames. Thankfully the liquid was only hot water from the radiator that was scalding my legs and not gasoline. I blacked out for a minute or two but I awoke to a scene of beauty as a dozen or more Jamaicans had begun to rip my van to pieces as they attempted to extract me from the wreck. There were people all over and they were hurting themselves to free me. I was elated and in tears of joy at the sight of my fellow man risking his own harm and pain to save me from mine. Two guys were in the cab with me pulling up on the steering wheel and there was a woman rubbing my head telling me “It’s ok rasta we gonna help you”, “we gonna help you rasta man”. This went on for what seemed an eternity and these people were so protective of me that they actually assaulted my wife when she came back from removing my children because the people helping me did not know who she was but they wanted to save me from any harm.

They finally had to tie a rope around the front clip of my van and another rope to the back of my van and they actually pulled my van apart with two trucks before I was able to slip my very broken and distorted leg out of the car seat. My left leg was bad and I was forced to tie it to a piece of 2 x 4 lumber as a splint to keep it from flopping around. It was becoming more difficult to keep aware and guide the efforts to rescue me because of shock and no one was in control but me and I had to make sure they did not kill me on the way out. I was of little help physically and they had to lay me on a half sheet of plywood and carry me over to a waiting pickup truck which was the only ambulance available to take me down into Mandeville about 20 minutes away to the closest hospital.

Alfred Moya stands up for the first time in 90 days!!

I spent about 3 days in Mandeville before being transported by van to Cornwall Regional in Montego Bay because they were the only hospital that could provide the surgery I was supposed to need. I ended up spending almost 15 days in the Mobay hospital waiting on xrays and about 5 different doctors to check me before I got a visit from a Cuban doctor. I spoke to him in Spanish and told him of my Cuban grandparents and he confided in me that surgery was unnecessary and that all I really needed was to properly set a cast on my leg. It seems the lead Jamaican doctor caught wind of my situation and he was trying to get me to pay cash for a private specialist to fix me up. He refered me to an outside doctor who could take care of me sooner and this . I almost went for the deal before my Cuban doctor told me it was not truly necessary and that the surgeon wasn’t even sure he could do much more than than pin it together and that the break was such that a pin would not help much at all.

After being laid up in traction with weights pulling my leg straight for 45 days I was finally set in a full leg cast and released to my home where I sat up for another 5 or more months on total bedrest. All told I was stuck in a bed for over 6 months and it cost me $1,000′s in lost wages and property as well as the huge bill I have to the Jamaican government. Almost two years later and they still don’t have a final bill for me and at this point I may just have to payback Jamaica by some other means because they seem to have lost all record of ever even treating me.

I feel a huge debt of gratitude and dedication to Jamaica because of how quick Jamaicans were to help me and I have dedicated this website and the tour guide service that has grown from it to the people of this great nation. To this day I spend more money on this website and my adventures in Jamaica than I ever make back in money but nothing can compare to the wealth of love and friendship that this investment has offered as my dividends. Not only has Jamaica changed my life but this incident has become the single greatest reminder of how precious my life and the lives of my wife and children are too me and why it is important to savor every single moment of every single day. Live long and irie!!

Talking and not typing for living is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

As an online travel writer or blogger, as we are now known, I spend about as much time typing as I do traveling. One of the main reasons that I have not been writing much for this blog has to do with the fact that I type so much my wrists hurt almost all the time.

I decided to take a look at the speech recognition software that has been built into Microsoft Windows Vista to see if it can help me with the amount of typing that I have to do. In less than 24 hours I have been able to setup and train my computer to understand voice commands which allow me to operate my computer hands free.

It was a rather simple actually. I actually tried speech recognition software once before some years ago. I used a product called dragon naturally speaking that was a speech to text converter which allowed me to communicate with my computer using the microphone which then translated my audio input to text. The software built into windows is far more intuitive and easier to setup them the last software I tried to use. I have found that it makes very few mistakes and has a very diverse vocabulary with no words such as webmaster or carpal tunnel syndrome. My last experience with speech recognition software was horrible and I had a very difficult time training the software to understand my voice. Thus far I have had no issues with the software available in Windows Vista and I’m very impressed with how fast and easy it has been to get up to speed.

Hopefully this new software will make working in Jamaica easier for me and allow me to create more blog posts and share more information with you my friends from around the world. With the built in translation services that this website offers I can now speak too people all over the world in their natural language. All I need now is a Jamaican patois version which understands wa gwan. Apparently the software can be trained to learn new words based on my voice input. As an example I had to teach the software the word WordPress which was not in its vocabulary. In the training process the computer recorded my voice and saves that data for later use. In the past 2 hours I have written a few 1000 words on three different websites and created hyperlinks inside those articles without using the mouse or keyboard for any function.

This does not have much to do with Jamaica and but a lot to do with the way I will be managing this blog from this point forward. From now on the text you read here we’ll be written by machine from speech to text conversion using the software built into my laptop and Microsoft Windows Vista. If you do a lot are writing online or you’re looking for a way to save time on the computer am going to suggest to take a look at speech recognition software. Roddy

Usain Bolt gives thanks at Club Quad Tribute Party Kingston Jamaica is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

Here is one of the videos I was able to shoot at the Usain Bolt Tribute at Club Quad Party in Kingston Jamaica back on October 5, 2008. It took me awhile to get this video posted with all the power outages and delays I have had but here it is. It was a great party and I felt honored to have been personally invited by Bolt himself. He was a VERY busy man and I was not able to spend more than 5 minutes with him in private but the party was worth the efforts with free drinks all night long and LOTS of beautiful people to see.

This video is Bolt speaking after receiving a lifetime pass to Club Quad and numerous other gifts from local businesses. I’m working on uploading the full video with him receiving the gifts now. It may take awhile for me to post it but soon come mon.

Jamaican lunch at Juici Patty Shop is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

Jamaicans love their patty shops and Juici Patty is an islandwide favorite serving fresh hot Jamaican patty and coco bread meals to like half the country each and every day. I have seen the lines in a patty shop fill the entire store from 11am until 2pm each afternoon as Jamaicans file through in semi orderly fashion and place orders for a patty and a coke or boxed orange juice for lunch.

Patty shops usually offer spicy beef patties as their main choice but they also offer beef and cheese patties or curry chicken patties as well. Beef and chicken are the most popular patty but many shops also offer lobster, shrimp and soy patties as well.

Some patty shops offer more than just patties and Juici Beef is one of those. You can find a great selection of breakfast items including green banana porridge or maybe a peanut porridge either of which goes well with a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee or an Orange Juice. Juici Patty also offers fried chicken and sometimes a soup of the day if things are busy.

If you travel to Jamaica and want to experience real Jamaican food then you have to stop in a patty shop and try a Jamaican patty or you’ll be missing out on the most popular meal in the country. Ackee and saltfish may be the official food of Jamaica but the patty man feeds the country.

Fontana Pharmacy in Sav La Mar Jamaica is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

I have written about the fact you cannot find a decent pharmacy in negril and it remains true. There are actually two pharmacies in Negril but both of them are very small and stock only a limited number of items. The selection in both pharmacies combined is not as nice as the range of health and beauth products available at Fontana Pharmacy in Sav La Mar.

Sav as it is know to most locals is actually Savannah La Mar and the capital of Westmoreland Parish. Here you will find much better shopping chioces than those in Negril. Food and medicine prices at any of the grocers in Negril are substantially higher than what you find at any of the stores in Sav and the true is same for basic medical care.

I have used Fontana Pharmacy for everything from aspirin and Tylenol to filling prescriptions for paid medications and antibiotics as well. They a have a great selection of wound care products such as bandages, tape and ointments for just about everything. They have never not had anything I needed and I usually end up grabbing something extra from the extra items they stock including stationary, toys candy and more.

If you need a pharmacy in Negril for something simple you should try Negril Pharmacy in the Town Center but if you need something more than take a trip to Sav and you’ll find just about anything you need.

Duty Free Shopping in Negril at Sona is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

If you are in Negril and searching for a great deal on some souvenirs to take back home then look no further than the City Center by the roundabout and Coral Seas Shopping plaza which is located across the street from Burger King in the center of Negril. There on the ground floor beneath the Digicell center you will find Sona Duty Free Shopping Center which offers great prices on everything from tshirts and trinkets to a selection of fine jewelry, liquors and cigars at discount prices and duty free.

Shop keeper Rocky has been in the same location for 15 years providing visitors to Negril a wild selection of Jamaica t-shirts and other clothing items so you can carry your Irie feelings back home with you. Lots of first time Jamaica vacationers find a taste for some of the islands special treats such as fine Blue Mountain Coffee and Jamaica’s Appleton Rum they can’t fill at home so Rocky has a selection of the most popular liquors in the right sizes for international transport so you can just breeze through the airport with your new favorite drink in hand.

For those of you that enjoy a good smoke you can also pick from some of the best cigars in the world with both Jamaican and Cuban cigars for sale. Cuban cigars are of course not legal for sale in the US but they are offered here in Jamaica and they seem to be very popular with many of our guests. You can buy the cuban cigars for smoking here in Jamaica but you CANNOT buy Cuban cigars to take back with you. Save that for the high quality Jamaican cigars which are said to offer the same flavor and smoking experience as the cigars from Cuba.

Whatever you’re looking for Sona is an excellent choice for Jamaican souvenirs and gift shop items located in the center of Negril. Stop by and say hello to Rocky while you do some shopping in Negril.

Road rage and anger management is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

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.

Driving along in the mini bus on Jamaican roads is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

I love driving my van around Jamaica. It’s been about 10 months now I’ve had it and we have covered many many 1000′s of kilometers and nearly the entire country thus far. We have actually circled the island and spent time in most major cities. I can drive around Mobay, Ocho Rios, Negril and Kingston with no problem mon.

We have driven the South Coast route from Negril to Kingston a few dozen times now and I feel super comfortable taking this route. We have stopped at all the major attractions as well as most of the smaller ones in the last year and visited much of the South Coast Jamaica. I especially love the Bluefields and Treasure Beach areas. Mandeville seems like a nice place to chill with some of the coolest weather on the island.

The van has been a great asset and well worth the investment. I have had to put a few bucks into it to keep it running but besides my van insurance its been pretty cheap. The van insurance policy we started with was weak and basically it covers the legal crap we need. I’m looking for some new van insurance quotes online using a new service that I found at QuoteZone.com but I will most likely be forced to stick with the crap policy I have. I say its crap because it does not cover anything more than the other person and it costs a fortune.

I’ve been lost in the van at least once on every trip we take and to be honest I’m glad it happens. Most often we end up in some rather unique and interesting situations that could only be found by getting lost in Jamaica. From 100 head of goats taking up the road or an impromptu street festival that erupts around a sound system in the town square I have been in some places and seen some things that only only me and Jah seem to truly appreciate.

I love Jamaica and my van has been a great part of the experience. If you plan on spending any more than 6 days in Jamaica bring enough money to buy a car and just sell it before you leave. You’ll appreciate having one while you’re here and it may just change your life.

Travel the world with smart searching at GeckoGo.com is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

Travel websites can be many things including a high end travel site like Expedia or just a simple blog like VacationsMAX but what most of them do not offer are great suggestions for travel based on your personalized search criteria.

Things have changed though and an innovative site at GeckoGo.com offers a unique way to find the travel deals you are looking for and most of all the travel plans you really want to make. GeckoGo allows you to search for “where to go and waht to do based on your specific interests” through a simple to use and intuitive interface. In 3 short clicks I was able to determine that in order to see monuments and beach in January it looks like Mexico is the choice for us to travel.

I was very intrigued as to how this site worked and I think a personalized search experience such as what they offer is what the travel industry needs. It just seems to me like too many websites now sell the same travel services and GeckoGo.com offers something different. If you are not sure about where you want to travel for your next vacation and you need some suggestions or travel ideas than you should visit their site and try it out.

I bet you you will think the same thing about their site as I do.

Reggae SumFest 2008 Dancehall Night is a post from: Jamaica Vacations

Thursday night was Dancehall Night for Reggae SumFest 2008 and it was a great show with some of the biggest names in Jamaican music on hand for a show which proved to be an arresting experience for Bounty Killer and lots of fun for me and a few thousand others. It was my first backstage experience with permission to interview artists and straight up I was out gunned. Me and my little JVC handheld camera could not compete with the professional level equipment and setups that the big players had. These guys came prepared to interview and they got all the interviews they wanted. I was able to get some great pictures and hang out with lots of the artists but the few interviews I did do were horrible as the lighting was crap and the noise in the room made it almost impossible to hear anything beyond the crowds of people. My mission over the next year is to invest in a better video camera and audio microphone for interviewing people properly. I’ll be better prepared for next year presspass access.

I spent much of the evening in the press tent and missed much of the show hanging out backstage with other press people and lesser known artists like Jamaican culture artist Nature and more popular stars like Anthony B and Macka Diamond to name a few. I spent more time with the press people and the event turned more into a networking opportunity as I met many of the top people in the Jamaican music business. I discussed working with a number of artists in developing and promoting their music online and I think the evening went well for me in that regards. I already have lots of work to do from this show and I’ll probably be busy until next years event.

I got some decent photos from the show with lots more to write about in the coming days and weeks but here are some pics from Thursday Night Dancehall night at Sumfest 2008.

Sun sets before the first evening of Reggae Sumfest 2008

Nature interviewed by BBC Radio

Shane-O Backstage SumFest 2008

Hype TV Interviews Serani

Danielle D at Reggae Sumfest 2008

Voice Mail at Reggae Sumfest 2008

Harry Toddler at Reggae SumFest 2008

Jamaican Musician Spice at Reggae SumFest 2008

Macka Diamond at Reggae Sumfest 2008

Anthony B interviewed at Reggae SumFest

Elephant Man at Reggae SumFest 2008

The Crowd at Reggae SumFest 2008