Jamaica - The Route

If you think the Caribbean is the same wherever you go, think again. Jamaica is unique, rich in history, culture and is home to a proud population with a strong identity.

About 100 kilometres from Kingston, lies Port Antonio, Jamaica’s third largest port and one of the island’s most important tourist attractions. Until the 1880s it was a sleepy coastal town. Then Lorenzo Dow Baker started the banana trade on the island and successfully promoted Port Antonio as a destination for wealthy American travellers and it became a boom town.

Now Port Antonio is untouched by mass tourism and is charmingly old-fashioned. It is developing as a centre for eco-friendly projects. It is the kind of place sought out by travellers who have no need for boutiques and postcard stands and it’s still possible to have lunch in a place where you are the only non-Jamaican.

The island was glamorised by Hollywood as a model of paradise in the 1940s and 50s, and this image was reinforced with the arrival of movie star Errol Flynn in 1946. His yacht, Zacca, washed ashore in bad weather and he subsequently bought Navy Island, the 18th century base of the British Navy in Port Antonio. He and his third wife, Patrice Wymore, who still lives on the island, helped popularise tourism in the area, promoting trips down the Rio Grande on bamboo rafts previously only used by farmers transporting bananas for export. The Clipper fleet will be moored in Errol Flynn Marina when they visit Port Antonio.

No mention of Jamaica would be complete without reference to its global musical identity, thanks in no small part to the island’s favourite son, reggae legend Bob Marley. His style of music is not the only one to emerge from this small corner of paradise in the Caribbean. Ska, rocksteady, dub, and dancehall (ragga) are all Jamaican-inspired musical genres and it is the birthplace of many international recording artists, including Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, Shaggy and Grace Jones.

Jamaicans love sport and cricket is a national passion. The football team qualified for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and the bobsled team has been a serious contender in the Winter Olympics, providing the inspiration for the 1994 film Cool Runnings.

Ian Fleming, who lived in Jamaica, repeatedly used the island as a backdrop for his James Bond novels including Live and Let Die, Doctor No, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy. Tom Cruise filmed Cocktail there, too.