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Montego Bay and the West
MONTEGO BAY: Montego Bay (or Mo’Bay, as it is more colloquially called) is the capital of Jamaican tourism and market town for a large part of western Jamaica. Dating back to 1492, Montego Bay is Jamaica’s second-largest city and one of the most modern in the Caribbean. From Gloucester and Kent avenues, there are superb views onto the clear Caribbean waters and the long reef protecting the bay. Most of the hotels are found on a strip of coastline about 2.4km (1.5-miles) long. There are three main beaches: Doctor’s Cave Beach (so named because it was once owned by a Dr McCatty and had a cave that has since eroded away) which has beautiful white sand, and where the exceptionally clear water is believed to be fed by mineral springs; Walter Fletcher Beach, nearest the centre and a short walk from the Upper Deck Hotel; and Cornwall Beach, which is a few yards from the local Tourist Board Office. A short way inland from the Bay is Rose Hall, a restored Great House on a sugar plantation.
Excursions: Rocklands Feeding Station is home to some of the most exotic birds in the world, such as the mango hummingbird, orange quit and the national bird of Jamaica, the Doctor Bird. Visitors are allowed to feed the birds at certain times of the day. Very popular is a motor coach ride through thick mountain forests into the interior, passing through banana and coconut plantations and Ipswich Caves (a series of deep limestone recesses) to the sugar estate of the famous Appleton Rum Factory and onwards to Catadupa, where shirts and dresses are made to measure.
NEGRIL: Negril is 80km (50 miles) west of Montego Bay and has a beach stretching for 11km (7 miles) which offers sailing, water-skiing, deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, parasailing and windsurfing. First coming to attention as an artists’ centre and, later as a focus of ‘alternative’ culture in the 1960s, it is becoming increasingly popular as a holiday destination which seems likely to preserve much of its original character – indeed, the law requires all buildings to be of modest proportions. Along the street, entrepreneurial Jamaicans sell a variety of craft goods from the many shanty-like shops in Negril. There is also a hectic nightlife in the many clubs that have, over the years, proliferated along the beach. Rick’s Café, located at West Point (which is as far west as Jamaica goes), is a favourite haunt both for Jamaicans and visitors and is famous as the place from which to observe the sun going down.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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