Mar 9

Written by: chris
3/9/2015 

Jamaica - Montego Bay

Montego Bay is to Jamaica tourism as Cancun is to Mexico tourism – it’s where most travellers go, but it doesn’t represent the local country in most respects.  So when I had a recent opportunity to spend a day here with my family, I decided that we should get away from the packed beaches and explore a part of real Jamaica…

 

Cockpit Country

The region of Jamaica known as Cockpit Country is remarkable both for its landscape and its people. On the dizzying road south from the coast of turquoise waters and crescent beaches, with the experienced hands of Carolyn Barrett of Barrett Adventures behind the wheel, we were introduced to both. The route lay through hills and valleys with rich jungle enveloping the roadside and encroaching on the increasingly sparse villages. The hills became more and more extraordinary – great rounded conical domes, sheathed in greenery. For this is limestone country, 1,300 square kilometers of wildly eroded limestone scenery called ‘karst’ which cloaks an undergound world of caves and subterranean rivers.

 

It was into this wild country that African slaves fled following the conquest of Jamaica by the British over the Spanish in 1655. They survived by subsistence farming and by raiding the lowland plantations. The First and Second Maroon Wars in 1781 simply drove them further into the wilds and the Maroon people exist today as proud and largely independent people in the scattered villages of Cockpit Country. These villages have wonderful names such as Wait-a Bit, Rest and Be Thankful and Me No Sen You No Come. We hiked with Carolyn near the Maroon village of Albert Town and saw how the locals use the lands below the conical hills to grow a great variety of tropical fruits and vegetables. The Cockpits themselves are the depressions below the rounded limestone conical hills and there are over 5,000 of them. There are also over a 1,000 caves that form an extensive underground network beneath this bizarre landscape.

Spelunking 

To experience Cockpit Country from below as well as above, we hooked up with Cockpit Country Adventure Tours which is headquartered in Albert Town, on the eastern boundary of the Cockpit Country. Hugh Dixon is the charming head of this operation. When we met him he explained that it’s a small eco-tourism company managed by the Southern Trelawny Environmental Agency whose mission is to promote development here by implementing environmental conservation and economic opportunity projects. 

Placing us in the competent care of Ainsworth, our ever-smiling spelunking guide, we had a thorough safety check and then we headed for an ominously small opening in a limestone cliff at the end of a trail beside a crystal clear stream. There were six of us and three guides and right from the start I realized this was not to be a touristy ‘show cave’ experience!

We entered a narrow stream passageway illuminated by our headlamps, but soon we were crouching, then on hands and knees, and then wriggling and sliding through the labyrinthine system of underground passageways. Ainsworth ensured that everyone was comfortable at all times and showered us with information about the cave formations and the cave life. For there is life in this darkness! From the bats hanging above to the giant cave crayfish in the waters below, life has found a way of thriving in this extreme environment. 

We had been aware of the sounds of rushing water from the moment we entered the cave – now we descended to another level in the system of passageways to an underground river. And then we went into the water!  Here we could swim in a vast underground pool and then wade along the river to a whole new area of the cave. Stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere. Great sonorous curtains of flowstone provided tom-tom sounds when knocked. Calcareous dams created pools in the darkness. It was a journey through a whole new world. 

When we reluctantly emerged into the bright sunshine of the cave entrance, I had no notion of how much time we had spent underground. As we washed off the cave mud in the nearby stream - there was Hugh with some of his team preparing a memorable “Welcome Back to the Overworld” meal of delicious jerk chicken. The perfect end to a perfect way to explore ‘the real Jamaica’.  

Thanks

We travelled in Cockpit Country with Carolyn Barrett and her Barrett Adventures. Carolyn brought her love and knowledge of the country to our tour and I recommend contacting her if you plan to see the real Jamaica. Her website is www.barrettadventures.com and telephone number is 876-382-6384.

Our caving adventure was with Cockpit Country Adventure Tours and Hugh Dixon, whom I also heartily endorse. Hugh’s website is www.stea.net/tours and the telephone number is 876-393-6584. Thanks to Carolyn, Hugh and Ainsworth for their warmth and hospitality to us Canadian refugees from winter.

Copyright ©2015 Chris Robinson