Almost everyone I talked to said I had to see Glistening Waters Luminous Lagoon but when I asked why, the universal response was, see for yourself. As we drove from Montego Bay to Falmouth, I found myself questioning my decision. I hadn’t had time to do much research so I was flying in the dark. And at 7:00 p.m., it was also dark. We bought our tickets a few minutes...

The first thing that popped into my head when I saw that this week’s photo challenge is indulgence, was, of course, food. But there are so many other ways to indulge and fortunately, I was able to find one non-food photo that captures it. I really couldn’t leave out a food photo. This is my entry to this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge organized by WordPress.

Jamaican tenor saxophonist, Rolando Alphonso, was born on January 12, 1931 in Havana, Cuba.  He was brought to Jamaica by his mother when he was two years old. In Jamaica, Alphonso learned to play the saxophone and worked as a studio musician, backing performers such as Jimmy Cliff, the Wailers, the Maytals and most of the other leading performers of the 1960s. Alphonso also worked for two of the most...

Greenwood Great House has the best collection of Victorian-era furniture, musical instruments, and china in Jamaica, perhaps even the Caribbean. Part of the 84,000 acre estate that belonged to the wealthy Barrett family whose relatives were the British poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her aunt, Sarah Moulton Barrett, who was also called Pinkie. Moulton Barrett was born in Jamaica and was immortalized in the painting, Pinkie, by the British artist, Thomas...

Greenwood Great House, the entertainment home that once belonged to the family of Pinkie, subject of the famous painting by Thomas Lawrence, looks largely the same now as it would have when she left Jamaica more than 200 years ago. Though she died of whooping cough at age 12, about a year after its completion, because of the painting’s resemblance to Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy, she has become more easily recognizable...

I’ve been a fan of Burning Spear (the Spear) since high school. It was the height of the Black Power Movement in the U.S., a movement that had spread to the Caribbean and expressed itself in a growing consciousness and pride in our Africanness. The Spear’s third album, Marcus Garvey, became an anthem, an indictment of the times. Marcus Garvey words come to pass, Burning Spear sang and we cheered. It was one...

It’s hard to think of down without thinking of its opposite: up. As a matter of fact, we use the expression up and down quite often. We anticipate that what goes up, must eventually, go down. Down can also describe our moods. No one wants to feel down, on the other hand, people who are down to earth put everyone else at ease. Here are my pick of photos that...

Negril is located on the western tip of Jamaica. It got its name from the Spanish word, Negrillo, which either refers to the black cliffs south of this small community or the black eels that used to be found along its coast. Whenever I go to this world famous spot, I always think of my first visit. I was 10 or 11 years old at the time. All Negril was then was...

Ask anyone about Negril and the first thing they’ll mention is its beach. Nearly 5 miles long (though everyone claims it to be 7 miles) of unobstructed beach, it’s the place to go if you’re looking for the best white-sand beach and spectacular sunsets. Negril straddles two of Jamaica’s western parishes – Westmoreland and Hanover – and hugs the coast from Bloody Bay (Hanover) to the lighthouse, in Westmoreland, which...

Last night, I heard the shocking news: Whitney Houston had died. I sat in total disbelief, glued to the television set, watching as the news scrolled across the ticker. Even after I saw the word was, as in Whitney Houston was….it didn’t feel real. No, Whitney Houston can’t be dead. But she was. In the footage that played over and over, she looked vibrant, alive. Nothing in these images predicted this...