I met Marina Delfos about two years ago when I started volunteering with Falmouth Heritage Renewal (FHR). To say that Marina is passionate about heritage would be an understatement. As founder of Jamaica Heritage Walks, she conducts walking tours of Falmouth’s historic district, the town’s Jewish cemetery, and introduces visitors to local foods. Last February, at its annual preservation seminar, FHR presented a session on historic metalwork and Marina took...

This Friday Focus features world traveler and blogger, Dana Carmel. Dana and I ‘found’ each other through a post on my blog and discovered that we shared a connection to Westmoreland, Jamaica’s westernmost parish. You see, Dana met her husband and travel partner, Jave, in Westmoreland. They later married near Montego Bay. She’s been back to Jamaica several times and, in this interview, shares memories of her first and subsequent...

This week’s Friday Focus visits with Kristi Keller, a Calgary native who fell in love with Jamaica and has visited the island about twenty times since 2003. Kristi has also spent months at a time in Jamaica. 1.     Tell us about yourself. I was born and raised in Calgary, Canada.  As a youth I was a dancer and a country girl, spending most of my time riding my horse.  As...

This month, InsideJourneys inaugurates Friday Focus, a series of interviews with writers and travelers. October’s Focus is on Nigerian born writer/photographer and editor for Matador Goods, Lola Akinmade-Åkerström. Lola holds an MSc in Information Systems from the University of Maryland and has a solid background in Geography. She specialized in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for 10+ years and her affinity for the geosciences and maps meant she was born to...