Jamaica: A land of contrasts

Penni D’Aulerio goes on a whirlwind trip to Jamaica and finds there is more to the island than just rum and sand

Monday, April 18, 2005

By Penni D’Aulerio

Photo by Penni D’Aulerio

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On a recent two-night/three-day trip to Jamaica, my husband and I were fortunate enough to stay at an all-inclusive resort. While everything was prepaid prior to our arrival, it was still a novelty having our drinks brought to us, discovering that eating 6 small meals a day is doable…

Needless to say, we felt like the king and queen and life was good.

Heck, we were close to the airport and didn’t mind, joined in on the fun of “waving” to the departing planes to let them know exactly how much fun we were having while they went back to their conventional lives...yah, mon – we were on vacation.

We did things that were out of the ordinary for us: eating tropical fruits like fresh papaya and ackee, drinking rum drinks at totally unreasonable hours of the day, taking a glass-bottomed boat trip which made us long for our forgotten fish tank tucked into the far reaches of our attic at home.

And while tubing was great fun, when we were boated off past the “compound,” I saw unexpected reminders of the world we were being sequestered away from: huts, lined up along the shore that were seemingly abandoned, but were not: most had clothes hanging from the lines in front or on the sides.

I wondered, how could someone actually live there?

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by Michael | Saturday, October 22, 2005 9:36:00 AM

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