Leah in Jamaica

Greetings! Cha... It's my last night here... I could easily stay here for another month, dis place rocks! I-n-I be back fo sho!

Today I chilled around, had some good coffee, and went for a swim in the sea! The beach was very nice. I got bitten in my toe by I a likkle crab, that's what it felt like. It must have looked funny because I was all peacefully walking around in the water at this quiet beach when suddenly I screamed and jumped up ran out of the water.

Had a nice lunch, ate some wonderfully fresh papaya. I love the fruit here! Everything is exotic and fresh. Saw some cute cats at the terrace. Jamaican pets are really relaxed!

I went for dinner with my crew at a cute little restaurant on the beach right next to our resort. The walk on the beach to the restaurant was most irie. Right at that place I ate the best lobster ever! The table was right on the sand. There was a really cute dog. Everyting very pleasant and special, everyone in a good mood, the sound of the ocean in the background. Good vibrations! And well, the food was deliciously sublime!

After dinner Carole and I went to my room to smoke a likkle spliff... Iriely high she went to call her boyfriend abroad. I went to the club where the others were dancing. The music they played didn't really make me wanna dance so I went up to my room again to write about my last day in Jamaica... This was the best trip ever!

Walk Good Jamaica! One Love! Everyting Irie! No Problem! Peace & Unity!

Leah

Jamaica still irie! My photoshoot at the waterfall was really cool. Incredibly beautiful, a thousand shades of green! The waterfall fell into a beautiful green jungle valley. It started raining at one point, but not for long. The plants looked even nicer after the rain.

After lunch I went into Ocho Rios with the crew to go shopping! We had the same guy driving us all the time. First we went into this 'Crafts Park' with lots of small shops with smoking Jamaicans selling souvenirs. I got a wooden mask of a Rasta man, some jewelry and some spoons to stir my coffee . The sellers got annoying after a while cause everyone wanted me to buy everything. But at least they were annoying in an irie way, they were not aggressive or unfriendly at all. If you say 'no' they're alright with it, I just have to learn that... When everyone had enough of the market we went across the street to the supermarket. I got more Blue Mountain coffee!! Yumm... I also got a little bottle of Jamaican rum, I don't drink it but I can always give it to someone. I also got some candy which I found out is out of date... I guess Jamaicans don't eat much chocolate...

Dinner around 8, afterwards I went to a party on the beach with Kim and Ellen. We danced and there was a spectacular show: guys breathing fire! 'More fyah, more fyah!' It was a lotta fun, but which Jamaican beach party isn't!

Tomorrow I gotta leave at 6 am so I gotta wake up very early... But that's no problem in beautiful Jamaica!

Peace, Leah

I love Jamaica! Last night was 'Reggae Night' at the bar which meant that there was a dreadlocked singer with a band playing famous reggae choons! Lots of Bob Marley of course. People were dancing and I also put on mi dancing shoes! Mi crew had already gone to bed. The vibe was most irie, everyone's so happy and positive over here!

This morning I had to be at the makeup artist at 6:30. We went to take pictures at this house owned by a Brittish couple. It was a really cute house on a cliff next to the sea. You could rent a room there. The house was colorful and lively, typical Jamaican to me. I think the woman who lived there is an artist; the walls (and furniture ) were filled with paintings. Very bright colorful happy art! There was more African orientated art in the house like statues and masks. Nice!

There were some really cute dogs and cats there! One dog named 'Happy' reminded me a lot of my own dog. He was playing with the cat all the time which was very entertaining while I was waiting when they were taking pictures of the other model.

We finished the shoot around 3 and I went to chill in my room for a bit. After that I went to the towel place again where I met Stuart, who got some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee for me! I don't know if I have the chance to go into a town to buy anything that's why I asked him to get me some.

I have to start makeup at 6 am tomorrow. We're gonna go to a waterfall! Coolness!

Jah bless, Leah

The bus left at 6 this morning for an almost 2 hour drive to the location of my shoot. A plantation called 'Good Hope.' The locals call it 'Bad Hope' because of it's horrible past in the days of slavery. We worked at 'the Country House', a big Gregorian villa built around 1755. One of the people who once owned Good Hope was called John Tharp and he was the richest man of Jamaica. He wasn't cool at all, he had lots of slaves. The plantation is still active now, I forgot what they're planting though. But I think sugar and some kind of fruit.

The house is open for visitors now, you can stay there for a romantic weekend or get married! Perfect. There are 2 other villas on the plantation where you can stay as well. It had little signs with information all over the place, so I got to know some of the history. Over the past 5 different families have been living there. It already started to become a touristic attraction around 1940.

Amazingly beautiful there! All the views of the house looked over green hills without anything material, just nature! Incredible! It also felt a bit weird to be at that place because of the strange history. It's hard to comprehend what really happened there. It's too much.

There was an iPod at the house connected to speakers that were outside so the whole plantation could hear the music! Not exactly, cause it's pretty big, but still, the music was loud! I was the DJ for a while so I played some good Roots Reggae, Bob of course and some Burning Spear, Culture, Black Uhuru etc.... Love Reggae Music! They served Blue Mountain coffee there. It's so good!!

I really enjoyed the beauty of everything. Even the way back by bus was exciting because you can never see enough of Jamaica, right mon!

After dinner I went to a club with Ellen and Kim called 'Pacha.' You got clubs like that one all over the world. We had a good dance, especially in the beginning because they played reggae and dancehall! Which changed into Hip-Hop, alright, then R&B... mmm... and then 80's hits... A good time for me to go to bed... hihi...

Tomorrow I got the day off! Which is nice because now I can really enjoy the Jamaican collie...

I'll be swimming mon!

Love, Leah

I finally got to Jamaica! The trip took a day longer than planned. Flight got cancelled... Spent the whole day on Brussels Airport because they took really long deciding whether the plane was gonna go or not. Which was weird because they knew that it was broken all along... Anyways... After flying for 12 hours I arrived at Montego Bay airport in Jamaica around 11:30 last night. It took forever to get through the douane. Had to take a 1,5 hour bus ride to Ocho Rios. On the way there I talked to a friendly guy my age. He was also into Reggae and making music so we had stuff to talk about!

Obviously I went to bed pretty late but got up at 7 again this morning when discoved that my room had a view over the sea! I couldn't go back to sleep mon! After a lovely breakfast I went to chill on da beach for a while while reading about Jamaica's intriguing history in the Lonely Planet. The weather is perfect!

In the afternoon I chilled with some Jamaican youth. I asked them loads of questions about Jamaica, escpecially Jamaican music. It was really cool to talk to people that actually know more about it than I do! I bought a cd from a guy, with more modern Reggae music, nice and new because I usually listen to Roots Reggae. It's all cool! I also got some ganja, soft sweet holy herb! I thought I really had to try that on this once-in-a-lifetime-experience trip! Well it's supherb!

I'm gonna get ready for dinner now. I'm hungry so I can't wait!

Peace & Unity

Leah