G’day Folks, time to get tropical as I continue through last year’s big adventure. And yes, the next location was my first taste of the Caribbean (as the title says) as I headed to Jamaica, flying with American Airlines from Orlando, via Miami, to Kingston the Jamaican capital.

As I planned this journey I originally wasn’t going to Central America, in fact I had big island hopping plans in the Caribbean including Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kits and Nevis and well, I looked into most of the islands, then got inspired by some blog posts and decided to head to El Salvador.

Flying into Jamaica was problematic in the planning stage, as initially I looked to go direct from Central America. The problem was the prices! Starting at about $800AUD and requiring a night in the Dominican Republic for the connection, yes that was the cheapest I found. $200AUD to Miami from Managua in Nicaragua, then I could use Qantas Frequent Flyer Points for the journey to Jamaica on American Airlines, this seemed like the most cost effective way. I would need an ESTA just to transit the States, so I decided I wanted to get to Disney and made it a five day stay, taking the flight then from Orlando to Miami to Kingston.

Orlando Airport had trains that took you from check in to the terminals. At Miami I exited the plane believing I would need to pass through security/immigration again (I’d asked someone when I flew into Miami). But I didn’t, apparently you are logged via passport when you check in and Miami doesn’t require a passport check OUT. At least not to Jamaica I guess, because the gate was near the gate I arrived on from Orlando in the same terminal, I could have just walked over to it. I had a long wait though and I had used around the lounge there which was pretty good.

Actually, the gate had changed and when I got out of the lounge I had to push hard to make it to the gate for the flight, I discovered actually the terminal was huge! Must have been over a kilometre to the gate at a guess. The original gate was very close to the one that I arrived at.

Anyways, enough about flights and the boring stuff (although I should mention, more stunning scenery as we passed over the Caribbean). I touched down after a two hour ish flight into Kingston, and was so lucky that the brilliant Rochelle from Adventures from Elle offered to pick me up at the airport. Not only that, her and her partner stopped at a supermarket and I filled up on groceries for the best part of the week I would be there as I was staying in a wonderful Air BnB.

First impressions – I don’t know what I can tell you really. Certainly, food etc at the supermarket was not cheap, but that was expected. I was glad to cook for myself, there was a subway near me so I tried it once for fun, but I was pretty shocked as it worked out to be around $35AUD for a sub and drink. Luckily I was shown Jamaica’s ‘patties’ which are a little like a cross between he Aussie meat pie and the pasty, which are cheap and taste good which I had a few times when I was out.

I was in a suburb of Kingston, a fairly well off area so I gather, supermarket and shops an easy walk. To get into town I needed to take buses or these mini-buses called ‘coasters’, these were cheap. There was a bit of guess work as I almost exclusively took a coaster, to get to an interchange area called Half Way Tree. From there I was able to reach a few places to explore bustling Kingston by foot to a couple of places or another coaster or bus downtown.

This area was busy and moving. The weather was somewhat hot and humid, yet I found my apartment was cool enough just with ceiling fans. Ro had been great in helping me get to where I needed to go and making it so I didn’t need to negotiate a taxi at the airport (and more) and I had a wonderful Air BnB host, Garnet, who brought me mangoes and was a wealth of information.

And then there was… rain! I think the first full day it really pelted down, which was okay for me because I hadn’t done washing for a while (not the whole time I was in the States actually) and they had a washer and dryer! So I had a day of editing and washing and getting ready for exploring Kingston the next day, with a couple of day trips also planned. So those will be the next couple of blogs that I write for you!

Anyways, Jamaica – I was there! Thanks for reading this post today, take care  wherever you are in the world right now and… May the Journey Never End!