First stop today was Doctor’s Cave Beach and the commercial strip that lies next to it. We found a paid parking spot close to the beach entrance, and before we had paid to park someone offered to sell me ganja. The beach costs $6 (US) a person to enter but for that you get a lifeguard, luxurious modern restrooms, showers, and changing rooms, as well as heavy policing. Yes, it’s a gated community among beaches.

That’s the view from the coral reef just offshore. It’s not the best reef we’ve ever seen, but it is really close to the beach, and there were some species of fish I hadn’t seen before. I liked these blue striped guys…

… and these golden brown chaps with bright blue spots.

A couple more fish pictures and then we’ll talk about weed some more.

Behind the beach is a sordid commercial strip of shops selling tourist junk and a Starbucks.

It’s just like Fisherman’s Wharf, but without the class. At one end there is a thatched roof casino.

… and a ganja store.

In spite of the legal marijuana shop (which is hiring by the way)…

… every third person on the street also has pot for sale. After lunch we headed for Dunn’s River Falls. That was a ninety minute drive along a busy road, punctuated by jerk chicken stands, gated communities, shanty towns, goats grazing on the grass verge, and Paula hurling invective at Jamaican drivers. It seems like that laid back, Caribbean, stoner attitude vanishes as soon as a Jamaican gets behind the wheel of a car. It was actually great fun pulling out of our parking spot. Paula was worried about reversing out into the traffic, but as it turned you it was blocked in both directions by tour van drivers about to get into a shouting match over our spot.

Dunn’s river falls is another one of those heavily policed enclaves. The parking lot has its own police station. The spring fed falls tumble down 180 feet to the beach over a natural staircase of tufa limestone platforms. Rather than just admiring the view tourists are encourage to climb up the falls.

Here’s Paula commencing the ascent.

OK, I’ll be honest. That’s as far as we got, as I had forgotten my water shoes. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

In contrast to the touristic chaos of the falls, the park also has a “Tranquility Garden” which apart from us and one other couple was deserted. It appears that people don’t go on vacation to Jamaica for tranquility. It was lovely though.

Time to leave the yacht club with it’s WiFi and cricket on the TV and dinghy back to the Mantra for the night, so I don’t have time to tell you about Jamaica’s only floating restaurant and the world’s shortest ferry ride.