The second tour we chose involved a jeep excursion followed by a trip up Dunn’s River Falls. The tour was operated by the same company as the canopy tour, and this one didn’t disappoint.

Our jeep seated eight people total, plus our guide, Peter. Fortunately, he’s one of the few Jamaican’s we encountered off the resort who spoke clear English. After we picked up some other people, Peter took us up into the mountains, through some small communities and onto a large cattle ranch. Along the way we stopped several times so he could explain Jamaican history and culture, as well as show us specific plants and landmarks. He also took us off road at unexpected times. The roads themselves are bad enough, so we’ll probably be stiff tomorrow.

Some of the things we learned:

• Irie = things are good.
• Coffee plants don’t smell like coffee at all – the flowers are sweet smelling.
• Banana trees have hard cores with very fine fibers inside, while the outer layers are soft and spongy. (And they only take 9 months to grow big enough to bear bananas.)
• There’s some kind of fruit that grows on trees and can get as big as 50 pounds each.
• In order to mine limestone and bauxite, mining companies built a six mile conveyor belt to carry the minerals to port.
• There are only five rivers in Ocho Rios (not eight).
• Starting at age three children attend Basic school, then elementary from first to sixth grade, and high school starting with seventh grade.
• Jamaica has the most churches per square mile of any country in the world. (There’s always a bar close by, too.)
• You don’t need a working speedometer or gas gage to drive people around in a jeep all day.
• Guava = Jamaican Viagra.
• Goats = Jamaican Reindeer.
• Blue Mountain (where the best coffee comes from) gets over 300 inches of rain each year.
• Pimento leaves have the flavors of cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

The last part of our tour involved climbing up the falls. I’m not talking about hiking to the top for a nice view, but climbing straight up the middle as the water swirls around you. The guides made everyone form a human chain which is helpful at times, but mostly just annoying, because a lot of the people weren’t as nimble as we were. It was pretty fun, but a little chilly. Since we didn’t have anything but flip flops, we had to rent nasty aqua shoes out of some ladies car. That sucked, but it wasn’t enough to tarnish the rest of the trip. All in all, another really fun tour, and well worth the extra cost.