A 6.30am start today. We have a full day ahead of us. First stop on the road was a small town high in the mountains away from the coast. We feasted on freshly cooked corn on the cob.
We were amused by the signs on the poles including Chicken Punchie Don and the Crew presenting Girls Naked Run. Another sign down the road had “funded with tax payers money”. This town was inundated with flood water some years after one of the hurricanes come through.
After two and half hours of driving on windy narrow roads, we had lots of Jamaicans passing us with death wishes. I think we had three near accidents in that time, the worst when a car passed us on a crest with a bend in it and narrowly squeezed in between us and the oncoming car who both braked and swerved. These guys are crazy on the road.
Our first major stop was the Appleton rum distillery. The factory had a large stack spewing out steam set in a valley full of sugar cane.
We saw a donkey, Paz, work some magic and crush some sugar cane to produce the sugar syrup. After a few laps, he was happy to get his crushed pulp from the cane for his efforts.
Inside the distillery, a hot environment, we got to see rum getting distilled from molasses in four large stills. The factory was like a “rum sauna”, it did smell pretty bad. Azza would have been in heaven. The next building across held barrels and barrels of rum ageing on oak. The room was cold, mainly due to the alcohol slowly evaporating, or rum air conditioning. They lose 6% by volume in each barrel on a yearly basis. 
Outside of the fenced part of the factory, our guide took us through the production of sugar syrup again and we got to taste molasses.
We got up to our usual capers and took photos, the best was Tan relaxing in the drivers seat of the period style rum truck. 
We got to taste the rum inside, though with no breakfast and an early morning we took it easy. I did try the 127 Overproof white rum (63.5% alcohol). I dipped my tongue in it and it burned.
Another 25 minutes down the road we ended up at the YS Estate. Here we all climbed aboard a jitney, a trailer which was towed by a Massey Ferguson tractor and drove through paddocks to the YS Falls.
The YS Falls are a series of cascades, eight in total, sit in a tropical environment. We put on our bathers and walked to the top pool were we swam in the pool. Now we have abseiled down water falls in Costa Rica, ascended the Dunns River falls and now we showered in the cascading water here. The water was a little cool but it was great fun getting hydro massages. 
We had to laugh at the sign posted here. No ganja smoking was allowed at the falls.
In the bus again with more driving ahead of us, we stopped along the way to buy Spicy Shrimp from an old lady. These are freshwater shrimp cooked with salt, spice and pepper. We were told there are two ways to eat these shrimp, peel them and eat the flesh or throw the whole thing in your mouth. I had to try the shrimp and I followed the traditional way. It was good at the start but you end up with a lot of trash in your mouth once the good stuff is gone. 
We stopped for lunch in Luana where we saw our first cricket ground (well we are in the West Indies!) The view was of the broad Black River morass, a large swamp land with many rivers snaking through it. Lunch was fried chicken (a Jamaican (and Costa Rican) favourite), pork and rice and beans. Not bad.
We finally arrived at Black River, where it met the sea. We jumped aboard our boat and Tan and I got pole position at the front of the boat. The crocodiles here are more friendly than what you would see at the Crocoseum. We only went 100m up the river to see our first, sunning himself on the bank with its’ jaws propped open.
Further up, we saw Patricia, yes, these crocs have names. Patricia was keen for some chicken and a belly rub. The crocodiles are less aggressive than their Australian counterparts. It might be all the hooch that is in this country. One of the captains of the other boat grabbed this crocodile by the leg and even patted it. Now this thing was only a good 12 feet long too!! 
The river itself was picturesque, with different types of mangroves and bird life. Even Tan (the twitcher) spotted a few helped by the punch she was drinking. 
We had a three hour drive ahead of us, via a different way this time via Montego Bay and then onto the best road in the country along the northern shore. The trip was 14 hours in total, but it was good to see the real Jamaica, by getting out and about, compared to sitting in the resort.
We were amused by the signs on the poles including Chicken Punchie Don and the Crew presenting Girls Naked Run. Another sign down the road had “funded with tax payers money”. This town was inundated with flood water some years after one of the hurricanes come through.After two and half hours of driving on windy narrow roads, we had lots of Jamaicans passing us with death wishes. I think we had three near accidents in that time, the worst when a car passed us on a crest with a bend in it and narrowly squeezed in between us and the oncoming car who both braked and swerved. These guys are crazy on the road.Our first major stop was the Appleton rum distillery. The factory had a large stack spewing out steam set in a valley full of sugar cane.
We saw a donkey, Paz, work some magic and crush some sugar cane to produce the sugar syrup. After a few laps, he was happy to get his crushed pulp from the cane for his efforts.Inside the distillery, a hot environment, we got to see rum getting distilled from molasses in four large stills. The factory was like a “rum sauna”, it did smell pretty bad. Azza would have been in heaven. The next building across held barrels and barrels of rum ageing on oak. The room was cold, mainly due to the alcohol slowly evaporating, or rum air conditioning. They lose 6% by volume in each barrel on a yearly basis. Outside of the fenced part of the factory, our guide took us through the production of sugar syrup again and we got to taste molasses. We got up to our usual capers and took photos, the best was Tan relaxing in the drivers seat of the period style rum truck. We got to taste the rum inside, though with no breakfast and an early morning we took it easy. I did try the 127 Overproof white rum (63.5% alcohol). I dipped my tongue in it and it burned.Another 25 minutes down the road we ended up at the YS Estate. Here we all climbed aboard a jitney, a trailer which was towed by a Massey Ferguson tractor and drove through paddocks to the YS Falls.
The YS Falls are a series of cascades, eight in total, sit in a tropical environment. We put on our bathers and walked to the top pool were we swam in the pool. Now we have abseiled down water falls in Costa Rica, ascended the Dunns River falls and now we showered in the cascading water here. The water was a little cool but it was great fun getting hydro massages. We had to laugh at the sign posted here. No ganja smoking was allowed at the falls.In the bus again with more driving ahead of us, we stopped along the way to buy Spicy Shrimp from an old lady. These are freshwater shrimp cooked with salt, spice and pepper. We were told there are two ways to eat these shrimp, peel them and eat the flesh or throw the whole thing in your mouth. I had to try the shrimp and I followed the traditional way. It was good at the start but you end up with a lot of trash in your mouth once the good stuff is gone. We stopped for lunch in Luana where we saw our first cricket ground (well we are in the West Indies!) The view was of the broad Black River morass, a large swamp land with many rivers snaking through it. Lunch was fried chicken (a Jamaican (and Costa Rican) favourite), pork and rice and beans. Not bad.We finally arrived at Black River, where it met the sea. We jumped aboard our boat and Tan and I got pole position at the front of the boat. The crocodiles here are more friendly than what you would see at the Crocoseum. We only went 100m up the river to see our first, sunning himself on the bank with its’ jaws propped open.
Further up, we saw Patricia, yes, these crocs have names. Patricia was keen for some chicken and a belly rub. The crocodiles are less aggressive than their Australian counterparts. It might be all the hooch that is in this country. One of the captains of the other boat grabbed this crocodile by the leg and even patted it. Now this thing was only a good 12 feet long too!! The river itself was picturesque, with different types of mangroves and bird life. Even Tan (the twitcher) spotted a few helped by the punch she was drinking. We had a three hour drive ahead of us, via a different way this time via Montego Bay and then onto the best road in the country along the northern shore. The trip was 14 hours in total, but it was good to see the real Jamaica, by getting out and about, compared to sitting in the resort.
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