Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, is a good base for trips into the Blue Mountains, Port Royal and Spanish Town. If you can get up early enough to be on Blue Mountain Peak at dawn, you will be rewarded by a most spectacular sunrise. Port Royal, once the ‘wickedest city in the world’, when Henry Morgan’s buccaneers caroused in its taverns and brothels, was duly punished when in 1692 an eartquake caused it to sink into the sea.
You can get there by water taxi across the harbor and skin dive to see the ruins. Spanish Town is 13 miles west of Kingston, has a fine square and cathedral and its Folk Museum is worth a visit. To the northern of the capital are the Royal Botanical Gardens at Hope. In the town there is the Straw Market for handicrafts and, if you are interested in the history of the island, you can see relics of the Arawak people in the Jamaica Institute.
Montego Bay on the north shore is one of the world’s great resorts. The phenomenon started at the Doctor’s Cave where the beach was thought to be fed by spring waters of therapeutc value. The Doctor’s Cave Beach Club is still social center.
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