Visiting Ocho Rios, Jamaica/Carlos Pueblo

Visiting Ocho Rios, Jamaica/Carlos Pueblo

Ocho Rios is on the north side while Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, is on

the south side. It is a country of 2.9 million with a little bit over 10,000 kilometer

square, an independent nation from the Britain since 1962. People always posts

a question that is better off or worse off in a matter of fact. I understand that it

is one of the Caribbean islands of the previous slave trade, pirates heaven, and

Spanish colony. At the breakfast, my favorite daughter Michelle of the Grand Pacific

reminded me be careful out to the streets and don’t argue with the locals. I promised

just looking around to see if there were some tropical fruits stands on the streets and be

back in time for lunch. I didn’t see any fruits at all and I wondered if there was a market

for the fruits at all. I did visit a nice Turtle Creeks municipal park where workers were

making Christmas decoration. A young park supervisor came to escort me around to

three fruit trees, a pond with flowing water to keep Japanese koi fishes and still small

turtles.

I did mention this to my Houston neighbor, Felicia of Kingston, Jamaica. She thinks that

Jamaica is better off and she indicates some real estate ownership opportunity which I

am not sure that I understand. It sounds like that the locals can own a piece of land free

of charge and passes it on to generations. We were interrupted by Fruits trees. Jamaican

apple is really an Ethiopian apple. It looks like the wax apple in Taiwan. I tasted it at Oahu

farmers market. The second tree is Mango and I know very much about it. The third one

on the park is a bread fruit tree that she describes me in details. The bread fruit, Jack Fruit,

and famous durian fruit are the same family when it ripe, the fruit has an odor that people

won’t forget. I asked a clerk at a small museum next stop at Georgetown, Grand Cayman

about the difference between the two, her answer was the independence. Jamaica is while

Grand Cayman is still affiliated with Britain; therefore, it’s better off. I have my own way to

explain this slavery thing and I shall have a special piece to discuss this matter later.

Obviously, the city is anxious to have tourists business, souvenirs, restaurants, and sight

seeing, etc. I was informed that Jamaican coffee was one of the favorite to Japanese

customers and regretfully that I could not find a place to start my search until at the almost

final disembark port. During the 80’s, I had had a customer who owned a laundry and dry

cleaner shop on Westheimer Road in Houston. She blew a very fragrant coffee in a unique

Aladdin kettle  specially made in Italy. She claimed that the coffee was from Jamaica via

Japanese corporation exclusively because the Japanese firms purchased them all in Jamaica

and left nothing for the rest of the market. Her customers were very impressed and asked

for a free cup while doing the business. It has been in my mind always and I am not quite

sure if Jamaica is the one place for such produce and finally I get some idea.