The town of Ocho Rios is full of arts and crafts and great jerk stands! And the beaches are serene, pure and full of expansive reefs to snorkel. And I had little understanding of the Rastafarian movement, which is a way of life for a very wholesome, organic, crafty community. Among our driving venture through Ocho Rios, we came across a wooden hut found in isolated patches of the town, decorated with gracefully carved wooden masks, statues and vases; and one Rasta peacefully perched on the floor crafting wood sculptures and feeding off the vegetation grown solely on his land...truly one of the healthiest communities I have witnessed. My perception of Rastas was such a stereotype conceived from many days spent on Venice Beach watching these long dreaded hippies sporting yellow and green polos and knit hats, playing hacky-sack bare foot on the dirty public sidewalk, smoking small joints, feasting on french fries from McDonalds as night fell...clearly not True Rasta.
Another Jamaican stereotype of mine was crushed when I noticed that locals really don't wear excessively long dreads like most wold assume, in fact they don't wear dreads at all, except for the Rastas. The mix of British and African genes are flowing beautifully through the island and I found their exoticism to be quite alluring...not to mention that the men have perfect bodies and they boast that their food is pure and organic. Organic it is, we ate 3 big meals a day and drank Rum Punch, Kiss from the Heart, and Tropical Poisons consistently and we lost weight! The seafood is amazing with mussels and clams the size of my hand. My one and only complaint was that the white wine was never chilled and never seemed to arrive on time during dinner.
To our surprise Jamaicans get along very easily with Russians, Serbs, Croats, and more generally with East Europeans. There is a common respect for strong bargaining power and each country can hold it's own when it comes to negotiating a good business deal. Jamaicans will try to sell you any of their goods as tourism is the main source of income on the island, and if you don't have good negotiating skills, they will provoke you to spend past your limit. Fortunately, B has unbelievable bargaining power and the Jamaican vendors respected him as a business comrade after they found out they could not push their high prices on him. Jamaica has a high respect for Russians who live in Cuba and Jamaica. A self-made community thriving in each of these countries brings them closer together, and Jamaicans spotted B's will-power to bargain and spotted his respect for vendors who are ruthlessly trying to sell to survive.
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