Famous Places in Jamaica

Port Royal

Port Royal is one of the most famous places in Jamaica. Port Royal is an old port, not far from the capital Kingston. In 1962 the town was affected by a powerful earthquake. Almost a half of the city ran out in the water and created a tsunami, which killed around 2000 people. After the disaster, Kingston took over the port business. In 1907 there was a new earthquake. Two thirds of the city slipped out in the water. Now Port Royal is tourist attraction. The Jamaican government has decided to restore the town, although the town is fallen.

Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains is the longest mountain range in Jamaica. It include the island`s highest point, Blue mountain peak, at 2256 m. From Blue Mountains you can see both the north and the south coast of the island and on a clear day you can see all the way to Cuba. On the Blue Mountains it`s a huge wildlife with many species.

Negril

Negril is a beach 80 km west of Montego Bay. It stretches for 11 km and offers sailing, water skiing, deep sea fishing, scuba diving parasailing and windsurfing. It`s very popular among tourists.

Towns

Kingston is the capital and the largest city on Jamaica. It has 600 000 inhabitants. Kingston consists of two main parts, Centrum and New Kingston. In New Kingston there are many tourist attractions, like the Bob Marley museum and Devon house which is one of the leading national monuments of Jamaica. Other towns include Montego Bay, St. Ann`s Bay and Spanish town. Those three towns has together a population 230 000 people. 

ex. 4.6: A famous person

Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt is without doubt the most famous person from Jamaica. Usain Bolt is known as the fastest man on earth. He was born 21. August 1986 in Trelawny, Jamaica. He is an athletic specialized on 100 metres and 200 metres. He has the world record on both. In his early ages, he played cricket. But since he was so fast, his coach recommended him to start with athletics. In the summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008 Bolt won three gold medals, the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 4*100 metres relay. He broke the world record in all three races. In 2009 he was ready for a new world championship. Usain Bolt won the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 4*100 metres relay again! He broke the world record in 100 and 200 metres. He ran the 100 metres in 9, 58. The world was shocked of his performance, and he got more popular than ever. In the 2010 season, Bolt suffered an injury, and didn’t run a lot. The few times he ran, he didn’t push himself to hard. Bolt has also expressed his love to football, and Manchester United. One of Bolt’s biggest wishes is to one day play for Manchester United. 

Day 2! (9.5.2012)

Today was a very exiting day! After packing out, I and Erlend went for a long run through the outskirts of some of the more wealthy suburbs of Kingston. Our hotel is very nice and I was well rested when we set out. The coast is really ragged and there was a lot of rough terrain in the beginning, but some hundred meters inland Jamaica has something resembling to a small coastal plain, so the landscape was perfect for jogging. Despite the geographical proximity to the capitol, there was no problem finding grassy plains or earthy roads. This was a positive surprise for me because my knees don’t appreciate asphalt very well.

There’s a white beach not far from our hotel, and after the run I bathed in water the color of light aquamarine. Erlend was feeling the effects of the time difference and wanted to sleep, but I didn’t really mind having the sand for myself. The sun was up and the sky had a subtropical turquoise quality, so the light breeze had a nice cooling effect as morning slowly turned to midday. About eleven o’ clock tourists started arriving and I went back to the hotel. After a small meal and a Norwegian protein shake called “Yt” I felt tired and a bit full, so I went to sleep myself.

However, I didn’t want to waste the day completely, so about four o’clock I got up again. I went to the athletics stadium by a rental bike the hotel fortunately was in possession of. To my big disappointment, Usain Bolt had returned to the US in the morning, but the rest of the Jamaican national sprint team was jogging around on the field. It seemed there was going to be some kind of national contest in an hour or so. Probably to test the athletes before the upcoming Olympic Games in London or something like that. Anyways, I decided I didn’t have anything better to do the next couple of hours, so I took a seat on the tribunes. Many people had already arrived, and the speaker announced on the speaker that the Somali-Canadian artist K’naan was going to perform before the competition. According to the speaker, he was on a tour in the Caribbean because of the outbreak of super resistant tuberculosis on Haiti. Have you heard any of his music? It’s a mix of hip hop, rap and reggae in my opinion. As Jamaican as a sprint world record holder, in other words.

When I returned to the hotel room three hours later, I was tired and went to sleep. I didn’t sleep as well as last night, but I slept well enough.

The National Flag

August the 6^th is the Jamaican Independence Day. On this day, year 1962, the Flag of Jamaica was for the first time ever raised, signifying the birth of their nation.

 The flag consists of a yellow diagonal cross, which divides the flag into four sections: two green and two black triangles. The original design was really with horizontal stripes, but this was too similar to the Tanganyika flag.

The Jamaican flag is not only used as a nation flag on land, but the same flag is used as a trade flag and state flag on land and at sea.

Every flag color symbolizes their pride for their country and their people. The green is a symbolic of hope, agricultural richness, and vegetation. Black is the symbol of strength and creativity of Jamaican people, and gold represents sunlight and Jamaica's natural wealth.

EX 4.4

Sports:

Sport is very important for the Jamaicans, and they have great traditions when it comes to running. As of today, the two fastest men on earth are Jamaican; The former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell is second only to Usain Bolt, who holds the incredible world records of today on both 100 and 200 meters. His record on 100 meter is 9,58 seconds, and on 200 meter is 19,19!

Jamaica also have a history in bobsled (better known as JamBob). In 1988 Jamaica, for first time, participated in the winter Olympics. It was in Calgary. The first year(1988) ended whit injuries and crashes, but over the years Jamaica has developed a proud bobsled culture.

Task 4, geography and climate

Jamaica is the largest island of the (British) Commonwealth Caribbean and the 3^rd largest Caribbean island in total. At its greatest extent, it is 235 km long and 84 km wide. Like the rest of the Greater Antilles, Jamaica consists mainly of limestone and other porous types of stone. The banks of corals that is so typical for the Lesser Antilles is also numerous along the Jamaican coast, but unlike the Lesser Antilles the island itself is not an oversized bank of corals.  The northern and western parts of the island are dominated by sloping plateaus of ragged cliffs and limestone caves.  To the southeast the Blue Mountains with the Blue Mount Peak as the highest point (2256m) is surrounded by a rough coastline with stone shelves and coral reeves.

            The Jamaican island has mainly two types of climate. The higher northern and eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains and the John Crow Mountains have an annual rainfall of more than 5000 mm. The towns in the south and west however, for instance the capitol, Kingston, is sheltered by the mountains and receives merely 700 mm annually. The temperature near the coast rarely drops beneath 20 degrees Celsius. In the mountains however, the coldest winter days may bring snowfall, although this happens very rarely.

            Jamaica lies in the Atlantic Hurricane Belt, and regularly suffers damages from hurricanes passing by very close to the island. From time to time the island is also directly hit by hurricanes, which may or may not cause high death rates as well as huge damages. The frequency of the hurricanes in the Atlantic Hurricane Belt seems to be negatively proportional with the temperature in the area, according to Wikipedia. This means that the lower the temperature is, the higher the frequency of hurricanes is.

Ex 4.4

Despite of the size of Jamaica, their culture has a strong global influence. Their music for instance; The reggae is loved by the youth (and older persons) almost all over the world. And if you don't love it, you at least have heard about the Reggae.
Jamaica has also influenced American rap music. The famous rapper The Notorious B.I.G is of Jamaican descent. The "B.I.G" is for some people seen ass the toughest rapper that has ever been.


There are 2 847 232 people in Jamaica. The religion(s) in Jamaica are Christianity/Church of God of Prophecy (24% of the population), Seventh-day Adventist Church (11%), Pentecostal (10%), Baptist (7%), Anglican (4%), Roman Catholic (2%), United Church (2%), Methodist (2%), Jehovah's Witnesses (2%), Moravian (1%) and Plymouth Brethren(1%). (These numbers are from Wikipedia). As you can see there are lots of different religions in Jamaica, and although Chritianity is the main religion, but just 24% of the Jamaicans are Christian's.

Day 2! (09.05.2012)

Day two is now over. Today has been a boring day. In the morning I went for a long run, and when I came home I fell asleep. I didn't wake until now. Practically, I have done nothing today :P

Top 65 Jamaican Names!

Day 1! (08.05.2012)

Day one was amazing, I have done all sorts of things. First I went to see Usain Bolt train. He is so FAST! Then I went to the Burger King and ate a burger :D After that i went home and saw a movie about Jamaican elephants, but I think the program was just bullshit, because' I have not seen any elephants... I had went to bed when someone knocked on the frontdoor to my hotelroom. It was Gylve, he had traveled all the way from South-Africa just to say hi. He is a strange boy. He had come all the way from South-Africa, so I had to let him in. Besides, he had something interesting to tell me.
Gylve said that the Norwegian king, Harald, had been killed in a bungyjumping accident. The rope had loosened, so Harald did not bounce back up again but kept falling towards the ground. I cried myself to sleep.

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to our blog, written by Jacob, Eivind, Erlend and Jan. We have created this blog to inform you about Jamaica and our holiday on there this summer (2012).
Enjoy!