Jamaica_ Ocho Rios in St. Ann Parish_ Part II

Stashana
Nov 1, 2019
3 min read

Gorgeous private beach in Runaway Bay. One of the main tourist areas along the North Coast. Stretching from the Montego Bay airport all the way to Ocho Rios it is littered with resorts. This private beach is sandwiched between a public beach to my right and a resort to the left. I ended up here as a tag along with the guest house host. She was pretty nice until I decided to end my trip early due to the state of emergency on the island at the time. This was in January 2018. She thought it was ridiculous I wanted to leave early and refused to give me a refund. In the end, I got what I wanted of course. Under this tree, was certainly the best spot on the beach!

Resort and vacationers

Public beach and restaurant over yonder, about a 8 minute walk. There you can find vendors selling arts and crafts and the restaurant has pretty decent food, but the average meal costs around $15 USD. I rarely spend that much for food on the island but once in a while, I will indulge. That is certainly very rare and almost always at the beach.

Cool glass bottom boat. I took a ride on one of these in Negril on 7 Mile Beach, back in January 2015. It is one of the most famous and beautiful beaches in all of Jamaica. It was certainly unforgettable. There are lots of expensive guesthouses, fancy hotels, bars, restaurants and lots more to be found there. I took a swim in the middle of the ocean and conquered my fears of doing that. Negril is an absolute must when visiting the island and I can't wait to revisit.

Boat

This beach stretches on forever...

As mentioned before, I love beaches. I travel for the food and the beaches! Welcome to Oracabessa. Again, I ended up here as a tag along. There was another American couple this time and boy was I glad to hang with them. Americans, for the most part were nicer on this particular trip. There was some tension in the air due to the state of emergency but not enough to deter these two. The male counterpart encountered a terrible accident in the water, and it sucked because it was their first day. He was limping around after stepping on some sharp object in the ocean. We believe, it was a sea urchin. I, however was hopping, swimming and frolicking around in the water for much longer and manged to fare fine. We were all worried for days. However, after getting a shot in the foot for around $20 USD at the local clinic, he was up and running again. This made me question, everything about American medicine.

Yachts and fishing boats. There were fishermen going out to sea to catch fish on the boats and came back with a pretty decent haul. Keeping it local!

Sunset

There was a loud school event happening not to far off in the distance. There was much excitement. There were many locals pulling up in cars to attend. Some even came to hang on the beach after. Everybody was chill.

This is a really hidden secret tiny beach, mainly used by locals. To the right is Goldeneye Resort, which probably explains the yachts. It is fancy, expensive and I would love to stay there.

Back in Ochi Town. This is my favorite part of Ocho Rios, believe it or not. It is downtown Ocho Rios. It is where touristy Ochi meets local Ochi. You can catch a route taxi, to almost any destination or connecting destination here. Find many pictured above. Additionally, over to the right is the Ochi Rios market, where I looove getting me some local fruit and veggies. Yumm.

This is the most famous roundabout in Jamaica. Check out this amazing video where it is featured over 25 years ago. This is about the famous ride from Kingston to Ocho Rios through Fern Gully, before the new highway was constructed. You can still take this ride like these girls, but for people in a hurry, the highway is much quicker. Again believe it or not, it is a ride I have never taken. I have been to and from Ocho Rios many times and to Kingston even more times, but never directly to and from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjV7yuuzCs0