Week 18: St Thomas Adventures

Devon House Flavour: Coffee

Rating: 5/5

Made with the famous Blue Mountain Coffee, this ice cream is how the locals would describe "it niceeee!"

I had the most beautiful adventure in St. Thomas. It was really easy to take the local transport there- for those interested, you take a bus from HWT to Downtown (100$), a route taxi to Morant Bay ($250) and a route taxi up to Bath ($250-$350 pending if you decide to walk up or not). We were looking for an outdoor adventurous trip and ended up at the natural mineral bath with hot spring water pumping from the earth. It is a hidden gem in the Parish of St. Thomas.

The story goes that over many years, many people discovered and visited this mineral bath that is hidden in the hills of St. Thomas on the mountain side. It is not well kept and is a 100 yard hike up but the bath is known to health some aches and pains. There are two sections of the mineral bath, one where you can go to the Indoor Bath Hotel with prices ranging up to $50 US private bath, $33 shared bath) https://www.moonjamaica.com/listing/bath-fountain-hotel-and-spa or the actual fountain bath with the locals. The obvious difference is that the water temperature is hotter at the outdoor bath (around 130 Fahrenheit) while the hotel loses a few degrees due to the pipe set up. We were taken by one of the local employed individuals who seemed to be in charge of the area and suddenly found ourselves with our own massage man/woman. We knew to expect this from reading reviews beforehand and for those of you interested in participating – make sure you know how to bargain. The business is not regulated and some will charge more than others thus it is important to realize the price as they will up it for tourists.

The massage started with sprinkling of water over the body with healing prayers. Then I was told to lay on a rock where my masseur stretched my body out, laid cold and hot water on me and a towel soaked in the natural spring water. It was HOT. You really don’t think it is until they lay the hot water onto you and you r mind automatically wonders if your skin is burning but it isn’t. Then, the masseur takes a clay rock and rubs mud all over your body. You lay in the sun and bask in the mud for around 10-20 minutes where they wash you off. Afterwards, you are rubbed with pimento oil which is extracted by steam distillation of its leaves and fruits. My masseur told me they make it themselves and they have been working in the baths for over 15 years. We were then treated with a natural bath of the hot spring falling from a homemade bamboo pipe. It was simply surreal just feeling one with the nature. It is said that the bath has natural healing powers specifically if you have a cold or skin condition. You can smell the minerals as it is a tint chemical smell. We laid around the river as more people came. Our masseur was kind enough to tell us that the lady in charge was going to charge us up to $5000 JMD but it should only cost around $2000 JMD. As we were leaving and making money arrangements, she indeed charged us $5000 JMD but we stood our ground and said we only had $2000 JMD to give them. Keep this in mind if you decide to go!

We walked back down from Bath to check out the Botanical Gardens. As we were walking down, I couldn’t help but compliment on the pimento oil- my skin had never felt so smooth! At the bottom of the hill, Bath Botanical Garden laid there. It was established in 1779 as a result of a statute of the Jamaica House of Assembly and it was created for both recreational and economic purposes. Many medicinal plants were planted but looking at it now, it was not well upkept due to repeated flooding by the Sulphur River and the creation of Castleton Botanic Garden in St. Mary.

On our way back, we had to go to Morant Bay to transfer back to Kingston where we decided to adventure and stop by a local beach called Rudolf Beach. It was a pebble beach, not meant for sunbathing but more for fishermen. We walked down the side to the very end where we were talking to some locals sitting by the beach. As we reached the end, we saw a fisher boat wading in the strong waves. The waves were large and they looked like they had trouble rowing. On our way back, we saw that the fishermen were trying to move their boat onto shore and the family we met was with them. We decided to ask if they wanted help and they told us come , come. We helped them push this big fishing boat onto the beach with a team of over 10 people. Then they started pulling their fishing net in and we thought- might as well help them out. They showed us how to grab the rope and where to stand. We thought it was a simple line with a cage at the end. Turned out that the net was over 20 yards long and had two ends coming in together. We realized that’s why one of the family members told us to slow down- it was a long and hard work out. One of the local men got stung by a jellyfish near the shore and we ended up with rope sores! All that work took around half an hour and as they brought the net in, there were large rocks and one large fish, two small fish that were caught. I realized that these people were doing this the entire day and all this work to catch one large fish was their income or food for the week. Fishing is a hard job! We said goodbye and went on our way- it was truly a Jamaican experience!

As we were heading back, we were looking for the Morant Bay Court House. This was destroyed in 2007 from a fire but holds to be one of the most important parts of St. Thomas history. It was the scene of the Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865 where a protest started by local citizens against poor economic and social conditions in the country. Two large bands of people armed with sticks and cutlasses marched into the town and the local militia and police were drawn in front of the building where the Custos tried to address the crowd. With no luck, the mob advances led to militia opening fire and ensued violent confrontation. Paul Bogle, the leader of the rebellion was hanged at the sight and George William Gordon, a politician was court marshalled and executed for his involvement with Bogle. We were not able to go into the courthouse but saw from the side historical cannons and the local lady, Eileen who brought us to the site as we got lost gave us a historical background. She was very passionate about the history and was excited to share with us.

Overall, it was a very educational and lovely trip. I thoroughly enjoy what I learn and experience every day while I am here. I feel very special and honored that I am welcome with such open arms.