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The butterflies are baaaack. All cities tend to have a little edge to them and Kingston is no different. Some things though help to soften out those edges. Friendly greetings from strangers. Hearing people singing without a care in the world as they walk down the street. Lignum vitae butterflies, proper scientific name krigonia lyside. This commonly seen butterfly is a pale yellow (see video above) and quite unremarkable, except that they sometimes it isn't. The females will deposit her fertilised eggs in the lignum vitae trees so that the caterpillars will have a ready source of food when they transform. When the lignum vitae trees bloom their delicate purplish blue buds, you can get magnificent swarms of the butterflies. With their wings opening and closing in the sunlight, they look like flashing neon lights beaming on the trees. Or like twinkling magical fairies casting spells. They are beautiful. And by the way, on any tour with Jamaica Cultural Enterprises you can expect to learn about our wonderful birds, flowers, bugs, and other life forms. Bless.
In the South Side community of Downtown Kingston, I recently witnessed this gentleman (see video above), who goes by the name Loyal, scraping the calabash fruit. After the insides have been removed, the next step is washing and drying and then ta da! you have nature's most perfect eating vessel. Seeing him do this made me think of the Calabash Literary Festival. This year (2020) the festival will take place between May 29 - 31. I highly recommend it. In addition to incredible Jamaican and Caribbean authors, the festival has been able to pull major international literary celebrities, from Salman Rushdie to Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. If you love books this is time well spent, and with the hypnotic background of the Caribbean sea lapping the shores at Treasure Beach, there are worse way to spend a weekend. Like the literal calabash, the festival serves up a meal perfect for book lovers. I love books, I love reading. This year being a Calabash year Jamaica Cultural Enterprises is going to revel in literature. We will be providing transportation for a select few to go down on Saturday, May 30 with return on May 31. We are also planning literary themed tours of Kingston in the days before and after Calabash. WATCH THIS SPACE. We will make announcements in the weeks and months to come. To find our more about the festival itself you can check their web page or social media feeds. We hope to see all our book loving friends there.  CALABASH LITERARY FESTIVAL 2020  Contemplating Kapo's art at the National Gallery of Jamaica in Kingston We hear this a lot : "I'm not really into art". A visit to the National Gallery of Jamaica in Kingston will likely not convert a non art loving person into an art lover but, the way we do it, it will certainly illuminate a number of issues and moments in Jamaican history. On your tour of the National Gallery led by our knowledgeable guide, you will learn the social and historical context surrounding the art. We don't interpret the art for you, we provide you with the stories, important moments, and the history of the epoch in which the art was created. This is, simply put, a fantastic way to understand Jamaica and a fun stop on a tour of Kingston. Plus, if you're an actual art lover, well, even better.  Edna Manley's "The Lesson" in front of the National Gallery of Jamaica in Kingston  The community of Rae Town in Kingston will on Saturday, January 25 be the location for a Kingston Creative community tour. Rae Town located in downtown Kingston is a vibrant neighbourhood famous for music events and its fishing village. It also has significant remnants of 19th century buildings scattered throughout which tell an interesting story of post slavery Jamaica. With the efforts of Kingston Creative, it will now have additional mural art. Two tours on January 25 will take individuals through the community explaining its history and showcasing modern life; the first tour will be at 11 am and the second at 2 pm.
These tours are the initial steps to a more sustained community tourism product. In the future there will be a regular walking tour that can be booked on demand. Jamaica Cultural Enterprises is looking forward to taking visitors to Rae Town in the future and enhancing our current offering of Kingston tours.  KINGSTON CITY TOUR No trip to Jamaica is complete without a trip to the capital, Kingston. The beauty of a vacation in Jamaica is that there is much variety that you may not necessarily get in other destinations. Yes, there are the beaches, but you also have music. Yes, you have the mountains, but you can also visit an art gallery. From drumming of the Maroons to dolphin watching (we recommend seeing them in the wild) to Dancehall street parties, you can find it all in Jamaica if you know where to look. To add to the variety of your trip, a visit to Kingston is a must.
On a tour of Kingston with us you will be able to learn about Jamaican history, feel the rhythm of the city (an infectious mix of reggae and dancehall), see Jamaicans in their natural element, not staged for tourists, and gain a deeper understanding of Jamaican history and culture. We offer a variety of options and ways to explore the city from music to art to heritage to walking and everything in between. We have been doing this for close to 10 years and have consistently great reviews because of our great value and knowledgeable guides. Feel free to sign up on our booking pages or drop us a line at info@jaculture.com to ask for more information.  Happy new year arrival. Happy rest of 2020. May we all remember in this year and beyond to focus on what is important - peace, love, health, and playing our part in making a more harmonious world.
Hugs from Kingston, Jamaica. One love.  From sunny Jamaica we wish you a Merry Christmas. In Jamaica there are many things that are special at Christmas time. Here is a very short list of some of the items that are (or have been at some point) special to me. As Jamaicans say, mi love mi belly so many of these items are food related and I've even included meat and even pork dishes (fire bun!) even though I am now strictly vegetarian; in the past it was part of the joy I got from the season.
To learn more about Jamaican food and other aspects of Jamaican culture, take one of our excellent tours. We will be happy to arrange one for a time that is convenient to you. Drop us a line at info@jaculture.com or call/whatsapp us at 87 540 8570. I hope you enjoy your holidays immensely and even more so, I wish for you peace and love. Bless.  Blue Mountain tour There are few things as satisfying as an excellent cup of coffee. You smell the heady aroma, you tip the cup to your mouth, and you experience a feeling of supreme delight as the amber, punchy liquid glides down your throat. On our tour of the Blue Mountains we visit Craighton Estate known for its top quality coffee, and among the many delights of the tour is that you are treated to the estate brand.
Other things for you to enjoy on our tour if the appeal of the coffee isn't enough:
This is a tour that we can easily arrange for you. Why don't you join us on our group Tuesday tours? Our groups are small but if you would prefer a private/custom experience at a time and date more convenient for you, that can also be provided. This excursion is a fantastic way to learn about Jamaica, coffee, and nature, and the Blue Mountains is one of our favourite places to be in Jamaica. Really, for us offering this tour is just a great excuse to get a coffee and nature fix. We're very sure you will enjoy the experience too.  Tour Guide in Trench Town Internationally, Trench Town is perhaps one of the most known neighbourhoods in Kingston, yet among travellers there is often considerable anxiety about making a visit. Jamaica Cultural Enterprises offers a wide variety of tours that include trips to Trench Town, from a simple shuttle service to music and city tours. We visit not because we are adrenaline junkies and enjoy the feeling of putting our lives at risk. As a tour company we make every effort to keep our guests and the staff we work work with as safe as possible. We offer tours of Trench Town firstly because we have assessed the situation and find that the risk of being harmed is minimal. We have been offering tours of Kingston, Jamaica for close to 10 years now so we know of which we speak. Most important though is that a tour of Trench Town allows for a glimpse into the Jamaica that is not usually shown on post cards and allows tourists to better understand the political, social and economic situation of the country.
To learn more about our tours to Trench Town, please check out our Kingston tours here. One love. |
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