Anyone tell me about heartbeat of jamaica in falmouth?

[elou]

Read rcci excursion. Sounds pretty good. Anybody ever take it?

[Javalava]

I would like to know about this excursion as well.

 

It does sound interesting but I was wondering......the description shows that a waiver must be signed for this excursion. Is there an issue with safety?

[ladyhawk415]

Hubby & I took this tour in early February. We had a great time! First off let me say, we're both in our 50's, but definitely no stick in the mud (we did the flight line in Labadee and swam with the stingrays in Grand Cayman.). We wanted something in Jamaica that did not revolve around a beach, as we had two busy beach days already on the itinerary.

 

As to the tour...It is a 30-40 minute ride out to the plantation in Trelawny. There are some patches of road that are not fully paved and the road is a little bumpy. The driver was very knowledgeable and answered any questions we had and was very entertaining.

 

After arriving in Trelawny, our first stop was the elementary school. For anyone from the States, this was a real eye opener, and as far as I'm concerned, a must see. The teachers and their wonderful students were very friendly and accommodating.

 

From there, our jitney picked us up and took us to the plantation. Our guide, Dana was wonderful. Very friendly, energetic and knowledgeable. The first stop was the papaya fields where we were given papaya seedlings to plant. This was actually a lot of fun. Kind of cool to think something we planted would be left there in Jamaica. Anyway, we then went on to the huge sugar cane fields. Dana explained the whole process, and we saw an enormous flatbed truck bringing in some of the new harvest. From there we went on to the grounds of the "Big House". Here, we were treated to a wonderful tasting lunch of fresh papaya juice, fresh fruit (all grown locally) and some of the best jerk chicken I've ever had. After lunch, it was on to the rum tasting room, where a variety of local rums were available for tasting. While waiting for our coach, we had more fresh papaya juice and a beautiful spread of fresh fruits. We also had a Q & A session where Hubby won a t-shirt.

 

Once our coach picked us up, it was off to Falmouth and a stop at St. Peter's Church. Beautiful church from the 1700's and a very interesting graveyard right by the front entrance. There are some local sellers right by the front entry. Just in case you didn't want to shop in the local markets right outside the cruise port, where you get hawked to death. (We just waited until we got back to the port village to shop.)

 

All in all, this was a really nice tour. If you're not looking for the beach, I would definitely recommend it.

[Javalava]

Thanks for the info ladyhawk415. I did go ahead and book this tour and your review made me glad I did. I think we will miss the school though as our cruise is this Sunday and I believe they are on summer vacation. That's too bad because my husband is a newly retired teacher, and I'm about to be a retired school nurse. It would have been interesting, however I'm looking forward to all the other parts of the tour.

[elou]

I read that it is not doing the jitney ride anymore, but is adding another church. How is this new itinerary?