St. Ann Explored

One of the series of waterfalls at Cool Blue Hole St. Ann

Once again it was time for the group of very talented photographers and photo enthusiasts to explore the beautiful island of Jamaica and to capture some of it's beauty in photographs. Yes, it was time for yet another monthly JWI/LOP Flickr Group photo trip. Our path lead us to the garden parish of St. Ann, the parish of the famous tourist resort town of Ocho Rios and the world renown Dunn's River Falls. However, these regularly visited places were not on our agenda, we wanted to see the less known places that Jamaica has tucked away in it's treasure chest.

Another waterfall at Cool Blue Hole

Our first stop of the trip was a return visit to the beautiful Cool Blue Hole. We have been there before, but not everyone explored the entire falls, including me. So this return trip was to not just familiarize ourselves with it's beauty, but also to further explore this lovely slice of nature. Cool Blue Hole certainly did not disappoint, as further up the falls was even more majestic as the powerful rushing water cascaded down smooth rock faces into pools of pristine blue waters below. As tempting as th water was, I opted not to swim, but yielded to the photographer in me and stayed satisfied with attempting to capture the beauty of nature and of Jamaica.

The old Spanish Bridge at White River

The next stop carried us even deeper into the heart of St. Ann to another spot that our group had visited before, the White river Valley, home of the old Spanish Bridge and Chukka Caribbean White River Tubing. Even though it was a short stop here and I didn't take much photos I was still appreciative of the rich blue, pristine water and the historic bridge that spanned the deep pool below. We even spotted a small group of tourists river tubing, something that I have in mind to do for such a long time now. hopefully this summer i will get the chance to do the Chukka Caribbean White River Tubing.

Small group doing the Chukka White river Tubing

Flames from natural gases at Fire Water

Fire Water, a small spring that has section that emits a flammable gas, was our next stop. I was excited to see this phenomenon for myself as I had seen a small feature on it some time ago. I must admit, that even though it was got to see fire burning on the top of a cool body of water, I was rather disappointed with the look of the place. The place looked really tacky and the area that the gas is released from was very tiny, nothing that would bring out the feeling of awe. Nevertheless, I satisfied my curiosity. There was also a Rastafarian roots drink vendor there at Fire Water who provided some entertainment with his mixture of singing and Dub Poetry, much to the delight of the amused patrons. If you are nearby Runaway Bay, then you can make a quick stop to feed your curiosity, but I would not recommend anyone travelling just to view it.

The Rastafarian Roots Medicine vendor performing at Fire Water

Airplanes performing stunts at the Air Show seen from the fishing beach

Our Final stop of the day was on the fishing beach at Oracabessa to get a glimpse of the air show that was scheduled for that afternoon. The fishing beach provided a very good view of the air show, which boasted some awesome stunts and thrilling flybys. I could not zoom in much on the small airplanes as the zoomed by, but I did manage to get a few good wide angle shots. It was a great note to end the trip on and to end another great day of exploring Jamaica! To see more of the photos I took on the trip please visit visit my fan page Joel Finnigen Photography in this album JWI/LOP Flickr Group Trip 24 April 2011.