The most beautiful, scary, amazing, heartstopping drive I have ever taken in Jamaica, is the old road over the Blue Mountains between Port Maria and Kingston. Victor, Janice and myself took off in the morning. We didn't have the Impala, and were glad we didn't. The road is narrow and winds with each fold of the mountain. Honking around each corner was manditory even at 25 miles an hour. You start at sea level and end up 5000 ft later at the Gap. It was a Sunday, so there was not much traffic. That was good for the drive, but all the little shops that sell coffee were closed except one. Mile by Mile we climbed higher and higher. Waterfalls got longer and longer. Some drop 700 to 1000 ft. Each turn revealed another amazing view. I was supprised to see as many houses up there as I did. We saw a man who was growing oranges along the road and pulled over. He was 50 ft above us on the road. We asked if we could buy some, he cut off part of a branch with 5 oranges on it and dropped it to us.
We were thankful. Nothing had been open so far. We continued to climb. Wooden bridges, 1000 ft drop offs from the road and waterfalls, big and small around every turn. At 4000 ft we finally found a business open that grew, proccessed and packaged there own Blue Mountain Coffee. No question here. This was the real deal. We watched as they picked, cleaned, roasted over an open flame, and packed one pound bags of their own homegrown! Watching the kid, tied around the waist with a rope, walk down the hill to the coffee, scared me even to watch. Nothing between him and a 1500 ft drop! From here you could see patches of coffee trees everywhere. All on inclines on the sides of the mountains. After our purchases we continued on. We were told there was a restaurant at the top of the Gap between the mountains.