A roaring capital...

If you drive into Kingston for the first time you undoubtedly will think: "good heavens, what chaos here".
The narrow streets, the omnipresent street-vendors and (domestic) animals, the loud music on every street corner, thousands of cars toiling and moiling like ants and the intense heat…, it looks that there is no end on these things.
And nevertheless the inhabitants of this million city seem to find their way without difficulties.

But..., no chaos at all...
Kingston is fascinating and in what way!!!
After having visited the city several times it is obvious that the apparent chaos in fact is a well-organized town-life. Kingston is going its own way, despite all rules and laws. And especially for that reason Kingston is a city you will not forget very soon.

Founded in 1700 Kingston was a well-planned settlement on a beautiful location.
Kingston Harbor, a splendid natural harbor on which many seaport can be envious, offers a fine view on the flat land on which modern Kingston is expanding like an oil spot. The small straight streets around Harbor St. are silent witnesses of what ever was a ambitious planning.


However, during some 300 years the city developed into a tangle of small streets and squares leaving nothing left of the original planning. The building is stretching some 14 kilometers into the hills from where one has a splendid sight on the town and, if you turn around for a while, the green Blue Mountains.

Earthquake
The first inhabitants of Kingston were the survivors of the earthquake in Port Royal. This once so glorious fishing-village on the 11 kilometers long spit of land, which is enclosing Kingston Harbor for a great part was hit by an earthquake in 1692.
The following tidal wave spooled away most of the village under the sea level. On the other side of the harbor on the shore the present Kingston was founded and there the victims of the disaster found their new housing.

The town has a clear separation between "uptown" and "downtown", a separation between the rich and the poor.
The relatively rich people work in the city and live in the suburbs. The ghettos in the west are consisting of slum quarters in which the more poor Jamaicans live.
And for that very reason in these ghettos (nowadays called the "West") the Rasta culture and the reggae originates making Jamaica world-famous. Who does not know these: Bob Marley's "Trench Town Rock" and "No woman, no cry"?

Ice cream
Kingston offers culture, history, music and delicious food.
In a number of places one finds small but first-class restaurants where, surrounded by local people, the fine Jamaican dishes can be tasted and it looks likes the outgoing life is in full swing, 24 hours per day.
A lot of historical buildings and museums make Kingston to a town which cannot be visited in a single day. Sometimes you will find a park, in the middle of the city, where you can have some restful moments surrounded by palm-trees and green meadows.
And thereafter…. go and fetch an I-Scream in Devon House.


If you visit the city don't be discouraged by the heat, the stir and the noise but be carried along by the roaring town-life. You will see that everything is not so unorganized as it looks like and that you find yourself in a fascinating part of Jamaica.