BLUE MOUNTAINS TOUR
With its highest peak reaching 7,402 ft (2,256 m), Jamaica’s largest range – the Blue Mountains –stretches for 28 miles (45 km) from east to west, its lower canopy of soapwood, dogwood, and Caribbean cedar interspersed with coffee plantations and its upper slopes covered with stunted montane rainforest. From Papine and Kingston, there are two main tour routes. The road divides at The Cooperage, with one fork heading towards Holywell Recreational Park, taking in coffee plantations and a glitzy hotel en route, and the other to Gordon Town and Mavis Bank, where jeeps can be hired to get to the start of the hiking trail to Blue Mountain Peak.
- STARTING POINT: Papine.
- LENGTH: A full day to see both the Holywell and Mavis Bank sides of the mountains.
- DRIVING CONDITIONS: Drive slowly, use the horn on hairpin bends, and avoid the hills if it is raining, as landslides are fairly common.
Holywell Recreational Park
The main visitor center for the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, with designated trails through the cloud forest, cabins to stay in, and spectacular views down to Kingston.
Widely acknowledged as one of the best in the world, Blue Mountain coffee is grown at 2,000–5,000 ft (609–1,524 m). The unique climate and rich soil produces the distinctively delicious beans. Once ripe, beans are hand-picked and transported to the processing factory at Mavis Bank. They are first floated to remove inferior beans, then washed in holding tanks to remove the outer section. After being dried in the open air, or in drums if it is raining, the beans are rested for ten weeks before finally being hulled, sorted into grades, roasted, and packed.
Mavis Bank, coffee processing plant
