Day 3

It was 09:00 when I woke up, I dressed myself and went down to the breakfast room, Adrian had woke up early that day and was already down in the breakfast room. When I came down and saw all the food that was on the table, I noticed how hungry I actually was, this breakfast was much better then that one we had in Cuba! We ate a delicious breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, pancakes and other treats. We were quite agree that this was one of the best breakfasts we had eaten in a long, long time. After breakfast, we decided to go down to the beach to swim a bit, before we started to driv to the concert. On the beach, we took some pictures (you can see them further down the blog), it was so hot that we had a hard time breathing, Norwegian temperatures may not be the same compared with temperatures in jamaica.

On the bus ride to the concert, we got a good view of the nature here. It was blazing hot and we drove through an area that reminded us of tropical jungle.

When we finally arrived, the bus stopped right over Bob Marley museum, we didn't have the time to go inside, but we took a picture of the sign to show you guys.

After the concert we drove tired back to the hotel. We both agreed that it was a successfully day, with ourtrip to the beach and a fantastic concert. Both, I and adrian loved the music that our good friend Ziggy Marley played, with a powerfull beat and sing-along. It was a magical moment.

The Jamaican Flag

Throughout our journey, we have, to no surprise, seen the Jamaican flag a lot, and though most people know what it looks like, there’s not as many that know the history behind it.

It was first adopted on the original Jamaican Independence Day, the 6^th of August, 1962. It marks the birth of a nation, and brings memories of past achievements and gives inspiration to further success, at least that’s how they see it. The Jamaican people show their flag on many triumphant occasions, showing the pride that the Jamaicans have in their country in their flag.

The flag itself consists of a gold saltire (cross) dividing the flag into its four sections, two of them green, two of them black. The gold symbolizes the sunshine and natural resources, the black represent the burdens that are borne by the people, while the green symbolizes agriculture and hope for the future.

“The sun shineth, the land is green and the people are strong and creative”, is the official symbolism of the flag.

The design is a result of multiple suggestions sent in by the public in a national competition. Originally, the flag was designed with stripes, but because it was too similar to the Tanganyikan flag, they added a saltire instead.

Here are some rules concerning the Jamaican flag:

• The Jamaican flag should never be allowed to touch the ground or floor. It should not be flown or used only for decorative purposes on anything that is for temporary use and is likely to be discarded, except on state occasions.
• The flag should never be smaller than any other flag flown at the same time.
• When the flag becomes worn and must be replaced, burn it.
• Do not place any other flag above or to the right of the Jamaican flag, except at foreign embassies, consulates and missions.
• Do not raise any foreign flag publicly, unless the Jamaican flag is also flown, except at foreign embassies, consulates and missions.
• The flag shouldn’t be draped over vehicles, except on military, police and state occasions.

Day Two

Today, we were actually going to Jamaica. The airport in Havana was crowded with people coming and going on vacation. We finally found a flight that could take us to Jamaica, and after yesterday’s commotion, we couldn’t wait to get our feet on some Jamaican soil.

The plane was a lot smaller than the one we had yesterday, so the flight took a couple of hours longer than expected, and we didn’t make it to Jamaica until 2 PM. We were still relieved when we made it out of the airport with our luggage behind us and a cab waiting to take us to the hotel, and it would have been even better, hadn’t it been for the cab driver’s lack of any interpretation of English and if we hadn’t lost the map on our way through the airport.

Today’s hotel was a five star luxury hotel, which fit our high Norwegian standards much better than the crummy shack we spent the night in the day before. It had a pool in the back, room service, pay-tv, two large beds and a breakfast buffet waiting for us in the morning.


Exhausted, we threw our bags on the gigantic beds and turned on the TV. Ola took a dip in the pool, while I visited the hotel bar.

Our schedule had been pushed forward dramatically due to the one-day delay in Cuba, so roaming the beaches and shopping for souvenirs suddenly became a thing of the nonexistent past. However, the thing we know had to look forward to, was a classic reggae concert the next day.

The rest of the evening we used to walk around the streets of downtown Kingston, looking at the eccentric lifestyle that can be found in Jamaica, and what the local residents were like, and how they live.

After getting a new map and a few souvenirs at the local tourist shop, we went back to the hotel, to get a good night’s sleep. After all, we had a long day ahead of us.















Our hotel





















The local beach

Some photos we took during the trip

Pretty cool buss, wasn't it ?






We want to go back!







Look what we drove past : )

A little facts about the population in Jamaica.

A little facts about the population in Jamaica.

When Adrian and I were in Jamaica, we noticed that there lived alot of people there. so we went to a museum to find out more about this, we found out that it was only 2.5 (Measuring from 1996) milion people on the tiny island. We were also told that it lives more jamaicans outside of jamaica then in Jamaica. That is because of the high emigration to other countries, as Canada, Uk and Usa.


Most people who lives in jamaica are probably the descendants of slaves who arrived in the 1600s.

So Jamaica's population mainly consists of people of african descent (91,2 %), multiracial jamaicans (6,2%) and other jamaicans ( people from Asia, europe and America).

The immigration to Jamaica has increased and more and more people are entering the border to jamaica, like 20,000 Latin amricans and 7000 amricans have done.

The History of Jamaica

Jamaica is an island in the Caribbean and is part of the Greater Antilles, which is one of three island groups in the Caribbean. It was originally discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1494, and was settled by Spain in the early 16^th century. The natives of Jamaica, the Taino, were eventually exterminated by the settlers and replaced by African slaves.

In 1655 the island was seized by England, who established a plantation economy based on sugar, cocoa, and coffee.

When slavery was abolished in 1834, many of the quarter million slaves that was freed and stationed on Jamaica became small farmers. Bit by bit, Jamaica became more and more independent from Britain. It joined the Federation of West Indies in 1958, an organisation formed by other British Caribbean colonies, and gained its complete independence when it withdrew from it in 1962.

The following decade witnessed a strong economical growth in Jamaica, mostly due to strong investments, tourism and manufacturing industry. However, a sense of inequality rose, and a feeling that the benefits of economical growth were not experienced by the poor.

This, together with the downfall of global economy during the 70’s, led to a change in government, electing the PNP (People’s National Party) in 1972. Michael Manley, as the first PNP prime minister elected in 1972, introduced socialist policies and relations with Cuba. His second term elections marked the start of repeated political violence, so when the PNP lost power in 1980, Edward Seaga began to reverse the policies that Michael Manley had introduced, bringing in privatization and seeking closer ties with the USA. When the PNP and Manley returned to power in 1989, they continued the more moderate policies, but he resigned in 1992 for health reasons and was replaced as leader of the PNP by Percival Patterson.

Economic deterioration continued into the mid-1980s. The first and third largest producers of alumina closed, and there was a significant production reduction by the second largest producers. In addition to this, tourism decreased and Reynolds Jamaica Mines, Ltd. left the Jamaican industry.

First day

On the airport it was chaos, people were running around and we couldn’t find anything. We were supposed to take a private jet to Jamaica. Our good friend Ziggy Marley had let us borrow his jet. We were walking around in the big airport when Adrian’s phone rang. It was our captain; he said that we had to meet him at the hangar. So we took the bags and started to walk to the hangar.

An hour later we were entering the plain with a thousand feelings inside us. The jet took off and we were on our way to Jamaica!

The trip was supposed to take almost 10 hours. After 8 hours flight time, we finally landed. We walked out from the plain and in to the airport. On the welcome sign it said “Welcome to Cuba!” When Ola asked a local guide if we were in Jamaica, he looked pretty confused. The answer the guide gave us did not please us. We were in Cuba! Adrian tried to call the pilot, but he didn’t answer. So we started looking for him, but he had disappeared from the face of the earth.
After this shock, it was time to eat dinner and go to bed, so we decided to find a hotel and we ended up with a two star-hotel at the airport.