Travel
[We publish on this page articles and notes which may help our readers in making their plans for travel at home and abroad. They are written by correspondents who have visited the placeS described. We shall be glad to answer questions arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed to the Travel Manager, The SPECTATOR, 99 Gower Street, IV .C.1.[
Jamaica
THE sun cure for depression still remains the most popular, but seems perversely to be increasingly difficult to obtain in ratio to the growing melancholia induced by present conditions. The weeping heavens no longer confine their attentions to the British Isles. Visitors to the Carribean, however, can still be sure of a full quota of violet rays, without having recourse to the synthetic variety. Of all the West Indian Islands, Jamaica is, perhaps, the most beautiful, has the best climate, the best hotels and is fairly accessible, being a fortnight from England and five days from New York. Winter cruises on luxury liners during the season, the peak of which is from January to early March, are arranged by the C.P.R. and Cunard lines, and these generally include visits to some of the smaller islands in the vicinity, such as St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, Antigua, Barbados and Trinidad, with possibly a day or two at Havana, the Paris of the South. A regular service of banana boats throughout the year, with accommodation for a limited number of one-class passengers, is available, and two distinct shipping companies operate in competition.
The scenery is unparalleled. That first glimpse of the lovely harbour obtained from Port Royal, a sandy spit of land at the entrance, redolent with memories of buccaneers and pirates, rich in the naval history of England, the names of Nelson, Rodney, Drake and Hawkins and other famous figures of the past crowding to the memory, is quite unforgettable. No more conventional stage setting of a tropic scene can be conceived, with just that touch of nature's reality which gives it an inner meaning that paint and canvas can never have. A modern town with flat roofed, white-washed buildings and palm-planted avenues is set against a background of blue- tinted mountains of varied contours and ever-changing hues, the deep pervading blue giving its name to the range known as the Blue Mountains, where the world-famed coffee is grown, picked and dried on quaint concrete " barbecues " perched precariously on the slopes, before being " headed " or packed on mules and taken down to the plain to be shipped.
The best way to see the Island is to hire a car immediately on arrival and penetrate the fertile land beyond the mountain ranges, ever more mountainous, with rugged roads of sur- prising steepness, bordered with vegetation of every kind ; acres of bananas growing on irrigated flat land or on the hill- sides with equal fertility, waving coconut palms, fringing the incredible blue of the sea, miles of grey-green rippling sugar canes, feathery bamboo avenues, odd patches of pimento (allspice), coffee and cocoa, the many fingered leaves of the bread-fruit tree, the orange and scarlet fruit of the akee, the weird outspreading branches of the gigantic cotton, all con- tributing their quota of beauty.
The choice lies between life on the " penn " or stock farm, where are bred the heavy-headed Indian steers used for drawing the cane from the fields to the sugar factories, the prize bulls and beef heifers, or the mules used so much for pack and draft work in the tropics, or making one's headquarters in one of the enchanting little sea-coast bathing resorts of which Montego Bay is the largest and best known, its white sand bathing beach first " discovered " by Sir Herbert Barker, the famous bone- setter, about six years ago.
Shaw Park, a small private hotel a mile or so from the lovely little cove where Columbus first set foot in Jamaica in 1503, is for those whose tastes are less Lido-ish and more inclined to privacy. Crystal clear the water is in these small coves and a glass-bottomed boat enables one to see the living wonders of the deep, while even the chilliest mortal can have no fault to find with the temperature of the water for bathing.
The sportsman, too, is likely to be tempted by fishing, tennis, cricket, golf and racing, for which there are plenty of facilities.
Last, but not least, must not be forgotten the famous " Planter's hospitality," which is surely unequalled anywhere in the world, or the charm of the merry smiling peasant faces, all shades from black to coffee colour, indolent, foolish and some- times a little exasperating, but always ready to smile and joke,
to bask in the sun and point the way to a Lotus-eating existence.
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