Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/201540
30 w e s t w o r l d p24-31_Jamaica.indd 30 >> Franco's Nice Time Bar in Falmouth; (opposite) the Methodist church in Duncans, Jamaica, dates back to 1882. surprisingly quaint. A family of four, skin as white as snow on a Saskatchewan prairie, poses for a photo in front of a Winston Parnell bust erected on the steps of the replica courthouse. At the hotel restaurant, a talented band lays down note-perfect Bob Marley covers and the dance floor is already filled, mostly with resort staff. Jamaicans love to move. Early in the evening I again meet up with Wayne Sterling of the Jamaica Tourist Board, and we return to Falmouth for the Pirates of the Caribbean nighttime extravaganza that was somehow pencilled into my final night's itinerary. I surrender. But when we drive into Falmouth I convince Sterling to make an off-script detour to Franco's Nice Time Bar for a frosty Red Stripe. "Yeah mon," the bartender says to me and then turns to Sterling for a quick exchange in that lyrical Jamaican patois I never tire of hearing. I imagine the drunken sailors of 250 years ago being carted upstairs to sober up while their ships were filled with sugar cane down at the port. Afterward, we stroll the evening streets of Falmouth, along the Albert George Market, through the town (both pages) Jeff Topham pimento trees, the source of fragrant allspice seasoning. Fitzroy pauses and stoops down to pinch a handful of greenery between his thumb and forefinger. "Lemongrass," he says, holding it up for me to smell. Eventually the road ends at a small shelter overlooking Maria Buena Bay and a scene of Caribbean geographic clichés that encapsulates Trelawny: leafy trees, rolling deep green hillsides and scythes of sandy beach lapped by turquoise sea. Kenlyn, not a natural cyclist, leans his bike against the fence and lights a smoke while Fitzroy shares some of Braco's history. "Recently we found a record book in the great house from the 1830s. It showed who was working on the plantation and how much sugar cane was cut. They took meticulous records back then," Fitzroy says. Late in the afternoon, after another long day of exploring Trelawny, I check into my hotel suite. It's a warm, seductive evening when I sit down for a cappuccino, listening to the boisterous chatter of recent hotel arrivals planning a night out on the faux town, which for a contrived resort setting is winter 2013 13-10-18 10:18 AM