"Hey Mahn, Is You King Killa"

Jamaica is a very popular island destination with plenty of good reason. The variety of scenery and attractions gives each visitor a lot to choose from. To its original inhabitants, the island was known as Xamayca, which meant " The Land of wood and Water." The landscape includes rich, green forested mountains. Streams and rivers flow though peaceful and dense foliage accented by a carpet of floral color that could rival images of the biblical Garden of Eden itself. The beaches of Jamaica stretch for miles like a breathtaking coastal frame of golden white sands with azure waves lapping at its shores.

Danger Sign

For people who explore the island in a rental car, driving presents somewhat of a challenge in that traffic, like in England flows on what to North Americans is considered to be the wrong side of the road. It takes a bit of getting used to but, once you do it becomes a rather interesting bit of fun.

While North Americans prize the image of Niagara Falls for its massive size and powerful flow of water that crashes down on the river below, Jamaicans are rightly proud of their majestic "Dunn's River Falls. As you can see in the images with this story, Dunn's River Falls is a source of rare beauty where couples can gather to spend time in paradise. The atmosphere of this beautiful attraction is awe inspiring.

The falls is a cascading vision of natures finest that follows a natural, 600 foot, twisted path to the sea below. It is not as in many cases a straight drop but offers various plateaus along its course that provide visitors with an opportunity to relax and play or just sit and feel the waters swirling around them. You might say that these plateaus would equate to the world's largest natural jacuzzi. Many people love to climb the falls and guides are available to show climbers the best routes for a fee of course.

Major tourist centers like Montego Bay, Negril and Ocho Rios offer a variety of accommodation from the very exclusive and expensive to the very reasonable.

Dunn River Falls
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Climber
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Crocodile
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Souvenirs
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Jamaica is not without its dark side. It does have a reputation for an unpleasant range of crimes against tourists that is perhaps more than some destinations and less than others. I personally have never met with anything of that nature but then again I weigh 500 pounds which at times can be quite an advantage, say I with a smile. All it means is that one must be careful, to employ a street- wise approach to where you go and what you do. That applies where- ever you go.

As you wander around the island the street vendors can give the impression of being quite insistent. They want to sell you stuff and from the timid tourist they will not take no for an answer. I ran into that situation from time to time but being so big however gave me a novel way of handling the problem.

Whenever I went to Jamaica, the natives would laugh and make fun of my size. They seemed to take particular delight in referring to me as " Mista Bigga" "Hey Mista Bigga, wat you doin mahn" they would call. To answer I would say "My name is King Killer, I am a famous wrestler from Canada and I have killed ten men in the ring with my bare hands." This seemed to impress the hell out of them and they would run ahead of me telling everyone they came across that "King Killer" was coming and that I killed ten men with my bare hands. Needless to say, everyone left me very much alone except for those who wanted an autograph or to have a picture taken with me. In that case they would approach me with a considerable amount of respect, even guys who would easily scare the hell out of me from the way they looked.

Rafters

I had another moment on the island on one of my visits when I destroyed a man's raft. You can see the rafts in the pictures these are used for people going rafting on the beautiful river "Martha Brae." Rafting is a very popular and quite spectacular attraction. Long bamboo rafts, custom built by their owner's seat two passengers at a time for the slow trip down the river by some of the most beautiful scenery you will ever see. The pole man moves the raft along over the shallow spots and the twists and turns along the way.

At the boarding location there were a few dozen raftsmen waiting for passengers. To board the raft you would have to step down several feet off the dock. For most people that is not a problem but when I have to step down from anything, it can be a very big problem. That's because whenever I step down from anything, I become a human sledge- hammer.

On this one occasion, I failed to consider that fact when I stepped onto the raft and when I did it came apart like a bunch of match sticks held together with band aids. I went right through it into the waiting river. The bamboo poles split apart and took off down the river on their own and the fellow who owned the now broken raft would up sitting in the shallow water beside me. To him this was an event totally without humor, which I fully appreciated. Since at the time I was a guest of the Jamaican Tourist Board and it's director happened to be my guide, he simply paid the man for the raft and called up another one. I stepped very carefully on board from the water and it held together very well.

As in the time that I spent a week on the island of Greneda, news of my presence on the island of Jamaica spread well ahead of me and I wound up making a lot of new pals along the way. After all, I was! "Mista BIGGA."

One morning I had risen early to greet another sun filled day of photography when there was a knock at the door of my hotel suite. When I opened it, two Jamaican women had personally come to deliver my dry cleaning because they felt they just had to see the man who wore the pants of "Mista Bigga. Ah memories.

Two Couples

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