As is becoming the tradition, I set off to the Caribbean again this February. As much as I love Asheville, I’m finding that late winter can really be taxing for me. The mountains are a lovely shade of greyish-brown, spring is mocking me from around the corner, and I’ve depleted any surplus of vitamin-D I may have stored up by this point. Fortunately, the therapeutic waters of the Caribbean are just a few hundred dollars away.

This year’s destination? Negril, Jamaica!

In recent years I’ve gone to the Yucatan, Costa Rica, and Belize. All very beautiful, but I’m always interested in exploring new territories. So when I was offered the opportunity to travel to Negril with a handful of other Ashevillians I had never met, I jumped at the chance. The trip was organized by Spencer Bolejack, having visited family and friends there years before. And I use the term “organized” lightly because it had been at least 10 years since Spencer had been to the island and there were a lot of unknowns. All I knew was that I’d have a place to setup my tent when we got there, and quite frankly that was all I needed to know.

I’ll spare you the details since they’ve been well documented here, but as always, my favoriate shots from the trip are below. What stood out the most for me was the strength and resilience of the Jamaican people. Like many countries in the Caribbean, there is rampant poverty in Jamaica. I met a lot of wonderful Jamaicans during my stay and every one of them carried a sense of pride and warmth that I’ve yet to encounter elsewhere in my travels. Much Respect!