What another spectacular day here in Jamaica.  Early this morning we loaded up the  car and headed to Portland to visit a friend and his families coffee farm.  I didn't think I would get to travel through my beloved Blue Mountains again, but I did today!  

Just like last time we had to drive through New Castle, the military training base, except this time I stopped to get a couple of photos:

New Castle

Of course I had to take a picture of the military burial grounds

We met Adrian at Holywell (the place we stayed in the cabins... read a few blog posts back for a refresher on that amazing experience).  He hoped in the car and off he guided us to Portland.

Our view on the way to Portland

Another view on our way to Portland

About 20 minutes into Portland from Holywell we arrived at Adrian's family coffee farm.  What an amazing place.  It was wonderful to get a tour to see how coffee goes from the tree to in my cup.  

In the blue mountains just outside of the coffee farm

James Dennis Coffee Farm (true Blue Mountain Coffee)

A Coffee tree (who new coffee beans grew on trees... I didn't)

Coffee beans just picked from the tree

Beans drying (it takes about 3 weeks to dry)

After using the mortle and pestle to break the beans out of their shell beans are then "sorted" to have the bad ones picked out

Beans Roasting

A cute little tray they had to shoe the process of making coffee

See that grove of trees on the dirt patch over there?  That is a coffee plantation (those small tree specks are actually groves of coffee trees).  See? It truly is Blue Mountain

 After we toured the coffee farm we made another treacherous journey to the river.  The roads were so narrow with no rail so one wrong turn and tumbling down the mountain you go. I was unable to get a picture of that view as I was to busy praying for survival.

Once we made it to the river we had a long walk down some rough terrain.  The kids cried and I was a bit nervous but it was SSSOOO worth it.

Arriving at the river... This part was sectioned off with rocks to make a swimming hole

Mama relaxing as we get ready to swim

The swimming hole

Us in the FREEZING water admiring the view... colder than any pool or ocean I have ever been in

The hill we walked down coming and had to walk back up to go

We noticed a cocoa tree on the way up

Nay refused to walk because of the steep hill and even steeper cliffs  next to us... I was slipping in my flip flops so I had to go barefoot.   This must be what it feels like to be...

On the way out we go stuck on a very steep hill on a very narrow road with no guard rails.  The car kept sliding back and we just could not make it up that hill.  Needless to say we were all a little scared.  

Adrian to the rescue... He jumped out to go find something to give the wheels some traction

Thank goodness he found something... we were out of there just a few minutes later.  His comment when he got back in the car "you just have to know the hills" .  Hill my foot... half a foot to the left and we would have tumbled  down a MOUNTAIN

 By the time we were almost down the mountain we were starving. On the way up we pasted a vendor who was cooking up something special.  It smelled so good.  Mr Taylor remembered my mouth watering over that smell and he stopped us by that vendor on the way down.  His Jerk chicken and festival were amazing.

Vendor who sold us some awesome jerk chicken and festival

As usual, we enjoyed another fabulous day!  Days like this will make it hard to leave next week.