Dicing With Death: Jamaica, The Island of The Blue Mountains

Jamaica is not only the land of reggae and fine sandy beaches. It’s also a mountainous island cloaked in dense tropical vegetation. Its road network is in disastrous condition. This is nowhere truer than in the blue mountain region where the peaks rise over 2,000m above sea level. Only the hardiest dare venture there. Or the poorest.

Those who have no choice and must go there to harvest the country’s treasure: Blue Mountain coffee, one of the most expensive coffees in the world at nearly €200 per kilo (twenty times more than a standard coffee). A treasure that deserves the name. The sodden tracks along the sides of the ravines that lead up to the plantations turn every journey into a ordeal. Rasta communities have also chosen to set up residence in the highest, most inaccessible peaks of these Blue Mountains.

A choice that can prove perilous during times of major ceremonies when hundreds of faithful gather from all over the island. Not all of them make it.

Full Series