Jamaica has lots of wonderful curiosities for ogling.  We have included some interesting facts and Jamaican curiosities for you here.
 

Doctor Bird or the Swallow-Tail Hummingbird
(click image  to enlarge)

Doctor Bird (Trochilus ploytmus). The Doctor Bird or Swallowtail Hummingbird lives only in Jamaica and is one of the most outstanding of the 320 species of Humming Birds. It is well to note that the beautiful feathers of these birds have no counterpart in the entire bird population and produce iridescent colors characteristic only of that family. The Doctor Bird has been immortalized for many decades in Jamaican folklore and song.

Birdwatching in Jamaica can be very rewarding.
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Port Royal & Kingston

The Kingston Airport is positioned on top of the Port Royal pirate wreckage. Port Royal was once the richest and wickedest sin ports in the Americas, home for notorious Captain Morgan's "Jolly Roger" and his nefarious 17th Century entrepreneurial fleet, flying the flag for fortune and infamy, sold to the highest bidder.

Kingston, the Caribbean's largest city, is now over a million plus, but back then it offered Black Beard, Morgan, and other soulless seafarers the perfect port, protected by a spit of land, with Port Royal at the tip — where the airport now sits. Like Gomorrah, Port Royal was destroyed, but not by fire, but swamped by an underwater earthquake, triggering landslides into the sea, creating one of the world's most lucrative marine parks. Continually, Spanish doubloons, gold, and bullion are salvaged from the site — even today.
 

The Blue Mountains     (click image to enlarge)

Rising from Kingston foothills the uneven Blue Mountains pierce low misty clouds in the distance. The 'Blue' range runs virtually the entire 145-mile length of Jamaica at varying altitudes, but at 7,200 feet, they are at their most majestic just out of Kingston, and the Caribbean's second highest mountains, after the Dominican Republic.  Our photo doesn't do the beauty justice.

The Maroons of Mooretown

In 1609 the Maroons, slaves of Ethiopian extraction, and other British slaves in the banana trade, escaped their tyrannical masters, marauded, hiding out in the rugged Cockscomb area of the Blues, an area that today is largely unexplored, and just getting mapped, and where the Maroons still do not welcome whites into certain regions. The Spanish word for runaways is Cimaroons, and in the Carib shortened to Maroons. For over a hundred years the Maroons and the British waged battles back and forth in the Blue Mountains, but eventually the Maroons drove the British out of the mountains and into the foothills.

Valley Hikes has several hikes that center around Mooretown and some fabulous water falls that are near.

Bath Fountain and the Mineral Spring

Bath Fountain Hotel rises majestically, with the Blue Mountains serving as an encompassing backdrop. Built as a hospital by the British in 1749, the stone hotel is now owned by the people of Jamaica. Revitalized after Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, the hotel perches above the Bath River, more like a stream, like a moldy relic from a bygone era.

The British built the Bath Fountain Hotel as a hospital because of the mineralized hot water that poured from the mountains. Clinically speaking, the hotel waters are claimed to be the most radioactive and healthful in the world, second only to Lourdes, France. The Maroons first discovered the healing waters, but the British developed the hospital with twenty clean, but spartan hospital rooms, and the 16 beautifully restored tiled baths in the basement.

You can take a dip in the mineral hot spring water or get a hot water massage with towels from one of the many locals that hang around the natural hot bath in the river. If you prefer more privacy and quietness try one of the hot water baths inside the original hotel, situated at the parking lot. Here you can rent your own bathroom with the same natural hot water.

UGLI^® Fruit     (click image to open)

The Ugli Fruit is the registered trade mark under which Cabel Hall Citrus Ltd. markets its brand of tangelos grown in Jamaica.  It is a cross between a mandarin orange and a pomelo (the original grapefruit) native to Jamaica. Combines the best characteristics of the tangerine, grapefruit and seville orange.

The Breadfruit     (click image to open)

Captain Bligh was ordered in the 1770s to bring nutritious and valuable breadfruit back to Jamaica from Tahiti, where it grew naturally. Bligh almost accomplished his mission, except for a single snag—The Mutiny on the Bounty, which actually took place in the Tonga Islands. Mr. Christian and company "cooked up" their scheme and bounced Bligh off the Bounty, and after a grueling 4,000-mile open boat row across the Pacific, Bligh landed on the Dutch island of Timor, telling his fiery tale.

Back in England, later Bligh told British Fleet Command his woes and they still saw him fit to outfit him with another ship, and he set sail once more for Polynesian breadfruit. This time he accomplished his orders. The British sailors commanded by Captain Bligh planted the first breadfruit in the New World in the Bath area. Descendents of the stately palm tree-sized plant still grow in the oldest botanical garden in the Caribbean

The Ackee     (click image to enlarge)

Also claimed to have been brought to Jamaica by Captain Blye, the Ackee is quite a unique fruit.  Ackee is actually poisonous until it becomes ripe.  Jamaicans must be very careful to harvest the fruit at just the right time.

When prepared correctly, the Ackee has the taste and consistency of scrabbled eggs.  The fruit will pass quite nicely for breakfast.

The most common dish served in Jamaica with Ackee is Ackee and Saltfish.

Movies Filmed Near Blue Heaven

More then 4 movies have been filmed near Blue Heaven.

Cocktail staring Tom Cruise filmed at in part at Dragon Bay, Blue Lagoon, Reach Falls and more.  Lord of the Flies was filmed in part right at Blue Heaven and around Long Bay and Reach Falls.  Club Paradise staring Robin Williams filmed at Blue Lagoon.  Treasure Isle, staring Charleton Heston, was filmed partly around Port Antonio.

West Indian Manatee     (click image to enlarge)

Manatees in Jamaica are considered endangered and vulnerable (Hurst 1987). They have been protected since 1971 by Jamaica's Wildlife Protection Act, which stipulates a J$10,000.00 fine or 12 months imprisonment to offenders. Although fishermen are aware of legislation, enforcement is inadequate.

An island-wide public education program, with emphasis on the southern parishes, was conducted in 1991 as part of a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Government of Jamaica Manatee Project.

The Blue Lagoon     (click image to enlarge)

The Blue Lagoon, or Blue Hole, as the locals call it, is truly one of the most unique sites in all of Jamaica.  Some claim it is bottomless and even the famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau claims to have dived down to 200 feet and found no bottom.  The lagoon is fed by hundreds of free mineral springs that keep the lagoon's color a unique blue-green.  The lagoon is surrounded by beautiful lush tropical vegetation adding the to mystique.

Although named the same, this is not where Brook Shields swam in the famous movie Blue Lagoon.

The Blue Lagoon and Winnefred Beach boat tour is a nice trip. (click here)