Jamaica Passport Stamps

I’m a saver of all things ridiculous when it comes to traveling. It pains me to get rid of anything that’s touched Jamaican soil, so much that I’ve even held on to a broken pair of flip flops for five years after they broke! But the ONE thing I will never ever let go of no matter how old or decrepit they get are my passports.

Canadian passports are good for five years and I’ve been traveling steady for eight so I’m working my way through my second passport as we speak. I have both of them proudly displayed on my bedroom dresser so I can look at them every day even though they don’t do anything but sit there staring back at me. I decided to flip through my old one the other day and it made me smile. Back in 2003 when I obtained my first one we were still allowed to smile in the photos and this is the most ridiculous smile ever! Why? Because the day I had this photo taken I had just won my first trip to Jamaica!

My second passport looks much more serious…..ugly in fact…kind of gangster. And WHO is responsible for this hairdo? I remember that day when I was wearing the headband and they gave me a hard time about it saying that normally I shouldn’t be allowed to wear it unless it’s part of a religious head dress LOL! Bad hair is my religion so they let me keep it.

I can never decide which stamps are my favorite since a lot of them have special meaning to me, even though they all look the same. The only stamps I ignore are the USA Homeland Security ones. I’ve got 16 Jamaican stamps in my passport and following are some of my favorites. This next one is my VERY first trip to Jamaica! It has to be special!

Second most excellent stamp is the one where I flew on the day of my birthday! There was no feeling like landing in my favorite country on the exact day of my birthday. When I was collecting my bags at Sangster airport in Montego Bay the young dude that helped me find my bags asked how I was and I told him I was spectacular because it was my birthday and he said “mine too”! I thought he was lying and using that as a pick up line but he pulled out his identification and it really was his birthday! Too cool.

The following picture made me smile. I was flipping through my old passport and at fast glance I mistook the hand written “one week” for “one love”. Imagine!

The next image is from my current passport and it’s my favorite two pages of all because they have the most stamps out of all the pages in both books! Total of six trips on two pages. This is almost HALF my trip total stamped right here in one spot! Then there’s the lonely USA stamp which was a stopover coming home from Jamaica. I’m guessing when this book is closed the six Jamaica stamps are bullying the American one based on sheer numbers.

And last but not least the best stamp of all. The one where I never left Jamaica! Okay so I did leave eventually but coming into the country having written “68 days” on my immigration card was the most awesome feeling ever! 68 days was just an arbitrary number I chose, I didn’t really have a leave date in mind. I remember that day I arrived like it was yesterday. I sat at the airport bar alone and thought to myself what an odd feeling it was being in Jamaica with no leave date in mind. I just sat there, at peace with myself that I’d finally made a bold move in my life and done something SO out of the ordinary.

What are your favorite passport stamps? What ridiculous but memorable items do you hang onto just because they give you a warm, fuzzy feeling to have?