I Owe My Life to Sean Paul

And what ever happened to the original informer, Snow?

Out of all the Jamaican artists out there, in retrospect I think I owe my life to Sean Paul.  This is a MEGA throwback for Jamaica My Way.  Like FIRST TRIP throwback.

Hundreds of you already know that if not for Sean Paul and a radio contest I never would have landed in Jamaica my first time back in 2003.  Wow that’s almost fifteen years ago now!  Back when we still used FILM for cameras, hence the crappy (and lack of) pictures I still have from way back when.

I’m not sure I ever covered the details of that first trip or how ridiculous some of it was.  But look at how ridiculous my sunglasses were back in the day!

That picture is my first picture ever taken in Jamaica, back in the days when they still had the folk singers performing for tourists at immigration, and when they handed out free rum punch the minute you walked outside.

The purpose of my trip was to see a Sean Paul concert at Wavz in Negril.  I won the trip through a radio station back home and the whole trip was one big whirlwind of alcohol, bus rides and really late nights with artists such as Sean Paul and Snow.  Yes, the one-hit-wonder Snow.  In fact Snow flew (<< that sounds funny) on the same plane as us from Toronto and stayed at the same resort as us in Negril.  We had breakfast with him several times but what’s funny is I don’t ever remember watching him perform at the same Sean Paul show.  But I do remember him telling us about his experiences with magic mushrooms.  He was a bonafide weirdo.

Along with the artists we traveled with an MTV entourage who came to cover spring break in Negril.  Here’s us with the two main camera men from MTV, who also stayed at our resort and were really cool peeps!

Can I just comment on how awful spring break in Jamaica is?  At least it’s awful for those of us who have a little self respect.  Our first exposure to the madness was at a party up at Samsara resort in the cliffs.  As part of the itinerary for the trip we basically got towed around to all the events the trip promoter was covering and this night at Samsara was crazy.  There were at least a trillion vacationers up there and some of the dirtiest stuff happened on the stage that night.  Like the “nastiest body shot” competition.  It involved alcohol and some girl-on-girl action and I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.  It’s amazing what tourists will do for a little attention and a prize.

During the trip we spent one night at Ricks Cafe which amazed me back in the day.  The perfect tourist spot for fun and sun!  This was also back in the day before Ricks was what it is now.  If you didn’t know it before hurricane Ivan it was a quaint little spot with a tiny gift shop and a little entertainment stage covered by thatch roofing.  For many of you who frequent Negril and know the guys who STILL work at Ricks, this is when I met all the divers who were still young back in those days.  Hector, Corey, Darrel, Scott and Easton – in 2003 when Hector was still called the Birdman.

Another person who seemed to always be where we had to go on this trip was B, the guy in the picture below.  I can’t remember if he was American, Canadian or Jamaican and we only knew him as B.  He never did tell us his real name even though we spent 5 days on buses and in hotels with him.

The most notable happenings on this super fast 5-day vacation were:

* Meeting world champion boxer Lennox Lewis and getting bumrushed by his entourage for taking pictures.  As karma would have it those pics were destroyed anyway somewhere between Jamaica and Canada on my way home.  Stupid film cameras.

* The Sean Paul concert even though Sean Paul wasn’t spectacular on stage but his dancers sure were.  Plus we had VIP access to the artist tent during and after the show.  He’s actually a REALLY nice guy!

* Being offered a place to live in Jamaica by an American who owned a condo unit at Pointe Village.  He was looking for someone to live in and take care of his unit while he was away from Jamaica.  Well…..at that time I had a little son, not a grown one.  It was never meant to be.

And so the trip came and went and that was the official beginning to the madness of what has been my life since Jamaica happened to it.  This jog down memory lane has been a fun one and there will be more throwbacks coming in future blog posts.  The hidden files!

How did YOU end up in Jamaica your first time?