This is Jamaica, my Jamaica, the land of my birth. Going Home with Anthony Bourdain.

I waited excitedly for weeks to view the Travel Channel program No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain: Jamaica. I am a regular viewer of the Travel Channel and Bourdain’s No Reservations program is a favorite. I love his unfiltered and more than slightly jaded view of the world. I was looking forward to Jamaica getting the same treatment. Bourdain held no punches and I was not disappointed when he opened his show at Helshire Beach, my favorite hang out spot in Jamaica. It was sufficient to remind me of those impulsive Sunday trips to the beach for some sun, sand and the best fish and festival anywhere in the world. As he said, food always tastes better with bare feet. He reminded viewers that if they wanted the “One Love” Jamaica from the TV commercials that that is there too, but in essence this is the real Jamaica that the people know and live with on a daily basis. I was proud to see this but I’m sure there are those who would be disturbed by the unveiling of the pretentious veneer.

In my US experience, as soon as someone knows you are from Jamaica they automatically continue into the “How beautiful it is” speech. They want to go there one day or they went there and thought it was paradise. I smile and go along with the conversation… so where did you visit? It’s usually one of the tourist meccas - Ocho Rios, Montego Bay or Negril. They all had a great time at the hotels, drank some run and coconut water, ate some spicy chicken (Jerk?) and ate something that looked like scrambled eggs with fried bananas and some other things they can’t remember or can’t quite describe (ackee and saltfish with fried plantains and dumplings or boiled bananas with some other cooked food). Yeah, I feel happy that they had such a good time and of course very pleased when they want to go back. I enjoy the conversation and enjoy sharing my knowledge of the island, its people and culture. But underneath all this pleasant talk is the thought that that is not the real Jamaica. It’s just the public face we share with the world to keep earning those tourist dollars and keep the economy moving. I appreciate this as a fact of life for the way Jamaica must be packaged and marketed. Those commercials make me nostalgic for my vacation days in Negril and Ocho Rios too.

Yet again there are those people, few...but they are out there, who will want to have conversations about the other Jamaica I know. The one I lived when not on vacation. The Jamaica where people are hard working but struggle to make a living, where violence, crime and corruption are issues that threaten to tear the society apart, where dancehall is king and street dances like Passa Passa are the people’s party. I like talking about this Jamaica too and almost feel like I’ve found a kindred soul in my “secret” Jamaica Club.

Well, Bourdain got right into the nitty gritty showing this latter side of Jamaica – Coronation market with its fresh local produce where you can get every and anything, officially run by the government but practically controlled by the criminal elements. Run down shacks and strewn garbage where people eke out a tough living while trying to avoid being the next victims of crime in the country with the highest murder rate in the world. Passa Passa street dances where the ubiquitous young DJ’s try to get a buss and dance crews vie for supremacy and worldwide fame. Beef patties and chicken foot soup eaten on the run. Helshire, the local peoples Sunday beach and the entrepreneurs who make a living there frying fish, giving horse rides, selling oysters and carving out tourist trinkets. The Jerk chicken man on Red Hills road and the disorderly consumers who stop traffic trying to complete their purchase of the weekend treat. It was real and not very pretty, but still I loved it. This was home.

As I say, and as Bourdain confirms, Jamaica is a land of glaring contradictions. It more often shows the tourist paradise side of this contradiction to the world, but the other side also exists and occasionally gets its time in the sun. You wouldn’t be mistaken to think of Jamaica as either one of the contrasting notions, but to really know Jamaica, you must know both. Good job Bourdain, I was not disappointed.

P.S. That cave was a hell hole and even for a place “off the beaten path” that was too much for anyone except those cave loving explorers. I feared for his health.

I loved how that young kid at the blue mountain could explain so eloquently about the ackee. Well done kid.

The other sections can be found on you tube at: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=BOURDAIN+JAMAICA&search_type=

The picture on my Blog Header was taken at Helshire Beach on my last visit home.