Lady Price’s Beach in Jamaica

Jamaica was a place I had waited my whole life to see. I was blessed with a day better than the one before for a whole week. It’s so hard to pick out the best day of all, but one day in particular fills me with so much joy.

My friend and I had made the journey from Kingston to Portland by private car and we checked into our pension. Along the way we were listening to an interview with Jimmy Cliff as he had just been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The drive itself from Kingston and through the blue mountains was incredible and the radio in Jamaica always hit the right spot because the DJs were personable and interesting and the music was the catalyst that brought me to the island.

We arrived in Portland at about 1pm, checked in, went to our room, listened to the rest of the Jimmy Cliff interview and changed into our swimsuits. We came to Portland to escape the crowded city of Kingston and to spend the rest of our trip swimming at the beautiful beaches we knew we could find in that area. For the rest of our first day in Portland, our plan was to catch a shared taxi down the way to the public beach. We were hopeful to enjoy a gorgeous beach before it closed around 4-5pm. We wouldn’t waste any time.

So, with our swimsuits under our clothes and our packs ready for the beach, we waited happily on the street for a taxi. Almost immediately we saw this older white couple being led by a rasta down the road. He stopped at us and asked us “Hey, do you want to go to the beach?” As we stood there obviously ready for some water, we took a second and looked at him and this middle-aged white couple (the woman could barely walk as she had recently had knee surgery) and we decided, “What the hell?! Let’s go!” He introduced himself as Culture and said he was taking his guests to a private beach a little down the road for some mineral water therapy.

As we walked, the older couple continued carefully behind us. Culture asked us what we were doing there and where we were from. I had told him I was DJ in the USA and had been interested in Jamaican music since middle school and how it was my friend’s first time out of the country. Immediately he liked us, I attribute this to our true vibes literally radiating off of us in this magical land (This vibe has gotten me very far in my travels throughout my life. Jamaica monumentally reaffirmed my belief in my true vibe throughout my first trip there).  Culture said he was happy to show us this spot and we were welcome to join him at his guesthouse next to ours to hang out in the studio or even do a group dinner. We liked Culture and his easy-going friendly ways. Together with the couple, we all walked down the road for maybe a total of 15 minutes.

Finally we came to a property gate. He called his friend who was working there to let us inside and we went down the path to a private beach. There were workers tending to the gardens and property. Culture explained that these were his friends and they worked to keep this place clean and tidy even though the family who owned the property never/rarely went there.  This was the estate of Lady Price, a baroness, but it was completely empty except for the groundskeepers tending to the literal jungle on this property.  We were in awe of this place, only catching a glimpse of the mansion through the lush vegetation as we went directly to the beach part of the property.

The private beach of this estate was unbelievably gorgeous. We set down our stuff and Culture led the couple to a stone ledge at the water to sit on while he gave them the treatment with the mineral water. We sat in the shallow water on the sand that only slowly and gradually got deeper. Here the water was almost completely still, calm, and clear in it’s characteristic Caribbean color. Sitting with our legs outstretched in the sunny shallow, we smoked a cigarette, watched the horizon and felt the sunshine through the warm water. The color of the Caribbean sea was a pure blue green that you only see in photos. Sitting there listening to the birds we congratulated ourselves thinking “we freaking did it!!!’ I truly recognized and really understood how far my personal vibe gets me and how it puts me in other paths allowing me to meet incredible people along the way. How lucky I was to be there at that time on that day in that exact moment to come experience this estate with a kind rasta and his guests.

We swam a bit and floated and when Culture finished the treatment with the couple, he called us over to give us the treatment. We didn’t really understand what was going on but he sat us on the ledge and proceeded to splash water all around us and on our joints. He said “Come on girls, you gotta sop the joints! Sop ‘em! This is special water, coming from a fresh spring in the mountains, it mixes with the Caribbean sea and it creates a whirlpool of therapeutic water naturally! Sop your joints! Get the minerals, the aloe!” As we laughed and hollered at the outrageousness of this therapy, we graciously and humbly received the treatment, sopping our joints, splashing all around, making sure we were completely covered in the mineral water. 

When our treatment was finished, Culture instructed the woman to keep her knees in the water from the ledge and continue to sop her joints as she wanted. He led us across the yard, showing us plants and explaining the area. We walked over a small stone bridge and he showed us the source of the mineral spring water. The water was rushing out from a place unseen and there were trees hanging down towards the rushing water. He asked us how good we were at swimming as he got into the water by holding a branch. Then, he coached us into the rushing mineral stream and he held out his hand for us to float in the healing water while he gripped the branch attached to land so we wouldn’t be carried away. As I was floating in the stream of rushing mineral water, it didn’t occur to me that this would be a moment I would look back on and really appreciate. The kindness of this stranger, the chance of the encounter, mother nature literally healing us; it felt godly.

The whole trip was one amazing thing after another, so it was hard to really separate and enjoy the things I was feeling and experiencing. All the elements of what make Jamaica so amazing: the music, culture, people, food, beaches, mountains, coffee… the list goes on! However, I think about Lady Price’s property and beach often when I want to remember some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. More than seeing, it was insurmountably peaceful and calming.