For our first-ever trip to the Caribbean (it was 1979), my friend Michael, his then-girlfriend, my then-girlfriend, and I rented a cottage on the north coast of Jamaica, about a stone's throw from Ocho Rios and the parish of St. Mary. This was in 1979, and travel to Jamaica was different then. Couples Resorts existed, but there were no Sandals or Beaches resorts -- in fact, few large hotels or all-inclusives of any stripe. Nor would we anti-establishment types have even wanted one. 

What we wanted was to tool around in our rental car, visiting Dunn's River Falls (where I almost sent a good Nikon SLR to a precipitous demise), the cool Blue Mountains, James Bond Beach (where Sean Connery mete up with Ursula Andress),  and local markets. We got into conversations with locals; ate free-range chicken and eggs, a rarity back then in the Big Apple.

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