Moon Author's Review
Just west of Montego Bay, the Great River marks the border of St. James and Hanover, which represents Jamaica's high-end tourism. Before arriving at Round Hill, one of Jamaica's most exclusive club hotels, Tamarind Hill and its surrounding coastline are strewn with luxurious villas, most of which fetch upwards of US$10,000 per week during the high season.
The town of Hopewell is not especially remarkable beyond its present status as a somewhat active fishing community. There's a Scotiabank ATM, a small grocery store, and a few hole-in-the-wall restaurants for typical Jamaican fare in the heart of town. There is generally a sound system slowing traffic through town on Friday evenings, which precedes a busy market day on Saturday; if you're staying in the vicinity, it's worth a stop.
A few kilometers farther west of Round Hill and Hopewell is Tryall, a former sugarcane plantation destroyed during the Christmas Rebellion of 1831\1832. The old water wheel, fed by an aqueduct from the Flint River, can be seen as you round the bend approaching Tryall from the east, but little else remains as a reminder of its past as a sugar estate. Today the hotel and villa complex, which fans out from the historic great house, sits on one of the Caribbean's premier golf courses; its winter residents include boxing champion Lennox Lewis.
Bordering Tryall to the west is a burgeoning bedroom community, Sandy Bay, where new housing developments are rapidly springing up. Still farther west, the highway wraps around Mosquito Cove, where sailboats create a flotilla to party the night away before Easter weekend in preparation for a morning race back to Mobay every year.
