Time to ExploreJamaica is such a beautiful country, and Negril, as I have said before, has amazing beaches with crystal blue water. We would have been just fine staying at our all- inclusive resort, because it had everything that we needed. I always want to see everything a country has to offer when visiting it and the Negril side of Jamaica was no exception.
Along Jamaica's South Coast
Comfortable and Safe excursions are only achieved when you use a licensed and insured company to provide your tour. There are many tour operators in Jamaica that I trust. We always felt totally safe and comfortable in our air conditioned van, as we drove to Jamaica's south coast toward our Black River croc adventure.
We drove for about an hour, until we reached the town of Black River, located where the Black River flows into the Caribbean Sea. The Black river is Jamaica's longest river and is a fantastic place to see many types of animals, such as Egrets, Cranes, and of course crocodiles.
In fact, the Black River is the main crocodile area in all of Jamaica. The river got its name because of its dark color which is caused from the tannins that stain the water, not from pollution. In fact I did not see any signs of pollution anywhere in Jamaica.
The Crocodile Hunter
Our tour began at the mouth of the black river where it flows into the Caribbean Sea. I think we had the best tour guide that was available, because he was entertaining, and as you will read, and see, did some extra things that we were told the other tour guides won't do, because it is too dangerous! We were now all on the boat heading up the Black River in search of Crocodiles. Our guide did point out some Egrets and some baby crocs that we saw while we were still getting started.
Looking For Crocs!
Well the baby crocodile was cute, but we didn't go on this tour to see a baby crocodile, we were looking for big crocodiles! Our guide took us up river quite a distance until we reached a split in the river. The area to the left was the part of the river that flowed down from the mountains, and the water to the right, was where the Crocodiles tended to congregate. I
t wasn't long before we saw a large Crocodile lying in the sun on the river bank. We slowed boat and came to a complete stop. What happened next was so unbelievable!
WOW! Patricia the friendly Crocodile! (If you have food)
I want to remind everyone that we were in the wild. We were not at any crocodile farm, or zoo, we were right in the middle of the Black River. All of a sudden, this crocodile, our guide called "Patricia" started swimming toward the boat. While it was swimming, our guide put his hand in the water and was calling the crocodile, saying "come, come, come, while splashing the water with his hand.
When she came close to the boat, he put some chicken skin in the water and the croc suddenly lunged for the food with a huge splash! Then he let us pet the crocodile as she came right next to the boat. For some great pictures of our encounter with Patricia, check out our blog post.
Our guide left Patricia and showed us a couple other regulars, and called them over to the boat, but told us that we could not get that close to the others, because they had a tendency to jump at the boat, or any hands and arms that were hanging off the boat. YIKES!
A Great Lunch
It was a great time to interact with the crocodiles in their own environment. When we arrived back at the dock, we were greeted with an authentic Jamaican lunch! We all enjoyed it very much and they had a very nice eating area there that was comfortable. The tour was a great deal, as we got to go on the croc adventure, have lunch provided, and then it was off to the Y.S Falls!
By : Tami_Santini
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