Is BUD From Jamaica good ?

Never been. Have any zoners ever found like, real deal Jamaican from the elders there in person? My understanding is that for fairly obvious reasons it's mostly all Dutch and American gear now.
 

I don't know that any "legit" "Jamaican" seed (meaning: a generationally cultivated domestically farmed line, separate and away from any other varieties) really exists out there in the seed world. As the video indicates, it has been curated by a few at least.
 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LDywDuDjknA

I was only there once, maybe 14 years ago. From my limited experience, and from what I've heard from multiple friends who spent time there, it's more about quantity and price than quality. That may be different now, though, because people expect good bud.

When I was "courted" for what I wanted, I said, "ganja, but not the stuff everyone else is getting." I had to wait for 20 minutes  for the "purple skunk" to show up, and I paid $40 for over an ounce. It was seedless and considerably better than most of the other stuff I saw and smoked. It still wasn't that strong, which really didn't matter. When you're twisting huge fatties every hour in the 95 degree heat, and with rum flowing, how strong do you need it?

Never been either. Come across a folded over branch o' buds years ago supposedly from there. It was alright. 

Reminded me of the inexpensive loose Thai weed available in SOCAL in between local  harvests very  early 1980s. A folded stick/branch.

Used to get lbs from Jamaica back in  the mid 70s. Good stuff - sativa.

Nowadays I hear they mostly grow the same hybrids as everyone else.

Hard to get a good dry and a good cure down there with the high humidity.

One year - late 80s? early 90s? I took a bunch of Humbolt seeds with me and distributed them to my hosts off the beaten path in Negril. I was treated real well. to say the least.  I'm  guessing some of those genetics survived. At that time, the local weed was ok but not as good as what we were smoking in Northern California. (That was the first time I had ever seen a full-blown marijuana "tree" growing alongside some guy's hut -- seemed a couple stories tall - I was used to more condensed plants in discrete gardens.)

A couple of years ago on a short vacation, I got a bag from the limo driver on the way to the resort (knowing I could have waited for a better value) -- it was quite suitable and I ended up giving the remains away to another couple who just arrived. "Welcome to Jamaica, mon."

>>>>>I ended up giving the remains away to another couple who just arrived. 

A continuing tradition in Negril.

That's funny. When we were there a couple we me gave us an oz as they were leaving. It was super seedy and I ended up throwing it away. We gave away a bunch of purple skunk and the remainder of our "accelerants" upon our departure.

You just gotta poke around

I remember in the 80 s it was seedy, and washed up on shore in Lauderdale a lot

In the very early 80s, I knew a lady from Vermont who went to Jamaica for about a month every winter. She'd bring back some Lamb's Bread that was quite good comapred to what I was accustomed to smoking at the time, but what I really liked was the mushrooms she'd bring back.

I have never been there but long ago used to get smuggled bud from there that I quite liked - long skinny buds that certainly worked their magic.

A good friend spent a couple weeks there in the later 80's and was dumbfounded at the rock-bottom prices for ultra pure coke. He also told me about a guy selling big gooey wads of hash that he would have swore were pipe resin but, nope, it indeed was hash upon closer inspection and purchase. As goes many a story from visitors, he had to just throw it all away when leaving the island. He also said there was a type of set-up near the airport from "sellers" in where which newly arriving buyers would be immediately arrested and fined before being sent on their way. They had fun meandering the countryside and talking locals into showing off their plants/crops.

Jamaica.

I went there 4 times.

The 1st time was 1970. 4 of us went & stayed for about 10 days. None of us knew anyone who had ever been there except for 1 friend whose family did a cruise of the Caribbean when he was about 10. We did the north coast staying in Mo Bay. We rented a car & went to Negril.  Nothing there except a beautiful deserted beach. No hippies. No nothing. There was a little hut selling patties & Red Stripe.  We drove to Ocho Rios & played @ Dunn's River Falls. As soon as we arrived in Mo Bay from the airport we found a guesthouse (The Chiltern Apts.) & within 1/2 hour we found a kid with some Ganga. We went  on the outskirts of town to a small creek & took great big plant leaves for seats & rolled spliffs out of white bakery bags. We were used to pretty good weed, including homegrown (Kentucky) sinsemilla & damn good hash of all types. We found the local to be very good.

I went back with 5 other people the next year (1971) & stayed a month. We again rented a car & stayed on the north shore for the 1st  week.  Again with The Chiltern as a base we visited Negril & Ocho Rios & the Cockpit Country. We did not go to Maroon Town as visitors had to telegraph ahead to get permission to visit. While up in the Cockpit Country (The Land Of Look-Behind) we found weed. Driving in the country we met a guy who took us to a walled community (walls made from 15' bamboo poles encircling the large encampment). The guy said only 1 of us could go in with him. I was selected as I was the most experienced. There wer about 15-20 bamboo huts inside each containing a family. There were kids, adult men & women, dogs, cats, pigs, & chickens in there. They were Rastas. I scored about 4 ozs. for about 3-4 bucks & we left just to find it was mixed with tobacco. I freaked & we went back & I went in alone & bitched. The men were cool & said that was the way they smoked it.  I explained that we didn't & they traded we with good unadulterated Lamb"s Bread.  We got pretty high.

Then we returned our car & departed The Chiltern & caught the train from Mo Bay to Kingston. We had heard of a hostel on Blue Mountain (Whitfield Hall). The train was  narrow gage with a small locomotive, a coal car, a 1st class coach (which no one was in) , & a 2nd class car. Hanging on the back of the train we smoked while traveling across the country. The train would stop in little villages & women would come to our windows with baskets on their heads & sell us fruit & dried fresh water shrimp. They sold us Red Stripe onboard. A minister got on board & rode about 20-30 miles with us & the 6 or so Jamaicans on board. He passed out sheets of paper with church songs. We all knew the words from our childhood Baptist upbringings so we & the Jamaicans all sang together. It was glorious. We arrived in Kingston with our backpacks & took a bus to Mavis Bank & then got another one to Hagley Gap. The buses were packed & hot & smelly with chickens going to market & lots of people. They all looked @ us like they had never seen white people before. When we got off that bus we bought 2 weeks worth of dried food, several bottles of Light Trelawny Rum, & about 4 more ozs. We found a guy with a Land Rover & for 10 bucks he took us up to Whitfield Hall (4200").

We stayed there 2 weeks for $2 Ja. each per night. It was a log fort built in the 1700s by the English overlooking Kingston harbor as a defence against the Spanish. No electricity or running water but kerosene lamps & sweet spring water. It was truly paradise. We ran out of weed & 2 of us waled about 5 miles down the mountain & found a hut & got about 4 more ozs,. & a bottle of rum which we drank on the walk back up the mountain. Whitfield Hall was now a coffee plantation greathouse so we drank wonderful Blue Mountain Coffee.  One morning @ about 4AM we hiked to Blue Mountain Peak (7400'). At dawn, before the sun heated the island & clouds formed we could see all of Jamaica down below us & both Cuba & Hispaniola in the distance. 

While @ Whitfield Hall I got with the lone female in our party & when we returned to the States we lived together for  nearly 5 years.

We got back down the mountain to Kingston & took the train back to Mo Bay & The Chiltern & stayed another week.

A couple of months later several of us went back to Jamaica & met some of my new friends & scored 40 lbs & sent in home but that is another story.

I went back a 4th time in 1978 with the lady I later married & stayed in more luxury digs on the north shore for 2 weeks. Again headquarters @ first @ The Chiltern I rented a car & we went around. Rick's was now in Negril by the cliffs & more hippies than you needed. Back to Ocho Rios & Dunn's River Falls. Now there was a Playboy club in Ocho Rios & on down to Port Antonio with its river rafting & Errol Flynn's old estate. I rented a luxury estate outside Ocho Rios in a community called Ora Cabessa. The estate was called Golden Clouds. Perched on little cliffs on the water the house was pure luxury. Besides the Caribbean it had a pool. It was a walled 5 acre estate with a live-in grounds-keeper & a maid-cook-housekeeper. Of course I scored more weed & rum & played with beautiful wife-to-be.

Honorable mention - good Jamaican cigars - Mario Palomino.

One of the guys I went with on the 1st & 3rd trips has gone back every year since & now has two AirB&Bs in Negril just by Ricks & the cliffs. He says the weed, blow, & women are cheap, excellent, & plentiful.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Very well done, sir

Your writings are always fascinating to me, thanks.

Awesome stories, crabneesh. Thanks for sharing them.

What about the food son?

music?

art?

clothes?

other drugs   Hash,  white stuff?

rasta religion?

the " lone female "?   Where is she now 

Yeah, and what's up with that forty pack?

To answer the questions:

We were hippies so we ate canned food & dried food we prepared with the fruit & occasional pattie. On the last trip we ate amazing food.

Music, we were into reggae & had Marley & Jimmy Cliff records & we met Marley in a little club in Kingston & he gave one of my buddies a pipe which I now have.

Art was craving. Wood & coral. On the last trip I got a carved black coral necklace for my future wife of 40 years.

Clothes - we were hippies & all worn LandLubber bellbottoms.

Yes Rastas. I never embraced their religion but I have always respected it.

Yes the lone female. It would not be polite to elaborate.

& that 40, gone in a flash.

thank you mr crab

chill on

This morning. Haven't had double yolks in quite a while.

"...big gooey wads of hash that he would have swore were pipe resin..."

I recall stuff like that in Montrêal Mid - 1980's and they called it "Jammy Gum". Jamaican Gummy hash.

It was extremely gooey and sticky,  much more potent compared to the average Montrêal Hashish.

Weed in that town was usually "dirt-weed" or traditional seed & stem garbage.  Back in the early - mid 1980's.

Hash of various qualities circulated,  but the Jammy Gum was superior to most.

I think my favorite tale of the Jamaican / Rasta herb slingers is when I met up with them one afternoon and got some stuff,  but they made me sit in their somewhat defective Car and drive around the alleys,  but only in Reverse.

The old Rasta car would not drive forward.  So we puffed a spliff or two driving in reverse around alleys,  avoiding actual Streets or Avenues.

Maybe 3 - 4 Rasta dread dudes and me in this little AMC Gremlin or such garbage Car. I was a little bit freaked-out at first,  but they were all very polite and friendly.  Their stuff was excellent,  and better than the usual.

Few things  brings me more joy than the double yolkers.

even Madonna cannot find good weed in Jamaica, looking pretty stemmy, and the plate must mean there are seeds, Christ buy a grinder, and look like you know what you are doing

Was there once in '83. Bellhop dude threw our bags down and whipped out a couple z's. We kept finding a little better quality as the week went on, but weren't going to fly back with anything, so we had to control ourselves. They know their tourist base.

Go for the shrooms...