ISLANDHOPPING I DAY TRIP
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Comin’ Round the Mountain
An Olympian joy ride, no snow required
U
sain “Lightning” Bolt, the
sprinting star of last sum-
mer’s Olympics, accelerates
out of the first turn, already
a speeding blur. With nearly 700 me-
ters to the finish line, the triple-gold
medalist grins, holds up his camera
phone and calmly snaps a picture. Of
course, he would! Despite the quirky
renown of the national bobsled team,
tracks like this are not exactly com-
monplace in Jamaica.
Diving, winding and undulating
for 3,320 feet through a lush and
rugged landscape, Rainforest Bobsled
Jamaica at Mystic Mountain com-
bines amusement-park thrills with
green appeal: Who wouldn’t want to
take a roller-coaster ride through the
woods? Five minutes west of Ocho
Rios, the unique diversion — done
in one-man cars resembling the sleds
first immortalized by Jamaica’s team at
30 Caribbean Travel + Life
BOBSLEDDING JAMAICA
RAINFOREST BOBSLED
JAMAICA AT MYSTIC MOUNTAIN
Open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
offering a variety of packages,
from the Sky Explorer ($42)
to the Sky Explorer, bobsled
and zip-line combo, which
costs $125. 876-974-3990;
rainforestbobsledjamaica.com
Others rode the chairlift
and zip line (opposite), but
Olympian Usain Bolt stuck to
the speedy sled (below).
the 1988 Winter Olympics — is the
centerpiece of a multimillion-dollar,
100-acre project constructed using
methods that minimize its impact
on the surrounding topography. The
attraction also includes a web of zip
lines and the Sky Explorer chairlift,
which ascends 700 feet to the summit
of Mystic Mountain.
Soaring through and above a
dense, mature forest of almond, pi-
mento and poinciana trees festooned
with bromeliads and wild orchids, the
cable car offers spectacular views of
the north coast, the island’s moun-
tainous interior and, if you go early
morning or late afternoon, up-close-
and-personal encounters with abun-
dant bird life, including the endemic
MICHAEL MELFORD
black-billed parrot.
At the summit, anchored by a pa-
vilion built to look like a rural railway
station, visitors can enjoy a swim-
MARCH 2009
ming pool, lookout tower, gift shop
and R2@ 700 Feet, a contemporary
Caribbean restaurant with a menu
that features plenty of spicy jerk
specialties. There are also exhibits
that celebrate the island’s diverse
fauna and flora; national heroes such
as Nanny of the Maroons (a runaway
slave who led an 18th-century revolt
against the British); reggae legend
Bob Marley; and athletes including
former heavyweight champ Lennox
Lewis, Bolt and the original Jamaican
bobsled team (which inspired the
movie Cool Runnings). The summit
is also the launchpad for the zip-line
canopy tour, a circuit of five tree-to-
tree transects that includes rides of
almost 400 feet and an epic, more-
than-550-foot crossing that’ll have
you shrieking like a juvenile macaw.
But the real star here is the bob-
sled. I clamber into a stylish, Ger-
man-built car decked out in Jamaica’s
black, gold and green livery, push a

lever to release the brakes, and let

gravity work its hair-raising magic.
For about the next 45 seconds I dart
and dip through a tunnel of emerald
vegetation, banking through hairpin
turns as I plummet more than 300
feet down the mountainside before
finally coming to a halt in a cool,
shaded glade; then my sled and I are
slowly hoisted up a series of inclines
to the start.
Back at the top, I race to get Bolt’s
reaction to this exhilarating ride,
but I’m too late: The world’s speedi-
est human is busy sliding down the
mountain. Again and again, faster
and faster. — Christopher R. Cox

Caribbean Travel + Life 31