My brother Jim and I sit atop a narrow bamboo raft as our guide, Desmond, easily navigates the s-curves on Jamaica’s Great River. We listen to the high-pitched call of the yellow banana quit bird as we float under a green mosaic of ferns, banana trees, and thickets of bamboo that climb the banks of this sinuous waterway like ivy climbs a wall.  <\/span>Occasionally we pass other guides, Rastamen with long dreadlocks, walking their raft back upstream which can take an hour or longer. To pass the time, they sing spirituals.  <\/span>I’ve been to Jamaica more than a half-dozen times in the past decade and running the rivers is my favorite pastime away from the beach. Whether riding a tube down the White River under a canopy of green or rafting on the Rio Grande River, which starts in the mountains behind the town of Port Antonio, this is the Jamaica I think of when Bob Marley sings the refrain from his song, Three Little Birds<\/i>.  <\/span>“Don’t worry about a thing, because every little thing gonna be all right.” <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

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My brother Jim and I sit atop a narrow bamboo raft as our guide, Desmond, easily navigates the s-curves on Jamaica’s Great River. We listen to the high-pitched call of the yellow banana quit bird as we float under a green mosaic of ferns, banana trees, and thickets of bamboo that climb the banks of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-default-site","category-white-water-rafting"],"yoast_head":"\n