Blue Mountain Peak is the highest mountain in Jamaica at 2,256 metres (7,402 ft). It is the home of Blue Mountain coffee and their famous tours. Blue Mountain Peak is the second highest peak in the Caribbean after Pico Duarte of the Dominican Republic. It is located on the border of the Portland and Saint Thomas parishes of Jamaica.
The Blue Mountains are considered by many to be a hiker's and camper's paradise. The traditional Blue Mountain trek is a 7-mile (10 km) hike to the peak and consists of a 3,000-foot (1,000 m) increase in elevation. Jamaicans prefer to reach the peak at sunrise, thus the 3–4 hour hike is usually undertaken in darkness. Since the sky is usually very clear in the mornings, Cuba can be seen in the distance. Some of the plants found on the Blue Mountain cannot be found anywhere else in the world and they are often of a dwarfed sort. This is mainly due to the cold climate which inhibits growth. The small coffee farming communities of Claverty Cottage and Hagley Gap are located near the peak.
Famous quotes containing the words blue, mountain and/or peak:
“Debussy—A pretty girl with one blue eye and one brown one.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“The Xanthus or Scamander is not a mere dry channel and bed of a mountain torrent, but fed by the ever-flowing springs of fame ... and I trust that I may be allowed to associate our muddy but much abused Concord River with the most famous in history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)