Vivian and his grandson, Cheez,
20 years old, keep on high alert. Particularly with the old ride they use
to get to their coffee plantation. The car is perhaps a few years
too old for this mountain business. It's boiling, it's overheating. The Japanese car is exhausted
from the mountain incline. A bit of fresh water
should let it finish the journey. However, it is close to breaking point. Did that hit you?
-No. Let's check what's going on. I didn't think it would happen The water pressure
in the radiator was too high, it exploded. I foresaw that
and was ready to step aside. The car agreed to carry on. However, a few hundred meters further on, the engine doesn't have the strength
to face the steep hill. The two coffee farmers turn around. For the grandfather, his grandson,
it's the same story as every morning, struggle after struggle,
but they never give up. From an aerial view, the island of Jamaica is a small paradise
bordered by beautiful white sand beaches. Reggae on every street corner. A peaceful way of life
for the chilled Jamaican locals. However, so much for the postcard image. When you dig a little deeper
the island shows another face. Out of its 2.8 million population,
17 percent live below the poverty line. In the blue mountains, farmers may grow one of the most
expensive coffees in the world, but is the journey
to the fields worth the harvest? We have to stop
about ten times or even more. I'm young, I have a lot of energy
but right now, I'm very tired. Everyone manages as best they can. For a little money,
they don't hesitate to take risks. Look there. I'm not afraid of bats I don't want to be bitten, you get rabies from the bats. These miners discover
a rare and unsuspected treasure. The biggest income
for Jamaica remains tourism. Burro is looking for new tour routes. He's having a hard time,
but he sees the glass half full. People are watching these movies just to see adventures,
when they could be living an adventure. These country roads aren't a game, but whatever happens
Jamaicans have a golden rule, even in the face of danger
you must keep your cool. Life in this area of Kingston Jamaica
is punctuated every day by the big sound, as they say. It comes from this strange machine. An unidentified rolling object,
as its inventor calls it. Ken Roy couldn't afford to open a shop
but he had a motorbike and a good idea. He became a record shop on wheels. Six months later, his 120 decibels
attracts customers like a magnet. I'm a big star here, people love me. You can't stop the love because
the music I give them is very good. Everyday they tell me they love what I do. There's only love
between the people and me. This is Richie Spice.
-How much? One euro. Thanks to his rolling disco, Ken Roy, also known as DJ Flex,
knows no borders. His music spreads
into the surrounding districts. On the motorway,
he's going 90 kilometers per hour. His speakers keep up,
but his engine is struggling. There's a problem, I'm going to check if anything is broken. I was driving abought 100 on the
highway and was going real good. I was beating up the engine like that, then it started to cut the speed. I'm going to play music to relax and wait. Get that good mix. The repairman will arrive when he can. Nothing slows down DJ Flex. This bus lane is perfect for sales. This is DJ Flex, I've known him for long. I've bought from him
for three or four years. He's the best man, his mixes are good. Even though I broke down
I'm still making business. No problem, that's hustling. According to Ken Roy,
this is the Jamaican spirit. Bouncing back at the slightest problem. The country's road networks
aren't in bad condition. However, in the Blue Mountains,
the tracks are numerous and there's no hesitation
to come and adventure here. Rastafari. Burro is a tourist explorer. That is to say
that he's looking for a new circuit for holidaymakers
seeking an adrenalin rush. Given the state of the taxis,
there is already reason to be on edge. Why does this vehicle look like this? Can this take us up to the Blue Mountain? Right to the mountain so you're going up.
-I don't know if this would make it. I am 51, and I was born in this vehicle. This vehicle is the first vehicle
in the police force. So I don't know how old it is. The Blue Mountains hold many secrets
that tourists are itching to discover. The trick is to reach the villages
but that's another story for Burro. This is serious. This road is really serious,
expect the unexpected. As the car doesn't stick
to the dirt ground very well, when necessary,
the passenger climbs up onto the bonnet. He puts weight on the front wheels. Even if the ravine isn't nearby, you have to know
how to stay cool, as they say. The driver was right. His old car may be over 50 years old,
but it's reliable. Even though this car is much younger at 25
years old, it doesn't resist the tracks. In the mountains, mutual help is a must. It's neutral. It's neutral and not moving. Let's see if we can get him
out of the road, rock it again. Yes, man. It's good, this is the Jamaican thing. A few kilometers down the road, a second driver is in trouble. Many would lose patience,
but Burro jumps at the chance to help. It's the carburetor Rev up the van. This really an adventure today. This adventure makes me more serious
to come to do this type of tourism. People are watching these movies just to see adventures
when they could be living an adventure. In the mountains of Jamaica one doesn't
have to look far for adventure. Especially as the village
is still far away. The song praises
the beauty of the landscapes. Only, it forgets to talk about the chaos that lines the tracks
of the Blue Mountains. Considering how old the cars
are that drive through these mountains, life is very complicated. Vivian and his grandson Cheez
know the struggle too well. Getting to their coffee plantation
is an ordeal. Just the day before
their four by four broke down again. The car looks to be on its last legs. Only the old man's ingenuity
can keep it alive. This is a convertible gas tank. I threw out the original gas tank. When the gas is not a lot
we just use the jug. As long as there's no fire
we wouldn't have any problem. If you light a lighter,
then you have a big problem. That is the gas cable. It's like a bicycle cable brake. I've got no top,
I can't afford to buy one. When it rains I have no protection. It looks old but it can still carry us. The engine part is working properly. The grandfather and grandson's plantation
is 15 kilometers higher up, a 15 kilometer ordeal. It's very wet. A lot of grass on both sides,
in the middle of the road. As you can see,
it's very difficult to go over. We have to hold on tight, because as you can see, it's very rocky. Moisture is the friend
and the enemy of coffee. If the grandfather and grandson
don't pick the fruit every day, part of the crop will be damaged. Today Vivian and Cheez
won't reach their field. The radiator has just broken. We need to check the radiator. If it has a bend then we cut it
to make it more straight. If the bend is still there… Soon the coverings won't be enough, the car will have to be replaced. However, with what money? The coffee doesn't bring in
as much as it used to. Thanks to his farm Vivian built a house
big enough for the whole family. He's been able to raise his grandson,
fatherless, since he was two years old. He'd like Cheez to take over but his daughter and his wife,
who manage the accounts, don't agree. Maybe get a skill,
become a soldier or join the police. For me, I would rather my grandson
to go abroad, America especially. I prefer to stay in the countryside. When I fly out
who will cook my dinner for me? Can't you cook your own dinner? Yes, but sometime
I prefer someone to cook for me. There's lots of fast food in America
you don't have to cook. Fast food is not good. It's time to go.
-Bye. I hope black boy
won't give you any problem. They will try for the third time
to harvest their coffee. Like Vivian and Cheez, many Jamaicans
struggle every day to get enough to eat. On the other side of the island, men struggle and sweat
to get their daily bread. Every time I go to
the cave I clean this road. I chop this place, if I don't do it every week
every month it grows back. Boots and Soulgee are heading
towards the evil cave, as they call it. The legend says that anyone who enters it
risks being trapped there forever. However, it's not this danger
that worries them. Look there. Thousands of bats
hang from the roof of the cave. Boots and Soulgee don't hunt them, they collect something else. The problem is the bats
will only shit on you. Not too funny. It's just something we're used
to every day. It just feels like a little sand grain
drops on you. It feels cool and wet. The flying mammals have been defecating
in the caves for hundreds of years. Over time, their excrement
has turned into a great fertilizer. It's this soil that they come to collect. It's good for fertilizer for cabbages,
tomatoes, sweet peppers, everything. Good for everything, there's
no chemical, it's natural. While he digs,
Boots is never fully at ease. I'm not scared of the bats. I just don't want them biting. It can be bad and my doctor
said it can poison your body. Don't let the bats get near you,
you can get rabies from the bats. I keep the light
with me to keep bats away. That way they don't bite As you go lower in the cave there's
less oxygen, you can't breathe so good. Sometimes I go for half an hour,
25 minutes, and come back in. Then I start work. I'd hate to collapse in the cave. The one I don't want to attack me
most is the snake. Some of them are very angry,
vicious, they take you. I've been doing this since I was 21 years. It's been several years, and now I'm 55. I've done it for 23 years. I do it myself but I'd never let my
children do it, it's too hard for them. I say that from my heart. All I want is for my children to have
a better life and not need this job. This bag of soil sells for €10, a decent sum in Jamaica,
where the average salary is only €350. Being able to sell their produce
still takes a bit of courage. That's a really bad road, my friend, really bad road. It takes an hour on the motorbike, and half an hour on foot
to get to their best customer. Jason grows marijuana, but not just any marijuana. Look at this, it's like good gold.
-It's good for the marijuana. Let's say, 3000 plants, six different strains here right now. From this side to this side it's sold out. All of these plants
are actually ready to harvest, just a few more days
and they're ready to go. Since 2015, Jamaicans have been allowed
to grow marijuana for therapeutic purposes and small amounts
for personal consumption. My ganja won an award, the stepping High. Every year, an international jury
elects the best marijuana in the world. These are my babies. I will put bat shit on and mineral water
and they just love it. They just keep bearing and keep smiling. It's a blessing, up to today. The medical herb
has a drug content close to zero, but the plant is said
to relieve some chronic pain. In Kingston, the capital, it isn't therapeutic cannabis
that circulates the streets. Drugs are a plague for Jamaicans. Close to the United States, Jamaica
has become a hub, gangs regularly clash. The city is far from being safe. With his disco on wheels
broken down on the highway, the repair man comes to help Ken Roy. Both of them work to fix the vehicle. How will you bind it up? You carried all your tools. Do you think it was the petrol we put in
that caused the breakdown? Yes. I wonder which gas station we got it from. The two men aren't fazed
by the buses that pass them by. This is Green Farm, a very hot area. There's gang violence,
shootings and robberies. We have to be careful, be vigilant. As we're not from the area,
they may come and rob us. We don't have any link
and we don't have any family here You have to be careful. Ken Roy lives in
one of the poorest areas of the capital. He shares a house with friends, and his collection of CD's
isn't exactly legal. I have over a thousand CDs. When I record too many,
I can't even lift the box. It's very heavy. You can't afford to buy songs
so you copy them? Yes we copy them, we pay for the internet. When we pay for the internet
we get everything on it. Today I'm going to the garrison area, we call it the ghetto. We're going to bring the gospel
and the soul to the people They'll look out for me. Today the DJ on wheels
goes to sell his CD's to the inhabitants of the biggest
dumping ground in the Caribbean. Two and a half thousand people live here, looking for scrap metal to sell. This is one of the most
dangerous places in the capital. Ken Roy is at home here. With his music, he brings joy. How's the going, give me the special. We support him, we boost his business
because we love his music. We all work at the dump here
collecting scrap metals, it's dangerous. When a lorry dumps rubbish, someone will say,
that's my stove, my washing machine You can't touch it otherwise it's war. There have already been many deaths. I take the metals to try and sell them
to make some money. Sometimes you find it
and sometimes you don't, we have to eat. There are enough people
out there who went to school. They got diplomas but they can't get work. They have to come here and dig, we don't have a choice. Hey, I'm just getting some metal for you. There's 7kg. Tony is very popular here.
-Why? Well, he's good at pot making, you need them to cook food. pots and pans for soups, spoons, forks,
those things that are essential. You're bound to use them. For 20 years
this dump has allowed Tony to survive. This is my castle, my home. I haven't spent anything
but I have everything I need in my castle. It's working here, there's a TV, a radio. The others were trying
to turn the others on. Next to his house Tony has built a shed, and his aluminum foundry. I used to use petrol, but because of the price
I had to do something else. I discovered waste oil, so I tested it. I saw that it can work. That's what I use to melt in my recycling. This is my line. There's a pipe, the more I open it
the more powerful the fire will be. It's more on the way up from here. It's the recycler,
it's up by the dumpster. It works and quite well, but it's not very
environmentally friendly. This mini smelter still heats up
to over 600 degrees centigrade, enough to melt aluminum. I am proud of it. I had to think like an engineer. Once the aluminum
is poured into the clay molds, it takes the shape
of not only pots and pans. I just made this face. It's part of the artwork. What the face is like on TV
as I saw Bob's face. He's an icon and most of all
he's a Rasta man. Sometimes I sell a Bob Marley face,
and sometimes a pan. I'm still not giving up There's no limit,
it's to the world's extent, you can do it. So I'm going more, that's what I'm doing. In the Blue Mountains, Vivian and his grandson Cheez
aren't giving up either. Even if everything seems
to be working against them the old four by four
is dragging on the track. The two men try to harvest their coffee
before the humidity spoils the beans, but the machine
is breaking down constantly. After a three hour drive
to cover a mere 15 kilometers, they arrive at their plantation. Vivian and Cheez
grow Blue Mountain Coffee, one of the most expensive on the planet. The Japanese are so fond of it, that they consume three quarters
of the country's production. However, the two farmers
rarely see the result of its success. Cheez wonders about his future. What do you think about the coffee now? Will we make money
off of it in the future? When I really start taking it up from you? We don't know what happened
to the coffee price. Why it continued going down
instead of going up. For the future, I promise
that I'll not leave the firm. We'll try to advocate
for the price of it to go up so we can make a profit
out of it in the future. When you pass on the farm to me
I can employ other people. They can also make a profit
and maintain their families. I'm proud of you because you're young
and you're taking up the farm. You're not on the street
wasting your time. Bad teenagers always
end up in jail or in the morgue. Cops and gangs
kill each other, things like that. If you start hanging out
with them it'll end up in a bad way. After the harvest, the same journey back awaits
the grandfather and his grandson. Time is running out. With humidity we can have a lot of loss,
We have to transport the coffee quickly. We have to go with what we've picked now. Their four by four proves again
to make their lives complicated. The carburetor needs adjusting. Put some gas in the carburetor bowl
to make it start much easier. Pour it in the bowl. Is that enough? Yes. As we were coming over
he was telling me about the van and how to operate it better
since I was doing it wrong. He's passing his knowledge to me hoping I pass it on
to the next generation. Are you proud of your grandpa? Yes, I'm very proud. Uncertain whether the car will survive
long enough to see the next generation, the engine is on the verge of imploding. The vehicle is overheating and boiling. So now I'm waiting on it to cool down to pour water into the radiator. Well, if it doesn't start in time
we might have to push it up the road. Put it in neutral,
and let it run down the hill. Their harvest is still
a long way from being delivered. On the other side of the Blue Mountains, Burro, the tour guide is also wondering if the four by four he's hired
will hold up on the trail. He's looking
for new places to show tourists. He goes to the maroon community where
many descendants of African slaves live. Blue Mountains
and the Maroons are very important when it comes to the history of Jamaica. These are the mountains
where they usually went to escape away from the slavery they endured at the time. The Maroons came together
and ran away into the mountains. In 1655, when the English
took Jamaica from the Spanish, the African slaves exploited in sugar plantations
fled to the mountains. Instead of staying hidden, they took up arms to free
the new slaves brought by the British. Burro has an appointment
with the chief of the Maroon community. I'm Burro, a tour guide
coming from St. Andrew Colonel Sterling, the most typical Maroon. Colonel Sterling has prepared
a little surprise for him that will surely
be a hit with the tourists. What's going on? We knew our footprints when fighting. They had to find ways and means to outwit
and to outsmart the British army. One of those ways was to camouflage
themselves in this cocoon, and then making the ambush. That is why we call this cocoon
the warrior bush. Stories and legends taking place
in these beautiful surroundings. With Colonel Sterling, Burro will have something
to entertain the tourists with. This is the healing pool. in the past when
you were going into battle, warriors would be dipped here. They would be given
alcohol here and they'd dip. What's the purpose of
pouring rum into the water? That's how you appease the ancestors
because this is their place. You ask them for their guidance
and to give you health and strength. I think the tourists will be excited to see what happened here
hundreds of years ago. How the Maroons managed
to overpower and get their freedom. I am, and I'm a Jamaican. I live here, and I've never seen this. British slavery and oppression have left
their mark on the Jamaican people. Out of this suffering, a movement was born in the 1920s that is known
all over the world, Rastafari. Considered as a religion, it's aim is to bring the descendants
of slaves closer to their African roots. Joe is a Rasta. He tries to convert
new followers when he can. He looked upon the bridge from the land, They asked him a question, are you God? Listen to what the man said,
be still, and know that I am he. You said something a while ago. You said something about immortality. When Christ was born 2,000 years ago,
did Christ sit on the throne of David? No.
-I asked you a question. Answer the question, first. Good, then I tell you
the man must come back a second time. It's because the fire get hot. You light a little fire
and the fire gets hot. So it starts to blaze and consume. I'm not saying my God is God. I'm not saying that anyone else's God
is not God because I am not sure. My teaching is different. The Rastafarian religion
is a mixture of Old Testament and legend. So sometimes it's not so easy
to convince people. His dedication draws
admiration from his wife, Gilda, and his two children. I'm proud of my husband, of what he's doing
spreading the good news about Rastafari. People who are not Rastas
are blind to the truth. Rasta is here to tell them the truth
and show them the way. It just so happens
that today is a sacred day, perhaps the most important one
for rastas around the world. Joe and his family head
for the Blue Mountains, where they'll meet up with other followers to celebrate the anniversary
of their messiah's rise to power. However, once again, the Blue Mountains
are giving the travelers a hard time. Joe and his wife laugh about it,
but they are careful. The slightest deviation can lead them
straight into the ravine like this driver. A car drove off the road down there, but the driver is not dead just shaken up. Maybe he fell asleep, we don't know. Cars here are very dangerous, all that is a write-off. Shocked by the accident,
some travelers have gone off road. With a good command
of the wheel and divine help, Joe offers to help the driver out. You want me to drive it?
-Yeah. Watch it, now. Give me a push. A few extra hands don't go unappreciated. Well, it's rough down there
but we got it out by God's will. My wife troubles me
and calls me King Kong sometimes. He's very strong. Fifty kilometers
and three hours of driving later, their destination is in sight. Two hundred rastas gather here to protect
Kingston, the capital, from any violence. We love it up in the mountain. No pollution, no cursing,
no gunshot, nothing. It's just peace and love and unity. Tonight, the rastas celebrate
the arrival of their Messiah. The story begins in the 1920s. A black leader often uttered
the phrase, look to Africa, where a black king must be crowned. His prophecy came true ten years later, when Haile Selassie
became Emperor of Ethiopia. The movement then took
the name that the Emperor had before ascending the throne,
Rastafari Makonnen. To communicate with him,
Rastas smoke the sacred herb, ganja. I smoke it to meditate and keep calm. It let's us meditate, and positiveness. Meditate and love. With the drugs,
some rather fantastic stories come about. Bible is our fiction because
they call them UFO. We have seen them with our eyes. Coming from Sabath one night
and it was all around the place. Flying around?
-Yes, flying around. We see it in the city too. For the rastas,
God is not a Havana smoker. He shows signs to humans through the mist. As evening falls, everyone waits
for a sign from the sky or from space. On the Blue Mountains, Cheez and his grandfather
wouldn't mind receiving some divine help. However, tonight there will be no miracle. The old 4x4 can't go any further. By the time it cools down, Cheez's arms and legs replace the engine. It's the only way
to get to the village in time to sell their coffee
before the humidity ruins it. Very exhausting, I'm young, I have a lot of energy,
but right now I'm very tired. They've only got 15 kilometers to go, but they've already
been working for three hours. Every couple of minutes
we have to stop, check the battery. Filling up the radiator
with water is frustrating. We have to stop about ten times
or even more. I just want to reach home. Only, when the engine starts again,
it doesn't last more than a kilometer. After five hours of struggle,
they finally arrive in the village. Exhausted but relieved
to sell their coffee. €20 for their hard work, but Cheez is not about
to give up his grandfather's plantation. He even plans to expand it one day. Jamaicans are a mixture of cultures, as goes the nation's motto,
out of many one people. The people have made the best
of this multi-ethnic heritage, giving them the strength and positivity to
move their country in the right direction.
