Alex Twyman’s Old Tavern Estate, hidden in the mists that give the Blue Mountains their name, is one of the area’s family-owned plantations. A chartered surveyor by trade, Twyman came to Jamaica on a two-year contract more than 40 years ago, met his wife, Dorothy, and decided to stay. They bought the property in 1968 and now have 100 acres of coffee in cultivation.Twyman showed me around the plantation, machete in hand, hacking away at the undergrowth surrounding each coffee plant. Picking one of the “cherries”, the small red fruit, I popped it in my mouth – the skin and pulp was surprisingly sweet.

Spitting the two white seeds into my hand, I held raw Blue Mountain coffee beans, which are hand-picked, washed and taken to the capital, Kingston, where they’re dried on a barbecue for a week.They are then graded by the coffee board and returned to the Twymans to be roasted and packaged as Old Tavern Estate, named after the foundations of an old Spanish tavern found on the plantation.Back at the cabin, I watched Dorothy grind the beans and brew a pot of fresh coffee It was the smoothest, sweetest coffee I had ever tasted.. Few people who visit the Bahamas ever hear of Potter’s Cay, though many pass within a few yards of it each time they are whisked off Paradise Island – a piece of fabricated Caribbean perfection. Potter’s Cay is its alter-ego, the shabby working docks beneath the bridge. Boats from here link the central Bahamian island of New Providence, where the capital Nassau is situated, to all the Out Islands. These comprise literally hundreds of islands, ribbons of rock and sandbars spread over 100,000 square miles of the spectacularly blue Bahamian sea.

Potter’s Quay is a reminder that real West Indian life still exists in the Bahamas.The mailboats are the Out Islanders’ lifeline. Every teabag, breezeblock, can of condensed milk and car that reaches them is transported by the system of mailboats. And that’s not to forget the post of course, plenty of which still travels by sea. The vessels also take passengers if requested, which makes a novel – and cheaper – way of travelling around the islands. As many of them travel overnight, you even get a cheap (well, comparatively, it is the Bahamas) bunk for the night.When I arrived, Bahamas Daybreak III, 120ft long, destination Governor’s Harbour and Rock Sound in Eleuthera, was still surrounded by piles of cargo. There was all the chaos of the dock: shouts of instruction, jokes and high-five greetings.