2023 Year in Review

Where to start? What a year it has been! For starters, Adventures from Elle turned seven (7) years old yesterday, which means it’s been seven years of intentionally exploring Jamaica and recording it all in this public journal. When I started Adventures from Elle in 2016, I had no idea it’d bring me this much joy, or allow me to meet or e-meet so many persons, or even have paid opportunities and collaborations. My blog has brought a lot of meaning to my life, and I’ve seen growth in my audience, style of writing and more. I’ve also managed to keep my blog alive with new posts every Friday despite often having weeks or months on end with no new adventures. With that said, here’s a recap of my 2023.

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2023 Adventures

All my 2023 adventures were in Jamaica, and in fact, most were in and around my city of Kingston. I was very busy for the first half of 2023 with my studies as I’m currently pursuing a residency in internal medicine. As such, I only had one road trip for the first half of 2023 with a daytrip through the Blue Mountains to revisit Fish Done Falls, and I had a lovely dinner at a rural roadside diner called Blue Patio Restaurant. Instead, I revisited familiar watering holes in my area any time I needed to clear my head.

In the latter half of 2023, I had time for a hike and 4 out of town staycations during which I explored in my usual style: maximizing every second by crossing off several attractions each trip. I also attended lots and LOTS of concerts and live music sessions throughout the year, most of which were FREE! 2023 now holds my record for most live music experiences in Kingston in one year!

• Overnight Stays (4): Orange Bay Camp Ground in Portland, the Grand Palladium Resort in Hanover, Casas de Tierra in Runaway Bay and the Rockhouse Hotel in West End, Negril. Rockhouse made my list of Jamaica’s best boutique hotels (review coming February 2024) while Grand Palladium made my list of best Jamaican all-inclusive resorts.
• Beaches (4): Bob Marley Beach, Treasure Beach, a private section of the Cardiff Hall Beach and the Seven Miles Beach in Negril.
• Rivers (3): Rio Grande, Spanish River, Salt River
• Waterfalls (3): Fish Done Falls, Governor Falls at Pretty Close, Penfield Falls
• Hiking (1): the historic Cunha Cunha Pass maroon trail
• Historical Spots (2): Langley Great House, Greenwood Great House (review publishes in January 2024)
• Art Galleries (1): Olympia Gallery
• New Restaurants: Orchid Thai Restaurant, the Crepe House, Silli Chilli, Sonia’s Restaurant and the Y Knot Café, all in Kingston. While on the go, I checked out Blue Patio in Spring Hill, Irie Flava in Greenwood, Bridgez Jerk in Sav-la-Mar and Pablo’s in Negril. I dined at old favourites like Broken Plate, Chez Maria, Chilitos and Beirut Mediterranean Cuisine, while also checking out the new menu at the Kingston Reggae Garden, which I highly recommend. Tamarind Indian Cuisine remained my go-to take-out spot whenever I wanted a fancy meal (I mostly make my own meals). I also finally made it to Chillpops in Negril for paletas. Yum!
• Others: Flying over Kingston with ASWI, Abeokuta Paradise Nature Park, paintballing at Rocket Experience in Portmore, yoga with Danielle at Hope Gardens, candle-making class at Tac Bar by Devon House and the Castleton Botanical Gardens.

I attended 3 Reggae Month 2023 concerts, namely Sanchez in concert at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, the Bob Marley tribute concert on Feb 6 at Emancipation Park and one which fused both reggae + dancehall at Mas Camp later that month. Stay tuned to the MCGES social media pages to see what’s in store for Reggae Month 2024. I visited Dubwise a few times, and enjoyed live music twice at Di Lot, a new spot for night life in Kingston. One occasion was for the album launch of Samory I, a roots reggae singer who has a beautiful unique voice (check out High Tide or Low, Outside and Crown– my favourite Samory I songs). The other was for Jesse Royal & Friends in concert, which was amazing! It was great hearing him perform Natty Pablo and many other of my favourite songs in person. Other favourites which I got to hear live for free this year include Protoje, Capleton, Beenie Man, Sizzla, Romain Virgo, Julian Marley and Damian ‘Junior Gong’ Marley. I also saw Chris Brown in concert at the National Stadium, and attended the Guinness Sound Clash which made my list of best music concerts & festivals to attend in Jamaica.

Blog Stats & Milestones

Each year it seems my blog traffic increases and I’m very grateful for that. Adventures from Elle is nearing the milestone of 700,000 cumulative reads!

• I published a record 66 posts this year which means I published more than 1 post per week.
• I settled on Friday mornings at 6am for weekly scheduled posts.
• My main traffic continues to come from Search Engines (mostly Google), thanks to the SEO I learnt in 2021!
• This year, my readers mostly hailed from Jamaica, the USA, UK, Canada and India, in that order. Trinidad & Tobago which was # 5 last year, fell to # 6 on this year’s ranking.

I didn’t do much travel writing outside of what I posted on here in 2023 but I had my first real brand partnership deal this year, and also assisted in building Jamaican content for the WayAway.io travel app. Cheers to more partnerships in 2024 and delicately treading the balance between personal, travel and professional blogging.

Other milestones accomplished this year include:

• Crossing 1,300 Facebook followers
• Crossing 15,500 Instagram followers (I began 2023 with about 8,000).

These are the only social media platforms I used this year. I’m still pondering if to join TikTok or not. Perhaps I’ll make a YouTube appearance again in 2024 but I find video editing annoying. Writing, on the other hand, is pure fun.

Best of the Blog in 2023

Out of my 66 new posts in 2023, these 3 were your favourites in terms of readership & engagement:

• Langley Great House (8,500+ reads)
• Everything to Know About Driving in Jamaica (4,200+ reads)
• Jamaican Fruit Seasons (2,400+ reads)

However, my favourite post published this year was my article on Jamaica’s 10 Best Hiking Trails. It was cool summarizing all the hikes I’ve taken so far in Jamaica. I love hiking but seldom have the chance to. However, it’s the only exercise I enjoy (that, and exploring new cities on foot!) so perhaps I need to do more of it in 2024. I’d lose the extra weight I gained this year while studying in no time. Which brings me to…

Personal Life

I passed my DM 1 examinations on my first attempt in June 2023 which makes me a senior resident! The weeks leading up to those exams were filled with lots of tears, comfort eating and emotional lability. The occasional nature breaks saved me from losing my mind. My promotion comes with a bit of free time for now, free time I should be using to work on my research project and not to travel and write more, ha! I’m at the step of data collection. I spent several months working with kidney failure patients some years ago, and it was super depressing as the burden of kidney disease, cost of dialysis and death toll from the disease are horrendous. As such, studying their quality of life, mental health and food security is data I’m happy to collect. It’s the first time such a study is being done in Jamaica, and I hope to get it published internationally when I’m finished. This would do wonders for my CV.

“If you can think it, you can achieve it.”

That being said, I remain disillusioned with my career but I don’t talk about it publicly. I still continue to put out as much effort as I can because I believe the patients we serve deserve it. It’s a privilege to serve people at their most vulnerable, and I remain humbled yet awed at the fragility and sanctity of human life. I practice my profession closely guided by these words:

In other news, my relationship continues to thrive, so let’s see where this year will take us. Dating someone with the same taste in travel and music has been wonderful. I also spent this year renovating a fixer-upper. I still haven’t yet written about that experience of becoming a homeowner in my 20s, but I’ll hopefully get around to it next year. The housing market SUCKS but where there’s a will there’s a way. Less than two hundred years ago, people of my ethnicity were unable to own land in Jamaica so I think that’s why such value is placed on owning land in our culture.

2024 Goals

In 2024, I aim to take at least one international trip, complete my research project and complete my home renovations. For anyone who owns a house, you’ll realize that there’s ALWAYS something! I’m tired of spending all my income on it. However, in the same breath, it’s been great to have a cozy space to greet me after long difficult shifts. It’s a tangible reminder that my hard days aren’t in vain even if I’ve been a land-lubber all 2023, and I’d rather spend my money travelling… Anyway, I’ll buy my plane ticket shortly for somewhere new! Place your country guesses below in the comments! 🙂

I also plan to be more active, not necessarily for weight loss even though it’ll be a nice plus, but for physical and mental health. I yearn for a simple life where we get to move our bodies in nature, soak up warm sunshine and eat wholesome foods every day. I wish we didn’t have to always be “doing something” or working hard just to have money to enjoy a few days. I want to have more days of just “being” in 2024, and not always feeling so busy.

Wrap Up

If you made it this far, thank you for reading & following along on my 2023 adventures! I pray all your dreams for 2024 come through, and I wish you nothing but good health and success. I appreciate every read, like, comment, share, social media follow and email or WordPress subscription. What did you enjoy about Adventures from Elle this year? What else would you like to see? What are your own goals for 2024? Talk to me below, and remember to support the blog on all platforms because it’s free! 😉

See you in 2024! XO, Rochelle.

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