You're welcome- I live in Kingston and have lived in Miami, Minneapolis and San Francisco as well, my family is American and Jamaican- to answer the original poster- Jamaica is a great and beautiful place, but it is not a "yeah mon" paradise in reality- people will tell you this if you look like you want to hear this, but in truth right now crime and murder are at an all time high, the economy is in shambles, and there is a sense of desperation- the new government has inherited a real mess and it is unclear if they will be able to sort it out. People are mostly friendly and honest, but 95% of people are HUNGRY- not for food but for something, so you have to be very careful how you judge your relationships and what people's expectations are.

In addition, your friends may have a very hard time at immigration if they try and land for 3 months w/o being able to show a means of support during that time- it is not a place that is easy to bum around in anymore, like it used to be in the Negril hippy days or even in the 80s.