What you can see on the Santa Cruz cam
The camera looks along the main street of town, lined with shops, market stalls under blue tarpaulins and umbrellas, and sidewalks full of people. Cars, vans and trucks come down the road towards the camera, and vendors and shoppers cross between the stalls through the day.
Stalls and traffic in Santa Cruz
This camera looks along the main street of Santa Cruz: shops on both sides, market stalls under blue tarpaulins and bright umbrellas, sidewalks full of shoppers and vendors, and cars, vans and trucks coming down the road towards the camera. The camera turns, and another view looks down on a corner stall hung with jeans and T-shirts.
It shows how busy the market town is through the day, and on market days at the end of the week the street is at its liveliest.
The breadbasket of Jamaica
St Elizabeth is known as the breadbasket of Jamaica: its red soils and dry plains grow much of the island's vegetables, melons and peppers, and Santa Cruz is where much of that produce changes hands. The town grew as a market for the farming districts around it, and it is also the crossroads for the south coast, where the roads to Black River, Treasure Beach and Mandeville meet.
When to watch Santa Cruz
Jamaica keeps the same time as Cancun all year, five hours behind UTC. The town is busiest in the morning and on market days at the end of the week. The south coast is one of the driest parts of the island, and the hurricane season runs from June to November.
Nearby
Treasure Beach, a string of quiet fishing villages on the south coast, is about half an hour away, and YS Falls, a series of cascades in the middle of a farm, a little further north-west. Black River, the parish capital, has boat tours up its river among mangroves and crocodiles.
Getting there
Santa Cruz lies on the main road across the south-west of the island, about an hour and a half from Montego Bay. Route taxis connect it with the towns of the parish. Cars drive on the left.