February 2002 Negril Trip Report:

February 7th - Woke up at 3 am to head to the airport. Flight to Charlotte was uneventful. Grabbed a quick pizza during layover and an even quicker smoke in the airport bar. Sat next to a really negative guy on the flight to Negril, but he loosened up a bit by arrival (after a few Jack & Cokes). Took over an hour to get through immigration and customs. Patrick was waiting for us as promised and he swept us into a small bus with one of his employees and we were off!! The ride was bumpy and long, but the scenery was amazing. Traffic was slow because men were working on the roads since the Queen was coming the next week. It started to sprinkle and Greg and I opened our windows and kicked back and enjoyed our Red Stripes and Ting. Check in at Charela was quick and our room was perfect. Nice four poster bed and wooden ceiling with a fan. Our balcony couldn't have been more than 40 feet from the sea. Nothing to complain about there. We unpacked and walked down to the beach. We were accosted within minutes by a guy wanting to sell us weed. No problem though, we headed down to DeBuss and had our first Jerk Chicken. Mmmmmm. Can you say spicy??

February 8th - We woke up and took a cab to the Hi-Lo which wasn't open yet so we got a drink at another supermarket and waited about 20 minutes for the bank to open. We were planning to cash a travelers check but stupidly forgot id. We decided not to worry about the exchange rate and cashed a travelers check at the hotel lobby and went across the street to the liquor store for red stripes and ting. Then we hit the sun for a while before walking down the beach to Ms. Sonia's for lobster pizza and a chicken pattie. Later in the afternoon we took a cab up to the cliffs to 3 Dives, a restaurant I'd heard all sorts of ravings about. We ordered jerk chicken and I cannot tell you how divine it was. 1/2 chicken and a big plate of fries. Yummy. A young couple walked up the road to 3 dives and we chatted with them for a while until their food came. Then we caught a cab and headed back to the inn and played speed on the balcony with crashing waves for background music.

February 9th - Woke up and hit the beach for a couple of hours. An amazing group of musicians were walking up the beach and they stopped and sang for a while. They were so amazing, I had to hide the tears falling below my sunglasses. Later, Greg was starting to burn so we headed over to White Sands for a mediocre cheeseburger and fries. Then across the street for more liquor and ting and then back to our room for a nappie.  We showered then cashed a travelers check in the lobby before walking across the street to rent a scooter. Greg was real tentative at first, but he got the hang of it. We stopped by Sunshine Plaza and I bought a shotglass and a postcard for a buddy. Then we headed up to the cliffs. We stopped at Jenny's Bakery for some banana bread for the morning. We decided to stop at Xtabi where our friends from the night before were staying and we ran into them in the bar! We hung out and talked for a while and they showed us the caves.  Just before sunset we all walked next door to 3 dives for some more yummy jerk chicken. It took over an hour to get our food, but it was no problem. The sunset was AMAZING! Then we headed back down to the beach on the scooter in pitch dark!

February 10th - We woke up and ate our banana bread and hit the beach. A guy offered to take us on a snorkel trip, but he was like 30 minutes late and we grew hungry so we split. We walked down the road and found a better outfit to rent a scooter from and rented it for 2 days. Then we headed up to Rockhouse for lunch. Kris and Jeff said that they had some amazing jerk fajitas there, but alas, it was only on the dinner menu. I had a cheeseburger and Greg had a jerk chicken sandwich. The food was fantastic and the view was gorgeous. We stopped by the Pickled Parrot and sure enough, it was closed. They had a couple of guards in there standing watch. We stopped by a souvenir store and we bought an ashtray, 6 shot glasses and Greg bought a coffee cup and some coffee. We decided to take a walk north on the beach since we hadn't been that direction yet.  We walked until we couldn't go any farther without going for a swim and headed back toward the hotel.  We stopped at Chances for drinks and read the books we'd brought along. Then we went back to the room and read on the porch. Later we rode to Debuss on the scooter in the rain. After dinner we took our books down to the hotel bar and had dirty bananas to drink.

February 11th - We woke up and had  omelets at the hotel and Greg had lots and lots of coffee (suddenly the headache went away...). Then we headed next door for massages from Mark at White Sands. We baked in the sun until about 2:30 and then made our daily trek to the liquor store. We decided we were running low on cash, so we headed to the bank to get a cash advance off of Greg's debit card. The bank was closed, so we asked a gaggle of policemen where a cambio was and he sent us on up the cliffs. We stopped at a Cyber Cafe and emailed our family the hotel name and information. Then we stopped at Mr. Slice and split a piece of salami pizza. We drove further up the cliffs to Rick's Cafe and I had a yummy banana strawberry drink and Greg had water (they don't sell Ting!) and bought a couple souvenir golf balls. We watched a bunch of crazy people jump from the cliffs. Then we headed over to (drum roll please) 3 Dives for a half chicken, fries, redstripes and one sunset please. The owner picked up our bottle of sauce when we were eating and was like 'Hmmmmm' because we'd inhaled about half a bottle of sauce! On the way home we stopped at the Blue Mountain Coffee shop across from Merril's. The lady there was so amazingly nice and our iced coffees were terrific. Greg bought another pound of coffee to take home.  We went home and sat on the deck and played speed. Greg's convinced that he beat me three times in a row this night, but it's doubtful. (Greg: I did, twice!)

February 12th - We woke up and went back to Blue Mountain Coffee Shop for banana pancakes, hashbrowns and coffee. Then we went back to the Hi-Lo grocery store to get zip lock bags since Paula at 3 Dives promised to sell us a bottle of her amazing sauce that night. We went back to the beach and I was suckered into buying some fresh squeezed but too warm orange juice from a peddler. Greg returned the scooter and then we went snorkeling on a glass bottom boat. Greg went back for another massage while I baked on the beach.  We ate a late lunch at Irie Vibes; actually just french fries and sub average jerk sauce and then Greg went to the liquor store and we both took a nap. After the nap we hopped into a cab and returned to 3 Dives for our last yummy meal and to get our bottle of jerk sauce. We went home and packed and I beat Greg's ass at Speed.

February 13th - We woke up and settled up with the hotel.  We still had time so we split an order of French Toast and coffee for breakfast at the hotel restaurant.  Patrick picked us up right on time for our trip back to Montego Bay.  He was great to talk to on the trip back and we overloaded him with questions on everything from 'why are most of the cars Toyotas?' to 'What was it like when you were growing up before Negril became a tourist town?'.  We stopped at a supermarket up in the mountains for one last Ting. : (