Thursday March 4 - The Last Day (dum dum duuuuuuummmmm)

On our last full day in Negril, D had one more breakfast spot to check out... Selina's, a good clip of a walk down the road. We woke early, slathered on the usual layer of sunblock, and hopped out for the 20 minute trek down the road.






Selina's is an open air bar/restaurant with some high bar stools, a handful of tables, a few bamboo benches, and a couple of resident cats (who are very entertaining to watch as they try to catch lizards) I decided to go light this morning, ordering toast with jam and the fruit plate.


I love the tower of pineapple.
The oranges were super juicy sweet, and the papaya was good when mixed with the banana or pineapple.

After a great breakfast we made our way back down the road to the hotel, to set up our beach chairs and soak up the sun and salt air for one last day. The water was a bit too rough still for G to swim, but we did play in the waves lapping up on the shore, dig in the sand, search for shells, and generally laze away the morning into the afternoon.

As lunch rolled around, D went across the street along with our new friends, and picked up a few foil pouches of jerk chicken from Best of the West. We ordered some side dishes from Chill Awhile and gathered a couple tables together for a picnic lunch.

The afternoon was much like the morning. We wandered the beach seeking out shells and visiting the Waves market, took a trip down to the store for some coffee to bring home, and played in the sand and water. D spent a bit of time at the bar with King playing dominoes.



G loved collecting these "shakers" - they are large bean pods that grow on trees around Negril. They shake like maracas, but unfortunately as they are technically an agricultural item, we were not allowed to bring them back to the states with us. We took this picture of G with her favorite giant shakers.



For dinner we decided to stay on the grounds of the hotel, as we needed to begin the sad job of packing up to head home. We ate dinner with our friends, the kids lined up at the bar and us adults around the nearby table. I ordered a seafood "platter" - a half lobster tail, grilled, along with shrimp rundown and some rice and peas and veggies. I had my last Jamaican rum punch for the trip, and we stayed up into the night discussing all sorts of fun things from photography to day trips to other potential vacation destinations. In the end, though, we had to call it a night... and begin to put my years of Tetris to use finding a way to condense all our belongings into the luggage for the journey home.

Small computer glitch, and much time in the water and sand, kept me from updating the last couple days... so I'm playing catch up with a 3 day post.

Monday dawned with puffy clouds in the sky, a bit of wind, and wavy water. We made our way next door to Coco La Palm for breakfast... the vegetarian plate again for me, and fresh squeezed orange juice. After a good breakfast and a bit of wandering through the gift shop, we settled into our chairs. The waves didn't look too bad from shore so I attempted to get myself out past the breaking point... however my timing was off. Logically I know when a wall of water comes at me I'm supposed to dive *into* it, and I tried, but I unfortunately leaned back to launch forward too late, and the wave managed a good smack in the face hard enough to shove the mask right off. I did recover my mask, but that was it for the water for me that day.

As I emerged from the water one of the beach vendors was passing by and asked me if I wanted to try a jet ski... I laughed out loud and said "oh HELL no!" He laughed back "waves to big for you today?" I nodded, still sputtering.

D was fearless, swimming straight out to the buoy line and floating along with the current, while I stayed busy on the shore jumping over incoming waves with G. We jumped for a solid hour, if not longer, which was great fun for us (though tiring)

The morning passed to lunch time, which had us wander down to Niah's again - this time I tried the ackee and calaloo patty, which was excellent and filling. I also glanced over the tables of crafts again, determined to find some kind of crocodile carving. As luck would have it, D found a necklace with a crocodile carved out of shell which was absolutely perfect for me.

As the day progressed the waves calmed enough to play in the water a bit more, and we decided to stay on the property and have dinner at Chill Awhile. I had what is called a "Shrimp Rundown" - which is shrimp in a papaya cream sauce. Excellent - amazing flavor. I'm not a fan of papaya by itself, but blended with other ingredients it really adds a great element of flavor.

A family from New York checked in late Monday evening, two kids ages 4 and 10, staying right below us. The kids bonded immediately and decided the had to sit at the bar together for dinner.




Here I am with my new crocodile necklace.


Tuesday morning we woke to blue skies, sunshine, and calm water. We spent literally all day on the beach, either in the water or snacking by the chairs. After a quick breakfast at Chill Awhile we just parked ourselves in the water, with the kids flipping and snorkeling and buzzing about.

About mid-morning I bought a "jelly" at the bar - which is a big chilled coconut with a straw in it - incredibly refreshing cold coconut milk. When you're done drinking the inside, they'll split it open so you can scrape out the coconut as a snack. It's called a jelly because the coconut on the inside is still soft, like jelly, as opposed to the hard dry stuff we get in the states.

In addition to that, I picked up some hard coconut from one of the beach vendors. Hard and broken into pieces, the coconut is similar to eating a very large almond.



For lunch we headed up the beach to Chances again for a quick pizza lunch. About mid afternoon we walked back down to Waves to check out the vendors. D started talking to one of the woodcarvers.





Later in the afternoon the tide began to shift and pull seaweed up the coast - the water was still calm enough to play in, but we had to run through about 2 feet of seaweed to get to the clear part. We heard great things about Charela (the hotel on the other side of ours) so after getting our complete fill of sun and salt water, we cleaned up and slipped next door for some dinner.

D and I shared an appetizer of shrimp natural - which is extremely peppery peel-and-eat shrimp... and for dinner I ordered shrimp in garlic sauce (I know... I'm eating my weight in shrimp on this trip, hu?)



Sometime around 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday we were woken by the pitter-patter sound of an incoming rain storm. The wind picked up and we listened to the wooshing rain and water hitting the roof. The skies were dark as we made our way down to the deck for breakfast, and we figured today would probably be a day for finishing up our shopping agendas. Walking up the beach one direction we found some guys working on fixing the buoy line in the high waves.



We also ran into a vendor selling independently roasted coffee on the beach. It smelled really good, so we decided to sample some and get a picture with him.



The clouds had burned off quickly, and the temperature was really nice, but the waves were still too big for me to play in. I was content to wander the property a bit and look for photo ops.

Just off the deck here at Chill Awhile there's a hole in the wooden step. Most of the holes are filled with sand, however this one is hollow and is the home to a giant crab. I've seen him poke himself out just to the edge of the hole, and then scurry back into the depths of his caves whenever I aim the lens at him. Today a much smaller crab was hanging out (literally) on the little hole, while the larger guy tried to play peek-a-boo with us. I managed to lay on the deck and get right up close to the little critters.
(you can see the giant claws of Mr. Crabby in the background if you look closely)



For lunch we took a cab into town and picked up some Juici Patties and brought them back to our porch for lunch. For the afternoon we wandered up and down the beach, checking out some tables and visiting gift shops along the way. The wind still had some good gusts now and then, which allowed for some nice pictures.



For dinner we joined the neighboring family for a trip back to the cliffs to try Xtabi. I had... (wait for it... wait for it...) Shrimp! This time shrimp scampi, which was prepared with onions and those Jamaican green peppers that are nowhere near as vile as the ones we have in the states. D had some grouper that was described by our waiter as "blackened, but not the way you think of it in the US". The coating on the grouper was more like a BBQ sauce than the blackened rub we'd get in the states, and had kind of a sweet smoky flavor that went very well with the fish.

Here's a shot of my shrimp - with potatoes and veggies.


Though we have another day at the beach, we knew the next day was Needle's day off, so we hung out at the bar until closing, chatting and getting a few pictures.

Here I am with Needle (on the left) and Kingsly (on the right)


I really don't understand why Needle insists on crouching, I assured him that everyone knows I'm short. :)

February 27 and 28 - Beach Weekend

As the weather improved, and Friday had been so packed with adventure, we decided to take the weekend to stay mainly on the beach.

For the last few mornings I've made a routine of waking up first and swinging in the hammock on the deck, enjoying a small pot of coffee and watching the birds in the treetops as I work on the laptop. I'm not naturally a morning person, and it's highly unusual for me to be the first to rise without an alarm clock... I suppose my body's idea of "island time" is a little strange.

Once everyone else is up, we head down to Chill Awhile for breakfast. Eric, one of the groundskeepers, has already been busy cleaning up leaves and seaweed from the night before, and setting up chairs for the guests.



Here is our view from the breakfast table.


As we enjoy breakfast, the vendors start walking the beach. The women selling fruit tend to balance their offerings on their heads as they walk.
(sorry for the lighting on these shots - not a lot of editing I can do here to clean them up)





The storm had washed up an enormous amount of seaweed, so we poked through the piles of seaweed on our afternoon walk down the beach to find lunch.

D found a sea cucumber. eeeeeewwwwwwww....


There were several starfish washed up along the shore, and a few craftsmen collecting them to clean them out and dry them to sell. I spoke to one who emphasized the importance of preparing them, not just taking them as-is off the beach, and I said I was just interested in photos anyway, so he stepped back and made space for me to shoot before picking the rest of them up.


There were many conch shells rolling up as well - a couple whole empty ones rolled right up on the shore in front of me! D found a couple shells with the gua'old looking creatures still inside, their claw-like feet stuck out and wiggled around, trying to dig away from D. Super creepy looking. He gave them to the man working on the starfish.


Here is the underside of another starfish.



We walked through a marketplace that had a lot of tables set up more towards the beach. I recalled this area having the more aggressive vendors and I was right - they were the same this year as they were last. As we walked down the beach they would call to us, ushering us in to see their tables, see what they make. As I do a lot of my own beading for fun I'm not generally interested in beaded necklaces, but I've been looking for some kind of crocodile pendant or carving, so I'd stop to look for that. Not seeing one on one table, I'd move on to the next.

What I didn't like about these vendors is that they would try to put things on G - "Let's try it on the baby, see how nice it looks" and I had to continually shake my head. The vendors in the Waves marketplace never pushed more after one "No", but the vendors right on the beach would reach out for her as if they didn't hear me. I finally took her hand and said to D "Let's go... I'm hungry and I need to eat" and walked away.

I'm grumpy when I'm hungry anyway, so that didn't help matters... but in general I'm more inclined to buy something if I'm given the time to look without being hounded, and far more inclined to pass up things that I might even want if I don't like how I feel looking at the tables.

Today we opted for Bourbon Beach for lunch - jerk chicken with super spicy sauce. On the way into the restaurant we noticed a fresh fruit stand on the beach.



Fruit stands with a variety of offerings are fairly typical.

On to the super spicy chicken...


Jerk chicken and sauce, rice and peas, and "festival" - which is a fried bread-like side dish made with cornmeal.

Last year I ate the sauce straight on my chicken, and drank about 3 liters of water through lunch. This year I opted for the wimpy way and mixed a bit of ketchup with the sauce to dilute the spice.

Wandering back down the beach to the hotel we cleaned up and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the sand and reading. As the sun set I wandered down to the water's edge to shoot some photos.



Dinner Saturday night was not worthy of writing about, but for the sake of the journal I'll make a couple quick notes. D had read about a buffet and live music show going on at the Sea Star on the cliffs (across the street from Tensing Pen, actually) They offered a shuttle and we managed to get in on a ride within 5 minutes of calling. Unfortunately, we shared a ride with an asshole American "tourist" (in quotes because he's actually been living here for a while, so it's not like he's fresh of the boat, but he's still not a citizen) After the ride and listening to his assholishness from Assholeville we decided he must have been on something (crack or something equal) The driver was eternally patient and apologized to me as we got out of the van. The buffet was meh... the customers were so messy that half the offerings were contaminated with an egg-containing sauce, and we were just no into the type of crowd that was there anyway. We ended up turning almost immediately around - and though the shuttles out weren't supposed to leave for another hour, the driver offered to take us back. I supplemented my dinner with some left over pizza - which was fine and actually sounded good that night anyway.

Sunday morning dawned with dark looking clouds, so I settled into the hammock with my coffee and camera card. The wind picked up and I noticed this pigeon-like bird clinging to a palm leaf, riding it like a roller coaster up and down. After some time in the wind he hopped down to the berries on the trunk and began to snack. I've been trying to get a shot of one of these guys since we arrived.


He's a bald something-or-other, I need to look it up when we get back. (Tyrone told me the name of these birds, but I only remember "bald" and he also said they are seasonal)

The dark clouds soon blew out, and by the time we were ready for breakfast the sky had pretty well cleared. It was still a bit on the windy side however, and the waves were too big for me to swim, so we settled into the chairs to let G play in the sand. This morning we opted for chairs under a different tree, closer to the sign, where we could pop forward into the sun when we wanted to.



One of the fruit vendors came by as well, so we picked up some honey bananas and coconut to snack on.



G in her Chiquita Banana pose.


Not only do we have vendors walking by throughout the day, but every so often there are musicians who will come by and sing a few songs.



For lunch we walked up the beach to "Chances", both to check out the vendor booths in that direction, and to add a little variety to our pizza testing on the trip.

Chances has a bobsled out next to the gift shop where you can climb in for a photo op.


Later in the afternoon - after more fun in the sun sand play and book reading, we are visited by the ice cream vendor. G hopped over for some pineapple mango swirl ice cream.


We cleaned up and headed out for dinner prior to the sunset, so that we'd have the time to walk on the beach side. Dinner tonight was at Kuyaba Resort. The front of their place looks fun (similar to Adventureland in Disneyland actually, complete with a tree house look-out spot with a dining table, bamboo ceiling fans, and a couple of resident parrots in gigantic cages) The interior was just as pretty... large gas lanterns lighting the pathways, swinging rattan chairs at the bar... we can tell a lot of time and money has gone into decorating this place to be an island oasis. After ordering dinner we played some with the camera.






(Is it obvious I've been drinking rum punch? A very strong rum punch? *grin*)


D and I ordered the same thing - the snapper with coconut milk calaloo, rice and peas, and vegetables.

The pile at the bottom of the plate is two fillets of grilled snapper smothered in a calaloo made with coconut milk. It was AMAZING - best fish of the trip thus far. Cooking with coconut milk adds an amazing amount of flavor. We discovered that last year when we learned how to make rice and peas, but I hadn't thought about using it in other applications. We have several Jamaican cook books at home that I'm going to need to dig into for the summer. I'm looking forward to trying to imitate some of these recipes when we get home - perhaps I can mix spinach with swiss chard to get a calaloo-like flavor going on.


We walked back to our hotel on the street side. It was a very pleasant night, perhaps 72 or so degrees... the coolest night we've had on the trip, but my light blue shirt has worked as the only "jacket" necessary.

OK at this point we were just being silly... the position of the arrow on the sign really cracked me up. I thought it was just the rum, but I still snicker when I see it.

Only 50 US dollars a day!


(I just need to photoshop out the "car" on the sign)

Thursday Feb 25 - beach browsing

This morning we walked next door to Coco La Palm for breakfast. Last year we had a dinner there that was among the worst of our meals, but we were there on a dead night in the off season, so we thought we'd give it another shot when it was busier. I'm glad we did, breakfast was actually quite good.

I veered away from my usual porridge and opted instead for the vegetarian plate - ackee, calaloo, boiled veggies, tomatoes. The ackee is prepared with some peppers and onion and spices, the calaloo has some onion diced into it. Everything had a great flavor, with just enough spice to make it interesting, but not so much that I needed to drown myself in water to eat my food.


My breakfast - D took the photo upside down :)

During breakfast our regular juice vendor, Tony, walked by and D got his attention. Here he is with D on the beach.


The thunder storm the night before kicked up the winds harder than we've seen here before. Though the sky seemed relatively clear, the sea had moved up high and the wind whipped the dry sand so hard it stung a bit. The waves were crashing too hard for G to swim, so we opted for a stroll down the beach on the wet stand instead, heading towards the Waves market area down the beach.


Walking in the wind - the temperature was perfect, but the sea was too strong for swimming this morning.


Inside one of the shops in the market area, after D bought a necklace the vendor gave G a key fob she had been admiring on the shelf - it looks like a little rasta man.


Here I am taking a photo of the little market area. There is a larger one further up the beach, but it's a long walk that we opted not to take.

We've discovered that the vendors who are directly on the beach seem a lot more aggressive than the ones inside the market areas. The beach vendors will walk right up and talk you into coming in to their booth to see what they make, whereas the ones in the market sit and wait for you to walk up, then talk to you and ask you if you like anything you see. I felt far more relaxed and able to browse inside the market area.


Standing on the beach end, looking down the market these are the store fronts. Almost all of them have a second half to them (what you see is the front half, then walk inside and they are twice the size, with a second little room of shelves)



There are a few tables outside - this is D negotiating the price of his necklace. I'm still on the lookout for a carving I like.


Here is the shot of the market area I was taking in the photo above. I love how it's among all the little palm trees. On the beach the wind kept us nice and cool, but the moment we stepped off the sand we felt the heat of the sun directly, and the breeze was blocked by the surrounding buildings.

After some browsing and talking with some of the crafters in the market, we walked to the end to Niah's Patties for a mid-day snack.


This is the exterior of Niah's Patties - looks like it is all made from bamboo.


D took these shots of our patties being prepared. They keep sheets over the table of food - I think to keep debris from blowing onto it, or to keep the sun off of it (or both) They prepare the patties to order, so it takes about 10 or so minutes to receive your food once you order.


Here is the area where they cook the patties. They keep the wood fire fueled all day long and a pan of hot oil going. Once the patties are assembled on the table, they are dropped into the oil for a quick frying before being packed in small paper bags and served up.

We decided this would be lunch, so we ordered 4 different patties - banana, ackee, Irish, and chicken. ("Irish" is another word for potato) D's favorite was the Irish, which had some kind of spice and onion and pumpkin inside... my favorite was the ackee.

Clearly I'm really enjoying the ackee while on the island :)

After lunch on our patio, we cleaned up and rested inside the room out of the wind... reading, napping, and playing games. The wind had died down a bit, but the sea was still rough so we decided to take a taxi down the street for dinner at Canoe.

Canoe was one of our favorite restaurants on the last trip - they have a killer jerk shrimp that we've been craving since we got here. We arrived shortly before dark, and the winds were blowing pretty hard in the unprotected area, so we opted for a seat inside instead of on the patio.


Here we are tucked into the corner bench.

After ordering our food, D stepped outside to take photos of the exterior.


Canoe is literally on the water, though the sea is not usually this high. If you look in the right side of the shot you can see how the water had lapped up over the street the night before.

There was supposed to be a webcast tonight, however just a short while before we arrived the power had gone out. They cook over grills and fires, so they were still open for business, but the busy little place became a romantic getaway as the sun went down and the candles were lit.



We ordered a couple of appetizers of jerk shrimp - which is served with a diced melon salad. The salad is an absolute necessity given the spiciness of the shrimp dish.



I had grilled mahi-mahi for my dinner - served with pasta, and grilled vegetables (that's the chunk of fish in the upper left corner of the plate) It was very well prepared - perfectly cooked and seasoned with grilled onions on top for extra flavor.


Just as we began to eat, power was restored to the restaurant and we were able to enjoy our meals and see them too.

After dinner we asked for a taxi, and the chef of the restaurant called up Tyrone to come grab us. G was feeling chilled wearing just her bathing suit, but still wanted dessert, so we stopped at a little place on the way back to get something for her to eat back in the room.

Tonight the hotel next door had live music, so I settled into the hammock on the porch to swing in the breeze, enjoy the music, and go through my photos from yesterday.