First Time Trip Report from a Long Timer, Base Camp - Treehouse

[Sam I Am]

Thanks for the info mmtripoli! I am taking a similar flight and was considering getting a day pass in Miami just so I can take a shower!

[mmtripoli@earthlink.net]

What an awesome feeling waking up in Jamaica on Thursday morning! On last year’s reach I had met a couple of sisters (mid 70’s maybe) that have been coming to Negril every year for 5 weeks for the last 25 years (they are timeshare owners). They walk every morning at 7:00 from their end of the beach and by 7:30 they are going by Treehouse. Today they have a bunch of family with them. I am excited to join them again and to catch up with everything going on in each of our lives. I want to BE these ladies when (IF) I grow up! What great attitudes. They are from Michigan and truly enjoy their time in Negril each year. I love knowing that I can count on them to get some exercise every day. They are as consistent as the sun rising. I drop them at Alfred’s (that’s there breakfast spot) and head back to my end of the beach. I really love these walks every morning. Fewer people on the beach, a lot of runners it seems at this time. There are slightly fewer hustlers to fend off. I just tell all of them that I got to keep walking and to have a blessed day – that seemed to work for most.

Today I managed to attract a guy in all white with dreads that claimed to be a High Priest. Could not seem to shake him but was pleasant enough until I stopped to hug one of the “Captains” that run a boat out of a hotel. This angered Mr. High Priest who told me that this Captain was a batty boy and I should not have anything to do with him. I told him that I believed he was wrong about him but that he was being “Gascist” and I wouldn’t tolerate that among my “friends” which he had been telling me he wanted to be. Now, I have been on the Rock enough times to know their views regarding homosexuality but this guy was being a total a*s*s. I ended up telling him that until he opened up his mind I couldn’t speak to him again and to leave me alone unless he did this. Because of this, the walk was a little rough but the water was even rougher this morning. Someone said there was a storm near Cuba that we were getting some waves from. The waves were so big that I joked that I had gone to bed in Negril but woke up back in San Diego (where is my surf board?)

Then back to the hotel for a lovely breakfast with that picturesque view from the upper deck. Today the Birthday Princess arrived early in the day (JD) along with a friend of Tom & Geri’s, Marv, later in the evening. We decide to assume the position – lay flat on a lounge chair – for the day. JK had a rough night and her coughing was a little tough on everyone. We did manage to get a cake ordered for JD’s birthday (carrot cake – always better in JA it seems) and jello shots made for tomorrow’s birthday party at some point during this day. We bring the jello and plastic condiment containers down with us so we just have to ask someone in the kitchen to store them for us in their refrigerator. That’s never a problem either – another reason I love Treehouse. This won’t even be an issue in future trips because of the new full-size refrigerators that the Ocean front Suites are being upgraded with (more on that later!) We can keep the shot in our own refrigerator then.

During this day we managed to meet a lot of great people – Steve & Susan from Calgary, Stuart from Chicago, ex-pat Steve w/ dog Kia, Kristen and friend from CT? (damn memory), Lisa & Laura from NY & CT. Most of our group ate food from Allan- Treehouse’s “Rockstar” Chef. He has very good jerk and was entertaining as usual. About 10 of us ended up on the porch for sunset and by the time we knew it we had kind of missed the dinner hour so instead of going out I ordered a large ham, pepperoni, and pineapple pizza and a medium vegetarian pizza and salads from the hotel. They were a huge hit. I don’t remember their pizza being this good previously but we were all truly impressed and really enjoyed them. We kept the porch party going until about 11ish and then called it a night. We may have had a little rain this day – seems like I remember some vaguely.

[Lady Jane]

The guy in white is John Wayne, that is what he calls himself

[mmtripoli@earthlink.net]

If it was John Wayne I did not recognize him. I thought that John Wayne had longer dreads. I had an unfortunate run in with him about 7 years ago when he terrorized a couple of older ladies from Alabama. He had put ganga in their hands and told them that they "owed" him $20. They told him they didn't smoke or want the stuff but he insisted on it. They were then afraid to leave the CCLP beach because he was hanging around on the edges of the property at all times. When they mentioned to me what was going on I marched over and gave him his "stuff" back and told him that he was scaring the crap out of people and to knock it off. He started in on me and then the argument was on. Was he ever surprised when the "bumb*****s" started flying out of my mouth. He got up in my face and I thought the Security Guard was going to come over and knock him out. I handled it myself and I then loudly re-named him "Wayne John" because he is the opposite of a good guy. I went down the beach later to where Jah B - Herbie use to stay by the old Cigar King near Roots and was relaying the story to them when who should walk by? Wayne John. When he saw me talking to his friends he did not look happy. After hearing what he had done they offered up some "local" justice and gave him an earful about messing with me or my friends or any tourist women for that matter. Herbie "reminded" him that he never knows when he is ripping off "one of their women" (didn't know I was one of those-hee hee!) Wayne had been staying in that area with them for awhile but they "banished" him for his bad behavior. As was said at the time "you scare away the tourist, you scare away the money!"

[jimnkim]

Nice

[sammyb]

Sweet! please continue

[mmtripoli@earthlink.net]

Woke up early again on Friday and did my morning walk with my “Aunties”. That is what I had taken to calling the ladies as every morning on our walk someone asked me if they were my aunties. To be so lucky! What a beautiful day but apparently a storm had come in overnight and the whole beach was filled with kelp and starfish. Hundreds of them (maybe thousands.) I hope they survived. Not sure if this was a frequent occurrence or not but kind of startling to see. Some tourists were trying to throw them back in the surf other locals told me that they are all “too weak” and they were going to die. Does anyone know anything about this? The funniest thing that happened with the starfish was that a young policeman was walking a long and a family of tourist asked him about the starfish. He was telling them how they have stingers on the bottom that come out of the “mouth” area and you have to be careful picking them up. He as attempting to pick one up but was so scared he kept dropping it. I didn’t want to embarrass him by correcting him (I don’t know of any species that have stingers…) but I picked it up and handed it to him carefully while making him promise to put it right back without hurting it. I teased him by reading his name and badge number, telling him that I would find him if something bad came to that particular starfish and continued on my way. Man, I wish I had a picture of that kid cop holding that starfish all scared! At least I have my memory of it (well for now, at least!)

We had a great day and met a lot more guests - Will and Marissa from NY, Terri & Elliot from Chicago, Ritchie from FL. Invited everyone we had met to stop by for the birthday party later. I believe we got patties from Norman and Jerk pork from Dean on this day for lunch. Norman had shrimp curry patties this time. Yum if your a fan of curry. Dean’s pork was delicious but as previously mentioned, the spicy pork was a little too hot for most. I loved it. The regular pork was perfect for all. We decided we should start the jello shots early in the afternoon (don’t remember why we decided this???) and everyone enjoyed both mango and pineapple jello shots. Delicious, but dangerous – you can’t taste the alcohol if you use mango rum for the mango jello and pineapple rum for the pineapple jello.

JD otherwise known as Birthday Princess wanted Norma’s at Sea Splash for dinner so 7 of us headed over. It did rain during dinner but we just scooted our table over away from the where the rain was blowing in. The smoked Marlin served like sashimi was absolutely incredible! Why hasn’t anyone ever mentioned this before – or did I just miss it? How did I not get a picture of this masterpiece? Everything from the snapper to the coconut chicken was scrumptious. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how Geri had all of us absolutely dying laughing. She told a story of how her husband had missed THE shot when her daughter was born by c-section. The story went on and on, getting funnier and funnier as it went along (probably had to be there) and ended a ½ an hour later with the fact that this had all happened 27 years ago and it was a good thing she was completely over it! Yes, what a good thing – she SEEMED completely over it. She could be a comedian. Her timing was absolutely perfect. Turns out that sums up the whole experience - perfect service, perfect meal, perfect company! I did get a picture or two.




It was then back to the porch for birthday cake. Fake mustaches and tiara’s/crowns for everyone. Why? Who knows, it seemed necessary at the time. Everyone did seem to be having a great time even though we looked ridiculous. Also, the cake that Treehouse had made for the occasion was unbelievable! (There was only one tiny piece left and Birthday Princess ate it the next morning.) We danced, sang and told funny stories for a couple of hours. About 11:30 JK came out and let us know (not so subtly) that it was time for everyone to go – she had skipped dinner and she seemed to be feeling even worse than before.

[Patricia]

Fun

[mmtripoli@earthlink.net]

Missed one last picture!

It's actually my favorite.

[Seveen]

fun!