The Long Way to Negril

We got a late start planning our annual trip to Negril this year which explains how it came to be that we took a long route to Negril this year. Our family took a late breaking trip to Guatemala after Christmas that was instigated by our daughters – a fantastic adventure – but it set back my trip planning for Jamaica. Before we left for Guatemala, I booked two tickets on Jet Blue to MoBay for 2/3 – 2/13 to lock in a pretty good airfare ($415) and to ensure that I wouldn’t let budget/work/dog/skiing or anything else deter us from our favorite spot. Maybe I was tired of trip planning with all the fast work I had to do to pull the Guatemala trip together, or maybe I was just taking the ease of going to Negril for granted. After 25 plus years of staying at the Charela Inn, I foolishly assumed that I could just check in at a late date and my favorite spot would be available.

Times change. For many years, we went to Negril in early February for my wife’s birthday (2/2) and Bob Marley’s birthday without scheduling pressure. But in recent years, we’ve been going in December (a few times), January (many times), and March (since the spring break insanity calmed down and can sometimes fit in with a December trip). Of course, I quickly I rediscovered that February is the favorite month in Negril and that the many returning guests at Charela book for the next year when they leave. Result – no beachfront rooms available until 2/8, leaving 5 open nights for trip planning.

Over the years, we’ve traveled around many parts of Jamaica. When our girls were younger, we rented a house in Port Antonio near the Blue Lagoon a few times which we loved (before the prices sky rocketed). And one year, we rented a car and toured from Port Antonio to Treasure beach for 2 weeks. I love the thought of exploring the Island but once I get to Negril, I’m toast. I usually try to get in a day trip into the hinterland, but it takes a crowbar to pry me off the beach once I get settled. So, I thought this was an opportunity to re-expand my horizons and chart some new adventures.

There was one limiting factor – the Super Bowl. We live an hour north of NYC and I’m a huge Giants fan. I was going to watch the Super Bowl in Negril, period. So, my trip options were limited: two nights somewhere in Jamaica and three nights in Negril starting on 2/5 before we could return to “our” room at the Charela.
With the help of negrilonestop.com (thanks Susan), I discovered that many places in Negril are booked up in February. I thought about the cliffs (although I’m a longtime beach freak) but many of the places I was interested in (thanks to you boardies) were also booked. I’ve always liked the look and vibe at Country Country and we were lucky that they could accommodate us for our extra Negril nights. So, two free nights in Jamaica. Where to go? What to see?

I poured over my Jamaica map. I had read good reports about Duncan’s but the recommended guest house was full; the villas at Silver Sands needed more time. Port Antonio (it has been almost 8 years), too far. Ocho Rios? No interest. Orcabessa…..interesting but tough to find a place in my price range (which isn’t too restrictive considering the escalating rates in Negril) and it’s a long trip back to Negril. Treasure Beach was an interesting option but I’d already thoroughly explored the area on our family adventure. OK…….how about Black River. I’ve been on the Black River safari and around a bit of the countryside, but there was certainly more to see in St Elizabeth parish and Black River was relatively close to Montego Bay with an easy trip back to Negril. And, best of all, I could probably get away without renting a car.

I’ve driven around Jamaica a few times and love the freedom of having a car but I had a head on a few years back coming down from Ferris Cross into Sav and would rather avoid the risk/stress if possible. (The accident was completely my fault. Thank god, no one was hurt and it proved to be another example of our incredibly good the Jamaicans will treat a visitor in distress – even an idiot who has mashed up a car and created a messy scene. Now, when I drive, I spend the whole time chanting under my breath “stay left, stay left” which is a bit unnerving for my passengers).

So Black River it was. Next, where to stay? Options are limited. One place stood out, Idlers Rest Guest House on Black River Bay. Tough to get any input on the place and they did not respond to emails to their web site. What the hell. We decided to just wing it. After all, what was the worst that could happen?

Wow -- what a start of a trip report. Loving your style. Excitedly waiting for more.!!

Interesting start to your trip report. Looking forward to more!

Really enjoying this so far

Flight from JFK was a breeze but getting through airport security at JFK was a nightmare. We arrived at the airport at 5:00 am for our 7:00 Jet Blue flight. Checked in, checked our bags in no time and then…….one hour in the security line. I had a tough time going with the complete lack of flow. I finally got to the whole body scanner. It seems I neglected to remove the cloth valuables pouch I always travel with under my shirt with our passports and cash – nothing that ever sets off the usual scanner. This created a great deal of consternation. I was pulled aside to wait for an official body search. It was 6:00 in the morning, I’d been up since 3:30 and I was trying hard to stay cool. I knew in a few hours I’d be in Jamaica, but I kept thinking that there had to be a better way. Finally, I was free to rush to the duty free to stock up on supplies to start off the trip.

My favorite flight in the world is the flight to Jamaica. It’s direct, less than 4 hours, and you arrive in Jamaica! The immigration line was almost empty. We zipped through, although we had a short detour back to the health desk. We found out why the immigration form requires that you list the countries you have traveled to in the prior months. It seems that parts of Guatemala are on the malaria list so we needed to get a stamp to confirm, by looking at us, that we posed no risk. The process took 5 minutes and we were on our way but it be could have been painful if immigration were packed.

We burst out of customs and there was Gary waiting for us with his usual smile. We met Garfield “Gary “ Watt (876 792-1270) 20 or so years ago by complete happenstance. We were leaving the airport trying to negotiate the “usual” price with the local JUTA guys and Gary was right there. We’ve seen him almost every year since. You’re in good hands with Gary. He’s got a great sense of humor, knows a lot about Jamaican history, geography, culture….. and is a careful driver. It’s the highpoint of the year for us.

We told Gary we were headed to Idlers Rest in Black River without reservations. No problem Mon. We left the road to Negril in outside of MoBay and headed up into the hills through Anchovy, Montpelier and Bethel Towns, on to New Market and down to Black River. The winding road was hypnotic and we could relax with Gary driving. Just a beautiful drive with spectacular scenery – actually a shorter distance than MoBay to Negril but a slightly longer drive through the mountains.

When we got to Black River, we crossed the bridge next to the safari spot and headed down Parottee Road – the same road that leads to the launch for Pelican Bar. The road was quiet and rural. A number of private villas have sprung up along Black River Bay but there only a couple hotels and tourist spots. There is still open scrub forest along the shore. After a couple miles we pulled into Idler’s Rest. Gary looked at us quizzically….”I’ll wait while you check it out.”

The place had a cool, colorful look. There was a central garden with rich vegetation and Spanish moss hanging down from the trees. I went to the front desk and confirmed that they had a room available. We seemed to be the only guests. They have 4 prime ocean front rooms, but we were told they were reserved for a birding group coming in the next day. So we were given the top floor of one of their circular rooms. We checked the room out and told Gary we would be fine and he headed back to MoBay. We arranged for him to pick us up Super Sunday for the drive to Negril -- a more expensive option but I like to give Gary the business.

A few observations about Idler’s Rest. First, the American-Jamaican who built the place has to be a big dreamer. He bought an old restaurant/bar on the water and then made a substantial investment to build out the rooms, even though it appears that there are few tourists in the area. Then, across the street he built a huge conference center/wedding hall, large enough to accommodate 400 people, with another 30 plus rooms rising massively out of empty scrub land. Completely incongruous. There are all kinds of distinctive touches; antique cars (an old model A, an ancient Citroen etc.); African and Jamaican Masks; quirky signs. And big empty rooms with a minimalist look.

Black River Bay is bordered by a long (10 mile), narrow beach with very fine sand and silt from the river. The beach is completely deserted except for the fishermen who are plying the flat, calm water. Not a beach chair or beach stand in sight. Dolphins were swimming along the shore. We took along walk and didn’t see a soul. It was dead quiet; the only sounds were the birds feeding close to shore. While deserted beaches have a certain appeal, I like some diversions when I’m toasting on the beach.

Our hotel seemed somewhat unprepared for guests. No hot water, no key to the safe. But the staff was trying hard. Phillip, the owner’s son from California, and the manager, Mac, were very attentive. Wesley Thomas, the night watchman/handyman, was very engaging. Wesley took off towards Mandeville the next day to buy a new element for the hot water heater which started to work the day we left. For some unknowable reason, the owner thought it made sense to have birds housed throughout the interior gardens. It added a nice ambience but housing two roosters in the courtyard made for an early wake up call for the hotel guests.

After our walk, we made arrangements to have dinner at Cloggys, an open air fish spot a couple miles down the beach. Cloggys was started by Cloggy (his Jamaican kid nickname), a 54 year young rasta and former soccer player. The restaurant seemed to follow the Jamaican convention of fish cook shops. A woman took our drink order and then we went down into the open air kitchen where we picked our fish fresh from the cooler (choice of Snapper or Parrot fish) and selected how we wanted it prepared (fried, jerked, steamed etc). We had snapper and fresh river shrimp and I’m pleased to report that it was one of the better dinners we’ve ever had in Jamaica (or anywhere else). Highly recommended. We made arrangements with our driver, Crampy, for a big tour the next day and headed off to bed.

We can report that the bed at Idler’s had a mosquito net and it was a good thing. Now we know why all the buildings around here are heavily screened. And the roosters in Jamaica seem to wake up well before dawn.

Breakfast was included in the room rate. The first morning, after trying to get in synch with the roosters crowing, we went down to the dining area for breakfast. We waited patiently for the dining room to “open “ at 8:00. The cook/waitress/housekeeper told us that she only had a bit of callaloo and saltfish for breakfast. No ackee. No eggs. No “real” coffee. So it goes. No matter, we were off on an adventure around St. Elizabeth Parish.

I was out on Parrotte Road (Beach) a few times in the past months. Lovely area, quite off the beaten path - good for you! I love that there are wetlands and lovely birds to watch across the street. I did notice those big beautiful homes/villas that have been built along side a few "rustic" guest houses. It ain't Negril by a long shot but seems so peaceful. I was just not too fond of the beach, but I'm not a lover of "black" sand beaches.

As far as Cloggy's, we've been going there for years. Our friend that used to take us out on the river used to launch his zodiac over there. About a month and a half ago we went out to Pelican from Basil's and ate at Cloggy's. The food was over the top wonderful - the BEST brown stew fish I'd ever had, with the bammy soaked at the bottom in the sauce - yum!!! (I tried to copy their technique at home in Negril but burnt the Bammy :( I know how I can try to do it next time to avoid burning.) The only problem was the EXTREMELY long wait for the food - close to 2 hours. Not sure that I want to go back to that again - AND their prices were pretty darn steep for Black River....

Ahhh, Jamaican hospitality. Open air fish cook shop with fresh Parrot fish...I would have been in heaven.
A trip most people won't ever experience. But all should. At least once.
I'm hooked on this report. Thanks for writing it!

Loving your report and your travel style in Jam....You really get around and experience it-and have such a cool attitude to go with it...Too bad other visitors don't try to replicate the same exp.(though it may not suit all-I realize that-and that's cool-to each is own) but people who look beyond the windows of those buses/taxis taking them from Mobay airport to the usual tourists destinations and see all that beauty and wonder what else is out there and than take interest in your report and think about doing something similar..Well I hope they do look into further exploration of such a unique island . Jam has so much to offer than just the beautiful 7 mile beach and cliffs..(IMHO)

Day 2 - YS Falls

We made our preparations for the day and then hung out and talked to Wesley a while. He was from the North Coast but moved down to Black River a few years ago at the request of the owner of Idlers Rest. We joked about the bloody rooster, the lack of hot water, and the fact that they served colored water instead of coffee. “ All good mon, every time”, and he laughed. Our designated driver Crampy, was supposed to pick us up at 10:00. We had discussed our circuit the night before – YS Falls and then on to Accompong Town, down to Appleton Rum (no tour, just a drive by) and then a return to Black River – and agreed on the price. Although we had just met Crampy the night before, we felt comfortable because he was the designated favorite driver of the hotel and we shared the same first name, Ian (not a great way to pick a driver).

At 10:30, we had the owner’s son call Crampy who said he was on his way. We were happy when he showed up at 11:00 at which point I finally noticed that he did not have a red license plate and did not appear to be a licensed JUTA driver. Oh great, I thought. Beat down car, no insurance – everything everyone always warns you about. But it was too late. We got in the car and sped off through Black River. I asked Crampy to stop at the cambio to change money, $100 US. He asked me what rate I wanted. I wasn’t thinking clearly and said $84 J to the dollar. In fact, I’d only been on the ground less than 24 hours and the only inkling I had on the rate came from a post on this website. Crampy was no fool. He made a quick call and then detoured to a house in a tidy neighborhood outside Black River where a woman (probably his sister) came out with the $8,400 J. It made me wonder how badly I messed up the rate (turns out the real rate was somewhere between $85 and $86). But I had cash and we were on our way.

Crampy started bombing out of town. We tried to buckle up, but the seat belts didn’t work. I asked him to please drive slowly so we could enjoy the scenery. Outside of town he said he wanted to show us something. We pulled over behind a small building. There was a beautiful small blue pond with fresh spring water bubbling up from the limestone that eventually fed into the Black River. It was a perfectly natural, peaceful spot, enjoyed by the locals without a bunch of tourist clutter. Down the road, a similar blue pond, call “Bubbling Spring” was packaged up for the tourist trade.

We continued on the road to Middle Quarters, which was surprisingly close to Black River. I’d read about the river shrimp that you could buy along the road in Middle Quarters and we were looking forward to sampling the famous crustaceans. As we entered Middle Quarters the sides of the road came alive with shrimp shacks and women hawking shrimp alongside the road. We pulled off at a little shrimp shop that had a few old tables in the backyard. I’d always pictured the famous pepper river shrimp as small fresh water shrimp. Not true. The “river shrimp” are really crawfish and some are quite large. Crampy directed us to the medium sized “shrimp”. We bought a bagful and settled in for a mid-morning snack. We were instructed on the appropriate way to eat the crawfish – pull off the head and devour the rest including the soft, peppered “shell”. Wow…..those babies were delicious with enough heat to cause us to freshen up with first cold Red Stripe of the morning. What a great start to the morning.

One thing I love about traveling is how time slows down when you’re beginning an adventure. We hadn’t even been in Jamaica 24 hours and we felt like we’d been exploring for days. I got that blissed out feeling that comes with seeing new sights……..

St Elizabeth Parish is known by every Jamaican as the “bread basket” of Jamaica. And it is lush and beautiful. Very soon, we turned off the road to head up to YS Falls. The countryside opened up into large fields of the famous Jamaican Red Poll cattle. This was a different landscape than I’d seen anywhere in Jamaica (although somewhat similar to the pasture land in Portland Parish on the way to Port Antonio near the Flynn estate). Big open fields of pasture dotted with huge trees, shading groups of the cleanest, healthiest looking red cattle you can imagine, spread along the base of the mountains. It reminded me of the Ponderosa (yep, I’m that old that I loved Bonanza) and also the foot of the Green Mountains in the Champlain Valley where my wife and I met in college a lifetime ago. Spectacular!

We pulled into the entrance hall where we paid our $32 admission fee for two and realized the “attraction” was being managed by Chukka Tours. I was a bit skeptical. I knew that Chukka Tours had a big footprint in Jamaica but never really liked the idea of “zip lines” and “canopy tours”, considering them as unnecessary tourist traps. The only other falls I’d been to in Jamaica was Reach Falls in Portland. We’d been there a number of times. There were various levels of “tours” and “entrance fees” over the years but you could generally find your own way in and manage on your own. This was a scripted deal. But I’d paid the money and we were going to see the falls. We got on a brightly colored tourist wagon, pulled by a big blue tractor and headed down on a dirt path to the falls.

We stopped at a café and gift shop, changed into our bathing suits in a clean little changing cabin and began to explore the falls.

YS Falls is a uniquely beautiful spot with 10 falls cascading down from the hillside with crystal blue water pouring over unnaturally smooth falls that looked almost as formed as poured concrete. Despite my skepticism, Chukka Tours actually does a great job managing the entire operation. The falls are safe, clean and secure without higglers or litter, with the convenience of changing rooms, natural swimming pools, tended gardens and a bar. We enjoyed hiking to the upper falls, which we had completely to ourselves. We sat back, watched for birds with our binoculars with the soothing sounds of rushing water surrounding us. We swam in a number of the pools and took a couple of jumps off the rope swing for minor thrills. The water was clear and refreshing. A natural, relaxing beauty spot. After an hour or so, we took the tractor and wagon back to the entrance house, where the ticket attendant called Crampy (he had left her his cell phone number) to continue our trip up to Accompong Town.

I patiently wait for more.....This is excellent..