May 19 to June 2 - The bachelor party, the wedding, drive to Portland and back etc

Congrats. GREAT REPORT

Congrats and thanks for sharing! Looking forward to reading about Portland.

What did you think of Charela?

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Originally Posted by Melody

Congrats and thanks for sharing! Looking forward to reading about Portland.

What did you think of Charela?

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Charela did a great job with the wedding, but they are very very over priced for the room quality, and their food and bev. The honeymoon suite cost a lot, but it didnt really have a great view of the beach, and it was sort of small. In comparison, for almost the same price we had a whole villa, on the water. no neighbors and a cook, in port antonio. Also, would say that the Treehouse beach front suites are better for the price as well.

The day after the wedding, we hosted a BBQ at Yellow Bird for everyone that attended the wedding.

Just a perfect experience. Jerk Chicken, Burgers, and of course cold stripes and dirty bananas. The bartenders did a wonderful job. The chicken was great.


I spent about 2 hours in the water tossing a football around with about 10 of my friends.


We bar crawled back up the beach. Ended up doing dinner 1 and sun beach, then dinner 2 at chances.


We said our good byes to some of our friends. Went back to the hotel and spent some family time. I had to be up early the next morning to meet Godwin. He had arranged me a rental vehicle to drive from Negril to Portland.

So, I wake up. We are already mostly packed. I go down stairs and see my MIL - She is worried about our drive. I am a little nervous to drive in Jamaica for the first time as well. Have a talk, and then I meet with Godwin and Rambo.

I rent a car from Rambo, for a fairly reasonable price.

Godwin suggests that I follow him to Mobay. He is taking a car load of my friends from the wedding. Was really no big deal driving. Didn't have any issues to Mobay.

As we pass through the other side of Mobay, we stop at a burgerking and for gas. GAS IS EXPENSIVE. Burger king had a TV on, with a Lifetime movie blaring really loud. Several Jamaican men in Business suits were watching the show intently. No one paid us any mind. We ate lunch and we were on our way.

We had a great drive. I haven't been on the North coast in over 15 years. It's a lot different than the road to negril. More developed.

We went through Downtown Ochi, just to check it out.

We ended up getting pretty lost, not long after - I had just told Jackie we were basically home free, and less than 2 hours to drive. LOL


The BLUE route is the main road. Somehow. We ended up on the red route.

Back roads. Town of Islington.

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But that's OK. We ended up pulling off to see this view.

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The picture doesnt even really do it justice.

Flip,

"The picture doesnt even really do it justice."

Couldn't agree more! Need to feel the breeze, smell the flowers and hear the sounds to get the total impact.

Good stuff, keep it coming!

VVHT

Nice!!!!

it's easy to take that right turn instead of following the road, somehow it seems right. at least you enjoyed the scenery.

Looking forward Flip to your take on the villa in PA. It's on my short list and after my last stay, with some time in Duncan, I am leaning closer to making it a reality. Nice report man.....

Almost like I was there , almost...

Keep it coming!

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Originally Posted by booger

Looking forward Flip to your take on the villa in PA. It's on my short list and after my last stay, with some time in Duncan, I am leaning closer to making it a reality. Nice report man.....

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The Villa is perfect for a romantic getaway. Going to post about that next.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. There are some steep roads right as you are getting to Port Antonio. I dont have an good pictures on my phone of this, but the Blue Mountains are HUGE! In reality they are the same height as some of the taller Appalachian mountains, but they seem so much bigger since you are seeing them in the distance from the vantage point of basically sea level. In the states you are seeing the Appalachians from well above sea level.

Port Antonio seemed very interesting when we drove through. It is really a beautiful town. A bit run down in some places, but there's some pretty cool architecture. Very busy in the market area.

Port Antonio is famous for being a major exporter of Bananas.


As you head out to the east of PA, you start seeing some very Majestic buildings.

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We finally get to our destination. Norse Point Villa. Even with getting lost. We made the Negril to Norse Point trip in under 5 hours. It was not bad at all.


We pull up to a sign, that has our Villa's name on it. There's just a Seawall. Jackie was confused. I said "Look over the wall".


Over the wall about 30 steep steps was our home for the next 5 nights. On the porch was Verona. Our maid/chef.

(The deal with Verona - her fee was 30 dollars a day on top of the 300 a night we paid for the villa. She would cook whatever we wanted for 2 meals a day. Do our grocery shopping if we needed. We chose breakfast and dinner most days).


Verona had a feast on the stove warming up as we arrived to this beautiful 1BR Villa. The villa had doors that opened the whole water facing side of the building to the crystal clear blue water, and monkey island. The villa had 1.5 Baths, a kitchen, Laundry machine. A dock with kayaks. It was great.

We chowed on dinner. Verona left us for the night, saying breakfast would be served around 9. After dinner we went to check out the bedroom. The next thing I realize. My 8:15am alarm was going off.. I had slept for 14 hours.


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Originally Posted by JitterBug

it's easy to take that right turn instead of following the road, somehow it seems right. at least you enjoyed the scenery.

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LOL. Rob said "Stay to the left, no matter what" So thats what we did. All the way up a narrow road to the top of the hill, where people were looking at us, and they knew we were lost. It was all good though. Worth the experience!

it's beautiful!!!

Gorgeous! (Drooling)

Villa = WOW!!!

Congrats Flip! Lovin the report so fah

Thanks everyone

We woke up early. Verona had breakfast ready to go, out on the table by 9:00. scrambled eggs, lots of fruit, fresh squeezed OJ and toast. We ate and decided that we would kayak to blue lagoon. About 5 minutes away. Blue Lagoon is 200+ feet deep and believed to have been an old volcano caldera. There is a fresh water spring somewhere in it, and it makes for a cool and refreshing mix of fresh and sea water.

We paddled around for a bit, and then decided to paddle out to monkey island. Directly across from our villa. There we met a gentleman and his family. We got to talking and it turns out that he owns Chukka tours and has a house just down from the place we were staying. Very nice guys. Jamaican from kingston. White dude.


After an hour or so, I told Jackie we needed to get lunch.

We went to villa, and got in the car. I drove us out to Boston. There we had some excellent Jerk Chicken at Mickey's.

After that we went down to the beach. It was awesome. The waves were good and there were plenty of Jamaican surfers out there. We spent a couple hours, had a few drinks. Decided to go take a drive into Port Antonio. When we got to PA, I remember seeing some marina pics that VI had posted. Decided to go there. Hung out at the bar for a bit. I sampled some Cuban rum. Jackie had a very big drink.

After that we decided to find a store for some snacks and some rum for the place. We stop at a local market on Folly Road. 6 pck of beer. Snacks, bottle of white rum. 1600 J.

Next door I heard one of my alltime favorite songs "Guess who's coming to dinner". It happened to be a bar. So we dropped in 2 cold red stripes for $240J. It was right on the water. Perfect. After some small talk with a few locals, we decided to head back for dinner and some rum.

We had our fill of dinner and rum and called it a night at about 8pm :-P

Blue Lagoon
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WOW!

More please!

Thanks,

VVHT

Good job with the driving!!! I adore Verona I knew she would take good care of you guys...Portland sigh...soon come

portland is stunning . . . by far, my favorite parish in jamaica. . . . thanks for the pics.

I keep hoping you'll have more pics of Port Antonio, really enjoying this!

Second full day in Portland:

After breakfast Verona sat with us and planned out our remaining meals for the week. We decided that we would drive her downtown to the market. It was kind of rainy, but OK. On the way in. Verona commented that I dive just like a Jamaican, and laughed. She said most tourists were really slow driving an tentative at the wheel.

We get into town, and we find a place to park by the market. I accidentally splashed someone with the car/puddle. Verona and Jackie were laughing hysterically. Not because of the splash, but because someone yelled "White boy driving!"

We went down a back alley where a bunch of produce vendors were setup. We purchased a bunch of fruit. Then we went to another vendor, where we were given a plastic bag full of goat. Then we walked through this giant indoor market, where we saw the butcher. They were taking apart a goat. Jackie freaked.

-Side bar- It is really interesting and kind of shameful how disconnected our society especially in the USA has become with where our food comes from. Meat comes form animals, it gets to your plate somehow, right? -/sidebar-


We then went to a 3rd market where Verona pick us up a whole heap of fresh shrimp.

Jackie and I got some beer, some rum, and some snacks for the villa at this place.

After we returned home. The day continued to be quite rainy. So I sat inside and read up on some literature about PA in the villa, then I picked up "American Sniper" A previous guest had left it there. Ended up breezing through that in 2 days.

We sat around and drank some cocktails and had a quite enjoyable, yet early evening. Verona made us the shrimp. Hands down the best shrimp I have EVER tasted.

about the meat markets . . . i agree, we in north america are disconnected with our food supply . . . the only part that freaks me out is the non-refrigeration. . . . during my meanderings through the back bush of jamaica, i've come across countless ppl doing the dismantling of various animals that have been slaughtered. especially in the back country. . . . fresh meat gets sold really quickly.

Yes, The goat they were taking apart was getting chopped on the block and handed over for sale almost immediately. Certainly has to be fresh because of what you said.

Decided to head to Boston again for lunch.

We met a nice couple from Wisconsin, and chatted it up on the beach, while having Jerk sausage.

They had mentioned that they wanted to check out Winnifred beach. We offered them a ride, and off we went. The road from the main road down tot he beach is, steep, and bumpy. I wasn't sure if we were on the right track, but when we reached the bottom. They payoff was wonderful.


Winnifred reminded me of a 1000 meter long Negril. Little bars setup on the beach, as well as a few hustlers. They were not persistent though. At the end of the beach, there is a fresh water stream that meets the ocean. just up a bit is a nice little swimming hole.

We hung out and had a few stripes, and then decided it was time to get ready for dinner. We wanted to check out woody's low bridge, for some burgers and some homemade ginger beer.


We had a good meal. We met woody, and incredibly nice guy.

We drank some white rum, and decided that we would continue our party back home on our porch.

I saw a sunset from the porch that could only really be beaten by negril. I had the TV from our bedroom turned toward the outside, so I could watch the NHL Western Conf finals.

We had some drinks and went to bed LATE - 10 PM :-P
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Very nice Flip. Congratulations to both of you!!

The contrast of the boat with the white, blues and green is amazing. Great shot.

What a perfect setup. Wedding bash in Negril, honeymoon in Port Antonio, beautiful bride/wife. Flip, you da man

Looks dreamy and sounds like a perfect way to decompress after the wedding hoopla!
Congrats to you both!!

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Originally Posted by MikeyNYC

The contrast of the boat with the white, blues and green is amazing. Great shot.

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LOL, I didnt take that shot. I didnt have any of the pics from that day on my phone, so I google imaged the Winnifred beach shot. The second 2 are my own.

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Originally Posted by sabu

What a perfect setup. Wedding bash in Negril, honeymoon in Port Antonio, beautiful bride/wife. Flip, you da man

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thank you. It was a great time and a great trip

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Originally Posted by Pisces

Looks dreamy and sounds like a perfect way to decompress after the wedding hoopla!
Congrats to you both!!

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indeed, and some of the best is yet to come!

4th and final full day in PA. We didn't do a thing. We relaxed. Laid out on the dock. I finished my book. We had some curried goat for dinner. That was it.

We thanked Verona, gave her a tip for the next morning's breakfast - which we told her we did not require.

We were to get up and on the road by 7am. We wanted to be in Ochi in time for the Dunns River Falls to open.

sounds wonderful!!
i'd like your thoughts on how portland compares to your negril experience.
i know they are different . . . .

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Originally Posted by JitterBug

sounds wonderful!!
i'd like your thoughts on how portland compares to your negril experience.
i know they are different . . . .

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Portland is growing on me, more and more as I look back at it. It's totally and completely different. I prefer to go in the ocean in negril, and I prefer the long walkable beach. There's a lot, and I mean A LOT of sea urchins in the waters at Portland. However, there is more beauty to the landscape overall (in portland)

The mountains quite literally drop into the sea. It's very majestic, and honestly they were calling me. I am very interested in camping and hiking to blue mountain peak.

A much different vibe. There are still people selling stuff, but they are more inclined to take "no" for an answer. They also seem to care quite a bit about keeping the beaches and the road sides clean. I get the impression that many of the Jamaicans you meet in Portland, call the area home and always have. Whereas, in Negril, people have come from all over the island, to try and get a piece of the tourist dollar.

Overall, I would still pick Negril. I just prefer the social aspect. The faster pace (be it much slower than I am used to here). I like the ability to walk wherever. In PA, a car or a reliable drive is an absolute must.


I will be back to PA. Next spring, I want to rent a car from mobay. Stay in Ochi for 2 days. over night hike to blue mt peak. Then portland for a day or 2. Then Kingston for a couple days. then Negril for a week... or something like that.