On the prowl in Negril

Sweeeeet! you guys know how to do it! Nothin' better than walking around Negril in search of a likkle adventure............

I'm enjoying your report very much :)

loveing the report makes me sad that we are not going back this year

What a sweet time to poke my head in here. A Rum report!! Mrs. Peel is truly lovely and you, sir, are aces.

Day 4 Friday, May 30
It only took three days for me to build an excuse for my failed notes. Direct transcription from the notes:
Note book has taken a real beating-waterlogged-semi dried out, folded, unfolded, beat.
However next to my feeble brain's recollecting powers it's a champ. A good friend once told me the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory. In short, glad I took notes, and pictures.

We started the day with coffee by the sea. Carol our favorite server was back today. I took a morning dip while Mrs. Peel kept an eye out for dolphins.

We decided to explore the Westend Rd. We walked from Catcha to what appeared to be a sewage treatment plant. There was no sign proclaiming its purpose but there were cars in the lot with signage on their doors. This plant was located down the road after it forks. One fork heads to "Just Natural" and the other fork goes by this plant. The plant's fork is the fork closest to the sea. There didn't seem to be much after the plant so we turned around and walked back to "Just Natural". We headed back toward Catcha and stopped at the West End Bakery for "watas". We planned on returning twice, once to eat at "Just Natural" and once to get a patty (pasties in the U.P.) at the "Out Of Town Bakery".
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The above is a little alcove off the West end road.

We saw a huge spider with an equally huge web on the way back.
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(this view is from the road so that gives you some idea of the spider's size)

We had a couple rum and cokes on the deck (remember to hydrate in the tropics) then headed out for lunch at the Red Dragon.
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Most of the patrons were drinking old school, shot and a glass of water. It was like a neighborhood bar at home except we couldn't ear hustle the patois. Still you could recognize some of the action. The atmosphere was friendly and open.
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(The above is Mrs. Peel and Gordo - action picks up as it gets closer to the pork being served.)

The lottery was on TV and it had a rapt following in the bar.
Finally the moment of truth, the pork was served. I ordered a pound after conferring with Gordo. My pork was wrapped in foil, the most succulent pork I'd ever thrown a lip over. It's eaten with your fingers but I wished I had an entrenching tool so I could shovel it in faster. Then with a flourish that would have impressed the Tasmanian Devil, and embarrassed Emily Post I wiped out the contents of the foil packet.

The pork is served piping hot and spiced hot via the Scottish hat peppers. I love hot food but I refrained from eating the Scottish peppers. You can avoid the peppers but you can't avoid their heat. Some people have their pork with a slice or two of white bread (similar in looks to Wonder Bread), I guess this may be to cut the heat. Tender stomachs be advised. Best pork I've had in Negril or the surrounding area, possibly the planet. Exquisite!

Thankfully there is their chest of ice cold beer, ice crystals literally cling to the freshly extracted bottles. Just the thing for washing down the hot pork. After we'd eaten and been hosed off by the attendants a couple sat down to our left and we engaged them in small talk. It turned out they were Rob (from the board) and Bnewb. We'd never met them before. Generally we sew our wild oats in the daytime and turn in early, so we've never been to any boardie bashes. Bnewb was a real surprise for me. From Bnewb's posts I had always assumed Bnewb was a white man in his 70's. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a detective.

From the Red Dragon we proceeded downtown. We scored some hot peanuts on the way. In case you ever have trouble drinking a beer just get some hot peanuts, um, you know, unless you're the kind that can drink beer without encouragement. Jamaican peanuts have a shell like paper. If you haven't tried them yet you need to change that.

Beers @ the Sea View Sports Bar and Grill. These slid so well that by the time we got to Mi Yard we decided it was time for more.

From the porch of Mi Yard we could see an afternoon storm building up over the beach.
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As the storm rolled in a domestic drama unfolded before our eyes. There was a hen in the yard. She was chasing a huge, shiny centipede. The hen ran the grease right off her little drumsticks. Perseverance paid off. She was holding the centipede in her beak when the rooster arrived on the scene. He'd been watching her run the bug down. The rooster snatched the centipede from her little yellow bill and in Mrs. Peel's indignant words, "He didn't even share it."

Maybe it was Karin's suggestion from the day before but we got into a helmet discussion. Neither of us bike so I'm not sure why it came up. Mrs. Peel said," You don't see as many people wearing helmets here as at home." All I could come up with for a rejoinder was: "You don't see as many Buicks as you do in Door County either."

Next up, No Limit Bar, Byron was herding the beers there. Byron said it was a quiet May and the next big excitement he expected was the ATI party in July. "That's a party for a week," Byron said.

A dip in the sea can really put the spring back in your step. I spent a half hour or so pulling Mrs. Peel around on a plastic air raft, a poor man's version of Cleopatra's barge. The degree of refreshment was amazing. With this new found energy we were capable of constructing rum and cokes on our deck (we were staying in Pisces). We hung on the deck until about 7:30 then took a cab to Pressley's (maybe walking wasn't an option - west end road vehicle traffic can be a little hairy for walking after dark - or maybe, just maybe it was the rum). (BTW Pressley's is where I proposed to Mrs. Peel two years ago.)

By the time we got back I was sure I could hear my pillow singing lullabies. Mrs. Peel thought a night cap was in order so we navigated down to Ivan's. There was a young Jamaican couple (who turned out to be brother and sister) and a young American couple. The group was celebrating the young American man's birthday.

At one point I was going to wish him a "Happy Birthday" but he was caught up in conversation, so I waited. Before I could say anything, the young man said to me, "You're Rum-polephoreskin?"

I (being the master of clever repartee) said,"How did you know that?" He explained (I have the whitest left leg of any tourist your likely to find in Negril).
I asked the young man his name and he said Tim. I asked if he was a boardie.
He said, "Yes I'm Booger." His wife Sandy goes by "Pooper" on the board. Booger and I then began discussing posts and other boardies (were anyone's ears ringing?).

The lovely young Jamaican woman went behind the bar and grabbed a mic. She began singing "Happy Birthday" to Tim. That was followed by the bartender singing a long explicit version of the "Big Bamboo". He did this karaoke style, teasing people with the verses. Continuing in the funny penis song category, the bartender broke into a racy cover of Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-ling". This turned into a sing along, at least during the choruses. The crowd was small but we were rockin' wall to wall.

A little later we had a chance to talk with Sandy and Tim. Their daughter is the same age as our youngest, and they shared her prom pictures with us. Sandy shared some insights about Negril in May (this was our first May). Unfortunately they were leaving the next day and we didn't get to talk again. It was 10 PM when we finally bedded down, latest we stayed up (on this trip anyway).

Hey Guirigay

Roberta Raigh Pryor.....NEGRIL Reggae, Riots & Romance is the book you spoke of.
GREAT FUNNY report........PLEASE continue.

Thanks Jim-Donna, I knew a boardie would bail me out.
More tomorrow, I'm a hunt and peck typist and me writing is slow, taxing work indeed.

Love the report! How did you like visiting in May? We always go the end of April but this year other obligations are pushing our trip to May 20 - 27th. I always worry about more rain the later I get into the summer, and after my last trip this past October (for the Cocolapalm Halloween party in which it rained quite a bit during our stay), I am really needing more sun than rain!

We were there at the cusp of May and June.
Rain was never a problem. I can say the same for (my time in) July.
Afternoon rain showers can and do happen all year in the tropics.

If there is a bad weather time, I'd guess it was the Fall/Hurricaine season.