Sunrise ... Sunset. Is there any place better that I could get? Trip Report

Fun with Auntie Em, Negril style – A visit to the ATM Machine
Friday afternoon Ed and I set off for the middle of town to visit Auntie Em (ATM). A rather tall Rasta guy was sitting along the road between Xtabi and Samsara. He had no hair on top but a long, long dread-beard he was nice but we didn’t need anything he was selling. We bumped into many a seller of jewelry, dresses, fruit and many other things and people that we really didn’t need at the time. Everyone was nice and full of respect mon.

We stopped for a visit with Bob Marley and after looking at the picture of me, what was I thinking? Not having the wife along to nix the bad was showing that day.

Ed
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Me
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My sixteen year old son is always “chillin’” somewhere when I text him to ask what he’s doing so I took this pic for him. Unfortunately this establishment wasn’t open.

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By the time we got to Canoe we had to rest and have a cold one. Lovely place!

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I loved the position of the American flag in this pic from Canoe of the German Bar. Hah!

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I had read online that walking the “wall” was intimidating; well, it was the first time for me as well. Ed put me in front since I had the flaming orange shirt!

When we got to Scotiabank we found that all the “Aunties” were also on vacation. So we rambled next door to stand in line at the ATM in front of the Coral Seas Plaza. Long line, nice peeps and a sadness. This fellow came along with diabetes so bad that his leg was swelled to the breaking point. I helped him out with the few Jays I had, but since I was in line for Auntie he hung around till I got out. I didn’t really want to give him a thousand so I chose to ramble on. I did notice he didn’t hustle the locals.

Next we walked to the beach and headed up along the shoreline. Not much going on. We saw maybe ten tourists on the beach. Afew were in the bars and restaurants but mostly pretty empty. Grand Pineapple had the most. It may have been that it was dinner time and people were ensconced in the resort eateries.

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Wound up going as far as Whistling Bird. Stopped for a beer were about to order food, but the power went out.

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We opted to head back to Xtabi. Walking out the front of the resort a white plate car pulled over as we came out. It stopped and two women walked over to the little food stand next to the gate. The driver then offered us these girls for our evening. They didn’t look like hookers, they looked like his cousins....anyway a declination followed by ride negotiations. He took us back up to Xtabi for 400 and the girls jumped back in eating their dinner as we drove. No more mentions of solicitations and we were back home.

Timed things right for sunset number two. As it turned out this was the last one for a few days as it was quite overcast the next few evenings, but nice and cool.

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Tired legs dragged us over to Just Natural where Theresa fixed us a wonderful meal of snapper, fruit, calaloo, plantains and the obligatory dirty banana. All in all a wonderful day, ending in a tropical garden filled with little lights and happy chatter from the other guests and our hosts. Does it get any better than this...we’ll see. Until then thanks for the reads and comments from all you vets.

I liked the pics. I am a little disappointed in some of the content hinging on exploitation of the locals that's all.

Really good report. Good details. We love details. Nice ...

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Originally Posted by rompcherry

I liked the pics. I am a little disappointed in some of the content hinging on exploitation of the locals that's all.

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Rompcherry, my friend and I didn't exploit any locals. We were approached by a local offering to exploit two other locals. We clearly said, "not interested". He then negotiated for taxi service which we accepted. All along our day we were offered a variety of opportunities to purchase many different items for sale. We were offered illegal and exploitive sales opportunities as well, all of which were declined. Hope that brings some clarity.

I apologize for seeming so nasty .. I replied in private to you. I'm just a little overprotective of people in "developing" countries. Cheers

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Originally Posted by rompcherry

I apologize for seeming so nasty .. I replied in private to you. I'm just a little overprotective of people in "developing" countries. Cheers

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Nope, rompcherry, you're not in the least nasty. I apreciate your perspective and perhaps I'm a bit to capricious. I had such a great time meeting the people. I had lovely conversations at every turn. We tipped well and tried to be as generous as my limited travel budget allowed. All good! Glad your reading my post and helping me post in concert with this lovely community of Negril Delighters. Cheers!

Nice vibe BJ, keep it rolling...

Second Full Day in Negril

This is a day marked by no daylight pictures, no walks, only hanging around Xtabi. Which is what vacations are for, doing little or nothing. I walked Ed from Xtabi to Whistling Bird yesterday and he was breaking in a new pair of crocs, so he had blisters and sore feet accompanied by zero motivation to go anywhere.

Some breakfast, some snorkeling, some napping and just laying on the cliffs was a perfect day.

Saturday night is Seastar night! Took the free shuttle up and got there early. What a blast! The band was great, the singers amazing, the drummers were mind blowing and the dancers livened up the place to say the least.

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We were joined by our now good Xtabi buddies, Jason and Mandy. Mandy was a little unsure of the off the pavement trip up to Seastar, but loved it once she settled into the groove.

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The food was good, and the people from Seastar were so friendly and attentive.

Several of the guests were as excellent of dancers as the group up front. Made it fun to see the boogie down go down.

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I met rustedduck, a boardie, but I didn't get a chance to visit as we decided the four of us were tired enough just to head back. Jason offered a ride with Champion, his driver and we took him up.

The venue up at Seastar is just wonderful. What a beautiful place. We got the grand tour when we arrived and it looks so peaceful. All of your reviews here make it sound wonderful. The bridge over the roof was cool. The bar and pool area is a great setup, and all I could see up at the pool was images forever seared into my brain of some recent belly flop contest! This forum will do that to ya!

So, for anyone reading this that hasn't been up there on a Saturday night, go! You'll love it.

Excellent report .... That is a LONG way from Whistling Bird to Xtabi (heck, for me it's a long walk from 3 Dives to Xtabi), very impressive.

Outside of the fab jerk chicken at 3 Dives, they had cold Spitefire. Went over there everyday for that!

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I was drinking one while taking that picture!