Monty & Melo's "5 Months Mon Goat Can Eat" Trip Report - Oct 2012

I wondered how long that beach walk up to Sandals was. Good to know I am putting in some miles

Monday morning, day 4 of the trip. First full day on the beach and more importantly first morning beach walk of the trip. I like to get out early, before 7am, usually around 630am. Today was no different, I left Rondel about 640am and headed up the beach, knowing that I was going to have to navigate the sea on the way, I walked barefoot. If I know I can stay out of the water the whole time I usually wear running shoes and socks, but I actually prefer barefoot, although the bone spur I have in my heel prefers that I wear shoes. I figure what ‘s a little short term pain for the feeling of having the sand between my toes as I walk up the beach.

After navigating in and around the wata at the Boat Bar and Mariposa, I am off. Walking, walking, walking. I am surprised at how slow it is on the beach and the rest of the week as I walk I keep running into the same 10-15 tourists each morning. Not even many beach guys working the beach. I joked with the bartender later that day that I was on the beach walking for an hour and a half and only got offered ganga twice. I guess that is one way to measure how busy Negril is. I will compare it on my February walks when it should be in full business mode.

My brother usually leaves later than me, so I usually meet him on the way back. Today I saw him approaching me as I was just about to get back to Beaches (or whatever it is now). He removes his headphones (he likes to listen to music when he walks alone, he says he gets left alone if he can’t hear people offer him stuff). We start walking back towards Rondel. He immediately tells me how nice the beach walk is compared to the cliffs, and then tells me how freaked out he was on our cliffs walk yesterday. I finally figure out why he kept asking me when we were going to turn back on that walk yesterday. He could have just said something….but I guess I was supposed to get the hint, being the wiser older brother that I am.

Back at the hotel we pick up the girls and head for Firefly, our normal beach-breakfast spot. We also frequent Montana’s in the wintertime, but it was not open in slow season. The view from Firefly is great. Here are a couple of shots of the Firefly. Of course if you have ever been there in February or busy season you know that the “scenery” changes quite dramatically from this time of year.

While this tree doesn’t provide much shade, it is pretty cool looking and the color contrasts in this shot are awesome I think

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Another shot of the beach at Firefly

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Monty, Melo and JMA at the table at Firefly (OK, I’m having a Dragon Stout for breakfast….don’t judge!!)

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After breakfast we head back to Rondel, get on our suits and hit the beach. Just hung out on the beach for most of the day, my brother and I did take a walk down to Bourbon Beach, I had to judge for myself whether it was back to its former glory. I can attest that it is. The bar was busy with a nice mix of tourists and locals, we grabbed a qtr jerk chicken and some fries and let me tell you, the jerk chicken was awesome, and you’ll forget that ketchup even exists if you dip your fries in the jerk sauce….wow good stuff and cheap too, $700J for chicken and fries that the 2 of us almost couldn’t finish. Well worth the walk down and what was even more impressive was that the whole bar transactions were being recorded on an Ipad with a Bluetooth receipt printer and everything. Highest tech bar I have ever encountered on the beach in Jamaica.

When we got back to Rondel, the girls were getting their lunch from Norm. Here is a picture:

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When we returned home we tried to explain this bicycle to my dad. No chain, no pedals, he just pushes it down the beach, I am not sure dad ever understood how this actually works....

Of course later in the afternoon we made our way down here, as is our normal habit when in Negril

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Caught this crab enjoying a spliff on the beach at Canoe….looks like he is having a good time and now I know why those little things don’t walk straight!!!:cool:

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After Canoe, we walked down to Doc’s, he had promised us conch soup the next time we came and even had some curry goat, so all was right in the world again. That conch soup will bring you back from the dead. I know healthcare in Jamaica is not the greatest, but if I am ever near death in Negril and need something to bring me back from the brink, I am going to get the conch soup at Chicken Lavish and I figure if it doesn’t rescue me at least I will die happy and well nourished. After hanging out there for a couple of hours we were back at Rondel ready for another good night’s sleep in Negril….

I am liking this report....I have been trying to get my brother and his wife to go with us since I returned the first time...I really wouild love to share the beauty of our paradise with them...my brother is my best friend....just cant get him to pull the trigger....

So Tuesday, day #5 started out as usual, long walk up the beach, breakfast, beach, wash, rinse, repeat…you know the drill….

I decided to take a swim….with the beach so small, all of the sand is located out in the sea so you can go out from the beach for a long time without losing the ability to touch. I’m a decent swimmer so I don’t worry much about not being able to get back to the beach, so I float around out there for a while, or long enough to drink the beer that I have with me. I begin to work my way back in and when I get in the very shallow water I turn around with my back towards the beach and just use my hands to propel me through the water to get back to the beach. All of a sudden…damn that hurt, my back is on fire and crap, its spreading and f#$@ now my wrist hurts. I jump up out of the water and run to the Rondel Village foot wash/shower area, I figure I am going to wash off what is hurting me. The water doesn’t wash away the pain, so I head over to the bar to get my wife to rescue me. I explain what happened and immediately Carl says “Jellyfish mon, he bite you, get some Vinegar from the kitchen.” So the bartender runs into the kitchen and comes back with a teacup full of vinegar. Melo starts to apply it and immediately it feels better. She treats the two spots on my back, my upper arm and finally my wrist. 18 trips to Jamaica, swimming in the sea everyday and never a jellyfish sting. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later and if that is as bad as it gets I guess it was not so bad. But I definitely don’t look forward to the next one!! Here is a pic of the damage.

The swelling actually went away pretty quickly

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Today was the day we were walking the girls to Red Dragon with a short stop on the way. We figured we would wait until the sun got real high in the sky and the heat was at a maximum…you drink more when you are hot and isn’t that really the idea!?!? We agreed that we would leave about 1215pm and arrive at Red Dragon some time after 1pm. After hanging on the beach for a couple of hours we decided to change clothes, get our shoes on and prepare to head out.

Grab a beer from the fridge and down the road we go….first beer lasts us until we get just past Bourbon Beach, so we drop in Drinks Plus to get 4 more. They have two big freezers in there with wata, soda, ting, juice and BEER in there. Great to get beers out of the freezer, so cold!! I grab 4 beers and head to counter to pay, we turn in the four bottles that we have and I pay the lady behind the counter while Melo uses the handy bottle opener they have attached to the counter to open all 4 beers. $560 for 4 beers and we are on our way again. We usually cross the road at the Negril River bridge, I always like to walk the road with the traffic coming towards me….I figure I can jump out of the way if I actually see what is coming at me. So I always wait as long as I can to cross.

We cross the road and make our way around the roundabout, past Juicy Patties and the Shell Station and then it happened. We ended up here!!!!!

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The Negril Police Station……I love stopping there for a beer on the way to Red Dragon, it is helpful to get out of the sun for a few minutes, and it’s damned interesting to see the comings and goings. On this trip there were about 100 motorcycles that had been confiscated by the Police. They were all piled in the front room, one almost on top of the other, all tangled up in each other and it really looked like a motorcycle grave yard. We were told these bikes had license issues, insurance issues, etc. Once the owner cleared everything up they could come and claim their bike back. I thought to myself, good luck getting the one out of the very back of the pile, they would literally have to move every bike to get one from the back. After a while if they are not claimed they are sold at auction. We finish our beer and head up the road to Red Ground and the Red Dragon.

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I don’t usually take a camera to Red Dragon, I get it that it is not really a tourist place and that Jamaicans are living their everyday lives and use this place as a grocery store, a place to get rum, single Craven A’s, and phone cards. Trying to be as respectful as I can, I don’t usually take pictures there. This day was an exception however, because you never know if a newbie is going to be back, so on the chance that this is their one and only trip to this place, it only makes a little sense to respectfully document the experience. So we took some shots….here are a few

Melo and Gardo

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Two Brothers

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The pork!!!!

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Like I mentioned earlier, I love the Red Dragon beer, so very cold, but on this trip for some (very odd) reason I decided that after the first beer I would get into the JB and Ting. That JB stuff is wicked but if you add enough Ting, it isn’t so bad and it goes well with the Jerk Pork. I told Gardo to give us plenty of peppers in our pound of pork, LG doesn’t like spicy so my brother didn’t have any added to their pound. WOW, those peppers made it very hot!! I ate a few of them and washed it down with JB and Ting, my scalp is actually tingling right now as I type this thinking back to it. Just a great feeling, Melo didn’t agree however and I thought she was going to kill me for getting our pork so spicy. I will remember next time to get Melo her own pork if I decide to get by Scotch Bonnet on like that. After hanging out for a while we decide to head back to the beach, I called our driver, he had a beer and some pork and we were ready to go.

When we got back to the beach we decided we might as well keep the party going and make this the Ricks/Ivans/LTU evening. So we all got ready and told our driver to come pick us up at 330pm for the trip.

More Soon Come…..

Great report, I wish both my brothers would travel, one being a chef would love the Negril culinary experience and the other being a rum bum would so enjoy the punch at Canoe!

I love how the locals say the "jellyfish bite you"

Awww, jellyfish stings are NO fun.

You hit two places I have been wanting to go to. The Police Station and Red Dragon. Thanks for the tip on the pork. Personally, i am a scotch bonnet girl and wash it down with overproof and ting.

I am really enjoying this report. I think hubby's little bro would really fit with Negril. It is great to see you getting to share the experience. I laughed out loud at the picture of the crab.

We tell the driver to pick us up at 330pm for the Ricks/Ivans/LTU trip. We had discussed the “goat BBQ” amongst ourselves on the long walk to Red Dragon and decided that we would do it on Thursday if that was going to work for all of our Jamaican friends. We pack up towels, change of clothes, a bunch of monopoly money (JA$$) and walk down to the road to meet up with our driver.

Upon getting in, I say, “Thursday OK for the BBQ, mon??” “Yeah mon, Thursday OK.” Of course we were curious about the whole experience and wondered what we needed to contribute (money, beer, rum, etc). “We will go to Chiney-mon tomorrow for beer and Whiterum, and milk; we drink the Whiterum with milk.” “OK I said, so are you supplying the goat?” "Yeah, mon, we will take him with us.” Wow, I thought, this should really be interesting…..

My brother and I fancy ourselves as amateur chefs and I was interested in helping out, not just hanging out having the Jamaicans cook for me. “Yeah mon,” I said, “I’m happy to help cut stuff up and assist with the cooking if that will be OK.” Almost immediately our driver responded, “Ok, mon, you can cut de goat’s neck.” Damn…..did you catch that, I went from chopping up onions and garlic to killing a goat in the matter of like 5 seconds. It was already too late, my brother was all over it, “Yeah mon, Monty kill the goat!!” I think he was on Facebook, Twitter and Text Messages letting everyone that I had ever met or known in my life that it was going to happen, Thursday at high noon. I wasn’t so sure, but what the hell, I wasn’t going to spoil JMA’s fun, so I just laughed along with everyone else in the car.

Thankfully, we quickly arrived at Ricks and climbed out of the car. Now I know Ricks is a total tourist trap and big rip-off when it comes to food and drink, but we have found that if you show up, buy a beer immediately you can generally stretch that beer into an hour’s worth of refreshment and assuming you don’t stay much longer than that, you get out pretty cheaply. We don’t normally go to Ricks unless we have a newbie with us, I think it is some sort of unwritten rule that you have to take a newbie to Ricks just for the spectacle of it all. We arrive, find a place on the stairs to hang out and get a Red Stripe.

While cliff jumping from the top didn’t appeal to me (any more!!!), I wanted to get the girls in the water (my brother can’t handle the pressure change of jumping in deep water….drives his ears crazy, or maybe he is just a wimp, the jury is still out!!). I was amazed that it didn’t take much coaxing to get the girls to jump from a platform about 15 feet up. Here we are after the jump swimming in the deep blue sea:

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I’ll bet the view from up there is pretty good

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One of the best things about Ricks is the people watching and getting to meet folks from the big all-inclusive hotels here for their trip to the “real Jamaica.” This particular day the group was from the Grand Palladium. They spent most of the afternoon at Margaritaville and now were at Ricks. So much for the “real Jamaica” I thought, but I didn’t judge, they all seemed to be having a good time. We hung out at Ricks until right about 5pm and then we changed clothes and walked down to Catcha.

Melo and I had been there before, but my brother had not been there and to say he was impressed was an understatement. He and LG loved Catcha and Ivan’s. LG took pictures forever and hanging at the bar listening to Shaggy (It wasn’t me!!!) was one of the highlights of the trip. The sunset wasn’t great that night, but colors in the sky and in the water were still pretty outstanding. Here is a shot of the sky around time the sun went down.

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Here is another pic, taken of Melo and JMA at the bar

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After Ivan’s we headed for LTU. Love LTU, the food is awesome and the mixture of locals, ex-pats and tourists always makes for an eclectic group. We were pretty tired of the camera by the time we got to LTU, so I only have this one picture of me and my much better half

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After a long day of moving around and drinking, I forgot exactly what I had at LTU, but I do remember that it was awesome and of course the Pumpkin Soup that comes with every meal is beyond good. We called our driver and got him to come retrieve us so that we could retire for the evening. We had another pretty good day planned for tomorrow (Wednesday), including the first ever trip to the Chiney-Mon shop and dinner at Bentley’s which of course means a visit to Bentley’s during the day to arrange things for the evening, more moving and getting out and about, my favorite…….

Love your trip report and pictures. You made me want to check out the Red Dragon. Heard good things about it, but in 8 trips, haven't made it there yet. Maybe the 9th trip :)