Trip Report: Part 1 (days 3 &4)

Day3: Thursday
Up with the sun again. Breakfast at Xtabi, this time with cheese in the omelet. Not the best call… it was more like oil than cheese. Oh well, no problem. Husband has eggs and bacon. He has no complaints. Well, 1 complaint. Hung over. His breakfast has decided it doesn’t want to stay down. We head back to the room. After he recovers from his traveling breakfast, we snorkeled for a bit by the cliffs and caves of Xtabi. We saw a few really cool fish and TONS of jelly fish that scared the hell out of me. No stings though. I think they must have been harmless. The water is so beautiful, but the waves eventually wear me down and I can feel a little motion sickness coming on. We head back to the room, change out of our wet swimsuits, and husband wants us to take a nap. I lay down and try. 30 minutes or so I give up. Wasting precious daylight…. I get up. I shower, clean myself up, let the husband sleep a while. Finally I wake him. The days a wastin. Let’s go find some lunch. I want to eat somewhere else than Xtabi. 3 Dives next door is supposed to be good. We start walking. It’s 2:20. 3 Dives doesn’t open until 3… we keep walking. The next restaurant… also doesn’t open until 3. Keep walking…. Then, Sips and Bites. We step up into the metal shack and take a look at the menu. I order stewed beef, he orders stewed chicken and curried chicken split. He still doesn’t seem to be feeling well. Doesn’t have much to say. She brings us soup. I SMASH it. SO GOOD. I didn’t know I was getting soup . It starts to rain… I sit, admiring the art work on the walls while listening to the rain pound on the tin roof. Everything seems to happen the way it’s supposed to here. This moment is good. She brings our food. This heaping plate of awesomeness that looks, smells, tastes and feels like something someone’s grandmother would make. I’m killing it. Husband is picking… feeling queasy again. She brings a box, boxes and bags up his food, and I tell her, nothing personal, very delicious, he just drank too much last night. She refills his water and tell him he needs to hydrate. She was very sweet. The rain is REALLY coming down. Pouring hard for at least an hour now, maybe more. We just sit…. It was really nice. Eventually though, I had needs that required we head on back to our own restroom (I’ll leave it at that), so rain or no, we needed to walk. We barely hit the step when a gentleman inside the restaurant asked, “Taxi?”. Perfect. Every moment is as it should be. We head back to the cottage. Husband rests a little, then tries to eat more of his lunch. He got some down and kept it down. Started feeling a bit better. We head out to the deck by the patio/bar. He decides to do his first jump. He picks a height that I cannot argue with and he goes. Of course, he loved it. I got out my pool float and road the waves awhile, while watching him snorkel some more. We skipped the alcohol, but soaked in the atmosphere with Danny and Jill. Discuss dinner. I want to leave Xtabi for dinner. We share a taxi with our new friends to Push Cart. I had the big coconut drink to start, husband has a single Red Stripe. Jerk chicken for me, can’t remember what anyone else had. Pretty good though. We discuss going somewhere else when dinner is done. Nah, we are tired. In cottage, in bed by about 10ish.

Day 4: Friday
Dang it. We check out of Xtabi tomorrow. We are loving our cottage and have heard not so great things about our beach reservation – SeaSplash. Can’t get out of it though. No problem. Worst case scenario, we just sleep there and head back up this way in the daytime. For now, we’re here. So what’s on the day’s agenda? Breakfast… I’m tired of Xtabi’s omelets. We grab a taxi to Just Natural. GREAT DECISION. What a beautiful place, what sweet people. Toured the beautiful property, a sweet lady who’s name I forget now (so many names I tried so hard to remember) had my husband plant something for her. Brilliant strategy to make you feel connected to the place, but too late, we already do. She offered to take our picture. She was cute - had us posing. Super sweet lady. They all were really sweet there. Both of us order french toast and we shared the fruit plate. The french toast came with a homemade banana marmalade that I could have eaten by itself, by the spoonful. The french toast was also outstanding. And so many fruits I had never seen. An all around amazing breakfast in a beautiful, unique place – surrounded by wonderful people. A guy gets dropped off. As he’s walking in one of these ladies gasps, and runs to hug him. The other one comes out of the back and rushes to him, goes in for the hug and picks him straight up off the ground. He says “I guess I need to put on more weight, aye?” She says, “I made you a belt!” She runs and grabs it, she puts it on him. She says, “It’s okay if you don’t like it”… he says, “I don’t like it. I LOVE it.” I eavesdrop a little. They’ve known him for years. He is a regular in Negril and this Canadian man has become a close, personal friend of theirs. It’s so sweet to watch the genuine interactions between them. I feel envious. We head back to our cottage. We decide we will snorkel on the reef today with Famous Vincent. Devon, at Xtabi, gives him a call (and earns his commission – brilliant business plan). Vincent will be here in 15. We grab our stuff and head down to the closest water access to our cottage. When Vincent arrives he has almost a full boat. We quickly learn they are all together. They are colleagues, in town to speak at the Cannabis Cup. I have no idea what they do for a living, but apparently I’m in the wrong line of work.  Vincent takes us along the west end, past the lighthouse and Rockhouse and all the beautiful resorts. He slows down to a troll and takes inside of a couple of caves. It was all so beautiful. He turns around, heads for the reef. Upon arrival he explains that the reef is fragile and we must be careful. We hop in and follow Vincent. Vincent has good eyes. This is the difference between going out on your own and going with an experienced guide. He spotted things we never would have… eagle ray, nurse shark… it was really great. After snorkeling we headed away from the cliffs rather than back to them. Another stop was to be made. We arrive at a little offshore island. There are many people already there. When we hop off the boat some guys pull some traps out of the ocean. They are offering lobsters to be bought, fresh out of the water, and cooked on the grill while you wait. The group with us is all over this. Husband and I don’t eat seafood – but it was pretty cool! When their lobster was ready we piled back on the boat and they ate it on the water. The lobster was really well dressed and looked like something out of a fine restaurant. It smelled pretty good too, for seafood. When we got dropped off we headed back to the cottage to shower, then over to 3 Dives, FINALLY, for dinner. Jerk chicken X2, a man with a guitar told us he was a “romance singer” and played songs like “Twilight Time” while we waited. He cracked a few jokes, some of which I couldn’t understand, but when he laughed you couldn’t help but laugh with him. It was infectious. Then, FOOD. The dinner was so very, very satisfying. We got full and sleepy quickly. In cottage, in bed again, by 10 or so.

Day 5: Saturday
Just can’t sleep in. Have to stop going to bed so early! Up before the sun… I headed over, alone, to the restaurant – which wasn’t open yet. Sat on the patio and thumbed through pictures on my phone, posting to Facebook, messaging the kiddos. Eventually husband awoke and joined me. Few minutes later the restaurant opened. We were tired of omelets and eggs, so we ordered french toast and the shared the bread basket. I was pretty happy with this decision. French toast was not as good as Just Natural, but it was good none-the-less. And the bread basket was yummy! Husband says he wants to jump a few more times before we pack up to checkout and head over to Seasplash. He does, takes is GoPro and gets some video. I take pictures too. We head back to cottage. Shower, pack, check out. Driver arrives, takes us to Seasplash. Part two of our trip begins….

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Jus Natural

Regards,
Bob

Miss Teresa, nice lady. Nice report, thanks.

I also get up EARLY and go to bed early~~~

Your description of Jus Natural gives me goose bumps. I love that place! ( :

Enjoying your trip report. Makes me wish I had a ticket booked.

I'm so confused about Jus Natural. On boards it's always referred to as Jus Natural, but on Facebook the page is "Just Natural", and that's what their sign on the property says as well. Which is the correct spelling?

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Originally Posted by Rebecca Pettyjohn

I'm so confused about Jus Natural. On boards it's always referred to as Jus Natural, but on Facebook the page is "Just Natural", and that's what their sign on the property says as well. Which is the correct spelling?

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Rebecca...a very long time ago in their old location their sign had said "Jus Natural". It was changed to "Just Natural" while they were still in their old location but many of the oldtimers remember the original spelling. The actual name is "Just Natural".
:)

Thanks for clearing that up!

Enjoy your vacation. Love these pictures.

Love your pics.went here on the pub crawl last week. Gonna go for breakfast this trip . 5 days left to go,

Enjoy! I'm currently looking at almost a foot of snow. Michigan weather, gotta love it.

Rjonsun, great photos! I have too many, lol. I didn't want to complicate my wordy report with a ton of pics, and I couldn't decide on just one or two! Those two you posted a perfect!

Pics make a report soo much better. Post em up RP.

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Originally Posted by Rebecca Pettyjohn

3 Dives, FINALLY, for dinner. Jerk chicken X2….

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I just realized I skipped a day from my trip reports. Totally missed out on Monday when I went to 3 Dives. While I enjoyed the chicken, I got the 1/4 dark meat and the meat was very sparse. I guess a bad chop. IDK if I even got the amount of meat I'd expect on a whole thigh, much less 1/4 chicken.

Sorry I didn't run into you Rebecca :( I was hoping to see you at Canoe on Thursday, though I probably wouldn't recognize you. :p

~Moose

Here's a video my husband shot at 3 Dives. So perfect and unpredictable! Makes me chuckle it every time I watch it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42_7...&feature=share

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Jus Natural

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She put the hubs to work...

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So much YUMMYNESS. Plus, homemade banana marmalade...

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Famous Vincent

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Famous Vincent

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Snorkeling with Famous Vincent

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Tiny island where they were pulling lobster from the sea and grilling it...

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Tiny island after snorkeling with Vincent

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3 Dives

Thanks for the great report and Pics! We are staying on the beach this year instead of Xtabi - we will miss it and have to visit for sure!

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3 Dives

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3 Dives, smashing some jerk chicken...

Sweet pics n report. looks like u did everything right hahaha... Except the whole "I don't eat seafood" thing... That's gots to change before your next trip! missin so many good eats...

Agreed. Steam fish is just something you have to have in Jamaica, I think about it all the time.

Nice pics RP. Looks like you guys had fun.

I know l, I know... I do feel like I short change myself! But I just can't -- it's like a phobia or something. Shellfish are way to close in appearance to bugs, a fish has a weird texture and bad smell.... I wish I could get past it!

I feel ya... I went my first 25 years without eating seafood... The wife guided me to see the light though with lil baby steps...

Garlic pepper shrimp kabobs... Then some pan/deepfried fish... Now NOTHING in the sea is safe! Of course living in Maine... I'm in the honey hole and eat as much lobster as humanity possible!!!

Anyway... Baby steps... Deep fried fish doesn't have any smell... And the only texture that I still can't get past is clam bellys n oysters- wife luvs em but not for me.

You really have to try it. Escovitched fish is also excellent.

Sweet report!