Untold stories, photos, remembrances & eplilog

It is always interesting to post onsite trip reports, but is not always easy due to slow internet speeds and the time allocated to make such posts. We are normally up early and to bed early, so the best time is usually after watching the sunset, then dinner then check for e-mails from the kids and post on negril.com,
Often our hotel selection is based on a minimum set of requirements and price. For instance we found a fantastic price for Mirage on the cliffs for about $75 per night. We normally stay at Blue Cave Castle while on the west end, but it was closed for renovations until November 1st. So Mirage it was. We got some good tips on places to eat in the neighborhood. The vibe is laid back and the traffic much less than around Blue Cave. We were told that Mirage should be completed with construction and renovations by the time we arrived. It wasn't, but no problem and we were actually give a room on the second floor as the first floor rooms were still under renovation. There was only one other couple staying there. Some locals would come daily to use the pool, but the place was very laid back. The rooms are very nice, large with a king bed, a\c a ceiling fan right over the bed that only ran on high speed, which was way too fast. The bathroom was nice with great hot water. And the view from our private balcony was great. About the 3rd day they decided to tear off the wooden deck, which was the only place on the property with shade. So when the sun finally got to the back of the property, I had to hunker down on to one of the first floor balconies for some needed shade. Still, not really a problem as the place was virtually vacant. We were out Saturday morning and came back sometime after lunch. Our room was being cleaned so we headed round back to the pool to sit for a bit. As I walked up to the pool with Janet in tow I thought "who is that fat guy sitting on the lounge" when she moved and I realized she was topless.....then also bottomless, and her naked husband was laying face down on the lounge next to her. We excused ourselves and waited for our room to be cleaned at the front desk. A bit later the husband saw us out front and said "I hope you weren't offend" which I replied "actually, I was" and my wife added "she was shocked. "Well you know, this is a clothing optional resort, we will try to be more discrete", which in the end they were not. It was Saturday, so we were headed to Seastar that evening and leaving the next day for Blue Cave Castle. The couple was gone Sunday by the time we got back from church and had only stayed there one night. At Mirage, the new breakfast building was still under construction and looked like it wouldn't be finished for a few more weeks. It will be really nice when down. I'm sure the deck is back on as that wasn't a big project. Would we stay there again? Not sure, as the clothing optional thing can take it's toll. There is nowhere else to go on the property, so it's right out there whether you want to see it or not. And I think I'd want to put a towel or something down on any lounge I wanted to lay on! The one thing I did miss at the property was grass. It is almost all concrete out to the water.

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We ate at LTU, Sharks, Sips and Bites, Erica's, Jus Natural, Seastar, Ras Rody's and Out of Town Bakery. Didn't get to eat at Ahh Bees, but from what I understand, he has lots more than just beef burgers and will be adding to his menu. Some of the restaurants were just opening up for the season, and one (I don't recall the name) had music blaring so loudly we never stopped in. All in all, the deep west end is pretty cool.
A always, we go to church on Sunday when In Negril. We headed out to Strath Bogie (just past Sav) to Calvary Baptist Church. After the morning service they had an "agape" (or love) feast. All they ladies brought there best food for the meal. The jerk pork was the best I've ever had, including Red Dragon. It wasn't quite as spicy as Red Dragon, which suited me fine. And I love June Plums, so I was thrilled to get some June Plum drink, yummy.

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And speaking of food.....I have it from a reliable source that not all fish served in restaurants was caught in Negril. The only way to know for sure is to order the whole fish. Some of the fried fish is fresh water fish that is similar to talapia. This information came from someone who used to manage a Negril restaurant. I did eat some of the fish and it was good, it just wasn't fresh.
Back down to Blue Cave we ate at Teddy's for breakfast, Pablo's, Pressa's and for the first time Pee Wee's. Pressa's seems to having a hard time making the business work after being there 3 years. Hopefully high season will be good for them as we love the place. Met an old friend who followed us into Pee Wee's and we talked for about 10 minutes.

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Blue Cave was great as usual, now with the addition of a lifeguard. We stayed in the lower tower room, the least expensive on the property with no a\c (not needed) and no TV, also not needed. We met a few couples new to Jamaica and we were helping them out with places to eat and things to do. Four of us used Collin's taxi for a trip to Mayfield Falls and then to Roaring River. We had been to Mayfield Falls a few times before but love the place. It was our first trip to Roaring River. I had brought an inexpensive underwater camera ($60) and took a bunch of photos at both places. However, I lost the camera somewhere at Roaring River, either at the "deep hole" where I may have put it down and didn't pick it up or on the steps outside the cave where I sat to dry my feet and put on my shoes. Didn't know it was missing till we got back to Blue Cave. Oh well. When we told another couple about our day they decided to do the same trip with Collin 2 days later. I gave Collin all the info about the camera and who our guide was at Roaring River and told him I'd pay $50 for the camera or $25 just for the card. Collin checked for us but to no avail. We did get a few photos from the couple we went with, including of me jumping out of a tree at Mayfield falls.

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Okay, can't add anymore photos, so will post this and keep writing.
Regards,
Bob

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Originally Posted by rjonsun

And speaking of food.....I have it from a reliable source that not all fish served in restaurants was caught in Negril. The only way to know for sure is to order the whole fish. Some of the fried fish is fresh water fish that is similar to talapia. This information came from someone who used to manage a Negril restaurant. I did eat some of the fish and it was good, it just wasn't fresh.

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You can get talapia/Jamaican talapia all over the island....there's been farms here for years...including one that was located just outside of Negril...but I'm not sure that it's still open.

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Originally Posted by rjonsun

It is always interesting to post onsite trip reports, but is not always easy due to slow internet speeds and the time allocated to make such posts. We are normally up early and to bed early, so the best time is usually after watching the sunset, then dinner then check for e-mails from the kids and post on negril.com,

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I'm not sure if you meant time was allocated because of your personal vacation time limit or if you meant Negril.com has a programmed time limit to post.
But, in case you meant the latter...Negril.com does not have a posting time limit. There's a convenient autosave feature built into the program that will save your work if the internet gets funky or you don't have time to complete your post.

Rjonsun...thanks for the fab trip reporting!

Thanks for the epilogue! Glad you were able to make-do with the issues at Mirage. We had a similar experience when we stayed at Home Sweet Home while the new suites were being built. Of course construction was supposed to be finished by the time we arrived, but that's how it goes in Jamaica.

As for the CO sunbathing at Mirage - they don't outwardly advertise it but a couple websites (including Negril Onestop) do have little blurbs stating that discreet, au natural sunbathing is allowed. That said, we didn't see any when we stayed there for a week, a couple years ago. Other boardies have reported the same, but I think when the hotel has more guests (peak season) that it is less likely. As you said, discretion is the key and I would have been offended too.

Looking forward to reading more!

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Roaring River

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I had a little light that clipped on to my hat and Russel and I swam back as far as we could in the deep water cave. It was a bummer to lose the camera and photos, but we did't let it bother us. This was at the same time that out "good" camera a 3 year old Nikon point and shoot decided to go on the fritz. The display on the back of the camera went black, so we didn't know how the photos turned out till the end of the day when downloaded them on to the computer. We had a couple of instance where people asked if we wanted them to take our picture and we handed them a camera with a blank screen! After explaining, they always took 3 photos in hopes they would turn out. And we got a couple of nice photos out of the deal. The first day we got to Coco La Palm there was a 5 PM wedding on the beach. We were there for the sunset, so decided to take some photos of the wedding. We had been taking photos all day long. When I went to download the days photos, there was only one shot. I thought the camera finally gave out. Then I realized that the 8 GB SD card was full! Now understand, you get a message on your screen when the card is full.....but we didn't know that because the screen was blank! Once I deleted a bunch of photos we were back in business. Here is a photo one of the waitresses took for us at Coco.

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Coco was another bargain we found at $72 per night including all taxes and breakfast. The rooms are great with plenty of hot water. No internet in our room so it was out to the pool or to the lobby to e-mail. The only disappointment was the jacuzzi was broken. They had the parts to fix it, but that didn't happen in the 5 days we were there. Security was top notch at Coco, and they kept the higglers from bothering anybody. There were the regulars hawking stuff on the beach and a number of musicians. Some of them we remember from times past and actually give them names, such as "goiter man". if you have been to Coco, you know who I mean. Our last full day at Coco we finally met Iratio, the guitar player\singer who played at our daughters wedding over 4 years ago at Blue Cave. What a treat to see him and have him play a few songs for us. he said when he goes past Blue Cave he always remember that day.
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Iratio at the wedding

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Iratio now

We used a new driver this year and we couldn't be more please. Collin is listed on the Transportation section of Negril.com. He provides a phone while you are there. A very personable man with good business skills and a great driver. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him to anyone. he was always on time and had a nice vehicle.

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One last thing. We were running a little late checking in at the airport as the lines were long. Normally after checking our bags we go outside to the little patty shop just outside of where you wait for your taxi when you arrive in Jamaica. But we didn't have time. I looked all over the airport and finally someone directed me to a little bar out of the way close to Margaritaville. The patties were $3 each, but we had to have one last one before we left Jamaica. So just keep asking locals till you find that last patty.
If I think of any more, I'll add it to this post.
Regards,
Bob and Janet

Bnewb, I was my time I was referring too. Negril.com always loads fast and has not let me down.
Mike, one nice thing about the construction at Mirage, is that they didn't start till about 9 AM and were don't between 3 & 4 PM daily. the construction didn't bother us at all, but the lack of shade did.
Regards,
bob

A couple of more things.............
We have come to the conclusion that 3 weeks in Negril would be the max. As we near retirement I was curious how we would spend our time. As someone who has traveled since my early 20's, am always looking for something new. Three weeks in one spot is more than enough to relax, read a few books and then more on with life. As much as we enjoy Negril there will be no retire there for us.
The one nice thing Negril has is a good tourist infrastructure and very reasonable prices. We spent considerably less in 16 days than a buddy at work spent in 5 days somewhere else in the Caribbean.
One school day we were headed downtown and "squeezed up" in a route taxi with a few school kids. When we stopped at the school, I told the driver that I had for the kids. Geez, it was only 50J each, and when the crossing guard told them to put their money away they were very happy. It felt pretty good, and I think I'll do it every time we come across that situation.
Regards,
Bob

Is that photo Bentley? How is he doing?

last year we spent almost a month. It was a blast. But next time I think we will split the trip form Negril area and PA. But my job now I only get 1 week vacation :((

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Originally Posted by Dudleymon

Is that photo Bentley? How is he doing?

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It is definitely Bentley, and I was curious how he's doing too.

thank you for sharing some of your vacation with us!

rjonson, thank you for taking the time to post. Sorry about the camera!

Appreciate your insights regarding retiring in Negril. A few years back I spent a lot of trips every year to Negril trying to determine if it would be a good move to buy/start a business in Negril. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I would keep Negril as a tourist destination.

This past June I stayed at Coco La Palm for the first time and was impressed with the entire staff and the resort.

Enjoy,

VVHT