We did it! Trip Report

Port Antonio Jan 29 to Feb 1st 2016

Our adventure started when we landed at Mo-Bay airport. Johnmaica Tours and M&G were there to greet us when we walked out of customs. Hugs all around and then we were off to Port Antonio.
This was a scoping opportunity for Johnmaica in case they get potential clients in the future who would like to go there.

We stayed at Bay View Eco Resort just on the other side of Port Antonio for 3 nights. It was dark on our last leg of the journey and the roads were winding - like switchbacks. We were happy to unload and have our dinner at the hotel. Nice view from our room. $110.00 US incl taxes and breakfast per night. The location is built along an escarpment hence the interesting layout and pathway.
The rooms were just fine but the balconies a little tight - however we certainly did not go there to sit on the balcony - we came to explore what Port Antonio had to offer and this was great spot to do it from.

It had been a long day so after a few drinks we hit the hay to get ready for our trip to Reach Falls.

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Breakfast was included and you had a choice of eggs cooked the way you like or the typical Jamaican breakfast. We then loaded our cooler for the day and headed off to find our destination.

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The road into Reach Falls was much better than we had expected and we were almost the first to arrive. I had forgotten my water shoes back at the hotel so I could either rent for 700ja or purchase for 1200ja - so I decided on owning a second pair - but these were Jamaican colors - so bonus!!!

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M&G and myself climbed up to the top - quite a feat for us old fellas - thank goodness our guide was there to tell us where to step and hold our hand. Quite a bit of moisture at this end of the island which the land appreciates.

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More Pics

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:cool:

We finished up there - changed in to dry clothes and set off to our next destination . On the way back down the road we passed a number of visitors who were walking up the road to go to Reach - now they were an ambitious bunch …. It’s quite a walk from the main road.

Boston Jerk looked abandoned when we went by and we didn’t stop. Our next destination was lunch at Cliff Hanger Restaurant. Nice - nice place which we had all to ourselves - probably picks up later in the day. We splurged and had the $ 45.00 US special - entrée - main meal with wine and dessert and coffee. Hey - we’re on vacation!!

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Sweet Doggie PIC

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Our next stop was Winnifred Beach - well I can tell you - that’s not so easy to find. We finally turned into a road which turned into a 4x4 trail - quite a trip in a big van. We finally made it down and it was raining. There was a fellow who was accepting donations at the entrance to go towards benefiting the location so we obliged. A couple of vendors selling their wares. On our way in we had noticed another road (well you could call it a road) that went in the opposite direction we came in on. We decided to swing right instead of left and soon realized - that although the climb up was a bit difficult on slippery rocks - it definitely seemed the better way to go in and out.

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Loving it!:)

Next stop was a quick one at San San Beach - nice spot we decided to return the next day. It was now around 5 PM and decided to pull into Frenchman’s Cove beach to take a peek. However, security at gate said $10.00 each and the driver would have to pay as well. We all decided we didn’t want to see it that badly.

Our next stop was Woody’s Restaurant - for their burgers . Neat signs by the bathrooms - Adam and Eve. Mrs. Woody (Cherry) was cooking up the burgers for us and seems her hubbie’s name is the same as mine - Charles. This gave us something in common and made for a boisterous good time.

Our final stop was back to the hotel where we kept the bar open until about 9:30. From there we decided to have our own private party at a nice little spot down by our rooms. Finished off the bottle of rum cream for Charlie’s B-Day (next day) and M&G enjoyed their Appleton. We stumbled up the stairs and hit the hay .

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I'm going to finish this up next weekend - gotta go pack for a business trip - will be gone 4 days -
Soon come back ..............

Thank you!

love, love the winding road to reach!!! . . . thanks for posting!

what a GREAT report and love the photos....you guys did a lot for your first day! Love Love Ms Cherry at Woody's her rum punch is out of this world and love the burgers too! How did you like the food at Cliff hanger? Love the views from that place, didn't enjoy the food. The photos from Reich sigh. Just lovely lovely, needed this so much!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome report, please keep it coming.

Great pics and great report!! Can't wait till next weekend

Sweet report mang! Reach Falls looks amazing....

Anybody else see the face in the tree- or is it just me going to way too many Grateful Dead shows?!?!?!??!?!? bahahahaha

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Great trip report, IA! All that time with you and I had no idea you were such a good trip report writer! She didn't miss a thing, folks!

It was an awesome trip, and I am so glad we did it! It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot! More later!

Great report and awesome pictures,thanks for sharing!

Sort of making me regret not doing PA again for part of our upcoming visit to the island. It's so much different than Negril. In fact, if I ever ran into money, and moved to Jamaica, I would probably make my home on that part of the island and visit Negril every few months.

Irie Always, thank you so much for sharing your Portland experience and pictures. So nice so see others visiting there and posting their feelings about that wonderfully unique parish. Great you covered some ground so you got to see some really beautiful spots. The pictures of Winnifred Beach has me missing that place bad.

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Originally Posted by Flipadelphia26

Sort of making me regret not doing PA again for part of our upcoming visit to the island. It's so much different than Negril. In fact, if I ever ran into money, and moved to Jamaica, I would probably make my home on that part of the island and visit Negril every few months.

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I would go with that plan to. Yet we haven't been to PA or the South Coast. But the pictures has us wanting to try it out. It looks more of a local vibe and warm country feeling.

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Originally Posted by murph

Sweet report mang! Reach Falls looks amazing....

Anybody else see the face in the tree- or is it just me going to way too many Grateful Dead shows?!?!?!??!?!? bahahahaha

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I see it but it may be too many shows for me too lol.

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Originally Posted by Flipadelphia26

Sort of making me regret not doing PA again for part of our upcoming visit to the island. It's so much different than Negril. In fact, if I ever ran into money, and moved to Jamaica, I would probably make my home on that part of the island and visit Negril every few months.

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When we win the lottery, Flip, that's where we're going to hide out! Got a few places on the Blue Lagoon all picked out! Or just stay at Trident at a mere $2,500 a night. Plus tax. :)

It's very different from Negril. Negril is sort of like the dry end of the island to me, but Portland is much wetter and more rainforest and more jungly. It's beautiful! The sea is totally different!

And since we are doing this with a humungo lottery win, Flip - we'll take you to Negril weekly, if you want! :)

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Originally Posted by Vince

I would go with that plan to. Yet we haven't been to PA or the South Coast. But the pictures has us wanting to try it out. It looks more of a local vibe and warm country feeling.

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You're right, Vince. It is much more local! The people seem almost shyer - not unfriendly or stand-offish at all - just shyer. They were super super nice and very welcoming! It's different geographically from Negril, so the atmosphere and vibe are going to be different. It's farther between places. And the roads aren't as good as in and around Negril. And, yes, I said that correctly! Negril has the Autobahn compared to Portland! You don't want to walk that road up to Reach Falls! Seriously? In some parts it's 90 degrees ... like |! And you don't want to meet even a bike on the road when you're driving it - not only no budget for roads, but clearly no budget for such extravagances as guard rails. And it's a pretty long way down some of those curbs! Our driver was expert! Kudos to him. There were several places where avoiding a pot hole on the curve was a "Hail Mary and grab the Holy Crap Handles" moment! LOL

sounds like my type of hang out places over there.

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Originally Posted by M&G Montreal

When we win the lottery, Flip, that's where we're going to hide out! Got a few places on the Blue Lagoon all picked out! Or just stay at Trident at a mere $2,500 a night. Plus tax. :)

It's very different from Negril. Negril is sort of like the dry end of the island to me, but Portland is much wetter and more rainforest and more jungly. It's beautiful! The sea is totally different!

And since we are doing this with a humungo lottery win, Flip - we'll take you to Negril weekly, if you want! :)

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LOL, thanks!

I'm back from business trip will complete report very soon - Thanks to everyone for following along.

Next morning, great breakfast once more and off we headed back to San San Beach. 700ja entrance fee to enjoy the property. They do have a restaurant and bar and changing rooms - very quiet place and we did luck out with a perfect weather day. We had one of the local boats take us out for a little ride over to Blue Lagoon. WOW !!! Super nice but not sure if you can access the property by land - seemed to be like private property. Charlie’s B-Day today - but he decided to stay back at the hotel. On the beach at San San I spotted a empty bottle and when I turned it over ……….. Charlie - couldn’t believe it - so I took it along for the ride :)

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We spent awhile longer back at the beach and then decided to go back to hotel to see if Birthday boy wanted to have a late lunch with us. We went down to the hotel’s restaurant but nothing was happening - seems they were having a “party” that evening with DJ and discounted drinks. Imagine - a built in party for hubbie’s birthday. We decided to head back to Woody’s for burgers - late lunch early dinner.

As we were finishing up eating - Mrs. Woody’s husband arrived (Charles)- back from a funeral (his barber). Mrs. Woody was so pleased he got back in time to sing Happy Birthday to my Charles - it was a very original solo rendition - sung with heart and soul - and we felt blessed to have witnessed such an impromptu event. Wish I had taped it, but we were so enthralled with this surprise it was over and he was gone before we could arrange an encore!

We then decided to go back to the hotel and have a little rest and shower before the “Party”. I had arranged in the morning with staff to have a little birthday cake made so that we could celebrate hubbie’s day with our own Birthday song. Not too long we heard the music coming from the bar/restaurant and decided to head on down. Much to our surprise it turned out to be a private party - only our group and the staff. This was a Sunday night - not many guests at the hotel. We had a couple of dances or at least “M” of M&G did J and then our B-Day cake arrived and we sang happy B-Day - a couple of drinks and then off we went to pack up and get ready for bed.

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Got a picture of the Jamaican Palace and Trident Hotels - now these are High End locations! Must be where the rich and famous go to hide out.

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Next morning - we had our yummy breakfast and hit the road to see if we could find Folly’s ruins before heading back to Negril. Of course there are no signs to find the place and being Monday morning it was hopping in downtown Port Antonio. We hit up the Cambio to exchange Cdn to Ja and then went to the Marina. There Johnmaica ran into a fellow by the name of Sweet John who agreed to hop in the bus and guide us up to the ruins. (If you need a guide while there his number is 825-4169) but I don’t believe he has a car.

Folly’s ruins - is just that - the place is somewhat dangerous so be careful if you venture up there. Very slippery and falling apart. Story goes - the cement was mixed with sea water instead of fresh - hence the Folly of it all. A nice spot that the goats visit , there was evidence they left behind :)

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So we hit most of the spots we had set out to do and headed back to Negril. We stopped at the Jerk Center in Ochi for lunch and passed a couple of cruise ships that were in dock. Then on through Montego Bay and we were on the home stretch to enjoy the balance of our vacation at the place we love best - Seastar and 7 mile beach.

As “M” of M&G like to say -
“Here’s to the nights we’ll never remember with the friends we’ll never forget”

:cool:

i'm guessing you didn't stop at the rasta's food stand . . . some of the best food around . . .

Only observation is you didnt stop at boston bay. It's a cool beach and usually surfers out every day.

Thanks for sharing your report!

great report really enjoyed the photos, much needed, thank you!

Thanks for the pictures of the mansion. Folly Point is another one of my favorite chill spots. I find the history of the occupants more fascinating that the cement & seawater stories. I usually hang out and have lunch in that area each trip but didn’t get up there at all last year. These are pictures from about 18 months ago. Anyway, compared to your photos, the deterioration makes it look more unsightly/creepy than mysterious. I’m going back up there during this next visit as it appears it’s just a matter of time before the natural forces finally bring it down, but not inside...once was enough for me...lol you were brave.

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It looks perfectly safe... :)

"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right"