From the land of snow and ice to the land of wood and water

There's an old saying "It's always darkest before the dawn".
I call BS on that. No matter how you look at it, 2:00 am is always dark. That's the time we had to leave our house to get to the airport to arrive in time for our flight. Ugh!
We usually fly non-stop, but this year we chose to fly Southwest. Mainly because our usual carrier doesn't start flights to Jamaica until mid December. So we had a layover in Baltimore.
Not so bad, right?
Until you have a medical emergency on board and get diverted to Detroit. Thankfully, the person was okay, but we were cutting our connection close. Real close...as in having the attendants say "Run!!"
Thankfully they held the plane for us.
I apologize to anyone on the flight for having to wait for us....
Four hours later, we landed in our happy place..
I love the smell of diesel fuel, jerk chicken, ganja and ocean that hits you as soon as you get out of the airport.
Our driver was waiting for us with cold Red Stripes and away we went.
Only to be stopped shortly down the road by the worst traffic jam I've seen in Jamaica. An hour and a half later we were finally out of MoBay and flying down to the road to Negril.

I can't agree more with all those smells when you get out in the open air.. there's just nothing like it.... as far as the traffic jam that's exactly why I choose to fly to Negril via Tim Air or AirLink Express....need to get the Negril asap...but i get a driver when it's time to go home.. I'm in no hurry to get to Mobay and leave The Rock for another year

Leave at 2:00 AM??
Wow, I thought I had it bad getting up at 3:AM.

Enjoy Maralunatic!!!

We always fly out early and have a 1.5 hour drive to the airport. No direct flights. We have found, Park, Sleep and Fly the way to go. Stay close to the airport the night before, 14 days of free parking and shuttle to the airport. By time you calculate the cost of parking at the airport the night stay is very minimal. But I have to admit, I am usually up way before I need to be in anticipation of getting to Negril, but no fear of a traffic accident or weather causing us to miss our flight.

Rooster
Tim Air sounds great..what does a flight cost? May be an option for the next trip.

Markospoon,
Haha...2:00 am does sound bad, but the truth of the matter is that I normally have to get up at 3:30 every day for work..

Jamaicabnd,
We've actually talked about doing something similar..

Both air taxi's charge $350.00 a couple..12 min. flight at about 1700 ft above the coastline...

Since we got stuck in traffic and detoured with beer stops, we missed our first sunset of the trip..No worries though! We finally arrived. Checked into Negril Palms, threw our luggage into the room and ran to the beach. Okay, maybe running is an slight exaggeration. How about a fast saunter?
There is nothing like feeling the soft sand under your feet and feeling that warm ocean breeze....

Up early the next day in dire need of coffee, which lucky for us the girls at the Palms had it waiting. Only thing missing was my normal rum cream to add to it.
We normally go to Jamaica Feb/March, so this was our first time in December. A different vibe (in a good way) and not many people out on the beach, which was kind of nice. The beach vendors seemed to have more time to sit and visit.
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First time at the Palms.

Very nice place.
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Good suff!

More please!

Enjoy,

VVHT

Nice looking pool!

Enjoying your trip report! Your description of the smells is spot on. Negril Palms looks different than what I remember. Might have to check it out for my next trip.

We had decided to finally go on a catamaran cruise. Mr. Lunatic has never been on one, so sign us up I did! (Sorry, I had a Yoda moment) Love how we were just talking about it, and up comes a vendor..
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He convinced us that Sunday would be better, since it would be a small group..Yay!
Since the excitement and hard work exhausted us, we decided to walk down to our favorite little bar and enjoy a
dirty banana. I love Yellow Bird!
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Red Stripe Cat Cruise......Yah mon !!!!!

While stumbling ( I mean walking) back to our hotel, we decided to stop into Yard Beach for a few more Red Stripes. Okay,
they yelled at us to come in. I've always found that always leads to a good time and this wasn't any different. We had so much fun we decided to return for dinner.
The jerk chicken pasta was awesome! Wish I had food porn pictures to show you, but I was hungry!
Our waitress turned out to be Shadaire, who used to work at Travellers.
Sitting at the bar with Rudy(bartender) we all were singing and dancing, and then who did my wandering eye spy?
President Obama...okay not really. And no secret service in sight!

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Originally Posted by Maralunatic

We had decided to finally go on a catamaran cruise. Mr. Lunatic has never been on one, so sign us up I did! (Sorry, I had a Yoda moment) Love how we were just talking about it, and up comes a vendor..
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He convinced us that Sunday would be better, since it would be a small group..Yay!
Since the excitement and hard work exhausted us, we decided to walk down to our favorite little bar and enjoy a
dirty banana. I love Yellow Bird!
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Damn. Just realized I didn't have one dirty banana this trip.

MikeyNYC-Don't worry, I made up for you with all the dirty bananas

Sunday was the day of the Reggae Marathon. I got up early and hung out in front of the Palms and cheered people on. What a great mixture of people running...from serious contenders to 70+ runners to parents running with strollers. We laughed at the two kids across the street entertaining the runners going by with the dancing they were doing.
After most of the people passed by(and some coming back) we grabbed the bags of clothes and toys we brought down and walked to Mary Gate of Heaven church to drop them off...oops! forgot the hours changed because of the marathon. Church services weren't until noon. Love the sign that said afterwards they would have the "Blessing of the Blisters"
What to do with the clothes and toys?? Hmmm...Oh yeah, we were right by Treehouse so we walked over and introduced ourselves to Gail. By the way, did you know she rocks a mean hula hoop?
She promised to get them to the church for us. Thanks Gail!
I had an unfortunate accident......

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I blew out my flip flop...stepped on a beer top....
Okay, enough Jimmy Buffett lyrics.
Having this happen means we went to Times Square to look for a cheap pair of sandals. Stopped to see Bob..
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Holy cow!!! The cheapest flip flop I saw was $25 US...ummm, no,no,no. Good thing I brought another pair. They aren't comfortable, but I tend to kick off my shoes every chance I can.

The YaMon cat cruise was a blast! The guys had everyone rockin' with the tunes, and off course the booze. We met a woman who had run the marathon earlier in the day and thought she had booked a trip on the catamaran with her friends, only to find out they were on a different one. She talked the captain of both boats into letting her switch to her friends boat at Ricks. By the time we arrived at Ricks, the waves were bad enough the captain wouldn't let anyone snorkel. Luckily a glass bottom boat was there and pulled up to switch her over. The waves were nasty!

The next day we moved to Travellers. We've stayed there before, but were pleasantly surprised by the remodeling that they have done. Really makes the resort look more upscale. Although I miss the mural by the pool!
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And it was nice to see one of our favorites at Travellers...Romeo!
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The Jamaican navy was out along with the occasional Coast Guard vessel cruising through.

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Supper was a jerk barrel out on the road...
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Relaxing on the patio, we were stalked by the rarely seen catasaurus..
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Early to bed so we can be up early to meet Linston and make the trip to Accompong.

love the kitty pic.

can't wait for the next installment!

Nice pics...the Yah Mon Red stripe Cat cruise was the highlight of the last couple years for a bunch of us, in April. The crew is first rate, as they do a great job of keeping things professional, watching out for everyone's safety, serving a great hot dinner, at the right time, keeping the cocktails flowing, with no wait....while still ''partying up with all of the rest "".....can't wait to go again !!!

Is there more to the story? :encouragement:

Sorry about the long delay, but you know, holidays?

So last we left off, we were waiting for Linston to pick us up for our big trip to Accompong. We've never hired him as a driver, and only
knew about him from this board, and I have to say he was fabulous! Easy to talk to and he didn't make too much fun of two hick from northern Minnesota!
We drove through Bamboo Alley, which I think was my first time..

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Stopped at a cookshop along the way, and met a young woman who used to spend summers working at a resort near us. Small world!
The drive up was around 2-2 1/2 hours but we stopped for beer and water along the way. Linston thought ahead and brought a cooler so we could keep things cold.
The drive up is not for the faint of heart...but it's only bad about the last 10 miles or so. Still, basically single lane roads with a mountain on one side and drop off on the other..made me glad I was sitting on the left side! The worst was areas where marl for the road was dumped which made it tricky to get around.

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It always amazes me how Jamaicans have the ability to build houses in areas we would never dream of

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Luckily we only met one car on the way up, and we finally pulled into Accompong. The Colonel wasn't there that day, so we continued up to the museum. Everyone has to sign in and get a guide who offers two types of tours. One of the village area, and another longer one (1 1/2 hour hike down and back) to the Peace caves. We opted for the shorter tour, and away we went with our guides. I never did hear their names but they were good!

I'm really enjoying your report! Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to read more!

We started out walking around the town, stopping at various landmarks which our guides explained.
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I loved the mural..
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Everywhere we stopped, the views were spectacular
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Thanks for sharing the pictures of my hometown when I am in Jamaica. In fact, those pictures taken from in front of the Colonel's house is my neighborhood.
Was there last October 6th burying my best friend Clive "Marshall" Robb. Your pictures lifted my spirits if for only a day but I will gladly take it. Accompong Town is a very nice place to visit. Glad you had a good time there.

Respect

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Originally Posted by Maralunatic

We had decided to finally go on a catamaran cruise. Mr. Lunatic has never been on one, so sign us up I did! (Sorry, I had a Yoda moment) Love how we were just talking about it, and up comes a vendor..
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He convinced us that Sunday would be better, since it would be a small group..Yay!
Since the excitement and hard work exhausted us, we decided to walk down to our favorite little bar and enjoy a
dirty banana. I love Yellow Bird!
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a Bond movie?

Accompong-We had a wonderful time! Everyone was so friendly and helpful. I have some more pictures to add, and you were spoken of quite highly. I'm glad my pictures helped brighten your day!

Even Linston followed along for the tour

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The trip down was just as exciting! I can't believe the view you have all the way down...

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Apparently some of my pictures went on vacation also!

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Great pics. I so enjoyed my trip to Accompong a few years back. So , tell me the truth...did you get a little '' scared '' going around some of those corners up the mountain '' :) although I know Linston is a pro at the drive !!

Jojo- I did! And Linston didn't help by acting a little scared himself! And yes, I did realize he was teasing me, but yelling "We're going over!" was a little wrong! (Just kidding!) Linston did a fabulous job. We did a lot of laughing about the signs that were posted in the middle of nowhere (like Digicel) and the fact that someone followed us down the mountain. We were so involved with the scenery and singing to the radio that we never noticed anyone way behind us. Not that they could have passed!

Dinner was at my favorite jerk place, 3 Dives.

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Love the photos!

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Originally Posted by Maralunatic

Apparently some of my pictures went on vacation also!
Hope you don't mind Maralunatic. Got 3 messages with questions about your pictures so I thought I would just give what I think or know each picture is about.

This is a picture of one of the "Seal Grounds" scattered around the town. A Seal Ground was a sacred place where meetings were held because they were thought to have certain "powers" to make the meeting outcome to be fair and just. Often these grounds are where members of an extended family would gather (i.e. Rowe etc.) to iron out family differences.
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This is a picture of Mark Wright (your Tour Guide) called "Kutu" (coo too) at the Old Town Burial Grounds. While the First Maroon War was going on, the now town of Accompong didn't exist. In fact, it was often occupied by British Soldiers after the 3-day march up from their barracks in Balaclava. The early Maroons lived scattered in the bush and buried their dead at this spot called "Old Town". On January 6th of each year, the Maroons make a pilgrimage to this spot to scatter rum over their ancestors and sing sacred songs from Africa. When done, they return up to the Kindah "One Family" Tree to begin the celebration where all are invited to feast on unsalted black pig, roosters and horse yams.
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Accompong Town View. Accompong was founded by (Kojo)Cudjoe's brother Accompong at the end of the wars in 1739 as a front line of defense should the British not live up to the Treaty.
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A look towards "Quick Step" a Maroon Village in the Land of Look Behind.
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A look from the road with the Don Figueroa Mountains in the distance and the Black River Valley at it's base.
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A better view of the valley where Appleton and Balaclava are located in the distance. It is from there that Cudjoe and his warriors would watch the advancing army and prepare his troops for ambush battle. The solders took to riding two to a horse (one facing forward and the other to the rear). This is where the term "Land of Look Behind" derived. "Me No Send You No Come" was the warning issued to potential visitors.
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I hope that helps a little and my apologies Maralunatic.

Love the photos!

Accompong-That was wonderful! I never thought to put some history behind the photos, and I'm very happy you took the time to do so! We had such a great time there, and with so much to see it was a trip worth taking!