The M&M Trip report is back!!!!

Negative Covid Test - check!!!

Travel Authorization - check!!!

Negril, here we come. Land at MBJ at 1240pm on Saturday. Next report on Sunday morning. Complete with pics!!

Are you sure you don't live in Jamaica & only visit the US periodically?! 😁

According to the Countdown on my countdown app, we have 2399 more days until you are right!!! But who's counting??

Waiting ........ LOL

Yep, sorry for the delay, but we are having too much fun. I'm not telling anyone what to do, but if you are comfortable traveling right now, you live in a place where the protocols don't burden your life too much before you leave or after you get back then you should seriously consider coming down. It is great down here, the weather is awesome and the place is totally empty. It is pretty sad to know that one year ago exactly the hotel we use was full (54 rooms) and this year we are literally the only room being used. Lots of places are closed, hopefully not permanently.

We arrived on Saturday and immediately hit the road for Negril, we arrived in Negril about 3pm after a stop in Green Island to load up on Rum and Red Stripe and to exchange a little currency (138 to 1 was the rate). We drive right by the hotel and head up to Red Ground to visit the troops at Red Dragon and then a stop at Collette's Bar before heading to the hotel to check in. Hit the beach for a little toes in the sand thing and then we went down to Canoe to catch the end of the 2-1 run punch special and then to Chicken Lavish for some curry goat. Might have set a new record by being in bed before 8pm, but we have to get up pretty early to make these Negril vacations a reality, so the alarm going off at 245am and the beer and rum consumed during the day might have done us in.

A special treat the next morning as I was invited by a friend to accompany him on his boat for an early morning fishing trip. We left the beach at Rondel at about 6am and trolled out to the Lighthouse. We trolled for larger fish for a couple of hours and then moved to deeper water and did some deep line casting for snapper. The line went down about 800-900 feet and took forever to come up (luckily they had electric reels that kept them from having to crank their arms off). I had never done anything like this so it was a great adventure. Alas, though, no real fish to speak of, so I guess that is why the call it Fishing and not Catching!!

The rest of the day was spent at the beach and waiting for the Super Bowl, which we managed to watch about 80% of, and we got to bed at about 945pm. A great sunset that night that I will post below. This was the first NSD (No Shoes Day) of the trip and that always makes it a good day!!!

Monday started out very cloudy, but soon the sun was out and the beach was beautiful. We were invited to a friends house for lunch so we did that after spending a couple of hours on the beach and after lunch we went back to Red Dragon and then Collette's again and then down to Natural Mystic (Susan's Bar) for a little while before heading back to the hotel. Our friend did such a great job with lunch (salad, fried plantains, curry chicken, pan fried green beans and ice cream with Otaheite Apple sauce on top) that we didn't really need dinner. Another early night which is great.

It rained a little on my early morning beach walk this morning, but current conditions are sunny, so it looks like a day of mostly hanging out under the almond tree at Rondel and doing mostly nothing.

A few pics:

The Super Bowl Sunset that I mentioned earlier

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Tony has some freaking cold beers!!!!

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The tree at the top of the beach where the all-inclusives start, when we were here in November the tree was sitting about 20 feet from the waterline, today it is in the water. The beach is a little smaller than it was in November as you can see.

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I love the colors of a sunrise as you look west as the sun is rising in the east.

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If you need me, I'll be right here!!! (no ugly feet comments please!!)

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More posts later in the week, cheers!!!

M&M

Great pics and report! I should be there now as well (All this week I keep imagining where I'd be if I was there now.. Like listening to Luddy and the boys at Drifters on Sun afternoon, Tonys hut before Roots on Monday night...etc)... UGH!!!

This is great to hear. Arriving tomorrow! Very soon come!

Wow!!!...... Thanks for the Report !!!!!!

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That's my favorite position!

The beer at Montana's is the coldest actually has ice on the bottle and Tony and dDamian are great to party with see you at Delroy's happy hours

You must be busy. We see your chairs but they are always empty!!

Rumlover - yes we have been busy, but today is a nothing but beach day for us so we should be in front of Rondel, at Tony's or at Sunnyside.

Here are a few more pics from yesterday and this morning's beach walk:

We went to Red Dragon yesterday and the beer truck pulled up. Just a small delivery today though, they brought some Heineken. It is in short supply on the island at the moment,

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Further out west-end road they were doing a little construction, I love watching Jamaican road projects. This was just a small part of what they were doing. They were also paving the road around Church Corner and out towards Canoe Bar.

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We also stopped by the Misti Blue bar in the parking lot of Quality Traders (AKA the Green Store) and got a pizza. I would rate it a good solid 4 on the 1-5 scale. Loaded with toppings and gooey cheese!! Sorry, no pic of the pizza, but here is a pic of the bar complete with what has to be one of the biggest TVs I've ever seen.

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On the beach walk today I took a picture up at Dr Love's place. He always keeps the beach so nice and tidy.

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Tony's hut has a new mascot. Sasko is her name. She looks a little thin, as if she needs something to eat.

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Ran into Flex and restocked on Juice at the end of my walk.

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More updates later in the week.

One Love!!!

M&M

Love your trip report! Much needed.

Monty & Melo,

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you & Thank you!!
Great stuff!

More please!!!

Enjoy,

VVHT

Thanks for taking the time away from your trip to post this!

Hanging on every word so far! :D

A few fun days have gone by since the last post. Thursday I went on a fishing excursion in MoBay, Friday we hung out on the beach all day and yesterday we took a boat ride and hit Catcha for dinner to beat the Valentine's day "rush."

The Thursday fishing trip was an adventure for sure (isn't almost anything an adventure in Jamaica?!?!?!?). I accompanied a friend from Negril on the trip. Left Negril at 5am and arrived at the Montego Bay Yacht Club just after 6am. No traffic on the road that early, we were almost to Orange Bay before we saw the first car!!! Anyway, we had a few boat troubles and didn't end up leaving the dock until after 8, but we managed to reel in the "bigwhan" on the 2nd to last cast. I am 100% not a fisherman, I think because my only experience before now was fishing with my dad in lakes and rivers at home, but the sea fishing is great, and I really enjoyed myself. It will definitely be something that I do again!!

Here's the "bigwhan" a 10-12lb snapper!!!

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Friday was pretty much a beach day, as we just took turns going to bars on the beach and then Happy Hour at Rondel. Here are a few highlights of the day:

On my morning walk I took a picture of "Booby Key." I thought it was a nice shot through the foliage.

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Back at Dr Love's place a Pelican landed on a branch with a Jamaican flag hanging from as I was walking by and I snapped a quick photo.

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The Sunset Friday night was awesome!!!! Great end to another great day in Negril.

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A few shots from Saturdays Boat ride:

Canoe Bar from the sea:

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Blue Cave Castle:

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The new building at Samsara looks nice:

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After the boat ride it was off to dinner at Catcha. What a great night it was. A few pics from there:

Beautiful Sunset:

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The Happy Couple:

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Table View:

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That's all for today's post, I echo what Bucky posted in their trip report. The people are as positive and hopeful as ever despite what is going on here. One of the reasons we keep coming back.

Also, it sounds like the weather may "force" us to stay a few days longer, getting ready to call the airline now and figure that out. Damn the luck!!!!

M&M

We did end up extending our stay due to the weather, and we returned home on Wednesday rather than Monday. We made the best of the extra time. We rebooked on Sunday, so we got that out of the way and were able to enjoy Monday and Tuesday without having to mess with talking to airlines. It was over a 2 hour wait to talk to American Airlines, but luckily they offered to call me when it was my turn, so we took advantage and swam for about an hour before going to Tony's and await their call. We spent the rest of the day at the hotel, while Monday we went to Red Ground in the afternoon and Tuesday stayed around the beach and then went for out Covid test across from Coco. After the test we did a mini pub crawl with some friends where we visited Red Dragon and Collette's (our friends had never been to Red Ground, but I think we made regulars out of them because they really enjoyed themselves). We ended up at Misti Blue at the Quality Traders and once again their pizza was excellent. We got the Ham and Pineapple, while our friends got the Jerk Chicken. Very good all around. We were having so much fun that we almost overstayed curfew. Soon enough they were kicking A few pictures from the last few days of the trip:

On my morning walk one morning I caught a few minutes of this soccer game being played on the beach in front of waves. Not quite the Premier League, but entertaining nonetheless.

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The Sunday Night Sunset lasted forever. This pic was taken a full half hour after the sun touched the horizon. Beautiful.

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On my last morning walk of the trip, on Wednesday morning. I miss my morning beach walk more than anything from the trip.

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And finally, the last breakfast view of the trip. Why is it always so beautiful on the last day????

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We are already in discussion for the next trip, probably in June and we'll also head down sometime in the fall, maybe in early December for our anniversary. Until then we will depend on our memories!!

Thanks for following along!!

M&M

Beautiful photos! That was a nice size snapper! Thanks for sharing! :applause:

Did that snapper taste as good as it looks?
I've been itching to get back, and I think your talk of morning beach walks and the fact that you were in our seats at Ivan's, push us to make the move.