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Hettie & Chad December 2011 Trip Report
Okay, I think I'm ready to start my report. I'm over the worst of the Post Negril Syndrome, I've resized my photos, and pulled out my notes. I have notes from every day this time! I can't believe it, I usually start out strong and after 3-4 days completely forget about notes. I had been counting down to this reach since April 27 and we were both ready for some relaxation after a stressful year. This was our fourth reach and the best so far. So here goes...
Wednesday 12/14
We're up at 4:30 am, both of us already packed, just have to put the rest of the toiletries in the bags after getting ready. I had called the taxi company the night before to schedule a 5:30 am pickup, but since they've been late the last couple of times, I call again at 5:00 to make sure they had dispatched someone. At 5:35 there was still no taxi, so I call again and the dispatcher answers the phone "Ms. ____, your taxi is on it's way!" Ummm...so when will they be here? "We'll call and have them call you." Just after that, the taxi pulls up, so only 5 minutes late this time, which is acceptable. We say bye to our cat Alejandro Velasquez Pichardo, who will have an in-home petsitter, who is also a vet tech for my veterinarian, so no worries there. Bags are loaded and we're on our way to the airport.
We really could get to our airport a little later, it's small and not busy that early in the morning, but we like to have time to eat breakfast and not feel rushed, so we were there by 5:45 for our 7:17 am flight. Our plane leaves on time, easy flight to Charlotte. In Charlotte, we make our way to our gate and check in there and board shortly after that. Another easy flight to MoBay and we get there early, love it! We were supposed to arrive at 12:40, but I seem to remember landing around 12:20. This will help in my goal to be at our resort and in our cottage by sunset. But before that, there are tasks to complete...
We did some major speed walking to get to immigration, passing people, taking the steps two at a time while everyone else took the escalator-- glad I've been doing so much cardio this year. We beat the horde of people and only waited in line a short time. Glad we sprinted to get there, by the time we got through the lines were getting long. I didn't have enough JA$ left from last reach and wanted to go straight to the Digicel store on the Hip Strip, so I took the hit on the airport exchange rate...OUCH. Needless to say, made sure to bring home plenty of JA$ this time to avoid that in the future. We had to wait awhile for luggage, but customs was quick and then we went to the Island Car Rentals desk to pick up our rental. That was an easy process since I had reserved online and the staff at the desk were very nice. A young man took us out to our car, which ended up being a brand new Toyota Yaris with only around 900 km on the odometer--score! I had rented the lowest rate class, so was expecting the Suzuki Liana, so we were psyched about the upgrade. The guy helping us asked if we knew where we were going and I mentioned something about going to pick up a phone down at the Digicel store, which unfortunately opened us up for an attempted hustle involving a lie about the Digicel store being closed, trying to get us to follow him to his friend's store, blah, blah, blah. We were having none of that, but he wouldn't let it go, so finally his co-worker came over and intervened, told us we knew what we were doing and told the younger guy to back off (in so many words). After that we were on our way!
This was, by the way, our first time renting and (my husband's) first time driving a car in Jamaica. We rented a scooter last time, but wanted safer transportation. We love having our own car, it's ideal for us, however I still wouldn't say renting a car is for everyone, certainly not brand newbies. That said, we had no problems and found the drivers in Jamaica to be courteous and quite skilled, for the most part. It felt different than when riding with a driver because we were both paying attention to the road, watching for potholes, goats, etc. and therefore evasive maneuvers weren't a surprise to either of us. Chad is an excellent driver and we both have experience driving and navigating on all sorts of roads-- windy country roads, in metro areas, interstates, etc.
We stopped at the Digicel store and I picked up a Samsung phone and SIM card for $3650, including tax. We made it through the rest of the Hip Strip slowly, after that traffic was easy and we were soon on the highway with the windows down and a chill old-school reggae station on the radio. I felt like I was dreaming after counting down since April, but I told Chad if I was dreaming to under no circumstances wake me! Got to Negril quickly and made our traditional first stop at Best in West for two quarter chickens, which were pretty good, but not spicy enough for us anymore. We mainly like to stop there first to take in the vibe and let it soak in that we're arrived. Scarfed the food down since we were starving and then made our way to Hi-Lo to pick up essentials for the first night: rum, Red Stripe, rum cream, Ting, and coffee. We made it to Citronella just in time to put our luggage in our house and go for a quick swim before sunset. The water was so calm and gorgeous that we couldn't resist getting right in.
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While swimming, we saw the Love Bus pull up at Firewater/Sir D's/Lovenest, and the sun was setting, so we decided to dry off and wander over to say hi to Rob and the boardies and have a drink. It was great to see Rob again and meet TicToc for the first time. Anyone that read TicToc's report has already heard about the "man down" situation that night, so suffice to say, it was a little nerve-wrecking and like Tic, I was more than a little concerned. After the gentleman was loaded up in the bus (heard the next day that he was fine, so no worries), Chad and I stuck around for a bit and watched the bats fly out of the cave before going back to Citronella to settle in and make the phone calls home to let people know we're alive and give them our new number.
We were hungry again, so decided to go to Push Cart since it's dark, they have nice parking, and we always feel a little disoriented the first night in Jamaica. The mento band was just setting up and we enjoyed listening to them while I sipped my first rum punch. Chad had curry goat and I had curry conch for dinner, both were delicious.
We spent the rest of the evening back on our verandah watching the most amazing meteor shower, which was a wonderful surprise. Chad has always hoped for a meteor shower while in Negril, but didn't have a chance to check the dates before we got there. This was the Geminid meteor shower, which is one of the best of the year and also happens to be Chad's zodiac sign. We stayed up late for us, until after midnight. It was such a perfect day that I didn't want to go to sleep because I never wanted it to end, but it had also been a long day, so eventually couldn't stay awake any longer.
I'll have more photos in upcoming days, I guess I was in such a state of excited bliss that I forgot to take any more photos that first day. :o
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Day 2 Thursday 12/15 (Part 2)
Chad took some nice shots of our little yard and the area around the Round House. They have nice gardens with a wide variety of plants. You can also see the stairs that lead down to the private swimming platform.
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I don't have any other really nice photos of the inside of the Round House. It's a nice cottage, perfect for a couple, with a full bed in the loft and two twin beds downstairs that we used for lounging or for Chad's snory nights. The ladder leading upstairs is tricky until you practice a bit, especially when trying to move items as well as your person. It should probably be completely avoided when inebriated (good thing there are beds downstairs). The furnishings are all comfortable, sheets are the softest and nicest smelling I've experienced in Negril, and everything is spotlessly clean. The cottages at Citronella are all open air without screens on the louvred windows and I was a bit apprehensive about mosquitoes because I am usually a magnet (to the extent that Chad says that when I show up in Negril the mosquitoes and sand fleas send out a signal to all their brethren that their queen who smells like pineapples and coconuts has arrived again). :D The beds all have mosquito netting, which we used for the first half of our stay, but eventually got lazy and stopped using them because they weren't really necessary. I don't think I received a single mosquito bite while in the houses at Citronella and only 5-6 bites total, which may not even have occurred on the property. The only reason I can see to use the mosquito nets would be to avoid being the potential target of gecko poop, which didn't happen to us, but we did see some poops around the house on occassion. This didn't bother me in the least, I love geckos and anoles (they eat bugs), and it makes sense to me that not having screens on the windows will allow anything that comes in to go back out.
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So, where was I? Oh yes...after yoga I was hungry and we didn't pick up any food in our quick Hi-Lo trip the day before, so we decided to just go next door to LTU for breakfast. We walk in and, of course, immediately see Karl Ricketts because we always run into him within 24 hours of arrival. Much hugs and we all order breakfast to enjoy together. It was getting hot and it took awhile for breakfast to be ready, so soon after eating the water was calling out to me and I was ready to go back to our swim platform for some splishy-splashy.
Captured a nice series of Chad being a total wuss about getting in the water...come on man, it's not even cold! Just go for it for Pete's sake!
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It was a great day for swimming and snorkeling, the water was calm, sun was bright.Attachment 8561Attachment 8562Attachment 8563
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Day 2 Thursday 12/15 (Part 3)
The private swimming platforms at Citronella have showers (I think all do, but I know Round House and A-Frame do) and this turned out to be a better place to wash my hair at Round House because the water pressure was better. You could probably get naked and clean all your parts at the Round House's "sea" shower because it's sort of enclosed, you might just need a lookout for boats if you're shy. I just washed my hair and did the rest of my showering at the house's shower, which is also outside, but has a water heater.
Chad fell asleep in the hammock and I walked around the property to soak it all in and take some photos.
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Here's the parking area with our awesome car:
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Entry to path that leads to the south side of the property:
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When Chad woke up, it was time for lunch. I've been hearing many people mention Murphy's place for jerk chicken, so we drove out that way first, but they didn't have any chicken and said they just have it in the evening. We turned around and went toward town and decided to stop at Sips 'N Bites because that's always a safe bet. Oxtail and curry fish were both delicious, as usual. Our funds from my ripoff airport $ exchange have already been depleted by this point after buying a phone and groceries, so we made a quick stop at the Banmark cambio and then stopped by Wise Choice for some more supplies, mostly juice and snacks. We went back to Citronella and I tried to nap in the hammock, don't remember actually falling asleep, but suddenly the party boats were showing up at Rick's and it was time to head down to Canoe for the web cast.
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So happy to be back at Canoe, have to give Georgia a big hug and say hi to Kirby. The steel drum band is an awesome addition, I didn't think the atmosphere could get any better here, but it just keeps improving.
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I had Kirby's famous rum punch, still my favorite in Negril, and we both had some jerk shrimp, onion rings, and fries. Chatted with Rob, Lisa, and TicToc throughout the evening until we decided to head back up to Citronella for our nightly verandah ritual. TicToc's girls were ready to go back to Seastar, so we offered to give them a lift since it was on our way. We had fun telling each other stories on our drive. They are such lovely and polite girls! After dropping them off, it was verandah time. I had picked up a bottle of Gato Negro Sauvignon Blanc at Hi-Lo, which is an inexpensive but tasty wine I drink at home for just $4.25 a bottle, paid 848 JA at Hi-Lo. It was nice to have a glass or two of wine in the evenings and I'm glad I brought a wine glass 'cause plastic cups just don't cut it for me.
Tonight we start our normal Jamaica routine of going to sleep around 9:00 pm...seriously, I am not kidding. There were nights when I asked Chad if it was too early to go to bed at around 7:30 pm. We just get so tired and would rather go to sleep early and wake up early. We've done plenty of late night partying in the 11 years we've been together and can still do that back home (hardly ever do though) and there's nothing I hate more than wasting a day feeling hungover in Negril. I escaped hangovers completely this time, which I'm really happy about because I usually get carried away with rum punch at least one evening and pay dearly the next day. :p
Day 3, soon come.
