Monty & Melo's "5 Months Mon Goat Can Eat" Trip Report - Oct 2012

The day started early, with the 6:45am flight from Louisville to Charlotte. We used to travel through Atlanta, but once we found USAir through Charlotte we won’t go another way. Customs on the way home is usually a breeze in Charlotte and the whole place has a nice Southern Charm feel about it.

We actually arrived a few minutes late in Charlotte and by the time we walked to gate D9 they were seating Zone #2, bonus, our zone. Stop long enough to say hi to my brother, JMA and his girlfriend, LG. It was going to be my Brother’s 4th trip to the island, three with me and the other one on his honeymoon to his first wife (talk about a long story, way too long for this report!!!). LG on the other hand was making her first trip, and you always worry about Newbies, even though she seemed excited about the trip.

We get in the air in no time and pretty soon we are over Cuba and soon enough you can see Jamaica and the deep blue sea that surrounds it. As with the last two trips, immigration was a breeze and we had our luggage soon thereafter and out to the local exit at the airport. My favorite beer of the whole trip is that first one at the Groovy Grouper while we are telling countless taxi drivers that we don’t need a ride and that we have one prearranged. Something about that first splash of beer on the back of your throat makes you realize you are in Jamaica!! And Oh what a feeling that is.

We made it through the airport so quick that our ride is not there, our flight landed at 11:40am, we told our driver we would be ready about 12:30pm and it was only 12:10pm, pretty sure it was record time. Anyway, after a short wait our driver pulled up and we loaded up and off we were. Our driver provided us with lots of cold Red Stripe in an “igloo” as he called it, enough to get us about half way to Negril at least. Negril, here we come!!!

First stop is always to see our friend at Sunset Beach, visit with her for a minute, pick up our J-phone from her, all charged up and ready to go. We make plans for her to come visit us tomorrow in Negril and off we go again. Next stop is the Shell Station in Hopewell , first pee break and replenish the igloo with more Red Stripe…off again. We have to make a stop off at our driver’s house in Lucea to pick up another car, so we found some bushes and made it the second pee break of the trip (not the girls of course!!!). Back in the van and off again, pretty soon we saw the “Welcome to Negril” sign and we knew we were getting close.

This trip promised to be a little different for us, as we were splitting our stay between the cliffs and the beach. So we went zooming past all of the beach properties (including our home away from home - Rondel Village), through the roundabout, past Canoe (which was still CLOSED for renovations) and down the West End until we pulled up here:

Attachment 19139

We didn’t know much about Le Mirage, except that we had spent a great afternoon there during our February trip hanging out with some “Negril Royalty,” none other than Bob and Susan from NegrilOneStop. Since that afternoon we thought that on our next trip, if we could work it out, we would stay a few days there. Soon after arriving JMA and I headed into town to do the money-change, beer and rum-stockup thing. Driver takes us back to town and we trade money, exchange rate was $88.75 JMD to $1.00USD. Love walking around with a stack of JA $1000’s, why anyone would travel all the way to Jamaica and spend that US stuff is beyond me, spending $J is not only better for your pocketbook but better for the island as well, plus it’s a ton of fun!!!

Back at Le Mirage and the girls are in their suits down by the wata, if you haven’t been or seen Le Mirage, they have this great place for sunning right down by the wata, complete with a couple of jumping spots as well as a nice ladder for lowering and extracting yourself from the wata.

Here is a pic of that space looking back from the cliffs towards the hotel, notice the rainbow that we got that night, pretty cool!!

Attachment 19140

Here are a couple of Sunset Pics from that night…
Attachment 19141

Attachment 19142

After Sunset, we do our normal first night dinner at Chicken Lavish, it’s good to sit and talk with Doc, get the lay of the land, an update on Jamaican politics, the general vibe of Negril, and an update on Doc’s love-life.

Here is a picture of the good lookin' brothers out in front of Chicken Lavish....aren't we cute (I'm the best looking one on the right)???;)

Attachment 19143

Doc didn’t have any Conch Soup or Curry Goat (too slow mon!!!), but we had a great dinner nonetheless and the rum punch he makes in slow season by the glass is even stronger than the stuff he makes in high season in the rum bottles!! It was easy to go to bed that first night, like it usually is in Jamaica. I could tell this was going to be a good trip, we got into Jamaica mode very quickly and half the fun of going to bed on the first night is waking up the next day and realizing that you have the whole day in front of you. Day two soon come….

EXCITING! I met Doc, last March, on the beach. He was running, exercising, working out and stopped to chat with me. I told him I knew of Chicken Lavish from Negril.com but hadn't made it there. He seemed pleased he was known of. He gave me a business card, that he just so happen to have while working out. cool. I have it tucked away to go there next reach.

Le Mirage is on my list. Nice pix

Up and at em early on Saturday morning, 2nd day of vacation, but the first morning of the trip. I love, love, love mornings in Negril. When staying on the beach at Rondel, I take off walking down the beach towards the all-inclusives and walk all the way to Sandals, which is almost 3 miles, so I get 6 miles in before getting my day started. Needless to say, staying on the cliffs presents a little bit of a logistical challenge when it comes to a nice morning walk. I figured what the hell and took off out of Le Mirage towards Ricks. I walked and walked, for about an hour and 20 minutes, almost 3 miles, and I arrived at the end of West End Road, not technically of course, but I got to the place where there appears to be some sort of development that stopped a few years ago. The sign said to turn left away from the Cliffs to go to the Westender. I thought about walking that way, but I was pretty far from home already and quite frankly, while my comfort level walking on the beach was always 100%, I was at about 80-85% on my west-end walk, never really scared, but not 100% comfortable with the unknown surroundings. I am sure once I stay on the west end a few times, I will no longer have any fears of that walk.

Back at the hotel and Melo is getting ready for her day, and is blow-drying her hair when all of sudden, poof, no current. She was convinced that her Turbo 1000 hair dryer blew a fuse somewhere, but sure enough, one of the things the west end is most famous for, a current outage as far as you could see in each direction. She was almost done, so we figured we wouldn’t be in the room much during the day and as long as it was back on for later we would be fine. Out for a little quick breakfast of coffee, toast, banana bread, etc and we are down at the wata, getting ready to enjoy the day.

I bring my own snorkel gear and I couldn’t wait to give it a try in the crystal blue waters. Here are a few shots of me in the sea…..

Attachment 19266

Attachment 19267

Soon after I was finished, LG wanted to give it a try, so off she went….

Attachment 19268

After swimming and snorkeling for a while, my brother and I decided that we would head into town for the first Red Dragon visit of the trip. I absolutely love the Red Dragon, the place is just so damned cool, the pork is awesome and the beer is cold (although later in this trip I discovered JB and Ting, more on that later). Anyway, we called our driver because our friends from Montego Bay were headed over and we needed to get back too quick to walk all of that way. Our driver is also a fan of the pork, so we always buy him a beer and some pork while we are there. This time we decided to suck down a couple of cold ones, eat half-a-pound of pork, and then get a pound to go. We also wanted to stop at Juicy Patties to load up on those too, so we would have something to eat around the pool and wata for the rest of the day. The plan was executed to perfection as we arrived at Red Dragon, said hi to Gardo (he works the store side on Saturday, while his brother works the bar) and proceeded to eat pork and drink beer.

After heading out from Red Dragon (we would be back!!!) we stopped down at Juicy Patties and ordered what seemed like a ton of Patties and some Coco Breads and only spent like $15. Crazy pricing and good stuff.

Back at Le Mirage and our friends had arrived, so everyone was lying around the pool relaxing. Funny thing I have found about a lot of Jamaicans, even though they have been surrounded by water all of their lives, a lot of them don’t swim and even if they get in the water on the beach or the pool where it is shallow, they are not interested in swimming where they can’t touch the bottom. I realize this is not everyone, but I have been surprised over the years about how common this is.

We relax, talk, figure out how to get our friend hooked up with my youngest brother (who is not on the trip with us), and have a great time just hanging around the pool at Le Mirage. There was no one else there, the current was still out so there was no “whirring” of the air conditioners or even the sound of the pool filter running. It was a great afternoon.

About 4ish we decide it is time for the first Canoe visit of the trip (another place I really like), we had stopped by there on the way to Red Dragon and found out that they were not officially open from the renovations yet, but that they were “sort of” open so we could stop by if we wanted too. Bonus!!! Rum Punch here I come.
We took a few shots while we were sitting around Canoe, here are a couple of samples…

Me and our Montego Bay Friend….I think we make a cute couple!!!!

Attachment 19269

My brother (JMA) and his girlfriend (LG) officially in Negril Mode

Attachment 19270

After many rum punches, we headed for dinner at 3 Dives. I have heard various things (both good and bad) about this place over the years, but we figured what the hell, let’s try it. Current was still out, so it was dinner by candlelight for most of the evening, we ordered on our way in, a bunch of chicken and some shrimp. The food arrived after about 30 minutes (or 3 beers) and as we were about halfway through the meal the current came on, and to tell you the truth, I wish it hadn’t, sitting there in the dark with candles lit, eating chicken and shrimp, rice and peas and some Callaloo, was a great experience. And with it being dark sometimes you couldn’t tell how much granny sauce you were pouring on, so that made it even better. That sauce is fantastic, almost addicting, like you couldn’t stop eating it. I love a good endorphin high, if those guys on the beach could capture that feeling and put it in baggie and sell it, I might buy some!!! The Shrimp were awesome as well, we agreed that we would probably be back later in the week.

The best thing about the current coming back on was that we were going to have air-conditioning. I will be the first to admit that I am a wimp about AC, I have to have it, I will pay extra for it and I cannot handle the idea of not having it at night when I sleep. No sooner had we gotten back at the room the current went off again. Damn…..but as soon as the words came out of my mouth it was back on again. I couldn’t help but think about that scene in Airplane when the guy unplugs the runway lights and then says “just kidding.” Current back on, AC is cooling and off to bed we go (not all four of us together, get your mind out of the gutter!!!!). First full day in Jamaica in the books. I would call the day an overwhelming success. Day three soon come…..

Your hitting all the good places for sure!

Great report! I totally agree about Charlotte vs Atlanta. And it's nice to hear about your time at Le Mirage. We stayed a few nights there in 2011.

Fantastic report. Excellent details. You fit right in in Negril. Ya mon.

Mi soon come.

I'm with you on Charlotte as well. Charlotte or Houston for me and I do my best to avoid ATLANTA, Miami, and Dallas.

I hear you can get naked at Mirage and do your thing.

Very nice start. Looking forward to more. We also prefer Charlotte over Hotlanta.

Glad you tried Mirage. They had some great pricing over the summer, so I spent a few nights there. Big rooms, very clean, very friendly. The pool was quite nice and clean. I wish the water had been calmer the days we were there....no snorkeling. The staff is excellent and security is top notch. It is the sister property to Charella Inn.

Excellent report Monty,please keep it coming!!!

I'm taking the night off to watch the election results....more trip report tomorrow.....soon come!!!

Quote:

---

My favorite beer of the whole trip is that first one at the Groovy Grouper while we are telling countless taxi drivers that we don’t need a ride and that we have one prearranged. Something about that first splash of beer on the back of your throat makes you realize you are in Jamaica!! And Oh what a feeling that is.

---

You put me right in the Grouper with that, and I agree it was one fine Red Stripe that first one!
Great report, nice to hear about Mirage - walked by but didn't go in there.

Your report rocks! Keep up the good work..We've often thought of spending some time in the Cliffs and stopping by 3 Dives..

I'd never heard the electricity thing in The Cliffs and appreciate this insite!

Look forward to more "Cliffside" adventures!


Happy Travels

SKB!

Chicken Lavish, Canoe, Red Dragon, Juicy Patties, 3 dives. One day. Wow... You need to walk 6 miles a day :)

Love it! The picture of the rainbow was really nice.

Wow! you walked all that way out there? I rode a bike out to Westender and I thought that was something. LOL! From where you stopped (that is kind of creepy, those empty buildings), Westender is another mile or mile and a half.

So it’s Sunday morning now, day 3 of our 9 day trip. I’m wide awake early after another wonderful night’s sleep at Le Mirage. The good news is that the current stayed on all night and therefore the AC was nice and cold. This is the day we were moving to the beach, back to our home at Rondel. I decided to give the West End walk one more try and my brother decided to join me this time. We took the same path I had taken the day before, all the way out to the turn where you head to Westender, away from the cliffs. Once we walked past Hylton Avenue, my brother kept asking me “so when are we turning back?” I assumed he thought we had walked far enough and of course every step we took away from Le Mirage meant another step we were going to have to take to get back. Every few minutes, he kept asking me…..I was sort of thinking to myself, “what a wimp, he can’t handle a long, brisk walk in the morning!!”

As we were almost back to Le Mirage, we were walking past Wise Choice when a voice called out to us, this voice belonged to a Jamaican dressed in chef’s pants and a chef’s coat. It was none other than BENTLEY, the man, the myth, the legend. He walks up toward the road and greets us, “Ya Mon, I’m the chef, I’m Bentley.” “I know who you are, you are the Man!!!” I barked back at him. “How do you know me mon?” he asked, and I replied “You are world famous mon, you are all over the internet.” You all know what came next, the famous Bentley laugh!!! We talked for a few minutes and I told him we had plans to come see him later in the week. He reminded me to call him first and then come see him. He said, “you need my number?” “No mon I said, 393-6768, I got it in my brain already.” I have this weird habit of remembering phone numbers and other useless information, I guess in this case it came in handy. As we walked back to the hotel my brother was freaking. So you never met that guy before?? Nope, but that was Bentley and we are going to see him later in the week for dinner, its going to be awesome, 5 things on the plate mon…and magic sauce!!!. He just shook his head at me as if he felt like his older brother was the weirdest person on the planet!

Back at the hotel for breakfast with the girls, we talked about what time we would transfer to Rondel from the Cliffs. We decided we would have our driver show up about noon and we would make a quick stop downtown at the HiLo for a couple supplies and get to Rondel about 1230pm. If the room was not ready we would already be in our beach clothes, so no problem we would dump our luggage at the front desk and check in later.

Here are a couple of shots from Le Mirage before we move to the beach. It is a great place to stay, I am not sure I could handle a full week there, maybe if I was there in high season and there were lots of other people around it would be different, but it just seemed so quiet and with no bar or restaurant around there weren’t folks from the outside stopping by. I guess it was just different, I’m certainly not complaining about it, it is wonderful place and the scenery is awesome. We all decided that we stayed there just the perfect amount of time and that it is a good way to get into the Negril groove, a couple of days of peaceful and quiet on the Cliffs before we hit the hustle and bustle of the beach.

Melo and JMA in the infinity pool
Attachment 19425

Love the shady Gazebo…like Booger said earlier, I think you can get Naked and do your thing there if you are into that…

Attachment 19426

This jet ski is not as close as it appears, I was testing the zooming and focusing abilities of my new camera

Attachment 19427

Before we knew it, it was noon and time to head to the beach and say bye to Le Mirage

Attachment 19428

So on the ride from the Cliffs to the beach the trip took a very interesting turn. Our driver also raises goats and sells them to restaurants in Lucea, Green Island, Orange Bay and Negril. We talk about the goat business with him every time we visit the Island. I love Goat and I eat it many times on each of my trips to Negril. I even buy frozen goat meat here in the states and cook Curry Goat at home a couple times each year. So when we get picked up at Le Mirage and are driving towards the beach, our driver informs us that he wants to have us over to a friend’s house in Lucea one day of our trip and he will bring a goat and we will make a big pot of curry goat as well as some Mannish Water and fry chicken. It’s very slow right now and if he misses a day of work it won’t be that big of a deal because this time of year literally whole days go by without him getting any paid rides.

Wow, I’ve hung out with Jamaicans plenty of times, but this would be a first for me. A day at a Jamaican home cooking and drinking and having a good time. Perfect I thought!! However, before committing, I told our driver that we would talk it over, figure out what day would be good for us and that we would let him know next time we see him.

We very quickly pull up at Rondel Village. As we suspected our rooms were not ready, but no problem, we just stashed our bags in the office and headed to the beach. We very quickly encountered Carl, one of the security guards at Rondel Village. The greatest thing about Rondel Village is the staff. We know all of them, from the housekeepers, to the security guards, to the best bartender in all of Negril, Delroy. The staff is what keeps us coming back, these folks literally feel like family to us and the first day there always feels like I am back where I am supposed to be. The Hotel recently took over the bar and restaurant after leasing it out to third parties for several years. They renovated the kitchen, added a second bathroom and now have nice changing rooms as well as separate men’s and women’s restrooms. Currently they are renovating the property across the street, adding 16 rooms (there were 8 over there before) as well as adding a spa facility. It looks like it is going to be very nice over there and we decided when we got home that we would get a room on the garden side for our upcoming February trip. The hotel just keeps getting better and better!!!

The bruddas upon arrival (I assume that is his girlfriends's purse, my brother does not carry a purse, not that there is anything wrong with that!!!)
Attachment 19429

Melo getting a hug from Carl on the beach

Attachment 19430

Home Sweet Home

Attachment 19431

We took the rest of Sunday pretty easy, hanging on the beach, enjoying the sunset and finally walking down the road to Best of the West for some jerk chicken. It was another early night for us. I almost couldn’t wait to get to bed so that I could get up early and take my first beach walk of the trip. I liked walking the West End (plenty of new things to see), but I live for my beach walks. I love watching the beach “wake up” in the morning and its damned good exercise to rid your body of the excesses of vacation, too much food, too much drink, you know the rest…..

First full beach day soon some…..

Enjoying your report! I'm another big fan of the Charlotte airport. The first reach we flew Delta connecting through Atlanta, found the US Airways connection through Charlotte the next time and never looked back. I work on racking up those US Airways miles all year long!

I wondered how long that beach walk up to Sandals was. Good to know I am putting in some miles

Monday morning, day 4 of the trip. First full day on the beach and more importantly first morning beach walk of the trip. I like to get out early, before 7am, usually around 630am. Today was no different, I left Rondel about 640am and headed up the beach, knowing that I was going to have to navigate the sea on the way, I walked barefoot. If I know I can stay out of the water the whole time I usually wear running shoes and socks, but I actually prefer barefoot, although the bone spur I have in my heel prefers that I wear shoes. I figure what ‘s a little short term pain for the feeling of having the sand between my toes as I walk up the beach.

After navigating in and around the wata at the Boat Bar and Mariposa, I am off. Walking, walking, walking. I am surprised at how slow it is on the beach and the rest of the week as I walk I keep running into the same 10-15 tourists each morning. Not even many beach guys working the beach. I joked with the bartender later that day that I was on the beach walking for an hour and a half and only got offered ganga twice. I guess that is one way to measure how busy Negril is. I will compare it on my February walks when it should be in full business mode.

My brother usually leaves later than me, so I usually meet him on the way back. Today I saw him approaching me as I was just about to get back to Beaches (or whatever it is now). He removes his headphones (he likes to listen to music when he walks alone, he says he gets left alone if he can’t hear people offer him stuff). We start walking back towards Rondel. He immediately tells me how nice the beach walk is compared to the cliffs, and then tells me how freaked out he was on our cliffs walk yesterday. I finally figure out why he kept asking me when we were going to turn back on that walk yesterday. He could have just said something….but I guess I was supposed to get the hint, being the wiser older brother that I am.

Back at the hotel we pick up the girls and head for Firefly, our normal beach-breakfast spot. We also frequent Montana’s in the wintertime, but it was not open in slow season. The view from Firefly is great. Here are a couple of shots of the Firefly. Of course if you have ever been there in February or busy season you know that the “scenery” changes quite dramatically from this time of year.

While this tree doesn’t provide much shade, it is pretty cool looking and the color contrasts in this shot are awesome I think

Attachment 19498

Another shot of the beach at Firefly

Attachment 19499

Monty, Melo and JMA at the table at Firefly (OK, I’m having a Dragon Stout for breakfast….don’t judge!!)

Attachment 19500

After breakfast we head back to Rondel, get on our suits and hit the beach. Just hung out on the beach for most of the day, my brother and I did take a walk down to Bourbon Beach, I had to judge for myself whether it was back to its former glory. I can attest that it is. The bar was busy with a nice mix of tourists and locals, we grabbed a qtr jerk chicken and some fries and let me tell you, the jerk chicken was awesome, and you’ll forget that ketchup even exists if you dip your fries in the jerk sauce….wow good stuff and cheap too, $700J for chicken and fries that the 2 of us almost couldn’t finish. Well worth the walk down and what was even more impressive was that the whole bar transactions were being recorded on an Ipad with a Bluetooth receipt printer and everything. Highest tech bar I have ever encountered on the beach in Jamaica.

When we got back to Rondel, the girls were getting their lunch from Norm. Here is a picture:

Attachment 19501

When we returned home we tried to explain this bicycle to my dad. No chain, no pedals, he just pushes it down the beach, I am not sure dad ever understood how this actually works....

Of course later in the afternoon we made our way down here, as is our normal habit when in Negril

Attachment 19502

Caught this crab enjoying a spliff on the beach at Canoe….looks like he is having a good time and now I know why those little things don’t walk straight!!!:cool:

Attachment 19503

After Canoe, we walked down to Doc’s, he had promised us conch soup the next time we came and even had some curry goat, so all was right in the world again. That conch soup will bring you back from the dead. I know healthcare in Jamaica is not the greatest, but if I am ever near death in Negril and need something to bring me back from the brink, I am going to get the conch soup at Chicken Lavish and I figure if it doesn’t rescue me at least I will die happy and well nourished. After hanging out there for a couple of hours we were back at Rondel ready for another good night’s sleep in Negril….

I am liking this report....I have been trying to get my brother and his wife to go with us since I returned the first time...I really wouild love to share the beauty of our paradise with them...my brother is my best friend....just cant get him to pull the trigger....

So Tuesday, day #5 started out as usual, long walk up the beach, breakfast, beach, wash, rinse, repeat…you know the drill….

I decided to take a swim….with the beach so small, all of the sand is located out in the sea so you can go out from the beach for a long time without losing the ability to touch. I’m a decent swimmer so I don’t worry much about not being able to get back to the beach, so I float around out there for a while, or long enough to drink the beer that I have with me. I begin to work my way back in and when I get in the very shallow water I turn around with my back towards the beach and just use my hands to propel me through the water to get back to the beach. All of a sudden…damn that hurt, my back is on fire and crap, its spreading and f#$@ now my wrist hurts. I jump up out of the water and run to the Rondel Village foot wash/shower area, I figure I am going to wash off what is hurting me. The water doesn’t wash away the pain, so I head over to the bar to get my wife to rescue me. I explain what happened and immediately Carl says “Jellyfish mon, he bite you, get some Vinegar from the kitchen.” So the bartender runs into the kitchen and comes back with a teacup full of vinegar. Melo starts to apply it and immediately it feels better. She treats the two spots on my back, my upper arm and finally my wrist. 18 trips to Jamaica, swimming in the sea everyday and never a jellyfish sting. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later and if that is as bad as it gets I guess it was not so bad. But I definitely don’t look forward to the next one!! Here is a pic of the damage.

The swelling actually went away pretty quickly

Attachment 19504

Today was the day we were walking the girls to Red Dragon with a short stop on the way. We figured we would wait until the sun got real high in the sky and the heat was at a maximum…you drink more when you are hot and isn’t that really the idea!?!? We agreed that we would leave about 1215pm and arrive at Red Dragon some time after 1pm. After hanging on the beach for a couple of hours we decided to change clothes, get our shoes on and prepare to head out.

Grab a beer from the fridge and down the road we go….first beer lasts us until we get just past Bourbon Beach, so we drop in Drinks Plus to get 4 more. They have two big freezers in there with wata, soda, ting, juice and BEER in there. Great to get beers out of the freezer, so cold!! I grab 4 beers and head to counter to pay, we turn in the four bottles that we have and I pay the lady behind the counter while Melo uses the handy bottle opener they have attached to the counter to open all 4 beers. $560 for 4 beers and we are on our way again. We usually cross the road at the Negril River bridge, I always like to walk the road with the traffic coming towards me….I figure I can jump out of the way if I actually see what is coming at me. So I always wait as long as I can to cross.

We cross the road and make our way around the roundabout, past Juicy Patties and the Shell Station and then it happened. We ended up here!!!!!

Attachment 19505

The Negril Police Station……I love stopping there for a beer on the way to Red Dragon, it is helpful to get out of the sun for a few minutes, and it’s damned interesting to see the comings and goings. On this trip there were about 100 motorcycles that had been confiscated by the Police. They were all piled in the front room, one almost on top of the other, all tangled up in each other and it really looked like a motorcycle grave yard. We were told these bikes had license issues, insurance issues, etc. Once the owner cleared everything up they could come and claim their bike back. I thought to myself, good luck getting the one out of the very back of the pile, they would literally have to move every bike to get one from the back. After a while if they are not claimed they are sold at auction. We finish our beer and head up the road to Red Ground and the Red Dragon.

Attachment 19506

I don’t usually take a camera to Red Dragon, I get it that it is not really a tourist place and that Jamaicans are living their everyday lives and use this place as a grocery store, a place to get rum, single Craven A’s, and phone cards. Trying to be as respectful as I can, I don’t usually take pictures there. This day was an exception however, because you never know if a newbie is going to be back, so on the chance that this is their one and only trip to this place, it only makes a little sense to respectfully document the experience. So we took some shots….here are a few

Melo and Gardo

Attachment 19507

Two Brothers

Attachment 19508

The pork!!!!

Attachment 19509

Like I mentioned earlier, I love the Red Dragon beer, so very cold, but on this trip for some (very odd) reason I decided that after the first beer I would get into the JB and Ting. That JB stuff is wicked but if you add enough Ting, it isn’t so bad and it goes well with the Jerk Pork. I told Gardo to give us plenty of peppers in our pound of pork, LG doesn’t like spicy so my brother didn’t have any added to their pound. WOW, those peppers made it very hot!! I ate a few of them and washed it down with JB and Ting, my scalp is actually tingling right now as I type this thinking back to it. Just a great feeling, Melo didn’t agree however and I thought she was going to kill me for getting our pork so spicy. I will remember next time to get Melo her own pork if I decide to get by Scotch Bonnet on like that. After hanging out for a while we decide to head back to the beach, I called our driver, he had a beer and some pork and we were ready to go.

When we got back to the beach we decided we might as well keep the party going and make this the Ricks/Ivans/LTU evening. So we all got ready and told our driver to come pick us up at 330pm for the trip.

More Soon Come…..

Great report, I wish both my brothers would travel, one being a chef would love the Negril culinary experience and the other being a rum bum would so enjoy the punch at Canoe!

I love how the locals say the "jellyfish bite you"

Awww, jellyfish stings are NO fun.

You hit two places I have been wanting to go to. The Police Station and Red Dragon. Thanks for the tip on the pork. Personally, i am a scotch bonnet girl and wash it down with overproof and ting.

I am really enjoying this report. I think hubby's little bro would really fit with Negril. It is great to see you getting to share the experience. I laughed out loud at the picture of the crab.

We tell the driver to pick us up at 330pm for the Ricks/Ivans/LTU trip. We had discussed the “goat BBQ” amongst ourselves on the long walk to Red Dragon and decided that we would do it on Thursday if that was going to work for all of our Jamaican friends. We pack up towels, change of clothes, a bunch of monopoly money (JA$$) and walk down to the road to meet up with our driver.

Upon getting in, I say, “Thursday OK for the BBQ, mon??” “Yeah mon, Thursday OK.” Of course we were curious about the whole experience and wondered what we needed to contribute (money, beer, rum, etc). “We will go to Chiney-mon tomorrow for beer and Whiterum, and milk; we drink the Whiterum with milk.” “OK I said, so are you supplying the goat?” "Yeah, mon, we will take him with us.” Wow, I thought, this should really be interesting…..

My brother and I fancy ourselves as amateur chefs and I was interested in helping out, not just hanging out having the Jamaicans cook for me. “Yeah mon,” I said, “I’m happy to help cut stuff up and assist with the cooking if that will be OK.” Almost immediately our driver responded, “Ok, mon, you can cut de goat’s neck.” Damn…..did you catch that, I went from chopping up onions and garlic to killing a goat in the matter of like 5 seconds. It was already too late, my brother was all over it, “Yeah mon, Monty kill the goat!!” I think he was on Facebook, Twitter and Text Messages letting everyone that I had ever met or known in my life that it was going to happen, Thursday at high noon. I wasn’t so sure, but what the hell, I wasn’t going to spoil JMA’s fun, so I just laughed along with everyone else in the car.

Thankfully, we quickly arrived at Ricks and climbed out of the car. Now I know Ricks is a total tourist trap and big rip-off when it comes to food and drink, but we have found that if you show up, buy a beer immediately you can generally stretch that beer into an hour’s worth of refreshment and assuming you don’t stay much longer than that, you get out pretty cheaply. We don’t normally go to Ricks unless we have a newbie with us, I think it is some sort of unwritten rule that you have to take a newbie to Ricks just for the spectacle of it all. We arrive, find a place on the stairs to hang out and get a Red Stripe.

While cliff jumping from the top didn’t appeal to me (any more!!!), I wanted to get the girls in the water (my brother can’t handle the pressure change of jumping in deep water….drives his ears crazy, or maybe he is just a wimp, the jury is still out!!). I was amazed that it didn’t take much coaxing to get the girls to jump from a platform about 15 feet up. Here we are after the jump swimming in the deep blue sea:

Attachment 19664

I’ll bet the view from up there is pretty good

Attachment 19665

One of the best things about Ricks is the people watching and getting to meet folks from the big all-inclusive hotels here for their trip to the “real Jamaica.” This particular day the group was from the Grand Palladium. They spent most of the afternoon at Margaritaville and now were at Ricks. So much for the “real Jamaica” I thought, but I didn’t judge, they all seemed to be having a good time. We hung out at Ricks until right about 5pm and then we changed clothes and walked down to Catcha.

Melo and I had been there before, but my brother had not been there and to say he was impressed was an understatement. He and LG loved Catcha and Ivan’s. LG took pictures forever and hanging at the bar listening to Shaggy (It wasn’t me!!!) was one of the highlights of the trip. The sunset wasn’t great that night, but colors in the sky and in the water were still pretty outstanding. Here is a shot of the sky around time the sun went down.

Attachment 19666

Here is another pic, taken of Melo and JMA at the bar

Attachment 19667

After Ivan’s we headed for LTU. Love LTU, the food is awesome and the mixture of locals, ex-pats and tourists always makes for an eclectic group. We were pretty tired of the camera by the time we got to LTU, so I only have this one picture of me and my much better half

Attachment 19668

After a long day of moving around and drinking, I forgot exactly what I had at LTU, but I do remember that it was awesome and of course the Pumpkin Soup that comes with every meal is beyond good. We called our driver and got him to come retrieve us so that we could retire for the evening. We had another pretty good day planned for tomorrow (Wednesday), including the first ever trip to the Chiney-Mon shop and dinner at Bentley’s which of course means a visit to Bentley’s during the day to arrange things for the evening, more moving and getting out and about, my favorite…….

Love your trip report and pictures. You made me want to check out the Red Dragon. Heard good things about it, but in 8 trips, haven't made it there yet. Maybe the 9th trip :)

Great stuff! I remember when I brought my brother in law for 8 days and 7 nights... He was a trip,
as he slowly discovered his Negril groove! Looking forward to your pics and story of the Bentley meal!

Happy Travels...

Skb...

Great report!

So up and at em’ early on Wednesday morning, another wonderful day in Negril. After my walk and breakfast at Firefly, I decided to give Bentley a call to talk about dinner that evening. “Come see me mon,” he said. OK, give me a few minutes and I will grab a cab and head down there. I decided this would be a solo trip and since our normal Negril driver lives in Green Island and doesn’t normally get to Negril until about noon time (and sometimes even later in slow season like it was now), I was on my own for transportation. I asked Johnno at Rondel to find me someone and he did. Johnno knows I don’t like certain drivers (drive too fast, charge too much, etc) that hang around the Rondel area, so he found me someone he knew would be fair with me and who would treat me right. Off to Bentley’s.

Even though I had heard numerous stories about Bentley and had met him on the road earlier in the trip, I had never been to his place. Damn that road is rough and narrow too. I was worried whether my new driver friend would be able to get the bus up there and turned around for the trip back down the lane. Stupid me….the driver negotiated the road with no problem and had the van turned around in the lane headed back down before he even let me out. So I jump out of the bus and head up Bentley’s stairs to meet the man himself. Bentley is incredible, we sat and chatted, he showed me food pics, we talked about dinner, drinks and a little about the history of Negril. I gave him a down-payment for our dinner for 4 people and was back in the bus headed back to the beach in no time.

We all hung out on the beach for a while and my brother and his girlfriend decided to go parasailing, here are some pics from their adventure

Ready to go up!!!

Attachment 19990

Up, Up and Away!!!

Attachment 19991

After they returned from little adventure, we decided to get ready to head down to Canoe, we needed to stop at the ChineyMon store on the way to stock up on the stuff needed for the Jamaican BBQ tomorrow. We told our driver to pick us up at 330pm, our dinner with Bentley was scheduled for about 630pm. And we had Canoe’s happy hour to attend in the interim.

At 330pm we head out of Rondel towards the cliffs. First stop was the ChineyMon Store, otherwise known as First Choice Wholesale and Supermarket. Again another first for me even though I considered myself a Negril veteran.
Here is a pic of the entrance in case you are one of those that drive by this place every day in your Negril adventures and have never been in

Attachment 19992

Inside we purchased two cases of Red Stripe (in the plastic crates, not in the box), a bottle of Appletons Gold Rum for the Bentley’s trip, a bottle of WhiteRum for the host of the Jamaican BBQ, some rice, some oil, and two boxes of boxed milk. The manager (owner?) of the store sits in a little raised office right at the front door of the place. If you want phone cards or cigs you have to buy those directly from him. Everything else goes through the registers. After checking out, the receipt is handed to the manager in the perch and he checks off everything that you purchased on the receipt. This appears to me to be a NBS (No Bull****) type of place. The transactions were handled efficiently and effectively and we were on our way in no time. I thought the prices for the rum were a little better than the Hi-Lo, but I didn’t pay that much attention so I could be wrong, or maybe I was feeling the effects of drinking all day!!

Since the big BBQ was tomorrow and we had lots of questions about how this was going to go down, we made sure our driver stayed with us and had a beer at Canoe to answer our questions. Here is a pic of us all sitting around discussing the poor misfortune of one goat that was going to occur tomorrow.

I took the pic so I am not in it, but this is the rest of the crew

Attachment 19993

Obviously we were most curious about the goat, how big was it going to be, was it male or female, how old was it, etc. It was going to be a small, young goat, male. The thinking being that a young goat would cook faster and since we didn’t have a lot of time this would be best. This is where the theme of the trip came from. In response to how old a goat needed to be before it could be eaten, our driver responded, “5 months mon, goat can eat.” OK, that sounded pretty young to me, but he was the expert so 5 months sounded good to me. He then informed me that he had been at home that day sharpening up his knife for me so I would be able to kill it quickly and efficiently. I still wasn’t sure. He said that when he picked us up for the trip tomorrow the goat would be in the back of a car, but that it would be in a box in the back, so no worries.

He headed out after a beer or two and said he would return about 6pm so we could head out to Bentley’s. We continued at Canoe drinking rum punch and this night Melo even had a Caesar. Those things are yummy!!!

Attachment 19994

Somehow we got on a kick to take a picture of our bill at Canoe, here is the one from that night

Attachment 19995

Here is a picture of the expanded bar area at Canoe, they have really done a good job with the place and that is the lovely Carla behind the bar, pouring me a rum punch!!!

Attachment 19996

Pretty soon it was time to head off to Bentleys….

Head out of Canoe and up the road to Bentley’s, remember that I visited Bentley earlier in the day to discuss our meal and leave my downpayment, none of the others had ever been to Bentley’s before and upon turning left and driving up Pee Wee Lane, I started getting questions about whether we were headed to the right place, etc. Chill people, it’s Negril, things are not usually what they seem. Soon enough we were there, we all piled out of the car and up the 13 steps to the deck.

There was another large group there, turned out to be Booger, Sandie along with Sweetness and a few others….

Bentley was busy in the kitchen preparing our meals

Attachment 20396

Applying the Magic sauce

Attachment 20397

Pretty soon the meals were placed in front of us. Each of us had one crabcake, some brown stew chicken and then Bentley brought a plate of fish for us. We wanted to try a little bit of everything and I thought this would be the best way to do it. A food pic:

Five tings on the plate mon….

Attachment 20398

Maybe the coolest ashtray ever….

Attachment 20399

Good lookin dudes here!!!

Attachment 20400

I don’t know how many of you have or have not been to Bentley’s but it is well worth the trip…..Bentley is an infectious character that just makes you damn glad you met him and spent a few hours of your life with him. His laugh is incredible and he seems to be one of those people that enjoys what he does, how he does it and really enjoys all of the people that he gets to meet. It may be a big act in the name of building his business, but I didn’t think so, he seems like the genuine article to me. We will definitely see him on our February trip.

The funny thing at dinner, besides having great food, we also managed to drink the half gallon of juice that Bentley supplied but at the end of the night there was less than an inch of rum left in the bottle of Appletons….Damn, where did all that rum go??

As we were sitting around talking after dinner, Bentley’s phone rang and it was none other than GerryG123 checking in on things, he talked with Bentley and Booger.

Pretty soon it was time to go, go down the 13 steps…..

Attachment 20401

Our driver had arrived and it was time to go back to Rondel for the evening, we had a big day tomorrow, it was finally goat day and that promised to be a big adventure…..

So glad you are back with the report. I like your style, getting out and about, being adventurous. I went in the ChineyMon shop for a phone card. Thankfully my driver was with me as I felt very overwhelmed trying to buy the card with all the other locals shoving money at the owner. It was a trip!

So this is the view into the back of the car when our driver arrived to pick us up for the BBQ. (I am now using this pic as my wallpaper for my work computer, talk about some strange reactions from my co-workers!!!)

Attachment 20410

Remember he said that the goat would be in a box, well, he is officially in a box, but we pictured the box being a big box with holes in so the goat could breathe….this was more like he was riding with us and he was our pet. I knew immediately that this goat would not be meeting his ultimate demise at my hands, someone else would have to do the dirty work if we were indeed going to be eating goat that day…

The cookout was actually in Lucea so we had about a half-hour drive ahead of us. Not much was said on the way there, the idea that dinner was sitting in the car with us and that he was so cute made us all a little shy with our words on the way.

Upon arriving we started unloading things and icing down the beers, the rum started flowing and the party was well underway.

Attachment 20419

It was time….The goat was dispatched and it was all over pretty quickly…as you can see, Melo was not the least bit interested in this portion of the party as she sits in her chair with her back to the festivities nose buried in her book, I can’t really say that I blame her….

Attachment 20420

That work done, things started to pick up considerably, I guess the thought of the goat’s fate was all weighing on us pretty heavy, but once it was done, it was done. Now on to preparing the meal…..

All the major butchering is done…..

Attachment 20433

Spices and herbs applied

Attachment 20434

Fire readied

Attachment 20455

Curry Goat on the fire!!!

Attachment 20456

With the curry going on the fire pretty well, it was time to prepare the Mannish Water….This I was very interested in, because I have cooked curry goat at home (not from a goat that was alive a few minutes ago, I have to buy frozen goat here in the Midwest and usually it is from Australia, but you gotta work with what you can get your hands on!!) but obviously Mannish Water was new to me.

Vegetables for the soup…I think there is carrot, yam, irish and green banana in this pot

Attachment 20457

Lots of spices….

Attachment 20458

Mannish Water now on the fire

Attachment 20459

The whole meal cooked pretty quickly, the reason such a young goat is used is that the meat is very tender to begin with so it cooks quickly and doesn’t have as much “barnyard” flavor as they say. We even had some time to fry some chicken for the girls on the coolest grill I have ever seen:

The chicken well spiced and ready

Attachment 20460


Chicken frying….

Attachment 20461

That is just a wheel with hot coals in it and a trivet on top. The pan sets atop the trivet and gets very hot. I am making myself one of these next weekend, along with a jerk chicken barrel, I will post pics when I am done….

Finally it was time to eat….the party was held around a great little outdoor kitchen, complete with seats, a sink, many grills and nice tile work….

Attachment 20462

Everything was delicious…..even the Mannish Water!!!

Attachment 20463

Doesn’t it look like I am enjoying it!!!

Attachment 20465

I will be the first to admit that the Mannish Water was interesting....the broth was great and the veges in the soup were very good too. The goat parts however....let's just say it is an acquired taste. I could see me eating it again, but I don't think I am going to order it for dinner every night of my next trip. I'm glad I tried it though, check another thing off the list as they say....

Now the party is in full force……

Attachment 20466

Time for the Noni Juice…..I hear its good for the Bamboo!!! Melo looks less than impressed

Attachment 20467

We had a great time at the BBQ, it was truly a real Jamaican experience and we were welcomed by our hosts. During our conversations, we discussed tourism, Americans that travel to Jamaica and how most of them never see the real Jamaica, interact with real Jamaicans or even get out of the compound enough to give Jamaica a chance. It was fun getting Jamaican perspectives on things like that, it lets you know that a lot of Jamaicans are interested in what goes on, not only because tourism is good for their pocketbook (I think everyone at the party was employed in the tourism industry in one way or the other from hotel employees to taxi and bus drivers), but because they want people to come to their country and leave impressed with what they see. You can be impressed by the beauty of a big all-inclusive hotel but in order to be truly impressed, you need to peel away a few layers, get to know some people and see how they live and how the country is really put together. Sure there are some rough edges, but hanging out in the yard that day really reinforced with me the true beauty of Jamaica and its people and culture. OK…enough philosophy….I am not that good at this stuff anyway.

He headed back to the beach as it was nearing Sunset and we had taken up enough of these folks’ time. We were able to snap a couple of sunset pics to cap another great day in Jamaica

Attachment 20468

Attachment 20469

Tomorrow is our last full day in Jamaica before heading home

Love all the pics. And what an experience with the little goat.

That goat in a box made me laugh harder than anything I think I ever read or saw on this board (I'm sorry Sandie) :(