Newbie Trip Report - 4-15 Feb, 2013

After a fairly quick flight from Toronto we arrived at Montego Bay airport on Mon, Feb 4th... a little tired, but very excited to be on vacation!

As recommended by Marley, we booked Chicken for all our transportation. Inside the airport we were asked by many people if we needed a ride. Just like Marley told me, we said “We’re looking for Chicken” and everyone pointed to the exit we needed. We went outside into the hot, sunny day and there he was with a sign that said “Chicken’s Magic Bus”. I was so excited to see him! He gave me a big hug like a long lost old friend, packed our bags into his car, and we were off.

We stopped in Hopewell for some much needed Ital food. Veggie chunks, rice & peas, and cabbage. It was absolutely delicious. Then we hit the Cambio for cash and the "Chinaman’s" place for beer. The drive was amazing. So many things to see and Chicken was telling us all about the different areas, a little bit of history, etc.

Our room at Rockhouse was fantastic. At first I was worried because the restaurant was right next door, but we never heard any noise from there and we totally forgot about them by the following day. The view from our cliff patio was unreal. We were officially in paradise.

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Nice!!!

Wonderful, we stopped at Rockhouse while in Negril and it is a beautiful place. Love your photos. More please!

Great start to the report, and yours pics are amazing!

Woo Hoo! I've been waiting for your report!
Great so far.....love the views at Rockhouse....was that villa 17?

More more more please :)

Great pics! Can't wait to hear more ............

We were in villa # 11, beside the Rockhouse restaurant at the main entrance (not Push Cart).
Here's a view of our patio:

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That's our red umbrella to the left.

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Me and the hubs on our little bridge.

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The only complaint I have about Rockhouse is that people were constantly walking down onto our private patio to get to that bridge. I mean, they would almost be stepping over us in our lounge chairs to see that bridge, or to jump off it. They seemed to have no idea that the bridge was connecting rooms 11 and 10 and was not a communal area. Luckily I was usually enjoying a large sub on the lounge chairs at the time, so I was able to shrug it off. Several times when we came out of our room in the morning (or evening) there were people sprawled out on our lounge chairs to watch the amazing view we had. Again, totally ignoring the sign on the gates that said "Rooms 9 -11 Only". One night there were people who weren't even staying at Rockhouse who came trotting down the path and gave themselves a tour of our patio area while we were trying to have a quiet moment after dinner. For that reason I felt we lacked the privacy I was expecting. Not the hotel's fault, just guests who do not pay attention.

Day 2

We woke up refreshed, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out to St. Anthony's Kitchen to meet Father Jim and drop off some donations we brought along (flip flops and clothing) and some small gifts for the ladies who work in the kitchen.
Next up was walk along West End Road for the infamous Ras Rody! I'd read a lot of good things about this food stand so I was very excited to try it out. Not realizing how early it was, we got there before the lunch spread was ready so we walked back a bit to Allie's for some nice cold juice.

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After the juice it was back to Ras Rody for an absolutely fantastic lunch! Rice & peas, curried pumpkin stew, callaloo, cabbage, curried okra, veggie chunks, and a pumpkin soup too!

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Our walk to and from Ras Rody (which became a daily event) was always interesting. There was never a shortage of people offering us various cold cuts on the street. Luckily, we had already been taken care of and were set for the entire trip. We would not go hungry in Jamaica.

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Back at the Rockhouse, we settled in on our lounge chairs with some cold Red Stripe and an extra large sub. Our afternoon entertainment was the naked Hedonism boat that anchored in the bay right in front of our villa. Let me tell you, that was one hilarious afternoon. After that, a bunch of local kids were cliff jumping for other boats that had come into our little bay.

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There was also lots of snorkeling that afternoon! There was a little cave down a few sets of stairs next to our villa. You climb into the water and swim out of the cave into the open bay. I saw some really beautiful fish there. Next time i'll have to get an underwater camera.

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I wondered how your trip went. We met you on the one love pub crawl! We had so much fun on Bob Marleys Birthday

Really enjoying your report!! Great pictures and I am with you...Ras Rody's rocks some good Ital food! Anxious to hear more!

Kay! That pub crawl was so much fun. Great to meet some boardies that day. :)

sounds like you guys enjoyed your trip...subs and cold cuts, lol, gotta love it....

never been to rock house....like the looks of that place....thanks for the pics...more please

That's right Groove! And somewhere out there, someone will be thinking, "That's one hungry lady!". LOL
I had to put that in just for you. ;)

Nice!

Very nice, I love Rockhouse. Those kids are diving from Miss Mae's place, I'm sure it agitates her to no end. The cave underneath them is Joseph's Cave, did you swim up in there? It has a very cool old cave bar that was destroyed by Ivan, and a super soft sandy bottom to stand on.

The bridge cottages are a double edged deal, I think. You get the view of the bridge and the easy access but the bridge is extremely iconic and people want to experience it. It is one of the premier dive spots on the cliffs. On the other hand you would think people would be a little more considerate, especially if you are out on your patio, that is really rude.

It was pretty amazing to have our patio attached to that bridge. But yes, people were walking over us all day. No apologies or anything. It was extremely annoying. But given the view I was able to keep myself in check. I wish I had known about Joseph's Cave! I didn't swim out there sadly. Next time! You know there's going to be a next time. ;)

Looking back at the pics now I think I was wrong. You can see Joseph's Cave in your first photo, it's under the white two story building to the left. I think the divers were next door at Pirates Cave which is under Pushcart. I think you can only get to Pirates Cave from the sea now. You can still go down through the blow hole on Miss Mae's place to get to Joseph's.

You're right, they were jumping in front of Pushcart. But we did have kids taunting the boats from the other spot as well. Lots of swimming ahead next trip!

Day 2 cont...

The rest of the afternoon / early evening was spent enjoying some cold Red Stripe while watching the most amazing sunset I have ever seen.

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After the sunset it was time for dinner so we headed over to the Pushcart for delicious fried sweet potato (which we dipped in Jerk Sauce), Rasta Pasta complete with callaloo and ackee, and Bushman's Stew with callaloo rice! Fantastic meal and we even had some live entertainment. Perfect end to a perfect day!

Very nice photos!

Awesome!!!! Amazing pics!
That photo of you is fantastic, it looks like it should be in a travel magazine.....or at least a Red Stripe ad!

I love it!

Sweet pictures....Nice report too~ Please keep them coming.

Beautiful Pics... your day #2 sunset (your Red Stripe ad pic) was viewed from the same massage hut that I jump from almost every day that we are there. I'm pretty sure that I didn't run into you on your patio, but I did swim up to jump from the bridge a couple of times. Glad you had a great time!

Excellent report so far. Rockhouse is really nice. It's probably the most calm water anywhere on the Cliffs because there is kind of an inlet .... I am assuming you guys are vegetarians? You eat GOOD ... Negril is well suited to a large variety of food tastes ....

Hey GerryG! Yup, we're vegan and that's part of why we chose Jamaica in the first place. Very easy to eat fantastic food every day, in Negril at least. More on that later. ;)

Russ In Mn - I never saw anyone jump from the massage hut so we must have missed you. I really did love Rockhouse. Can't wait to go back.

Try the fresh hot coco bread in the morning at Out of Town pastry shop up the road past Ricks .... Good stuff

I can vouch for OoTP. Wonderful vegetable loafs and coco bread. Must get there early though (noon) before they're gone.

TBC - Didn't jump Fri or Sat this trip due to the rougher seas but every other day... I was there. Maybe we'll see each other next year, we're already booked for 12th - 22nd. February Roll Call???Attachment 23712

Is coco bread vegan, though? It tastes so buttery!! Not sure how it's made, but if they can make something that luscious vegan - wow and yay!!!!

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Originally Posted by iowagirl

Is coco bread vegan, though? It tastes so buttery!! Not sure how it's made, but if they can make something that luscious vegan - wow and yay!!!!

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Ya know, I know butter is used in the traditional recipe but I bet you could use coconut oil and make a fine one! I can just imagine a nice warm coco bread with the hint of coconut. Yum!!

Day 3

We started the day with a great breakfast at Rockhouse... hashbrowns, callaloo, grilled tomato, and toasted coconut bread with ginger jam.
More snorkeling, reading in our lounge chairs, followed by a quick nap and more Ras Rody for lunch.

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Up next.... the ONE LOVE PUB CRAWL!!!!
So nice to meet fellow boardies on our crawl. What a fun day. And Bob Marley's birthday to boot!

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First stop, Mi Yard!

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I made a new friend. Rasta Richard!

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Next, On The Rocks!
View from the bar...

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Looking back at the bar...

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No Limit!

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Everyone had been pretty reserved so far. Not enough Red Stripe I suppose. Then Lenbert comes in from the back door with a parrot!

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People started to loosen up and we were off to Choices.

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We got some beer and ended up standing outside the bar talking with a few of the locals. We met Beego (as he explains, like bee go to honey) there. Seems there was a blue light special on subs that day. Poor guy couldn't get any takers though. His friend was selling jewellery so a few of us bought some pieces and had a nice chat with the two of them. Then Jardan, who we had met the day before at Allie's Juice, shows up! We had a good long chat with him, talked about the area, and found out there was a big birthday bash down the street for PeeWee on Friday night. Unfortunately we were heading out to Treasure Beach that day and we'd miss the festivities. Next, the mushroom man shows up. He joined Beego as neither one of them were having any luck doing any business with our crowd.

Off to Xtabi!

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People were really relaxing now and we checked out the caves underneath the bar.

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And this is where things get a little blurry...

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Can anyone tell me how to get these photos rotated? I can't seem to find a way and I have no idea why they're loading like this in the first place. :(

cant wait to see and read more!! my first trip is in june, and we are also gonna spend a little time in treasure beach...

Thanks for sharing your vibes!

Happy Travels

Skb

It was great meeting you guys on the crawl....man that bus was packed! Me and my buddy sticky ricky had a great time that day doing the crawl, it's hard to believe we actually made it to see Bunny play that night at the birthday bash!! Great trip report and look forward to more

Day 3 cont...

After some drinks at Xtabi and exploring the caves, we were off to Sea Star. I have vague recollections of a group on our bus from Winnipeg who were very excited to get to Sea Star. Apparently the owners are from Winnipeg and there's a pool shaped like the province. More cold beer and someone ended up in that pool. Good times.
Next up was Sir D to watch the sunset. There were subs for everyone, the view was amazing, and it was the perfect end to a fantastic day. We all piled back into the bus and headed back to our hotels to get freshened up for the Bob Marley Birthday Bash that night! After having a little too much fun on the pub crawl, we forgot to tell Lenbert to pick us up at 9pm when he did his second round. So we sent an email from our room and got ready. When there was no Lenbert to be found, we hit the hay early and called it a night. Several days later, I found that email to Lenbert sitting in the "drafts" folder of my email. The email was never sent so Lenbert had no idea we wanted to go to the show. One thing about Rockhouse, there really is no internet access from your room. Not that we needed it, except for that one night. Just as well since we had such a great day and needed the sleep anyway.

Day 4

We were up bright and early and headed out to Just Natural for breakfast.

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After breakfast we stopped at Ras Rody to grab takeout for lunch later on back at the hotel. Ras Rody's son was cooking that day and we had a fantastic feast of johnny cakes, ackee, callaloo, and pumpkin curry stew. I could eat that every day. So damn delicious.

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Another perfect afternoon laying in the sunshine - reading, swimming, and then an epic nap. We got ready for dinner and headed out to Canoe Bar. Patty had already told me (on the forum) that they were serving vegan curried tofu & veg with rice so I was looking forward to that. I was not disappointed. The hubs had an equally delicious pesto pasta. Great food at Canoe Bar.

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And we had a steel drum band to serenade us!

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We bumped into SadieCat and her husband who we had met the day before on the pub crawl. Again, so great to meet boardies on our trip. Such nice people.
After dinner we were going to grab a cab back to Rockhouse and Kirby, the owner of Canoe, said he'd be happy to drive us back. We couldn't believe it. We met the absolute nicest people in Jamaica everywhere we went. Just fantastic.
Back at the hotel we had a few more drinks at the bar before calling it a night.

I have to apologize for these sideways shots. I have no idea why this keeps happening. Haha
Turn your heads to the left please!

Great report! I want more!

This is wonderful! Thanks for writing it!

Day 5

Got up early, did our last bit of packing, and got ready to head out to Treasure Beach. But first up, breakfast! We had a great spread at Sips & Bites... callaloo, cabbage, ackee, fresh rolls, toast, fried plantain, yams, and potatoes, all washed down with fresh squeezed orange juice and beet juice.

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One last final walk around Rockhouse before we go...

Goodbye bridge!

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Goodbye patio!

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Here's the pool that we never actually looked at until we were leaving. We were too busy enjoying our own patio and snorkeling to worry about a pool. It is beautiful though.

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Chicken met us again, right on time, and we were off to Treasure Beach with a few stops along the way. It was so great to have Chicken drive us everywhere. It was like having an old friend show you around town. He told us all about the different areas we drove through and we learned all kinds of Jamaican history along the way.

Here's a 17th century plantation house, restored and now owned by Jamaicans:

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We made a quick stop to see the mausoleum of Peter Tosh:

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We drove through amazing villages, countryside, and saw Middle Quarters / Shrimp City, and ended up at YS Falls.

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