Trip Report - February 1-8, 2013

Where has the time gone, this Friday will be the one month anniversary of our first day in Negril, time has just flown by since we have been home….and I am way behind in my trip report duties.

We made our 19th trip to Jamaica on February 1, 2013 and unfortunately had to leave on February 8, 2013, only one week in paradise, but as usual we made the most of our time there. We had a couple of newbies with us (D&R) and it only took them about 3 hours of being on the island to “get it!!” I am always nervous about taking new people to Jamaica, but I am not sure why because in nearly every case the 15 newbies that we have introduced to Jamaica over the years have “gotten it.”

Unfortunately this trip didn’t start out all-that great. We arrived at the airport in Louisville at 520am for our 645am flight to Charlotte, it was snowing out, but not a lot and travel to the airport was uneventful. As we walked up to the USAirways counter we noticed a few folks milling around and not checking in. We soon figured out why, the system they used for passports was down and they could not check in any international passengers. OK….no biggie, we have plenty of time, the security line was very short and I figured they would get it together in a few minutes and we would be on our way. Five minutes became fifteen became thirty became forty-five and all of a sudden it was after 6am and I am getting nervous. Melo had that “I think I am gonna cry now” look on her face and as the person that means more to me than anything of course I couldn’t stand for that. There were about six of us waiting and finally someone working the counter decided they would get us to Charlotte and let them “deal with us.” Great….that gives us about two and ½ hours for them to figure it out, surely it will be good to go by then.

They started this long manual process of making copies of our passports, etc, it is now 625am, they keep promising us they will hold the plane, but the clock is a ticking. Finally the system came up, they ripped up all the manual stuff they were working on and checked us in and we were finally on our way. Through security and to the gate, it is now 640am but just like they said, they were holding the plane for us and we climbed aboard and were finally on our way. A very stressful way to start our vacation.

Like the most interesting man in the world says “I don’t normally drink beer at 7am, but when I do I prefer airplane beer.” Yep the first drink of the vacation was a half-cold canned Shock Top on the plane, at 7am…..not the worst thing I have ever done I am sure and I’m only confessing my actions to everyone on the internet (or at least the ones who read this board, but isn’t that mostly everybody??).

We arrive at Montego Bay almost right on time and then make the run to immigration wondering what the line was going to look like…..
I don’t know what has happened and maybe they have stuff figured out, but the last three trips to Jamaica the line at immigration has been miniscule. I’m certainly not complaining!!! Through immigration and off to baggage claim. Our friends stop at the restroom and I grab all three of our bags and await their arrival. Into the “Nothing to Declare” line and next thing I know the warm, moist, exhaust-fume-filled air hits me in the face, we are out of the airport!!! A round of beers from the Groovy Grouper stand just outside the airport, our driver walks up and in the van we go.

He has a large “igloo” full of Red Stripe and we stop for a replenish beers/Pee break in Hopewell and pretty soon we are winding our way through Lucea, then Green Island, Orange Bay and then the “Welcome to Negril” sign. We pull up to Rondel Village and are greeted as usual by Johno and proceed inside to check in.

We decided on rooms across the road, they were brand new (in fact I am 99% sure we were the first guests to ever stay in our room, for reasons that I will explain later), and we could buy dinner each night with the $30 difference in price between the garden-side superior rooms and the superior rooms on the beach side. I spend about 30 minutes a day in the room when I am not asleep, so the room doesn’t matter that much to me. These rooms however were fine, with flat-screen TVs (which we only turned on once!!!), a small fridge, a nice balcony, a decent sized bathroom, plenty of storage space, very cold AC and a ceiling fan to move the cold air around. Perfect and because we were across the road, it was very quiet and there was a nice pool (never got in…..I’m an ocean person when on vacation) and a hot-tub (got in twice, but only because our friends are hot tub people and they liked getting in).

We dumped our stuff off in our room and ran across the street to the beachside and to the bar. I think we got Red Stripe number 7 or 8 in us and it was only 4pm, we had been on the island exactly 3 hours!!

We heard music and sure enough next door at the Boat Bar they were having their standard Friday afternoon band. We walked down to the water (much more beach at Rondel now compared to when we were there in October) and splashed around while drinking our beers. Life had all of a sudden become just about perfect….Red Stripe, check, Reggae Band, check, Good Friends, check and most importantly Melo had a huge smile on her face and looked like she was home, super-double-check!!!

We continued listening to the music from the Boat Bar (I guess I finally understand that place, I have seen people on Negril.com rave about it, but never really figured it out, there never seemed to be much going on there, and quite frankly the place just didn’t look that friendly to me). A great way to spend a couple of hours drinking beer, listening to music and enjoying the water.

Soon it was sunset time and we snapped a few pictures as it was a good one and we are normally on the cliffs for sunset so it was good to get some pics of the sunset from the beach for a change. Here are a couple of samples

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Off to Chicken Lavish for our traditional first night dinner….by this time trouble was brewing….I had gone beyond the point of no return…way too many beers and not nearly enough to eat (as in not a damned thing, unless you count some pistachio nuts on the plane). As I am sitting there looking at my conch soup (world famous and damned good, if I am ever on my death bed and need something to rescue me, I am requesting Doc’s conch soup as an antidote) I think, “damn, I’m too drunk to eat.” Don’t you hate that, you are drunk, you need to eat, but you can’t. I shove a couple of spoonfuls down my throat and then offer the rest to Melo. Now I have no doubts about her love for me, but she has no trouble eating my soup, as she is a bigger fan of the soup than I am (and I’m really into it!!!). I had also ordered fried chicken (I knew my body couldn’t handle curried goat that night, but that is my usual dish at Chicken Lavish), but when it showed up I ate half of one piece and asked for a doggie bag. The rest of the group was in almost as bad of shape as I was, but they persevered and made it through the meal. Back to the hotel and off to sleep to get my body back in shape for the first full day in Negril. To be continued…..

Thanks! Waiting for more!:)

​Nice, hope you made it back to Bentley's for a meal.....

Oh boy this going to be a good one too! Loving these trip reports.

More more loving this already!

Thanks for the report. I drink a lot less in Negril than at home..I'm so relaxed I don't need the head spins.

Ahhhhh, the first morning in Negril, my favorite morning of the trip. I feel surprisingly good for someone who tried to single handedly ensure that the stockholders of Desnoes and Geddes (the brewer of Red Stripe) receive their quarterly dividend check in the mail. I always tell Melo that I can do without sleep or drink heavily and still be OK, but I cannot do both. Fortunately for me I got plenty of sleep and I am ready to enjoy my first full day in Negril.


I head out north from Rondel towards Bloody Bay. I love my beach walks in the morning. I walk fairly fast, I do not listen to music as I like to listen to the sounds of the water and like I have mentioned before, I sort of enjoy the interaction with the beach guys. I’m recognized by several of them, they start the schpeil (sp?) and then see that it is me and they stop that and resume what they are doing or we end up having a friendly conversation.

I walk and walk, noticing that the beach is larger in some spots and smaller in others than my previous trip(s). “The sea giveth, the sea taketh away.” I walk up towards Sandals and as I get there it starts to rain, hard…so I use the lifeguard chair at Boardwalk as a shelter and wait out the rain. Since there was plenty of sunshine around, I was blessed with the presence of a beautiful rainbow. It was huge, and you could see the whole thing from one end to another, no washing out where it approaches the water at either end, no missing parts up at the top. I thought, “this would make a great pic,” but unfortunately my camera was back in the room.

After waiting out the rain for a brief few minutes, I was off, back down to Rondel, where my lovely bride was just finishing up her “prepping” of herself for her first day in Negril. I grab a quick shower and we are off for Firefly for breakfast. Our friends D&R go with us and the day is underway. One of the great things about having breakfast at Firefly, besides the wonderful Maxine is (no, it’s not the naked people!!!) that this is where Cortis starts her morning fruit routine. The last time we were in Negril, Cortis was still off with her injury that her toe suffered at the market in Sav. This time she was back and it was really great to see her and she looked great. We stocked up on fruit from her as this was Saturday and of course Cortis does not work on Sunday because she goes to church. We finish off our breakfasts and we are on the way back down the beach to begin our sunning ritual.

I’m not one to sit around a lot, and there are errands to run the first full day as well. I need to get minutes for the phone (the international plan), some Red Stripes for the room, some rum and I brought two large tubs of Old Bay seasoning for Bentley and I wanted to get those to him and arrange a dinner for Monday night for the four of us and a couple of more friends who happened to be staying in Negril at the same time as us. If my timing turned out perfectly I would be done with errands just about the time the pork is ready at the Red Dragon.

I call my driver and I head out. Plan works perfectly, except for some reason all the Digicel machines were down and I couldn’t get the international plan, only buy minutes on cards. No problem, I was going to the Chiney-mon store anyway, and he has plenty of phone cards. I grab Beers, Rum, Ting, Plantain Chips and Spicy Big-Foots. I pay at the counter and then proceed to the “altar” located at the front of the store for a $500 phonecard for me and a $200 for the driver (gotta keep his phone charged up….never know when I might need him!!!). Chiney-mon not there, but Chiney-womon there in his place. I phone Bentley and head there next. Always great to see Bentley, he has a new menu board hanging up to avoid any “confusions” over pricing that some folks have complained about recently (on TripAdvisor). He is appreciative of the Old Bay and I make arrangements with him to have dinner ready for 6 of us at 630pm on Monday night. We talk for a few minutes, I leave him a deposit and I am on my way. It is 1245pm, perfect, pork will be ready at Red Dragon….that is the next stop.

I’ve discussed my love for the Red Dragon in trip reports before, but it really is one of the coolest places I have ever been. It is not just the great pork, it is not just the well-cold beers, it is not just the overproof rum. This place is truly special, in a very-hard-to-explain, you-just-have-to-be-there sort of way. If you have not been there, give it a try on your next trip, don’t judge the place from the road, go in and sit down and take it all in, I am convinced you won’t be sorry.. I have a couple of beers, a little pork and I buy a couple of squares on their SuperBowl pot. I also get my driver some pork and I take some back to the beach for Melo and our friends.

After a short drive back to Rondel, I store my things away in the room and I am back on the beach. Time for a long swim. I can’t swim without a beer, so I stop off at the Rondel bar for a beer and off I go. I like to walk out as far as I can and still keep my head above water. It seems this trip I can walk out further than usual, but maybe that is just my imagination. In any case, I am a long way from the waterline in about 5 feet of water, just enjoying myself. After a couple of hours of frolicking in the water it is time for “Happy Hour!!!”

Most of our afternoon Happy Hours occur at the Canoe and tonight was no exception. I am a lover of the Rum punch and you can’t beat the price ($400J for 2). There were four of us and Melo as usual drank Red Stripe and the other three of us drank rum punch. Here is a picture of the bill, keep in mind that each tick mark next to the Rum Punch actually means 2 punches. Our driver helped Melo out on the Red Stripes, she can drink, but not normally 5 in an hour!!!! Also some pictures of the sunset from Canoe, you don’t get the sun from there, but I really like the different colors in the water and in the sky that you get from there.

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Dinner this night was at 3-Dives and I have to tell you they have made tremendous strides at that place. No more waits forever for food and when you get the food it is awesome. I could drink their granny sauce and their chicken is crazy good. We order 2 half chickens, an order of shrimp and an order of steamed veges, all came with plenty of rice and peas….it was a feast to say the least. Sorry no food pictures, but you can imagine what our table looked like when we were finished, rice and peas everywhere along with lots of chicken bones picked clean. Yummy.

We ride back to Rondel and cross the road for a couple of drinks at the bar, it is Saturday night, but I get up very early (sometimes before sunrise) so by 9pm I am usually done. Melo can sleep at anytime, so off to bed we go, knowing that tomorrow is Sunday, SuperBowl Sunday and we have plans to stay up for the whole game (all the way to 10pm!!!!) and then to go to Alfreds to see the Reggae bands so we figured we could use the sleep.

Wow, really great canoe sunset shot! Love the TR. And you are right...i HAVE to get to red dragon next trip.

What's great about your trip reports is that you articulate so well the great experiences throughout your day. You guys simply know how to have fun the ENTIRE time and that is exactly how I try to roll. Looking forward to what comes next.........

Quote:

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Originally Posted by booger

You guys simply know how to have fun the ENTIRE time and that is exactly how I try to roll.

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me 2 great report .....

Great trip report! It's great to hear a report for the exact same dates I was there....I'm sure I crossed your path a few times. I stayed at Secrets and had breakfast at Firefly when Maxine worked mornings and the Wild Parrot the other days. I also bought the little honey bananas from Cortis and soursop when she had it every morning, she is one awesome lady! I look forward for more of your great report...respect

Enjoying your TR. Beautiful photos!

Really nice. Enjoying the pictures. We also are up early, so I understand an early bed time. LOL We also have a LOVE affare with the Red Dragon~~

Superbowl Sunday…..

We started visiting Negril for Superbowl about 4 years ago. I am not the biggest football fan around, and I am a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, so I never have to worry about missing my favorite team in the big game. I enjoy the Superbowl in Negril if only for the fact that I can tell my friends back home that I have my feet in the sand watching the game while they are at home freezing their aXXXX off.

We planned on breakfast at Café Goa and the RealNegril webcast. So with a late breakfast I decided to sleep in a little and get up at 7am to start my walk. Walk down to Sandals and back and by 9am I am back at the room. We weren’t headed to Café Goa until 1030ish so I relaxed a little around the room and just enjoyed the peace and quiet some. It rained quite a bit and pretty hard, but that just made me relax more, I love rain in Negril, I certainly would not want it all the time, but a little every now and then is a nice change of pace and of course the ground needs it!!!

We decided we would walk down the beach to Café Goa and cut through just before Bourbon Beach to cut over to the road. I normally avoid walking down the beach this way, it just always seemed that the beach guys were more aggressive at this end. Like other experiences this trip though, I found them to be not as bad as before. We walk down to Goa with no problem and seat ourselves for Breakfast.

They have done some work there, the place is much nicer than before, they’ve installed a raised floor which really gives the place a nice look. The roof looks much more put together than before. The rain was over by the time we got there, but I didn’t notice any puddles from roof leaks and if you have ever been there before you know the place was famous for this.

We order up a round of Angry Bloodys and await our food. The band in playing, Rob is webcasting and everyone seems to be having a good time. Soon enough our food comes. I, of course, had the Jamaican breakfast, complete with Ackee and Saltfish, festivals, some callaloo, etc. It was great and we got our food a lot faster than we had in the past. We noticed that a lot this trip, almost every meal we had (with the exception of one) seemed to arrive much quicker than it had in previous trips. Maybe we are getting used to it, maybe it is indeed coming faster.

After breakfast we walk back down the beach to Rondel, and resume of sunning ritual. Since this was Superbowl Sunday we were not planning a Canoe trip today (not saying I didn’t miss it!!!). We had plans to go down to Gardenia to take part in their SuperBowl party and watch the first half and then we were going to stop at Best of the West, grab some chicken and watch the second half from the Rondel bar with Delroy and the assorted cast of characters that were staying at Rondel (I mean characters in a good way!).

About 430 we decide to leave the beach and get ready to go to Gardenia. We have our driver pick us up just after 530 and off we go. Stop for a phone card along with way and pretty soon we are there. Not much of a crowd, Rob and Lisa are there, along with about 10-15 others. We find a table right up front (they had plenty of TVs) and sit down. We get beers and rum punches (Rum punch very good, they put bitters in it which was a new one on me, but I noticed other establishments putting those in as well, so I must have just missed this phenomenon before). We were all given a couple of their jerk chicken wings to munch on and later some chicken soup. We hung around and watched the first half, talked to Rob some and secretly guessed to ourselves that Gardenia was the spot that was going to be featured on Hotel Impossible (found out about 3 weeks later that we were right).

Just before halftime, we headed out and decided to walk back down the road to Best of the West and then Rondel. When we got to Best of the West we sent the girls on back and me and R waited for the chicken. Once again our food was ready quickly and we were on our way.

Got back to Rondel and it was still halftime!!! Damn that SuperBowl halftime takes forever. We chow down on the chicken, throw down several Red Stripes, endure a power outage at the game (funny, the power in Negril, which we all know can be hit or miss, never missed a beat the whole week and here is the biggest sporting event in the US hampered by a power outage. We had to laugh at the irony of that!!) and it becomes 10pm and time to go down to Alfreds. We were promised a show by “White Bob” among others.

If you don’t know who “White Bob” is you are definitely missing out. Bob is the proprietor of One Stop Vacations and if you aren’t booking your Negril vacation with them then you are not doing it right. He and Susan spend winters in Negril and they take all their own pictures and post them on their site (Negrilonestop.com). What that gets you is “truth in advertising” and no worries about whether the place really looks like the pictures. It does look like the pictures because their pictures are real. Anyway, if you haven’t checked them out, please do so, they come highly recommended by not just me, but by lots of us. We can’t all be wrong!!!

We arrive at Alfred’s pay our cover and go in. Whoa!!! Not many people, not many at all, but the Superbowl is still winding down and the music has not started yet. No Problem, we go to the bar and get some drinks and wait. Soon enough the music starts and eventually White Bob is invited to the stage. He’s called White Bob because he does Bob Marley covers and he does them pretty damn well for a “white” guy. He honored my request and did Rebel Music (3 O’clock Roadblock) first and then proceeded to do Concrete Jungle and Comin in from the Cold, which ironically are all in my top 10 Marley tunes.

We hang out at Alfred’s until about 1am. We threw caution to the wind and walked down the beach at night, probably for the first time in about 3 years. No Problem…there were plenty of people walking the beach and there were four of us so no one bothered us and pretty soon we were back an Rondel. We had to have security open the gate, which was actually nice, means he was awake and paying attention.

No pictures from this day for some reason, but here are a few of the beach that I took on other days of the trip:

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Coming tomorrow the Ricks, Catcha, Bentleys progressive party......more soon come....

Great report and pictures!! Really great quality photos! Anxious to hear more. Thanks for taking time to post. :)

Great pics and report. Looking forward to more

enjoying this one! (and secretly, i love me some spicy big foots!) LOL

Thanks M&M great report and nice pictures!

Thanks for sharing. Great report.

I'm also a Bengals fan so I feel your pain. I have faith that you'll get to watch them one of these years while you're in Jamaica. :)

I'm a Bengals fan as well. Enjoying your report.

Monday..essentially the halfway day of our trip, except for our friends who actually have to leave on Wednesday morning (YIKES!!!!)

After staying out as late as we did on Sunday, I didn’t get up for my normal walk on Monday morning, although I did walk up to CSA and back, only about 3 miles total. Breakfast at the hotel this morning, and it was very good (more Ackee and Saltfish for me). The restaurant at Rondel has improved 100% since they took it back over from the lease deal that was in place earlier. I would not hesitate to recommend any meal there now, before that was not the case.

Soon enough we hit the beach and we got out a few floats and we floated for a while. Today was the first day that it was really calm, previously on this trip the wind had been up and the waves were more active than usual. We played around in the water with some Rays that happened to swim by, not really playing just swimming in the same water as them. Real cool though, I had not seen them that close to the beach on previous trips.

A quick funny story about our room safes and the feeling that we had that we were the first people to ever stay in the rooms we were in on the morass side of Rondel….

We rented the safes as we always do, but instead of the safes being the ones with the removable lock and key system, these safes were the fancy ones that required a key and then a keypad that you entered as a password to keep the safe locked. Now I have admitted to heavy imbibing on this trip earlier in my report and it seemed like every time we were ready to figure out the safe we were too far gone to mess with it, so I just kept saying “we’ll figure it out tomorrow.” Well, tomorrow finally came and I set about trying to figure it out. I punched buttons, I turned the key, but nothing happened. I turned the key again and bam…it broke off. Damn, I guess it is not going to work now. I tried our friends safe but was careful with the key this time and still didn’t get anything. Anyway, I went to the Rondel front desk to tell them to just cancel it (we figured out a good place to hide our valuables and besides cash we don’t take anything to Negril that we can’t live without so it wasn’t a big deal).

When I reported that our safes did not work they immediately sent someone back to the rooms with me to check them out. I told them the key was broken off in mine so they checked mine first. Didn’t take them long to dig the key out and then they started inspecting the safe door and realized that they hadn’t installed the batteries in the safe so of course it didn’t work. Hmmmm, batteries, I never thought of that, I was used to the “low tech” ones we had always used. Oh well, I’ll know next time to look for the batteries!!!!

This was the day we decided to do the Ricks, Catcha and Bentleys experience. First to Ricks…..

Now I know it’s a trap, I know the beers are expensive, I have never eaten there so I can’t really comment on the food, but I never see anyone eating real Jamaican food there, so I figure it is not worth even considering. You really can’t beat the experience there though, especially if you have newbies with you. I kept telling them it was like the bar scene in Star Wars…..all kinds of people, acting all kinds of ways and that is just the tourists, not even talking about the locals. I figured our friends would love it, so we went. Our plan was to arrive at Ricks about 4pm, knowing we would stay there for one hour and then go to Catcha right at 5 when they started allowing outsiders in.

Our driver picked us up at 330pm, we stopped briefly at Chineymon store to pick up a bottle of Appleton for the Bentleys trip. Arrived at Ricks right on time,
bought a beer on the way in and found a spot on the steps to watch the show. Our friend R had some experience from the Navy with jumping off of aircraft carriers, so the cliffs at Ricks were nothing for him. Almost immediately he began jumping off, almost faster than we could snap pictures, but we finally got one of him as well as one of the locals jumping from their spot:

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I’ve also been trying to get a good picture of the huge Jamaican flag that is at Ricks, but even though I took about 15 pictures this time, this is the best one that I got.

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After R jumped about 5 times and we watched others jump (including one girl that landed flat on her back, I am sure she was sore the next day) we decided we would retire to the pool at Ricks and sit at the tables that are in shallow water and take in the sights. Here are a couple of pics from there.

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Pretty soon it was just after 5pm and time to head to Catcha, I told our friends that if they liked Ricks they were going to Love!!!! Catcha, I am not sure they believed me when I said that, but you’ll have to check out the next installment to see if they did (what do you think?!?!?!)….

More please I am loving your report!

great report, thanks for sharing.

ACK, you left us hanging. I think they will love Catcha.
In 2002 we stayed at CountryCountry. My husband and I were the oldest ones there, the rest were Spring Break kids. A bunch of them went on a booze cruise to Ricks and then did some jumping. The next day they were in bad physical shape. One guy had landed face first. The sea water went through his sinus cavities. As soon as he blew his nose both of his eyes turned black and blue and his nose. A girl had landed butt first with her legs extended out from her waist. her thighs and butt were black and blue. Needless to say, I became the Mother and helped nurse them back. The biggest fight was getting them to go back to their cottage at night instead of sleeping on the beach in their bikinis. Ugh

OK…you were right, our friends D&R, who loved Ricks, thought Catcha was the coolest place on earth, because, well…..it is (or at least it is in the top 10!!!). We arrived at the big green door (I always feel like we are going to see the great and powerful Oz when we show up and Catcha and knock on the door, hoping to be let in), knocked and were pointed towards the bar (if you get wet you have gone too far!!!) and pretty soon we were sitting down perusing the drink menu. I am not one for fruity, frizzy, chocolaty, blended drinks, but there is something about Ivans that makes me want to hear the whirr of the blender. We order drinks and decide to explore the place a little while we are waiting.

We walk around and D&R are just amazed at every little nook and cranny that they see, the idea of having almost a private sun-tanning spot nestled among the rocks really appeals to them. They just keep going on and on about the place. Pretty soon we go back to the bar to retrieve our drinks and walk back out to the water’s edge to take more pictures and enjoy the view. As fate would have it, the sunset this night was probably the best one of the trip. So we took plenty of pictures of the sunset, of the grounds and of each other. Here are a few (we are the happy couple in the last picture, see how lucky I am to have such a beautiful specimen to accompany on all my journeys!!!)

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We finally made it up to the bar to sit and relax, but as much fun as we were having at Ivans, our reservation for Bentley’s was at 630pm and the sunset occurred at 608pm, so the clock was ticking and I was excited to get them to Bentley’s so they could have yet another great experience. We pay our check at the bar (or rather they paid the check, gotta love friends that pick up a check every now and then!!!!), and walk towards the gate, our taxi driver meets us about half way up the path, he had parked just inside the gate and we hopped in his car, the gate opened and we were on our way to Bentleys…bye to Catcha until next time!!!!

Of course the ride to Bentley’s only takes a few minutes but the whole time we were travelling the road we all just kept talking about what a great time that was at Ivans. I kept telling our friends that the fun was just beginning, they were about to meet one of the true characters (again, character is a good thing!!!) of all of Negril.

We pull up the lane and pretty soon arrive at Bentley’s, as soon as I get out of the car I yell for Bentley and he greets us with his infectious laugh. As we approach the 13 steps to his “restaurant” I see him at the top of the steps ready to welcome us. Our other friends that were meeting us were already there, so we walked over to the table, exchanged hugs all around and sat down. I had the fresh bottle of Appleton for the fruit juice that Bentley said he would provide. I poured 5 glasses of juice with a nice portion of rum, on top, so that first drink is a killer. Melo drinks her Red Stripe, other than an Angry at Café Goa or a Caesar at Canoe (occasionally), she drinks nothing but Red Stripe the entire trip.

After just a few minutes, Bentley comes out with the “5 tings on the plate.” We all selected crab and crab, which is a crab cake and a crab back (what I would call “deviled crab” or stuffed crab). All the crab is served with plenty of vegetables and of course his “magic sauce.” Pretty soon the conversation ends and the only thing coming out of our mouths are moans and groans of pleasure as we all devour the food. To say our friends were impressed would be an understatement. As impressed as they were with Catcha and Ivans, they were just as impressed with the food at Bentley’s. We all cleaned our plates, almost finished off the entire bottle of rum and took in the view from the deck as we let our meal settle. Soon it was time to settle up with Bentley (I was already paid up since I put up the deposit for the meal) so my friends paid off the rest of the bill and we were ready to go. We all said our goodbyes to Bentley and we were on our way back to Rondel. Bentley provided a nice “to go” box of food for our driver.

There are cheaper meals in Negril than Bentley’s. If you are going to get upset about spending a few extra $$ on dinner then don’t go. If you don’t care about every penny that you spend while you are in Negril, go see Bentley. You will not regret it and you may end up with a memory that will last a life-time. I only discovered Bentley on my last trip (Oct 2012), but I will not go to Negril and not go by and see him and have a meal at his place. It’s these kinds of people (I realize there are a few of them) that make Negril. To me the beach, the water and the sun are great, but you can get a great beach in a lot of places, but you don’t get guys like Bentley just anywhere and it is folks like him that keep us coming back to Negril time after time. I am really glad we were able to show our friends what this is all about because a lot of folks in our subdivision always ask us “don’t you want to go somewhere else besides Jamaica?” and quite frankly we do, but with two jobs and two kids at home our time away from all of that is extremely valuable to us and the thought of going somewhere else and waking up on the third day and looking at each other and saying “We should have gone to Jamaica” just scares us to death. So in several years when the kids are grown and time is less valuable, we will see other places, but we will also continue to visit Jamaica because it means that much to us.

Safely back at Rondel, we decided to hit the hot-tub for a while and after all we had packed in to the last 4 or so hours it was nice to sit there and relax, look up at the stars and contemplate the greater meaning of life.

More report soon come…….

We share similar thoughts on Bentley. While not cheap, you are not just paying for his amazing food. The man is a character and is fun to reason with. I cannot imagine flying all the way to Jamaica and not spending a night with him.

This has been one of my favorite reports so far. We were there the week after you and enjoyed alot of the same things. We still havent made it to 3 dives or Bentleys or red Dragon. maybe next trip.

I dream of Bentley's rice. I have never had white rice that tasted sooooo delicious. There is nothing we didn't love about Bentley's and will go there every time we are in Negril. Thank you Gerryg for turning us on to Bentley's.

Got so sidetracked with Bentley's I forgot to say This is a Great Report. Thanks for taking the time.

Woo Hoo! Loving this so far! We like a LOT of the same things my friend so I was all in on this report!
Love the photos too, you guys look so happy.....but how can you not be?

This quote is just about perfect.....explains so perfectly exactly how we feel too!

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Originally Posted by Monty&Melo

I am really glad we were able to show our friends what this is all about because a lot of folks in our subdivision always ask us “don’t you want to go somewhere else besides Jamaica?” and quite frankly we do, but with two jobs and two kids at home our time away from all of that is extremely valuable to us and the thought of going somewhere else and waking up on the third day and looking at each other and saying “We should have gone to Jamaica” just scares us to death. So in several years when the kids are grown and time is less valuable, we will see other places, but we will also continue to visit Jamaica because it means that much to us.

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Thanks for sharing this with us! Loving every second of it!

This is a great report. i keep coming back for more.

If I can ask how much is Bentlys dinner?

Thanks

Awesome report,thank you for sharing with us and please keep it coming!!

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Originally Posted by mn negril fan

If I can ask how much is Bentlys dinner?

Thanks

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His prices are now on a menu board as of December when we were there:

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I second what Marley said, you explained how we feel perfectly. We will make our 10th trip to Jamaica next month and our friends always ask, "why don't you guys go somewhere else?" We love Jamaica so much that I would just hate if we took vacation time and spent money to go to another place and were wishing we would've just went to Jamaica the whole time. I know that that any vacation is what you make of it but you definitely don't have to try to hard to make it a good one in Negril.

Great report!! Bentley's prices are a likkle steep. I know he serves a LOT of food on his plates, but not everyone can eat that much. Guess it makes sense to maybe split a meal. Can't wait to hear more. :)

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Originally Posted by marley9808

His prices are now on a menu board as of December when we were there:

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Thanks for the info Marley

Having stayed at Rondel the same time as you and the Mrs. (and sometimes your kids) on a couple of occasions, I can attest to the fact that the two of you can drink some Red Stripes. And being one of the characters at the Rondel bar for Superbowl, all I can say, is the two of you are a riot! Also, I totally agree with you about the restaurant at Rondel, I can't believe how much better it was this reach.

BTW, great report!

I have to admit, I am really enjoying writing this trip report (and all the great comments, thanks guys!!!) since I am essentially writing the report one month after the fact (today for example I am covering February 5 and today is March 6) it almost feels like I have extended my vacation, if only that were really the case!!!

So today is Tuesday and the last day for our friends before they head back tomorrow morning. With that in mind and since they are now “seasoned” Negril travelers we decide to let them determine the itinerary for the day. Their idea of the perfect last day in Negril is to hang out on the beach for the day, down to Canoe for Happy Hour and then to 3 Dives for sunset and dinner. Couldn’t have planned that better myself. Although I had wanted to get them to the Red Dragon, but I knew they would want to stay on the beach all day and it gives us something to do when they come back with us next time….

A really great beach day, the water barely moved, the sun was bright and hot and we all got into relax mode. Here is our friend R in super-relax mode in the water

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And Melo on the beach

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I decided to take a little walk down the beach to Bourbon Beach. What a great job they are doing down there, a totally different place from in the past (I also had a great experience down there in October with my brother, so this is not a one-off type of thing). The bar is great, the beers are cold and the chicken is world class. Here are a couple of pics, one of the place and one of the chicken, the chicken picture isn’t the best because I didn’t get fries since I wasn’t that hungry, so the plate doesn’t look full, but the taste is out of this world.

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I walk back down the beach to find everyone still in total relax mode. I go for a swim and pretty soon it is time to get cleaned up for the trip to Canoe. We wanted to leave a little early because we wanted to hang at Canoe for a while and then get to 3 Dives before sunset.

We call the driver and soon enough we are off to Canoe. We arrive and get the rum punches and Red Stripes flowing. We decide to take a few pictures and since this is February 5, the Bob Marley Birthday Bash is going on that night at MXIII and that means there are vendors across the street ready and willing to serve the hungry patrons. Here is a pic of them getting ready, along with a picture of the back of Canoe. I love Canoe…..but I think you already know that.

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We head out of Canoe and down the 3 Dives. Stupid me, I lost track of the days and forgot that a webcast is going on that night. This is also the first night that they are having their live music on Tuesday nights. That was some funny stuff because the guys were still building the stage when we got there. The band’s stuff was on the stage and the guys were working around it still building. I made a side bet with Melo about whether the music would actually start before we left that night. I took the no, she took the yes…..

A super sunset that night, but I have said that a lot this trip. We hung out by the water and took a lot of pics, I have attached a few here including one of the girls in the swing down by the water. A couple of lucky guys that get to hang out with them…don’t you think??

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We order chicken, some veges, a little lobster and then we settle in. We take turns “testing” the granny sauce to break down in our minds what ingredients are in there. Our friend D fancies herself as a chef, and I fancy myself as a pretty good cook, so our mission that night was to taste and taste the sauce to figure out how to replicate it at home. I’ll get back to you on that, we haven’t been able to get together since we have been home to go in to the test kitchen to figure it out.

After a great meal, we say bye to Rob and Lisa (we will see them at Canoe on Thursday, our last night) and pick up some chicken for our driver and we are back on the way to Rondel. Just as we are paying the bill and getting ready to get in the car the muic starts....music soon come mon, so Melo wins the bet. Once back at Rondel we spend a few minutes in the hot-tub and then we are off to bed. Our friends are leaving about 930am in the morning, so we are planning on having breakfast at the hotel and then we will see them off. We will have 48 hours to enjoy Negril after they leave. We will miss our friends though while we enjoying our last two days.