Mr and Mrs Sandman go to Port Antonio

[sandman66]

Day 1
Things went great yesterday. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and the priority lineups were very short. The flight from Toronto seemed to go by quickly, I never watched much tv, just a couple episodes of 2 broke girls. One thing worth mentioning though, the landing at mbj was by far the hardest I have ever experienced in a airplane, it wasn't expected so it was more of a shock than scary. But we made it.
I had decided to purchase the Club Mobay arrival package, but my wife had no knowledge of it (that there even was such a thing). We get off the plane and start walking, it wasn't long before we get to where there are 3 beautiful Jamaican ladies holding up little signs. I pointed them out to wife but she didn't clue in right away. Then she saw our names and was a little confused at first, then excited. It turned out the lineups were not very long going thru the airport so we probably only saved half an hour, but we ended up hanging in the lounge to enjoy the free liquor and food (which pretty much meant we blew our time savings lol). The servers in the lounge were so friendly it was hard to leave, we even had a couple take out rum punches to carry with us when we finally left. We negotiated a cab ride and we we off to the Ridgway guest house, really a place walking distance from the airport. They were expecting us and we quickly had a room, a/c in full effect. After a quick cleanup we had our walking shoes (sandals) on and we were off. We left the hotel about 3 pm in the direction of the hip strip. It was a very fun afternoon being able to check out mobay like that, I have spent very little time there in the past. Had a feast of jerk chicken and pork at the pork pit. Wasn't cheap but it was very good, ended up ordering a second round of pork. We were down on one of the beaches when a local came up and started talking to us. He explained how we should walk in a certain direction that will take us to the area where most tourists would never go. Well of course we checked it out and it was a eye opener. I don't know what the area is called but one main street was Market street, and a market it was. For 2 hours we never saw another person with white skin, we wandered thru the masses of people enjoying the sights and smells. In one spot there was a huge Christmas tree, had to be 40 feet tall, lit up beautifully. Unfortunately I decided to leave both my phone and camera in the room as I hadn't planned to taking any pictures, big mistake. Well after dark we decided to start making our way back to the hotel. Naturally we stopped for drinks along the way, including Margaritaville. Had a few very delicious daiquiris (and $$$). A couple more stops as we stopped, one place called Fishbones, they had a sign that looked very similar to a tattoo I have so I wanted to stop there.
We walked by Glorianna hotel, a place we had originally booked then cancelled after reading some very negative reviews. Man, that was a good decision. There is a small barber shop attached and there were a large group of locals hanging nearby, music screaming from one of the vehicles. It was one of the few times in the day I was asked the usual questions (weed, coke??) So this mornings we are enjoying coffee on our private deck. Going to go get some breakfast then hopefully our car rental guy shows at 11 as arranged. Then we are off to Port Antonio. Stay tuned....

[sandman66]

Please be aware I cut and pasted this from another site so the days are a bit off (we arrived in Mobay Jan 21) Today is Dec 26. And I am sorry for no pictures, I am having a problem downloading them from my sd card to this netbook. Working on it....

[sandman66]

Day 2 started great enjoying coffee on the deck of our room at the Ridgeway guest house. After enjoying the brew we needed to feed, but there wasn't anything real close to the hotel. We wandered down to the road trying to decide where to go. There was a security guard manning the gate at a school next door, and right about the time we asked him about a place to eat, a fellow rode up on a bicycle. Apparently this guy could bring us breakfast, only take about 15 minutes. That sounded good as we were expecting our car rental guy to pick us up in the next 90 minutes or so. We gave him our order and decided to wait on a railing adjacent to the road, watching the traffic roll by. I know its hard to believe, but an hour later theres no sign of our food. Then Sonia from the hotel walks up and tells us our car is going to be here in a few minutes. So we go quickly finish packing and the car rental guy is there just as we finish. I asked Sonia if she had eaten and she replied no. So I gave her the money for our food order and told her enjoy when it finally arrived. We get in the van along with our luggage and drive about 10 minutes down the highway to the rental site. All is good till he asks me for my drivers license. No problem, just need to dig it out of my suitcase, where its in my wallet, along with my 2 debit cards and credit cards. The minutes went by as I searched and searched again, soon I was in panic mode - where the f***k is my wallet??? It absolutely was not in either of my suitcases. Did I leave it in the room? Did it even make it back to the hotel the night before? I couldn't recall putting it the safe the night before or taking it out of my pocket. I felt like I was going to puke walking into the rental office to tell the guy I can't find my wallet. All we could do is go back to the hotel and hope it was there somewhere. The drive seemed to take forever then we finally pulled into the lot. Sonia was in the yard hanging laundry. I told her I might have left my wallet in the room, she replied she had just been in the room, emptied the trash, but never saw it. My heart sank even further but she opened the room so we could have a look. First thing I do is go to the safe, the door wide open. I can see its empty but when I put my hand in and sweep the edge I come out with my wallet in hand. It was standing on edge so you couldn't see it against the side. You think I was relieved?? I gave Sonia a huge hug I was so happy. I asked her if the food had arrived yet, answer was no. I doubt he ever showed. Thankfully that was the lowlight of the day. We got back to the rental place, finished filling out forms and we were on our way. We drove approx. 1 minute to Scotchies, where we enjoyed some delicious jerk pork along with rice and peas.
The drive to Port Antonio went very good.Including stopping for fuel as well as a scotiabank atm and store for drinks, it took 3 1/2 hours from MoBay, and we never got over 90k/hr. It would have been nice to make a few scenery stops but we wanted to get there before dark. Although I had an idea where our hotel was, we didn't exactly drive right up to it. After a couple wrong guesses we approached an older couple walking towards us on the street. I said to my wife, "those people look godly, lets ask them if they know where it is". Well they knew but the directions were pretty vague. After a couple tries at directions, the old guy says they will get in the car and show us. So next thing we have a sweet old couple in the back seat. While driving my wife asks them if there will be a Christmas mass? She said yes, and asked my wife if she was catholic. "Yes, I am"....Well YOUR church is over there, up the hill. I laughed as I thought it was quite amusing (I don't go to church). Soon we were at our hotel. I wanted to give the couple a ride home but they insisted they would walk. That was our first interaction with locals at PA. We checked in, had a shower and decided to do a bit of a walk and find a beer and food.
Will continue tomorrow, time to relax.....

[sandman66]

Merry Christmas from not so sunny today Port Antonio. This morning we were up early, ate breakfast and loaded up the car heading south east, no exact destination in mind. We just wanted to see a new beach, and shortly after passing the turnoff to Frenchmans, we blew by the blue lagoon turnoff, but then saw san san beach. Wasn't sure if we could drive thru the narrow entrance but there was a guy there holding a rake waving us in. Entry fee - 500j each. First thing we noticed was the lack of people, we were the only ones there. It looked OK, but the nicest part of the sandy beach still needed to be raked, he just finished the area close to where we parked. The "caretaker" showed us where there were showers plus where you could get drinks. He also introduced us to the boat tour guy. We basically settled in a nice spot where we could lean up on a grassy ledge, but within about 10 minutes it started to rain, hard enough to chase us into the car. This ended up being a repeating problem for the next hour at least. On one of the dry spells the boat tour dude offered me the opportunity to buy him some rum, he was even willing to ride his bike to go get it lol. A few other people had showed up and left and eventually we decided to leave as well. It looked like it would rain for a while, plus the water didn't look all that inviting, lots of weedy debris. It was an OK place but I don't know if we will return there, wasn't really feeling it there, although if it was sunny and a few more people around it would have been a lot better.
So we left and continued down the road eventually driving by boston jerk centre and boston beach. The sky had cleared a bit and the beach looked inviting so we found a place to turn around and drove back to the entrance to the beach. One of the cook shop guys was first to "greet" us. I learned first there is no entrance fee, and that food and drink is very available right there. We decided to stay awhile, so we grabbed our towels, cooler and some reading material. Before we made it to the beach we were approached by a guy selling an assortment of necklaces. Although that's the last thing either of us needed my wife bought one from him for 5US and we made our way to the sand. This place was a bit busier, probably 15 people there, mostly locals. Theres a trail on one side of the cove that leads to a stairway and platform where if you have bigger balls than me you could jump into the sea. We walked to the platform and took some pics. It was a good place to watch a couple young Jamaicans surfing. Then back to the beach, laid out our towels and chilled. We ended there for a few hours and we would have stayed longer except we had put our name down for the xmas dinner being served at our hotel at 3pm. We had a few vendors come up to offer their wares. One fellow, Ja Tiger, was selling his own cd's. He was carrying a Caribbean travel magazine that had almost a full page picture of him. He had a small cd player with him and he wanted me to listen to some of his music. It was decent, even pretty good. He wanted 1000j but settled for 500, autograph included. We had a good chat with a lifeguard, Joseph. Real nice guy and if we go back (we will) I'm going to let him give me some surf lessons. The waves were pretty big further out from the beach and by time we were getting close to leaving there were quite a few guys surfing, it was a treat to watch. I went into the water for a bit myself, it was Negril 7 mile beach temp, warmer than frenchmans for sure. It actually mostly cleared up once we got to Boston, no more rain (until tonight) Oh ya, we also got some jerk pork and breadfruit from the cook stand. The pork was good but had lots of fat on it, breadfruit isn't my favorite but their tasty and spicy sauce really helped. We never stopped at the official jerk centre but will in the next while. Ja Tiger told us of a live concert right by there on Friday. We might go, hard to say for sure. When I go to such an event I like to smoke and drink a bit, and that means driving impaired, and that is something that will not happen. I don't want to risk getting hurt from something I did wrong, and besides, we have seen a lot of police check stops, although so far we have not been stopped. Today coming back there was a white guy pulled over right at the mockingbird hill entrance, looked like he was getting a sobriety test. Speaking of mockingbird, on the way back we drove up to the restaurant, we are thinking about trying it out after reading all the reviews. Their prices are pretty steep, so we are thinking about it. Don't mind paying the price for good food, but I am wary of places that have serving sizes inversely proportional to the price. Anyone here been there? How is it?
So we came back to hotel, showered. I even put on some slightly dressy PANTS for xmas supper. It was nothing special, only 3 tables with people, we had a choice of fish or goat. So we had escovitch fish with a few fixings, and free sparkling champagne woohhooo. The food at our hotel is decent, but the service has been very good.
After supper we drove to a nearby store and stocked up on rum, beer, snack, ice. Got back to hotel, rolled up, mixed a couple cocomania drinks, and made our made to our private rooftop lounge, where I "was" writing this. Around the time my wife was face timing her family on the cell it started to rain. So back down to the room. Gonna finish our rummies then make a short walk to one of the close bars and have a couple beers. You can hear the reggae clearly from our open window, I want to go find the source.

[sammyb]

Enjoying your report thus far. Glad you guys made it safely to PA. Thanks for the info on Ridgeway Guest House, have thought of staying there a few times. Have not eaten at Mockingbird, but can recommend Woody's for great burgers and rum punch, Geejam and Trident. Geejam has live music on Friday and Trident on Saturday.

[kaycee]

I have been following your report on the other board. Thanks for sharing! Since reading Vi' s report and now yours, I must visit Port Antonio. Seems very laid back and quiet.

[JitterBug]

i'm also following you on the yellow board. great reading so far.

[sandman66]

12/26/2013, 7:52 pm


When I quit writing last night I mentioned we were going to find the source of the loud music. It was a small bar right on the corner of the street our hotel sits on. We walked in, ordered a couple beers and had a seat. There was an older couple sitting at the bar, and one other guy sitting in an old velvet easy chair. He was probably in his 50's and kind of singing along with the music. It seemed we really didn't fit in but I was determined to sit a while and listen to the music. Well 5 minutes later Mr easy chair gets up and walks up to me. He was there to point out our hotel key had fallen out of my pocket (he just picked up the key and said this fell from your pocket). That was all I needed. We started talking and next thing the 3 of us are sharing a spot, wife and Andy in the 2 easy chairs, me on a stool. We started a good conversation and when his drink was empty, I offered to by him one, he never asked. I learned Andy was a semi regular at this bar, which was owned by the bartender, Tony. Andy drank something I had never heard of, rum mixed with milk and a bit of water. He said it was very smooth. We sat with him for well over an hour. We learned he lived his entire life around PA. He won a scholarship that entitled him to go to high school, and worked for 22 years as a night auditor until he was told he was retiring. He worked at various hotels after that, I don't think he works anymore. I think his favorite hobby now is betting on horse racing, he told us he was going somewhere tomorrow to watch the races and do some betting. It was easily our best bar experience so far, even Tony the owner was extra friendly to us on the way out. I hope our next time there he remembers us.
Thursday morning was the same routine. Up at 8 and downstairs for breakfast. We decided to go for a walk downtown, it was pretty dead, nothing like Christmas eve. Most places were closed for Boxing day so really nothing to see. So it was decided lets go back to the beach and relax. It was pretty cloudy but we hoped for the best. Back to the hotel, quick stop at the store for supplies and away we went. We decided to go back to Frenchmans cove. It was busier than our first time there but what I really noticed is how much calmer it was, not flat was just small waves coming in, my swim toys were calling me. We got a couple loungers and set up for the day. The sun was shining hard and except for a very quick shower, the clouds mostly stayed away. I spent a good hour snorkeling along the cliffs beyond the roped off area, saw quite a few small fish but with the fresh water river feeding into the cove the water is a bit brackish, so the clarity isn't very good.
I really like this beach, the workers there are very good, and there are no hassles whatsoever. We will be back, but we still need to get to Reach Falls, Winnifred beach, Long beach, rio grande rafting etc. I forgot to mention our new friend Andy (who we ran into this morning in Port Antonio while he was on his way to watch the races) told us to see a King Saba at the blue lagoon. He told us they are lifelong friends and to make sure we ask for him and tell him we are friends of Andys. I guess we will see how that turns out. We might go there tomorrow if its nice out.
On the way home we stopped in at Woody's Low bridge restaurant. Had a really good burger and fries. Burger was small but had lots of layers and tasted great. When we left there was a guy that you could see had some mental challenges sitting right next to the drivers door of our car. He had a knife in his hand, chipping away at a small tree branch. He never said a word, perhaps he can't talk, but he put his hand out and kept it there till we drove away. I kind of felt bad but I really don't hand out money to anyone. If we go back there and he's around I will probably give him at least a good meals worth of money.
We were up on our rooftop lounge for a bit until once again the rain chased us down. Right now its pouring (wife said gushing). If it slows down we are going to go for a couple beers at our new bar, and go see if a certain cook stand is open. Theres a guy that has a couple huge pots of soup on the go but our timing hasn't worked out yet. I love soup in Jamaica. Thanks for reading, I hope everyone (or most) enjoy it. And by the way, I am still looking for advice on how to arrange the rio grande raft trip.

[ackee]

Albert in Port Antonio at (876) 460-1313.He is a licensed captain and he's less expensive than the tour groups
He can also be contacted through Ivanhoe's Guesthouse at 9 Queen St. Port Antonio (876)- 993-3043.
He is a very pleasant and knowledgeable man and can take you rafting on the Rio Grande river and hiking in the John Crow and Blue Mountains. Tell him "Weaver" recommended you..

[ackee]

I have used him and recommended him many times but Weaver has known ,used and recommended for years ..Whenever I am in Port Antonio, I always stay at Ivanhoes..