“ NOLAnmr Rookie Trip Report -Part 4–Day 3-Rick's, Kuyaba, etc ”

Dec 29, 2008, 4:12 PM
On this morning, our 3rd day in Negril, waking up was not as pleasant as the second day. Setting and all was just as nice as before, I just had quite a hangover. So we ended up sleeping a bit later than usual and hit up Best in the West again after dragging out of bed. This was also the day before our wedding so we kind of wanted to take it easy. After eating we were to meet friends & fam over at Ricks Café. Our driver, Eardley from Thriller, picked us up and took us to Xtabi first to show us the cave and the grounds. We weren’t there long but it was nice and I could see enjoying spending a little time there on a future trip.

We finally make it to Rick’s a little late and everyone is there. It seems that no-one has jumped because they were all waiting for me. Ok, I’ll do it; I’ll jump from the tallest one. I’m still a bit groggy and still fuzzy just going with the motions at this point. I’m in line with my friend Shawn and we are just talking. I’m not paying too much attention as I walk up to the plank to jump. I very much non-chalantly just walked off the edge of the drop off w/o thinking about it or even looking down. Man did I underestimate that jump. It completely shocked me as I plunge in and a rush of salt water drains any last bit of sinus issues I may have had lingering. Maybe that is the way to do it for the first time? Don’t think about it and don’t look down, just go. When I finally made it out of the water and climbed the ladder I was out of breath and needed to sit just to catch it. I was awake now for sure. I just didn’t respect the jump like I should have but it may have worked to my advantage because I had other friends who walked to the edge looked down, took a step back, looked down, moved to a lower platform, looked down, lower platform and so on. It ended up being a great afternoon and evening as all of our wedding guests where there and had fun mostly jumping off of the lower platforms.

After Rick’s we went back to get some rest and shower up before Dinner at Kuyaba. I think that my Kuyaba meal was probably the best dinner I had the whole trip. I ordered the lobster thermidor and it was great. The setting at Kuyaba was real nice also with the wooden walk-ways, swings at the bar, great service and atmosphere. Bit pricey though, but well worth it. After our dinner we walked the beach and hung out at Alfred’s. It was Friday night and they had their concert going on. I liked Alfred’s, much better than the hassle of Roots Bamboo. We were able to find a good spot to sit, drink and watch the show. It was kind of a tame night since we were a little tired from Rick’s and wanted to take it easy because our wedding was the next day. So we just stayed for a couple of hours and went home (CCLP) and were in bed fairly early (1 am-ish is early for us, on vacation time) for a full night’s rest. The wedding day report is already up; it was the first one I did. I will follow soon with the rest of the reports after the wedding: Hedo & Seagrape.

I will also try to find some photos of Kuyaba and Alfred’s to post on this thread later. For now here is the link to the photos from Ricks and Xtabi cave:

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephanielanter/RickSCafe#