Trip report….March 14th to the 21st.

[need some sun]

My best friend called me several months ago to tell me that he was getting married to his long time girlfriend.
He asked me to be the best man, and of course I said, "hell yes!". "That's great" he said. "Now I need you to do me another favor, plan us a destination wedding somewhere hot, like Jamaica".
You see, they live in the "lesser 48" and have never traveled outside of the US, so he was depending on me to get it right.

And so it all began.
Negril was a no-brainer. Everyone I talked to said it was the place to go.
I did the research, narrowed it down to three places, and than let them choose. They chose Beach House Villas. (http://www.negriljamaicavillas.com)
It was a great choice. "Now do me one more favor" he says, "Could you plan the wedding as well"? No problem, mon.

I sent out an e-mail to Diana at BHV to see who she recommended. "Weddings by Isabelle, of course". (http://weddingsbyisabellejamaica.com)
So I contacted Isabelle and got the low down. She sent me info on the packages and such. I forwarded it to my friends and let them do the rest. It took awhile for them to make up their minds, but Isabelle was very patient.
Ok, location scouted, accommodations set, deposits made, wedding planned…now what?

Enter negril.com
If I had a dollar for every hour I spent on this board reading trip reports, gaining information, and getting suggestions, our trip would have been free!
Thank you, everyone, and especially Rob for having this site. The wealth of knowledge here is priceless.

The first order of business; we needed to get 10 people from MoBay to Negril. I sent out e-mails to several providers listed in the transportation section.
Patrick Grandison, Esperanza Tours, was the first to respond. His price was fair and I liked the way he "talked", so we booked. Another great choice. I could have spent the entire vacation riding around with Patrick, doing pick up and drop offs, talking with him about everything under the sun. (esperanza@cwjamaica.com)

Anyway, back to the report…everything was set.
gerryg123 convinced me that Club MoBay arrival service was the way to go. Thanks, Gerry. (http://clubmobay.com)
Four of us arrived on Friday at 12:45 pm. Two more came in 45 min. later, and the rest a half an hour after that.
The Club MoBay rep whisked us through the long lines at Immigration and then right through Customs as well. She took us to the lounge, gave us cold towels, drinks, and food.
I think we sat there for close to 3 hours, just chillin', waiting on everyone else to arrive, sucking down our first, second, third, forth Red Stripes, and a couple of rum punches for good measure.

When we stepped out into the wonderfully humid Jamaican air, Patrick was there patiently waiting for us. He had a big van and a cooler of Red Stripes ready to go. So off we went.
The drive out of MoBay was cool. The traffic was crazy, guys in the middle of the road selling peanuts, news papers, what have you. Lots going on.
The country side was beautiful. Lucia reminded me of a border town in Central America. Then finally…Negril and Beach House Villas!






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[negril#1fan]

Nice start, thank u... Patrick is a class act....

[MoFromMonroe]

Yay a new trip report. Off to a good start.

[sammyb]

Great start...I adore Isabelle, she is truly a gem.

Keep it coming

[Jim-Donna]

tap...tap...tap...........great start, I LOVE weddings!

[justchuck]

Great start! Keep it coming.

[picklz]

Awesome another TR! Just what the doctor ordered. Nice start so far looking forward to reading more.

[nutz4travel]

Yippee! Can't wait for more

[TizzyATX]

Awesome start to your report. Looking forward to this

[need some sun]

We arrived at BHV about 5:30pm. Everything was ready for us. Diana greeted us at the door along with "momma cat", Bull was ready with a cart for our luggage, and Bujo had the ocean warmed to the perfect temperature.
After all the introductions, paperwork, and figuring out who was sleeping where, we headed back to the villa. The 10 or us had decided to take the entire Beach House complex. Two bedrooms on the ground floor for the Canadians and my wife & I, Two bedrooms on the second floor for the Wisconsin couple and the brides parents, and the third floor Penthouse for the soon to be newlyweds.

The third floor Penthouse has the most incredible views. You can see all the way from Heartbeat Resort on the cliffs to Booby Cay (If your eyes are really good, from Honduras to Havana). It also has a roof top deck, which gives you the opportunity to catch some morning sun long before the beach dwellers. But by 2 in the afternoon I'm sure you could fry ackee and salt fish on the tiles up there. As Michael would say,"it's hot, hot, hot!" Michael is the day time security guard. He was very sensitive to everyones needs, and my wife took great pleasure in making him blush at every opportunity.
The second floor apartment has two king beds and a newly remodeled kitchen with granite counters, stainless appliances, and a gas range. It's a good thing I wasn't on that floor, because if I had had that kitchen to cook in, I would have missed out on some of the best food Negril has to offer. The patio was good sized with a nice view. The first floor really worked perfect for my wife and I. It has a large covered porch with hammocks. Perfect for morning coffee, afternoon naps, and evening cocktails. The kitchen was small, but had the basics for cooking. There is a queen bed in one room and two doubles in the other. We took the room with the doubles. A different bed every night just to keep Rose guessing (Rose was our housekeeper and my new friend. She is kind, patient, and trustworthy). I mean really, how much time do you spend in your room with a beach like that 50ft. from the front door? It also had a pull out couch and three bathrooms. The two most important things were the coffee maker and the refrigerator, nothing else mattered.

So, first things first! Drop the suitcase on the bed, slip on a pair of board shorts, and run for the water. We've been waiting for this for the longest time. The feel of the sand between our toes, the salt water stinging our eyes, and being able to just float, and float, and float. The beach was perfect. The water was perfect. And there were NO JET SKIS! I don't want to start a controversy, but not having jet skis was wonderful (more on that later). After a quick swim, we head to the bar. The Ocean Breeze bar attached to BHV. We introduced ourselves to Lance (Mr. Romance) and ordered some Stripes. Just then Michael yells,"get your camera!". It's our first sunset in Negril. Spectacular!
That evening was spent at the Ocean Breeze with our friends, catching up and hanging out. It had been a long, long day of travel, and the rhythm of the beach was washing away the miles. We were in the groove.

I'm an early raiser at home, and Negril was no different. I would roll into bed around midnight and be up by 5:30 every morning. I loved sitting on the beach as the sun came up, with a cup of Blue Mountain, talking with Bernard the night watchman. He has a collection of old JA money. 1's, 5's, &10's from the days before the currency was debased. Cool stuff. He pumped me for numbers to play on the daily lotto. We talked about his family, life in Negril, and Alaska. I showed him some youtube videos of snow machining and salmon fishing. He showed me photos of his kids.
He came and got me one morning, calling out, "grab your camera and come down to the beach". There was a tall bird on the beach looking for breakfast, and the moon was setting over the water. The pictures just cannot do justice.

Anyway, back to the timeline.
Our first full day was Saturday, the 15th. It started out with no coffee! We forgot to go to the store the night before. And on the beach, nothing gets going until at least 7:30 or 8am. So my friend Steve, the groom to be, sees me coming out of the villa and says,"I met a guy down the beach who has breakfast for us". "Sweet, let's go". So we walk down towards the public beach past Ansell's Thachwalk and meet up with this guy who calls himself Chef Donald. Donald Simmons is his name and he is new to beach vending. He is only out from 6am until 9am. After 9 he has to leave the beach. He has no permit and the long time venders won't let him work their territory after 9am. Anyway, he hooks us up with dumplings, curried chicken, pickled salt fish and greens. Holy ****! What a way to start the day. We grab enough for our selves and our wives then head back to the villa. The food was great. Donald stopped by every morning to check in on us and drop off some goodies. He made us a platter of banana bread and potato pudding one day. He just left it for us with his phone number. I called him and he said,"Whatever you think it's worth, I'll be around in a while". There were seven small paper plates with three pieces each on them. I gave him 2,000 JA. He seamed very happy with that. The morning that we were leaving for home, Donald came by extra early to sit and talk, exchange contact info, and say goodbye.

After breakfast we just hung out on the beach. Toward mid day several of us walked over to the cambio at Bar-B-Barn to exchange some cash, and then popped into the grocery across the street for smokes and coffee (the going rate was 106JA to 1USD). I hadn't walked 100 yards when some guy tried to sell me goat poop and glue. "Hey mon, wanna buy some hash?" Yeah, right. "It's good, mon, really". Whatever. We had just returned to BHV when I heard a voice from the beach call out, "Beef patties, chicken patties, veggie patties!" Hey introduced himself as Nevel. Bujo called him Wheeler. He was The Patty Man. After lunch we had a route taxi take us to the Hi-Lo for more supplies, i.e. fixings for rum punch, beer, eggs, bread, Basa, and lunchmeat. It was fun getting out into the local arena. There is a lot going on down by the round-a-bout. People everywhere. And the Hi-Lo was nice, everyone very friendly and eager to help. My friend and his soon-to-be had to meet with Isabelle that afternoon about wedding plans. They pretty much just hung out by the beach and went over everything, very casual and low key. All the decisions were made and everything was set.

Ok, we were stocked up, the wedding was good to go, and Patrick had dropped by on his way back from MoBay and dropped off a phone for us. We were ready…a quick shower and we're off in the Seastar shuttle for the Saturday night buffet, live reggae show and webcast! (www.seastarinn.com)



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