Day by Day Trip Report with Pics - February 6 - 14, 2016

[Monty&Melo]

Vacation Day #4

Worst day of the trip so far. You know why, because at noon today the trip will be half over already!!!! Bummer.

As is usually the case, I didn’t make it up early to walk the morning after consuming the Rum Punch at 3 Dives. Oh well, a leisurely morning around the room, across the street for Breakfast at Montana’s again. Hit the beach about 1030am. Sea is still pretty rough and water is still pretty cold. Pretty soon here comes Cortis, with her big fruit baskets. I need a Papaya; that always brings me back to life, along with some of those little bananas. I don’t even eat Bananas at home any more. They taste awful compared to the ones you can get in JA. We chat up Cortis for a few minutes, she seems in good spirits and is walking fine. She’s had awful luck with her feet lately and it is good to see her roaming around the beach. She is an integral part to the Negril beach experience as far as I am concerned.

Pretty soon here comes Norm the Patty-Mon and I get a Coco Bread and Melo gets some patties. I decide since I didn’t walk this morning I am going to take an afternoon beach walk. I go to the room to grab some cash for the beers I will need along the way.

Don’t get too far and stop at Tony’s Hut. Grace Ann is off this day, but Milton in there and the beers are frosty as usual. $300J. I sit for a while, get a second beer and head out up the beach. Next stop is Auntie’s Thrill Corner. I grab a beer and take a seat at their picnic table in the shade. Today is February 10th, which happens to be my Dad’s birthday. I have a tradition of calling my Dad on his birthday each year from Negril. He looks forward to it I think. He never answers the phone at home (he lets my mom do the dirty work) but on his birthday he always answers. We talk for a while, he’s relatively healthy, but is 71 years old and has a few ailments which slow him down, but on this day it sounds like he is doing good.

I leave Auntie’s and head up the beach, once I get past the All-Inclusives, I see a large crowd of Jamaicans on the beach at both Cosmos and at the Public Beach Park. Then it hits me, it’s Ash Wednesday, a public holiday in Jamaica, so families are enjoying a day at the beach together. It is fun to watch the kids play in the surf and the sand. Some of the kids are just laying in the sand, literally covered in it when they get up. I enjoy just watching them splash and play. Looks like they are having the time of their lives. I’m happy and peaceful watching them enjoy their island like us tourists do.

I continue my walk up to Dr. Love’s and I decide to turn around. The walk takes much longer in the afternoon with all of the beer stops and I’ve already been gone an hour and I still have to make my way back. I stop off at Cosmos for a Red Stripe refill and walk back down the beach. Stop at Auntie’s for another and then at Tony’s for just one more. I get back to Rondel to find Melo sitting at the bar peacefully reading her book.
We head back to the room and get ready for Happy Hour/Dinner. This would be our last chance to hit Canoe for the next couple of days as we have plans that will have us elsewhere at Happy Hour on Thursday and Friday so we head to Canoe. Our driver joins us as we are finalizing our plans for the Jamaican BBQ we are going to tomorrow. After a few Rum Punches and beers at Canoe, we head up to LTU for dinner.

We have a love/hate relationship with LTU. We love the setting and the food, we hate (maybe that is a strong word, maybe strongly dislike is better) the spotty service and long wait times for food. These things don’t stop us from going, but it kills the vibe slightly. Damn, I love that whole snapper that is usually on the specials menu though, have to come back here every trip. Sure enough, we picked a pretty busy night as there were probably 10-12 tables in use. Soon enough someone takes our drink order. Rum Punch and Red Stripe. The Red Stripe is pretty warm, barely drinkable, but it works.

Surprisingly the Pumpkin Soup (included with every entrée) shows up quickly. It’s yummy as usual. The rest of the meal takes for what seems like forever, we didn’t really time it and maybe because we were sitting near the kitchen and smelling it the whole time the amount of time seemed longer than it really was. Who knows, but when the food finally came it was great. The Snapper wasn’t quite Quality Sea Breeze quality, but good nonetheless. I stripped the meat off the bone until there was nothing left but the head. I consider myself an adventurous eater, but even I draw the line at eating the Fish Head.

After a while we get the bill and then head out. Another successful day of doing pretty much nothing and enjoying the hell out of it. There is a big adventure ahead of us tomorrow as we are going to a friend’s house just outside of Lucea for a cookout complete with Chicken, Goat, Mannish Water, White Rum, Box Milk, etc. We go to bed early and prepare ourselves for a full day tomorrow.

Nice Towel Decoration on our bed by the Rondel Housekeepers


All that is left is the Head Mon!!!!


241 Rum Punch at Canoe. I usually ask for them to be brought to the table one at a time, but it makes for a better picture when they are there together