Many sleeps in Ja. First trip report.

[limeex2]

Day 2. I am awoken by the sounds of pots and pans rattling for their daily use, then REALLY loud dancehall reggae music on a tired out system. Cloudy again, I check my cell for the time and its 6am. I roll with it,realizing it is yet a another Negril moment and remind myself that this is a $20 room. I toss about and finally get up and figure its time for some morning yoga that is sorely needed.
I take my vitamins and try to figure out how to do my practice on island that is all rock,and that grass seems to grow only in expensive resorts. I try my tiled room. I do fine but just cant catch my groove with all the noise and no mat. Do the best I can with what I have, but end up, tearing up the skin on one knee and elbow. After showering up, as I ready for my morning walk, I meet my roommate. His name is Mahilo. He is from one of the Soviet bloc countries that we mispronounce and now lives in Norway. Nice,well spoken young man.
I have no plans today other than trying the The Love Bus for the first time. As I get to the street, I flip a coin,Heads to right,tails to left. To the left/west it is and off I go. I pick up the pace and walk till my belly says I need to turn around, about face and off I go to my first of many mornings at Sip-a-Bites. Good simple breakfast, lots of locals and a good price. In Minnesota, I have given up on walking in the winter. To slippery. Having fallen once and getting a concussion from it and another from a motorcycle accident, its not worth the risk. walking feels good, so off I go.
I am in no hurry as I check out many vendors. Much of the same items one sees every where here, but also lots of really unique one-of items that I really like. Making mental notes of their location, I start heading west again in search of lunch knowing that the Love Bus will be a alcohol related event. More on alcohol related events later. I stop at Mango ?? again and order up. Lots of locals and this is the first time I am hit up by a very persistent haggler. As I eat, he keeps it up. Hagglers never bother me. I usually lightly shake my head 3 times and say no thank you with out eye contact. Not this time, and one of the very few things that get to me, is bothering me when I eat. Everybody in my world gets 3 strikes before their out and this was no exception. I politely shook my head two separate times, the third, I took my eyes off my meal,looked into his eyes and sternly said "no means no" and stared him down with eye to eye contact. Done deal. The meal was huge and I knew there was no way I was going to finish it. I pushed a good sized meal for myself to half of the container and polished it off. I get up, get another to-go container, fork set and giving my left overs to the haggler, set back to my place to wait for Lenbert and da Love Bus.