Travel Day #1
My first attempt at a day by day trip report. I only have 9 days to cover, but hopefully I will keep with it and actually post a new post for each day.
26th trip to Jamaica, 15th to Negril. We come the same time every February (essentially) and try to come once in the slow season of October.
Upgraded to first class on both flights (bonus!!!!), so we were first ones off the plane in MoBay and got down to customs. They sent us to the Kiosks, and we waited briefly before processing our passports and taking the picture (man those machines take awful pictures, I can't possibly look as bad as that picture that it took of me!!!). Off to baggage claim and then on to the Nothing to Declare line. Flight landed right on time at 1225pm and we were outside in the bright Jamaican sunshine by 1250. Nothing beats the feeling of busting through those airport doors and smelling bus exhaust and feeling the rush of heat. Nothing says "welcome home" quite like that. Getting ready to get a beer from the Grouper, when from across the street we hear our driver yelling at us. "No, I got beer mon." Awesome, no overpriced airport beer for me!!! Grab our bags and off we go. Indeed, beer was in the car, in a makeshift cooler made from a cardboard box and some of the famous Jamaican Black Plastic Bags. I swear they would have to shut the country down if those things ever went into shortage.
Pack up and head out. Through Montego Bay and on to the first stop in Hopewell at the Rubis to replenish the beers, empty the bladders and observe a JLP demonstration…wait, what…that’s right, when we pulled up to the Rubis, the parking lot was full of green-shirt wearing supporters of the JLP. They were very peaceful, but they were chanting in Patios and the employees of the Rubis were powerless to get the to move. They literally had the gas pumps blocked, but thankfully not the restrooms, so we took care of business, bought a few beers, a soursop for the driver and off we were.
Next thing I knew we were in Lucea. Traffic not bad in Lucea, although there were several places in town where multiple orange-shirt wearing supporters of the PNP had gathered. They were not blocking the road, so no problem and we were through Lucea.
Pretty soon we were in Green Island, then Orange Bay and then Negril. We needed to exchange money, buy phone minutes and get some rum and beer for the room. Sounds like a trip to the Chineymon was in order. That was the first stop in Negril. I’ve been exchanging money at the Chineymon the last few trips, its pretty convenient since I stop in there for supplies anyway. He was paying 117$JA to 1$US when we arrived and that sounded consistent with what I was hearing other places paying.
Puchased 1 case of Red Stripe (in the box, which for some reason is cheaper than the returnable crate), 1 Bottle of Appleton Rum, 3 Ting and 3 Sprite. If you buy things in multiples of 3 you get a slightly better price (I think they say it is the wholesale price), never quite understood it, but a bargain is one of my favorite things, so I always try to buy things that way. I am attaching a picture of the receipt, you can see I paid 2745$JA for the case of Red Stripe, which when you divide by the 117 exchange rate comes out to a nice round 23.46$US, or a little less than a buck a beer and includes the deposit and the GCT. If that is not a bargain I don’t know what is.
Up the hill to check on things at the Red Dragon, just to say hi, we will be back later in the week. A recurring theme of the trip though, Pork was finished (it was about 3pm, though, so that is understandable).
On to Rondel, where we get checked into our favorite room, Orange. It’s in the beachfront building, but on the balcony does not face the beach so in high season it is about $40 cheaper than the beachfront superior room with the balcony that does face the beach. Down to the beach to dip the toe in, get a beer from Delroy and we are off for Canoe.
We’ve been going to Canoe since the beginning. I love the view looking back towards the beach almost as much as I love the Rum Punch. Get a Red Stripe for Melo, a 2for1 Rum Punch for me and an order of fries to put a little food on the belly. Beers are never that cold at Canoe and this time was no exception, it was drinkable, but just barely. The other reason I really love the Rum Punch. Hang at Canoe until Sunset and then take the walk down the road to Chicken Lavish for our traditional first night’s dinner. Gotta get the Conch Soup on the first night. I swear if I am ever on my death bed I am gonna ask for a big bowl of that stuff, if it won’t bring you back to life, nothing a doctor can do is going to help you. I also got the Curry Goat while Melo had the Sweet and Sour Chicken. Damn that Goat, so good and so much better in Jamaica than anything I can try to make at home with imported frozen Goat. It was high season so Doc was too busy to sit and talk much to us which is usually the highlight of the visit to Chicken Lavish, he told us to come back during the day when it wasn’t busy if we wanted to talk.
Another first night tradition with us is to go to bed really early. We get up very early to make our flight, usually have a beer in the airport before takeoff at 7am, have Bloody Marys on the planes, then hit the ground in Jamaica and down about 5 Stripes each on the way from MBJ to Negril. Drink more after check-in and after having a nice satisfying meal we are ready to fall into bed and get to sleep so we can start our vacation the next day. I never count the travel days at either end of our trip as vacation, so anything we do on those days other than travel and get to the hotel is a vacation bonus.
As I doze off to sleep I can’t help thinking how much I am going to enjoy my first walk on the beach the next morning. The other thing that hits me is this; we wait at home for our time in Jamaica to begin and think about how great it is going to be and then when we actually get there we realize how much better it is in actuality than it is in our minds. Seems hard to believe, but it’s true
Here are a few pics from Travel Day #1, tomorrow the real vacation begins
JLP Rally at the Rubis in Hopewell
Receipt for supplies from Chineymon
Interesting boat outside Mary's bay up by Canoe Bar. Folks said it had been there a while, but we never saw it again after the first day
