I'm more of a visual person than a literary one, so this will mostly be photos, and a link to a larger photo album of Negril photos on Flickr if you're interested in seeing more.
We flew in to Montego Bay on Oct. 14th, and our driver (Linston) drove us to Calabash House in Treasure Beach. It rained most of the way to TB, and the roads were flooded when we got to the bottom of the hill. That made for an exciting drive! We had a great time in TB (more on that in the South Coast Message Board). On the 18th, Linston drove down to pick us up. There was a demonstration blocking the road, so he had to take a "long cut" to come get us. We ran into the same demonstration on the way home, and again had to take a longer route, but we didn't mind, it gave us that much more scenery to look at.
Highlights of our stay in Negril- of course the views from Catcha Falling Star, jumping off the cliffs and swimming in the little cove at Catcha; An adventurous time on Lenbert's One Love Bus- great stops at "Force Ripe", "On the Rocks", "No Limit Bar", and "Xtabi". At Xtabi, the bus broke down (alternator belt) and Lenbert had to arrange to get another bus to drive us around. We then went to Bella Donna, and then on to the last bar of the day which I can't for the life of me remember its name, but I do remember dancing!; Next up, a day trip to 7 Mile Beach with lunch at Woodstock. I tried to get a dirty banana at Whistling Bird, but they were out of bananas; A walk up past the lighthouse to Murphy's, only to find out they weren't yet open, so walked back to Catcha with stops at Sir D's (man what a view!) and LTU Pub (powerful dirty banana!); Another walk up to Murphy's for one of the best fish dinners I've ever had; A walk over to AhhhBee's to see what they've done to the building. New paint, new zinc roof, new signage, new grill pits. It's apparently going to be a jerk place by the same family that owns 3 Dives (if I remember right); Multiple Flaming Bob Marley shots for my birthday after already having 5 drinks throughout the afternoon and evening... I paid the price dearly for it the next day.
The whole week was wonderful, but I would have to say the most enjoyable day was running into one of our drivers from our February trip- he invited us to dinner at his home. We helped a bit with the cooking, but mostly watched him fix dinner like his Mom and Grandmother taught him. Coconut water with overproof rum, fresh shrimp in coconut sauce, brown rice with beans, fresh tomato slices, more coconut water with overproof rum... We met some of his friends and family, listened to reggae on his huge stereo system, ate fresh sugar cane and coconut, visited his Uncle's place to see his chickens... It was an amazing day, I feel so blessed that he invited us over, and so glad we took him up on his offer.
