Day 2
We woke up pretty early (at least for vacation) but excited. We took a walk down the road to what we heard was the best breakfast spot in Negril. We strolled into the front yard of a house, and sat down at a table in the garden. For anyone who has never been there, it is a very cool experience. To this day, if I mention Just Natural, my girl’s eyes light up.
We were greeted by the sweetest woman in all of Jamaica, Momma Theresa. We knew what we wanted before she said a word. Two Jamaican breakfasts and some fresh juice. Now I, like many before me, thought the ackee was eggs. In between laughing at my cluelessness, Theresa explained all about Ackee, Saltfish and Johnny Cakes. After our fantastic meal, we said goodbye, and headed back down the road.
We got back to the Castle and were both so stuffed we had to lay down and relax. We hung out for a while, then got changed and took a taxi down to Rick’s Cafe. I remember pulling into the entrance of Ricks and thinking, if this is one of the top 10 bars in the world, are the other 9 all in Negril?
Admittedly, the cliff divers were cool. I’ve been jumping off high dives and cliffs my whole life, so it wasn’t a huge deal for me. I jumped off the high spot a few times. Every time my lady tried taking a picture, she pushed the shutter too late and all we ever got was a picture of the splash.
A diver came up to me asking for a tip. I asked him what for? He said, “I just dove off the cliff, you didn’t see me?” I said no, so was I. He laughed and said look I’ll dive off that tree if you give me a tip. So I said do it and game him some cash. He climbed up and did a little show up there before jumping off and down into the water below. He came back up and asked what I thought. I said “you said you would dive, and you only jumped.” He looked at me surprised, and we both cracked up laughing at the same time. I told him the next time I gave him money it would be for me to jump out of that tree. He just looked at and me and said, “you crazy mon, just crazy,” as he walked away.
After watching the sunset at Rick’s, we were ready to leave, but didn’t want to go back to the castle quite yet. We ended up taking a taxi down to Margaritaville on the beach for some more drinks. It was pretty dead inside, maybe two other tables. It was nice to get all caught up on what I had missed in the sports world. After a few more cocktails we headed back to the castle to turn in for the night.
