Just back from the Treehouse-Trip Report Day 1&2

[The Chooch]

My trip was from Dec. 15th - 25th, originally I was supposed to have 2 newbies but 1 cancelled so it was me and my best friend, Marie from LA. She arrived Dec. 17th and left the 24th so I was alone the first 2 nights and last night. We stayed in a garden room at Negril Treehouse,where I have been staying for the last 6 years.


Day 1:
I had to leave my house at 3am for a 6am flight out of Philly on Air Jamaica. Upon arrival the airport was empty and I breezed thru customsand Immigration and made my way to the new desks outside the customs door to Kenny Tours. I meet my driver and am on my way !!!
The driver starts to tell me the town name and I'm like Hopewell & he's like, you've been here before huh?! I'm like many times!!
As we drive thru Lucea my anticipation starts to build (halfway there I say to myself), Green Island, Rhodes Hall, Half Moon Beach I can
hardly contain myself!!! The driver points out the new condo's by RIU they are building. I also notice the new Boardwalk Village which I didn'trealize was on bloody bay. Finally we arrive at the Treehouse....I'm HOME!!!!!! I quickly change into my swimsuit & grab a beach towel and a lounger in my favorite spot by the bar....not bad I'm on the beach & chillin by 11:45am. My Rasta friend arrives to welcome me
back, we go back to my room exchange gifts and he says he'll be back later with his wife. I spend the rest of the day suffering from an immediate
case of sand gravity. (I don't know about you guys but it doesn't take me long to settle into the Negril vibe anymore It used to take a day to unwind but now it's like my mind and body know now what to expect and get right to it)!!!!
I am welcomed on the beach by Moses, the security guard, then Chef Allan, Keisha, a waitress and Clive,the Treehouse Driver and Cher, the massage therapist and Kay from housekeeping!! It's good to be back home! I love my Treehouse friends, they're the reason I keep
coming back!!
As I lay there lazily watching the runnings, I'm in full Irie Jamaica Mode....I see a few friends from the beach walk by, the stop and greet me& we catch up.....eventually the smell of Allan's jerk chicken on the grill entices me I go up to the bar and get a table. Keisha hooks me up and I order some chicken with fries and a Red Strip Light. The chicken arrives and it's as good as ever and I gobble it up using the
fries to mop up the jerk sauce....mmmm.....There's no other better feeling than eating jerk chicken on the beach with a red stripe in JA!!!
I enjoy my lunch then go back to my lounger and continue to chill.
Rasta and his wife come by around 4 o'clock and we sit for a while then decide to go up to Xtabi for sunset drinks and apps.
I run upstairs to get cleaned up we're off to the West End.......As we're driving thru town a girl flags down Rasta for a ride and the nice guy
that he is gives her a ride......So he drops me and wife off and gives our passenger a lift home. After all of this we actually miss the
sunset so we order some drinks and food. Rasta comes back 30 minutes later and we eat and catch up on things. It was nice to be with
friends on my first night. They drop me back off and it's early but I'm tired from traveling so I turn in early leaving the windows open to anice breeze and the sound of tree frogs!!!

Day 2:
I awake around 8am and go down to the Treehouse breakfast buffet. I enjoy some fried dumplings, fresh fruit and a cheese omlet with oj
and coffee of course!
I'm on the beach by 9:30am and that's where I will be until sunset. I walk down to the little store by the Palms hotel and grab a quick
grace juice. Sand Gravity is in full effect now!!! I chill out on the beach order a tuna sandwich for lunch and a papaya daquiri!!!
My friend Neil 5 Star General Dayon comes by and we hang out and catch up then he goes to work down by Margaritaville.
I get more jerk chicken for late lunch/dinner. After a nice sunset I am tired from doing nothing all day so I turn in early again.

[Sweetness]

Yea! another great trip report.....love tagging along. Sounds like heaven!

[LLAP]

Sounds great so far Chooch. Wife & I spent half our last stay at Treehouse and I loved it. Wife prefers the Cliffs so no beach this reach.
We are also flying A.J. out of Philly next month. I was wondering how things would be with Carib Air involved. Was it an A.J. plane you flew?
Steve

[The Chooch]

Day 3:
Up early again !! Same as yesterday eat and get to the beach for a day of sun n relaxin !!! Today Marie gets here around 4pm.
Again I have lunch and a few RS lights at the Treehouse. Around 4 I go in to shower before sunset and then back down the beach to wait for marie.
She misses the sunset and gets to the Treehouse around 6pm. It's Saturday night and I had originally planned on going to the SeaStar buffet and show.
Marie is tired from traveling since the night before (red eye from LA to Chicago with a 4 hour layover in Chicago). So we decide to go for a nice dinner
instead. I suggest Kuyaba and we're off. I was really eager for her to see Negril in the daylight and coming in after dark it's kinda hard to get a feel for
the place. Anyway we get to Kuyaba and she is immediately impressed with the walkway, the bamboo, palms and tiki torches !!
I get to see one of my favorite Negril friends, Buddy the cockatoo!!! We play with Buddy for a few minutes and he seems to remember me !!
So we sit at a table by the beach and our waiter comes over and introduces himself as Ricardo. I order a papaya daquiri and she gets a rum drink too.
We order the camenbert cheese app and she gets the grilled lobster and I get the coconut snapper over callaloo.
As we wait for our meals we both observe the runnings on the beach I try to explain a little about the culture. I wish she could see the cliffs but the lights up there are cool too! She asks if we can walk back to the Treehouse on the beach. I try to explain that we would probably be ok but it's not really a
good idea for 2 girls to walk on any beach at night there or anywhere. We enjoy dinner and she enjoys talking with Ricky Ricardo, the waiter !!! He is
really tall dark and handsome!! She is also really blown away with how good the lobster is!!! Then Rasta and his wife meet us for after dinner drinks and
then they drop us off at the Treehouse and we have a drink at our bar before turning in.

Day 4:
I'm excited to show Marie Negril by day in it's full beautiful glory. She gets up early too and we go down for breakfast. My favorite waiter Leon is
working this morning and I introduce Marie to him. I've known him for a few years and I was there on his first day of work at the Treehouse and it's so
awesome that he is still there !!! We both giggle like little girls after he serves us our drinks, he's adorable with the nicest blue eyes I've ever seen!!!
After breakfast we get our loungers ready then go for our first walk. We walk north ( I hadn't been past the palms in the last 3 days !!!!haha).
The water is all the way up to Foote Prints restaurant and there is a 3ft drop off from out the store's door. I snap some pics of the barry's bar tree, one of my traditions......walking north past Couples there is hardly any beach but they have a nice sand bar where guests have some chairs in the water.
Marie is really impressed by the beauty of Negril and I am enjoying being the tour guide, explaining everything from booby cay to the flora fauna of JA.!!
Finally I get to put my knowledge and studies of my favorite place to use !!
Happy hour begins when we get back and we order some jerk for lunch along with a bunch of RS lights. Rasta shows up later that afternoon to invite us
up to his house for dinner. He is master chef too, he wants to cook us lobster that he just picked up fresh from the fisherman.
We get ready and head up to the bush for dinner.......Marie is doesn't know it yet but she is in for a "real" jamaica experience, driving with a local in
the bush !!!! Rasta is a crazy driver we speed thru the roundabout and stop at the top choice beverage warehouse, Rasta goes in and gets us some beers
he almost gets run over crossing the street !!! For such a laid back society everybody drives around in a crazy rush!!!
We head the cliff road and turn left onto Westmoreland Mountain rd then it's turn into the bush off road !! The road up to his house is an unpaven dirt and
limestone crevaced path, his car bottoms out a few times, Marie looks at me in amazement as we speed thru the bush going fast then swerving at the last second to avoid large potholes in the limestone. It's like a rollercoaster ride and I'm totally enjoying it laughing like a kid on an adventure!!!
We get to his house which overlooks all of long bay, again we just miss the sun going down but there's still enough light to see and I resume my role as
tour guide pointing at spots on the beach, the river and the reef. Rasta called us down for dinner and the 4 of us enjoy his grilled lobster with rice and
peas. His wife is soo lucky to have such a good chef cooking for her every day !!! Plus he is a sweet guy too.
After a nice dinner he drives us down thru red ground back to the Treehouse where we order some drinks and go in the hot tub to relax and look at the
stars......the hot tub jets were broken but since the owner just passed I'm sure it was just overlooked with everything else going on. But it's still hot so
we relax and talk about what we are gonna do tomorrow. We both agree that we want to go to yoga at 9:30 at the Negril Yoga Center. We turn in early
again.

[The Chooch]

Hey LLAP,
It was an AJ plane going down and a Carib airlines plane on the way home. There really wasn't anything different. The flights were good, both on time.
I have no complaints & I think it's cool they don't charge for 1 checked bag or food like most airlines now!!

[The Chooch]

Day 5:
We get up eat and decide to walk to the yoga center on the beach. From the Treehouse it's quite a haul to the public park. We make it there but we are late,we cut through the park and crossed the street to go to the center. The class is already in progress but the instructor lets us join in anyway. We both
get absorbed in the class. After class we meet the instructor Fannette and we apologize for being late and she's says it's ok. We both enjoyed the class and
we both feel real good and relaxed, we both want to come back tomorrow.
It's kind of a cloudy day so we decide to walk back on the street. We stop at times square and walk around for about hour after that we are a little hungryand Marie wants to try some patties. So I remember that Miss Sonia's is nearby and we walk there and order some patties. Miss Sonia isn't there but
the patties were still hand-made to order and are delicious and big!!! After lunch we stop at Shamrock for a 6 pack of RS lights for the room.
It starts to clear up when we reach the Treehouse so we lay out for the rest of the day. I say it's time for her to see a sunset from the cliffs so I suggest we go to push cart for dinner. We get a ride up there from Clive. I love the view from Push Cart and Marie really thinks it's beautiful too. I show her the
Rockhouse hotel and then tell her the story of the pirate's cave below. We watch as the Sandals boat drives halfway in the cave and watch some local
boys jump from cliffs for tips from the Sandals boat. It's a really cool vibe. We both enjoy our drinks, a papaya daquiri for me and a rum martini for her.
I ordered the jerk fish salad and she gets the jerk sausage. Both were sooo good and spicy, we have to order some cornbread to combat the spice! But it was good, at this point Marie is soo impressed with the food in JA and says to me "now I see why you keep coming back here"....another negrilaholic in
the making!!! We enjoy the dinner, drinks and sunset followed by some more drinks at the Treehouse.

Day 6:
We eat breakfast and take a taxi to yoga. Then spend the day on the beach walking, chillin and enjoying cocktails. As we were walking past Sea Splash
we see Ricardo standing outside on the beach. We both do a double take and he's like it's me Ricky from Kuyaba !! He says he works here too so he says
they have 2 for 1 drinks specials and we go in and meet the bartender (who looks like a cuter tiger woods) Marie says she want's a special rum drink and
he whips us up a jamaican delight ! They drinks are delish we enjoy them as a guy sits down next to us and introduces himself as one of the new owners
and we talk to him for a while then head back to get ready for dinner. We decide to go to Canoe bar. I thought it was webcast night (I really have no
concept of time or what day it is when in JA). We get there and it's not a webcast night and it's pretty empty. We both order pasta with garlic bread, the waitress is a little slow and confused over the menu but she's nice and we are in a relaxed mood so it's ok. Our dinners arrive and the portions were
huge it looked like a whole pound of pasta each. Both are good and neither of us finish and we bring home the leftovers. We have a few more drinks at
the Treehouse and chill in the hot tub for a while before going to sleep.

[Maryann]

Enjoying your trip report! Treehouse is on my short list of places to stay.

[The Chooch]

Day 7:
Another lazy beach day with some walking and drinking mixed in. I think we had lunch from the Treehouse that day, tuna fish and grilled cheese sandwiches.
We go to Margaritaville for a few frozen drinks for something different.
That night we went to dinner at Sherata's at SeaWind. I had coconut shrimp which was good, I can't remember what Marie had..But I remember we both
liked our meals.

Day 8:
We go to yoga after breakfast again and during the final relaxation session we hear a big crash outside. It turns out to be car accident, someone was
trying to overtake and there and almost collided with oncoming traffic and caused another driver to crash off the road, through a fence, over a ditch and
coming to rest on the fence 3 feet from the window of Shields hotel! Unbelievably no one was hurt. We get back to the hotel where they were having wake
services for Mr. Jackson. It was a beautiful service with what seemed like all of Negril attending. They had the a walkway along the beach and grounds lit with candles where they walked Mr. Jackson's casket around for a final walk thru the grounds. After the service at the hotel the service continued in Sav-la Mar.
After the services we decide to spend the rest of the day on the cliffs at Xtabi. The Rasta says he's gonna come and meet us at Xtabi too.
We get there and I assume my role as tour guide as we explore the caves underneath Xtabi. The water is calm and inviting. We jump in (off the bottom
landing) and swim around for a while. Then we get some loungers and relax for a while then order lunch, I get a conch burger and she gets a regular burger.....Rasta shows up as we are watching a few people jump from the middle level (about 10-12ft). Then some crazy European guy jumps from the top
level !!! Crazy thing to do IMHO because there is no room for error especially since he runs then jumps off from the ledge. You have to clear 2 diving
platforms, railings and rocks...He's nuts but his jump is sick, I wish I had gotten it on video. I did video a Canadian lady jumping off the 10 foot jump.
She smacked her arm and it was all black and blue, I was supposed to send her the video now that I am remembering.
We watch the sunset and head back to the Treehouse and have some more drinks before bed.

[NikkiB]

Loving your trip report and can't wait to be back at the Tree House! Its fun to see a newbie fall in love with Jamaica. I love it when people say to me, Jamaica again? My standard response is "you've never been, have you?"

[The Chooch]

Day 9:
It's Marie's last full day She is having a great time enjoying the food and the new friends she's met along the way. She is also blown away by the natural beauty of JA. We spend her last full day walking the beach, drinking and chillin. On this walk we walk north all the way past the public beach and explore the mangroves for a little while. We are like 2 little kids picking up sea shells and rescuing stranded starfish. I have to get her pics to post because
I didn't have my camera on this walk.
For Lunch today we go see my friend JohnJohn at the patty shack between Treehouse and Sea Splash called Cheap Thrill Corner...he just got a new jerk
barrel and was cooking up some chicken and conch soup. We order the chicken with some coco bread and RS Lights.
Wow his chicken is kick-ass....ranks up there with Best in the West or Ossies or 3 dives. His home made sauce has just the right amount of spice and taste
YUMMMMMMM Marie wants to bathe in the jerk sauce it's soo good!!!
For our last dinner she wants to go back to Kuyaba to see Ricardo and have more lobster.......We get there and Ricardo is off, oh well !!!
We order the tomato and feta salad and 1 grilled lobster to share. It was as good as usual !!!!
Back to Treehouse bar to end the night!!

Day 10:
We get up and eat breakfast before JUTA picks her up at 9am. She's sad to leave but happy she had a new experience and got to meet a lot of cool
people.....Leon comes over and gives her a hug good-bye....I say goodbye and she's off.
I go back to my lounger for a few hours...I go to Margaritaville to watch some football, I get a jerk chicken salad a few RS Lights.....Then I go back to
watch the 2nd half of the games in my room until my friend Neil comes and knocks at my door. He came to chill on my last full day, so we hang out for a while and talk about everything from the elections to his struggle to get money for a visa to go visit his daughter in the UK.....It's christmas eve I debate whether or not to go to SeaStar for the show but decide to have a nice dinner at the Treehouse....I have some fried snapper with mashed potatoes.
My last night

Last Day:
My flight isn't till 6pm so Kenny Tours is picking me up at 2pm.
I check out at 11am and store my bags in the office. I chill out on my lounger till the Rasta comes to say good-bye.
My ride comes and as usual, the ride to Mobay is bittersweet, sad to leave but filled with good times and irie vibes!!!
We stop along the way and get to meet Kenny himself, nice guys and nice service I highly recommend them.
Since it is Christmas day the airport is empty!!! I check in and have my bags searched, no worries I don't have anything illegal.
Yay all the stores are open in the airport !!! I shop around then go to margaritaville for lunch. When I get to the gate the search my carry-on bag.
First time I've seen them do that at the gate, but they were checking everybody.
When I arrive in Philly and go through customs they ask if I was traveling alone, I say yes and they immediately call another agent who instructs me to
go in the back for further screening. They search all my bags and find nothing. I've heard the stories on here about single females traveling alone so I
was not suprised and not happy but since I had nothing illegal it was a minor inconvenience.
Aside from that it was a great trip and it was fun to show a newbie around.
I forgot to add that I had a massage from Cher at the Treehouse on the first day, she does good work and I make it a point to get at least one massage
from her every visit.
It was nice seeing all my friends in Negril and the Treehouse .... I'm IRIE once again !!!!
I will try to post pics but I have been getting errors trying to post....