Rumpolephoreskin's Existential Wanderings in and Around Negril

[Rum-polephoreskin]

Day 5 (Sunday)

I wake up and the room temperature is perfect, warm but not dry. What's going on? Oh yeah I'm in Jamaica. Woo hoo! I check the seas from the verandah. The waves have built over night and the north wind is stronger. I'm not swimming this morning. Mrs. Peel wakes up and we have coffee on the verandah.

Mrs. Peel is hungry. Where does she put it? I suggest "Sips and Bites".

"Can we walk there?" she asks.

Pretty soon we're hoofing it up the road.

Road in front of Xtabi (early in the AM)


As we're walking, I find a restaurant you could only find in Jamaica. It's intimate, romantic and painted in bold colors. I talk Mrs. Peel into moving ahead while I stop to talk to the owner. I make reservations for Tuesday night. The owner asks for a 1000 $J, which may seem odd but I'll explain why later. She'll never forget that I proposed in Jamaica or the place I chose for the event.

Just a little way down the road I get a jelli (green coconut) and drink it without the straw, what's a little mess on your face when your having fun. "Sips and Bites" appears on the left.


Wow, not only Van Gogh colors but a likkle Fauvism thrown in for good measure.


Hitler absolutely hated Fauvism and I have a strong suspicion he would have hated Jamaica too.

I look in the parking lot and see a lot of red plates - the harbinger of good food. "Sips and Bites" has to be one of the prettiest locally run restaurants in all of Negril.


Just word of warning if you're planning on eating there the folks who run it are 7th Day Adventists so they're not open on Saturdays. The food was grand.

After breakfast we head back to Xtabi. This is Mrs. Peel's big day, her team, the Packers (boo-hiss), are playing the Giants tonight. We've already scoped out Seastar and we'll be heading there for the game. You ever notice when you watch a game at a sports bar you tend to drink more than you would watching the game at home? I know I do. Our plan was to eat at Xtabi before the game hoping to coat our stomachs. I had my third best meal of the trip that day, lunch, a simple conch burger with calaloo, but it was an orgasmic meal. Thanks Xtabi, you've blown my mind again.

Sunset from Seastar's bar


Chris (Seastar's owner?) was sitting at a table with his pretty wife(?) getting ready to eat dinner while watching the game. I thought there'd be more fans there but only about ten people showed up for the game. The game was a big disappointment for Mrs. Peel (I did not personally feel her heartbreak).

Things were about to get weird. A couple (close to my age) were sitting to our immediate right, I had been making noises like I too felt bad for the Packers. At some point they asked if we were from their home state? I told them yes and they asked where I lived. When I named the very small town the man's eyes got big.

"No way," he said.

"Why," I asked.

"I have relatives there," he said, and he named them. Not only were they our next door neighbors but I'd played cards with the guy he mentioned (a third cousin). Even weirder his cousin (a chronic reprobate) had lost his house and we'd bought it at a sheriff's auction. "Fatty" (his Jamaican name) eased our minds by confirming what we already knew: his cousin was the black sheep of the family. Fatty (he's not fat so one can only guess at what the name means - hoho) and his wife told us they were semi--ex-pats, living in Negril six months out of the year.
That makes complete sense to me.