To say I lurked like no other is an understatement. After just a dose of this board I became hooked and was as excited about this trip as I have ever been excited about a trip. After many reviews read and recommendations from fellow boardies, I decided that Country Country and Catcha Falling Star would be my choices.
Had the redeye out of SoCal on Apr 30th with a 3 hour layover in Houston. I chose this route as I had enough mileage saved up to upgrade to First Class. No delays had going into Mobay, however 2 hours sleep is pretty tough. It took about an hour to clear immigration and customs and made the bee line to the right where our driver Kingsley was patiently waiting. Let me take a step back though and give you our first glimpse of Jamaican waters.
Kingsley has a nice new ride and is a great driver. He drove at a great pace and offered up a lot of detail about the local area. We stopped and picked up a 6 pack and continued on to Bigga's. Bigga had 1/2 a chicken ready and we were off in no time. Let me tell you that a stop at Bigga's is a must. His jerk chicken was the best I had all week, or maybe it feels that way since it was my first taste. My wife and I were quiet for the couple minutes it took us to suck down the bird. We also made a stop at Scotia so that I could get some Jamaican dollars from the ATM. I pulled out $15k thinking it was the limit, however I was able to pull out $25k on my next visit. Push the button to go in, push the button to go out, and back in Kingley's ride.
Pulled up to Country Country and hit the office. Registration was painless and a nice young man helped us with our bags to our room. I wasn't sure where they would put us since we were there for only one night. I asked the nice lady at the desk if she was given us a great room. She smiled and said "it's not bad." We headed off down the path and kept walking passing up unit after unit until we hit the end of the path. We were in room 513 which is the closest room to the beach. Are you kidding me? Dropped our bags and than realized that our second wind had kicked in and it was time for a beer at the bar.
Pulled up to a beautiful smile coming from a great bartender by the name of Opal.
Had a few beers and than asked for a drink I had read about on the boards. Hey Opal, can you whip me together a Purple Rain? "No Problem Mon" was her reply. She put a lot of pride into her drink making and worked it until it was the perfect color. This came to be the first of numerous Purple Rains consumed over the next 8 days.
Called Rob and he provided the number to Seastar so that I could attend the webcast and show. 10 minutes after the call the shuttle pulled up with one other couple and off we were. Made a quick stop at Blue Cave Castle to pick up Ras Walleye and his lady(Donna?). The other couple were boardies as well and both couples were a pleasure to be around. Hit the buffet, which was quite tasty if I may say. Took in some of the show, consumed a fair amount of alcohol and was itching to go see something else. The show was fun by the way, however I was anxious to see more of this great little town.
So the wifey and I hit the road down Seastar Lane and walked to LTU. It was fairly dark but not a bad little stroll on a beautiful Saturday night. Had a couple beers and than we both decided that we were officially done. So a driver sitting there offered to take us back to Country Country for $10. Besides using Kingsley, this was the only time all week that we didn't use a route taxi.
Right as we were pulling up to our room we heard a little noise next door. We looked at each other and said what the hell. So we took the little walk to what I believe was the tree house bar and found out that a private party was happening just past the bar. So we pulled up a seat and had a couple beers. In no time some guy was trying to sell me some real estate, so we decided to call it a night. This time it was official. Day 2 soon come.
