I am finally 100% relaxed. It took me a bit over 3 days! I'm a pretty laid back guy to begin with, but didn't realize how laid back I could actually be. The only other place on Earth that I can get close to this chill is Yosemite. Camping in Yosemite for a good week to be exact.
The wife wakes up and decides she wants to hit the beach. I was really enjoying the lack of higglers up on the West End, but said what the hell. I enjoy interacting with folks as long as they leave me alone after I tell them I'm good. I figured we would start out at Country Country and head our way back towards the West End.
We hop in a route taxi and hit the ATM up again for some $J. The roundabout is an interesting place with the most activity I saw in one area. No line at the ATM so I was in and out in a breeze. Funny thing happened on the way their though.
As were headed to the ATM the route taxi driver asked me if I knew any "Fu%$#* aholes." I laughed and said all sorts, why? He proceeds to pull out a flyer with a young singer on it and says "this young guys is a Fu%$#* ahole!" I'm thinking that he must have given him a ride and the young guy gave him some crap. So I asked him why he is saying that. He said "the Fu%$#* ahole bleaches." My wife gives me the WTF look and than it hits me. I remembered reading about the controversy of bleaching recently on a thread. I didn't quite understand though until this moment how big of an issue it appears. It's all relative though if you think about it. I'm white and want to get as much sun as possible so I can get a great tan. No different than a blond wanting to be a brunette, a brunette wanting to be a blond, etc. So i see no issue with it. Problem is a lot of folks appear to be using harsh chemicals to get the job done with a lot of negative results. But you folks probably already know this, so back to the trip report.
Excuse the bluriness, but this pic cracks me up. I'm not sure exactly where it was taken, but believe it was somewhere near Best in The West
On the way to Country Country we decided some jerk was in order and asked the driver to drop us off at Best In The West. Nobody was there and the man that helped us said that he nearly had some ready. In no time our food was up and we each consumed a half a chicken in no time. This was the fastest we were able to eat all week with the exception of the buffet at Seastar. Thought it was pretty good, but not as good Bigga's in Green Island.
We decided to cut thru Coco La Palm I believe. It's the hotel just past Best In The West if you are headed toward Bloody Bay. The guard was nice and allowed us to cut thru to the beach. A guest staying there offered to show us how to get to the bar. Is everyone nice in Negril? The place looks nice and might be on my list of beach places to stay. Seems to get rave reviews from what I have read as well.
We hit a few bars and had some fries at the place pictured below. The vibe was great here except for the youngster who felt the need to flaunt his smoking near the waters edge. Do you really need to hold it out and stare at it after every hit? Discretion must come with maturity.
Hit up Niah's somewhere during our walk and picked up a patty. We were still stuffed so we decided to take it back to the cliffs for a midnight munchie. Spent about a half hour with Niah BS'ing and drinking some Stripes. He's an interesting guy to talk too and we look forward to a future visit. I didn't actually eat any of his patty as my wife tore into it after I passed out for the night. She raved about it, so I was a little butt hurt that I didn't get a try.
After hitting a few bars I started to tire of the higglers and beggars. I could see the West End off in the distance and the rain looked like it was about to head our way from there. So we hailed a route taxi and made our way back. On the way back the route taxi driver wanted to stop by and see one of his friends at a yard up on the West End. We pull up and a white guys strolls out and proceeds to banter back and forth with him in a mix of English and Patios. The guys Patios was really good and the only English I could make out was Nails and toes, or something like that. The driver was laughing hysterically and the whole scene was comedy. Shortly after we are dropped off back at Catcha.
We decided another case of beer was in order so we headed to Wise Choice and picked one up. I also had to get me some Hardo bread and picked up a loaf. Not sure what it is about this bread, but I love it. I think I can live on Jerk Chicken and Hardo bread forever. Just as we leave Leroy hits us up. We agree to lunch the next day and head back to Catcha.
The rest of the week involved some meals out at Eddie's De Bar(Loved it there), 3 Dives(loved it there too), almost nightly walks down to LTU(good times here). Bumped into Sexy Rexy, who took me on a nice ride deeper into the West End. Left my wife for about 20 minutes without even telling her I was leaving. I really didn't think twice about it as LTU is that chill. She fit right in and didn't mind my quick escape. Stopped by real quick at Ros Rody's so my wife could check out some Ital one day as well.
Other than that it was days spent chilling at Catcha. I love this place and just booked another 9 days around the end of September. Every other room is available, I actually emailed Mauvette to see if they were even open. I could not believe that every room was available. I understand it's in the middle of hurricane season, however I'm just going to think positive.
Say hi to Ben if you stay there. This dog is suuuuuuuuper chill. Stop blowing it in his face people.
Aqua looks great, however I'm getting the sense that it might be a little too close quarters for me. More pics and commentary to come in part 2.
