I'm on it!.Clarity - I told Maureen someone could print this for her and bring it down.
I’ll be in Negril end of this month!
Really looking forward to seeing Maureen and Robert again.
Love the cliff hanger! Lol - Now I’m Waiting to hear about the awesomeness squared that happens in Day 3.
Carpe Diem
Sorry for the build up. Day 3 was just another normal day! The really good day was not until Day 5.
Day 3
This was a sand gravity day. We bought sugar cane and coconut from a fruit vendor. $250 JA each. One of our fellow travellers was a former farm worker who settled in Ontario who was back for a visit and holiday with his girlfriend. He gave us a niece berry to try. If they could make all fruit taste like a honey candy I would eat it all the time. One of the locals called out a tourist for “preventing him the opportunity to hit on another tourist” that the guy was hanging with. He came up to the tourist, who was sitting on the wall eating his lunch, there was an exchange and all I caught was the local guy calling the tourist a bumba klot. At that point the tourist set down his lunch, took off his glasses and told the guy that he was ready, willing and able to fight him but that he had to throw the first punch so that he would not be charged. The local backed down, security was called, the Police were going to be called, and in the end the tourist said he did not want to proceed any further and even went back to the guy to make peace. He then came back to us to apologize for the situation. We told that no apology was needed and that it provided some entertainment for us.
At 3.00 my wife went to the front desk and our beleaguered front desk told us that our new room was ready. We had packed everything in the morning so we were ready to roll. My wife took a few things and they had sent someone to help us move. When I went back to the room the phone was ringing so I picked it up. “Mr. Hall I gave you the wrong room, the key you have is for oceanfront and it has been booked by someone else. I misread the number; you should have 2701 instead of 2901”. I was going to say that we have the keys so we will keep the room but I know that he had no control of the situation so I agreed to meet him to exchange keys. Our new room was on the second floor of another building and was exactly what we had requested.
Italian Cafe was the destination for dinner. What a great little spot. Don’t tell anyone but there is a quaint courtyard in the back that has some picnic tables and a large lounger with tables as well. We only discovered this after the front lot was pretty full. Bruschetta, cheese pizza, 2 glasses of wine was $1950 JA.
Stopped at the Shamrock Grocery on the way home. This is a neat little store that is merchandised better than most stores in Canada. They even sell Voortman cookies from Burlington Ontario. 12 Red Stripe Light and 1 small Soursop $1950 JA – Same as dinner!
On the way out two guys stop us to talk. We chat for a few minutes and the driver wants to show is the “Real Negril”. I gave then each a beer and we told them that we were going into the mountains in the morning to visit some schools with our driver. They were trying to get us to go to a school in Negril and we politely told them that we were booked and keep our word. “Besides you don’t have a red plate or JUTA stickers in your windshield”. We thanked them for their time and headed back to the hotel.
At 2.00 AM my wife asked if I was still glad we had switched rooms. The “BOOM BOOM BOOM, BOOM BOOM BOOM” coming from Roots Bamboo was bouncing off our walls! I turned up the air and we actually had a good night’s sleep. If you are staying at Rooms be prepared for this as you gat it on the other side from Alfred’s on other night and from The Jungle on others. It is almost right in the middle of all three.
Day 4
Real sand gravity day as we never ventured more than 100 yards from the resort.
Fruit from the vendors, Momma was our favorite, and lunch from the Near Beer Bar. Fried chicken, rice and peas with salad and 2 Red Stripe - $1015 JA. They have small “box” meals that are $250 JA. Fried chicken, ox tail, goat. The food was very good and served hot.
Dinner was from a barrel guys that others at the resort had recommended – Blue Dandy. $800 JA for a half and bread. It was very good. I was short by $100 JA as one of the bills I had I thought was a $1000 but was $100. He told me to catch him later. We ate on “our” patio as we now had one.
Day 5 - Part 1
We had made arrangements with Joe Cool to take us to a school in the hills on Monday. We found out that they would be closed due to the election so we arranged to go out on this day at 9.00 AM. Engelbert arrived before our scheduled 9.00 AM pick up. I told him that I really doubted that he was actually Jamaican now. No horn, on time, and oh yea his radio was out on the way from the airport to the hotel. He laughed and took us to another hotel to pick up a guest that was a teacher and wanted to tag along. We drove along to Green Island and took a right up into the hills. The girls were getting alone great in the back and Engelbert and I were having some great conversations about Jamaica and his life there. He left Jamaica at one point for 9 months to make enough money to better his life. Even though he had a “good” job as the head of water sports at Beaches he saw that there was opportunity for someone that wanted to work hard and be honest. He takes people to these schools trips free of charge as his way of giving back to the community.
The first school we visited was the Riverside Basic School. It had kids from the age of three to five. My wife was a bit apprehensive about this as she wanted to help in a small way but did not want to be sad at the conditions of the school. Needless to say we were blown away by the experience. This was the first visit to this school as Engelbert has been working his way up to it. The kids were excited to see us as was the staff. They were all dressed very well in their uniforms and there was a lot of noise as there were no walls separating the classes. They liked to have their picture taken and look at themselves afterwards. My wife got big hugs from a lot of the kids. As I was emptying out our suitcase on the Principles desk a few of them came up and started to touch the things we had brought. She came by and made them go sit down. Everything we brought was from the Dollar Store. We had school supplies, balls, learning flash cards, pens, pencils .... We also brought about 20 skipping ropes. My wife’s uncle passed away this year after having being diagnosed with brain cancer in December. He taught her how to skip so she thought that this was a good way to honour his memory. We also visited the kitchen where the cook was preparing lunch. Chicken, rice and peas and some salad. The kitchen was spotless.
We then went to a middle school to pass on some of the things such as calculators that would be more appropriate for older kids. We were able to visit three classrooms with the Principle Mrs. Allen. We once again received a great reception and the kids were all very well behaved. My wife was asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up. The first response from a Grade 4 student was Paediatrician! A lot of the boys wanted to be soldiers. Mrs. Allen was kind enough to send us an email showing the kids skipping with the ropes we had left. My wife had a tear in her eye when she saw this.
The gates at this school were locked and closed as were the classroom doors. They worry about kids that are not in school, or other kids that go to other schools coming in and causing trouble such as stealing the kid’s lunch money.
I have some really good pictures of the kids at the schools but do not want to post them. If anyone wants to see them they can PM me with an email address and I will send them along.
We now got to have a personalized tour of the hills from Engelbert. It included a visit to a processing plant that takes turmeric root and cooks and dries it to make curry powder from. The local dig up the root and take it to the plant for processing which involves boiling it large vats and air drying it. He was also able to show us the many fruits, herbs and trees of the area. Who knew that a banana tree takes 9 months to bear fruit “Just like a woman” and then has to be cut down. They have troubles with mongooses in the area that were brought in to control rats, the mongooses decided that chicken tastes better than rats and they do not have any natural enemies so they are a big pest in the hills. I had also read that rabies were not know in Jamaica, Engelbert told me that they actually were but he had only heard of cases coming from cats.
We then went to Big Ras and Marvin’s for lunch. I have to admit that it is not a place that I would have gone to on my own. Big Ras was out front smoking a big one and peeling some veggies into a pot. They don’t call him Big Ras for nothing. It is very rustic inside but you can’t judge a book by its cover. Engelbert and I had the curried conch with rice and peas and the girls settled on veggies with rice and peas. The food was delicious and there was enough on one plate to split between two people. Engelbert took the extras from his plate in a to go box. 4 meals and 4 Red Stripes set me back a whopping $2360 JA.
Engelbert then took us back to Rooms. On the way we passed the Grand Palladium where he used to “wait” for work. He then decided with the help of some friends that he was better off looking for work so he had a web site set up and uses a Blackberry to stay in touch. He dropped us off with 5 minutes to spare before his next trip for some people also staying at Rooms.
Incredible report ....
The school trip, wow, very nice. Hoping big things grow from small seeds, just beautiful.
What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love and Understanding?
Respect. I love how you spend your time in Ja.
I am LOVING this report.....thanks for sharing!
Much respect my friend. A joy to read and to look at.
Rise early, treat everyday as though it's your last and your last day as it's your first.
I have been enjoying this trip report so much. I was in Negril for the first time in December with my husband (actually it was our first time in the Carribean) and we stayed at Rooms. We picked Rooms because it wasn't AI and seemed to be right down in the action; we thought the music at night was just part of that charm, but we are both heavy sleepers. We also changed rooms after our first night, but the front desk was really accommodating about it.
Our first dinner at Sweet Spot and we had a great dinner at the Italian Cafe. Shamrock's became a daily stop. I hope you tried their orange juice - I can't think of any better way of starting off a day!
You managed to take pictures of everything I missed - when I got home all I had really had was pictures of sunsets and Redstripes.Thanks for sharing, it has been a great trip down memory lane. We did get bitten by the bug, I am already dreaming of our return this coming December.
Day 5 – Part 2
The day had just started. We hit the beach for a while and had a couple of drinks in prep for the One Love Bus Tour with Lenbert. It was so cool to see the bus pull up and a guy lean out the window and call my name. We got on the bus and there were no seats left so someone got up and offered my wife one. I am thinking that is very nice, I can stand for awhile. Little was I to know that we were just started picking people up! I can see where this might be a bit daunting at first, after all these are not people that you know and you are now packed in with your armpit hanging over someone’s face swaying with the bus as it rambles up to the west end. As soon as you have had your first beer at Mi Yard all fears are put off as everyone joins in the common goal to have as much fun as possible. We met and talked with lots of great people and only regret was there was not enough time to meet everyone.
We connected with some people from Winnipeg, even though they thought my t-shirt was a Jets T-shirt! They were a fun group that was really enjoying themselves.
The people at Mi Yard brought out some food for us to sample. Smart marketing because I am sure some people will return to have a drink and a meal and the food was really good.
It was a short walk over to Swordfish. We chose the beach because we could. What a great view! They also have an ice cream parlour and café in the bottom part of the building.
Next up was Tayon’s. Pool tables inside and the seafood chowder looked good judging by the large guy out from that was working on a big bowl of it.
We then headed over to C&D Country & Western Roadside Pub. I don’t think the whole group could fit inside but the staff was really nice. Some people were eating the chocolate cake; they also had a couple of other kinds of cake for sale.
Lenbert then herded us up and on we went to The Spyder Bar. Did I forget to mention that once he dropped us off at Mi Yard he went out and picked up more people from SeaStar. Now there is around 50 people on the bus and we are all okay because we have had couple of beers by now.
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