10 Years, 12 Nights, 6 Hotels, ONE LOVE - April 2012 Trip Report

[Clarity]

After our tour of the grounds, we went back to our villa to finally get out of our San Francisco clothes and change into Jamaica gear.

Markus began placing his folded clothes carefully into the wardrobe (Typical German)



… while I just yanked my bikini and sundress out of my carry-on bag. Attempting to fully unpack seemed futile to me, since we would be moving again after two nights. I was too excited about jumping into the ocean for the first time. I could already feel the warm salt water on my skin…I was already enjoying that feeling of underwater weightlessness…I was already envisioning the fish darting around below my feet…

“I can’t believe we’re here!” I must have said that a hundred times since we arrived in Negril. It was all still very surreal to me. I let my body fall backwards onto the huge king size bed in the center of the suite and closed my eyes…

At that moment lack of sleep hit me full on… I realized that if I kept my eyes, I would pass out from the exhaustion of it all…The bed was so soft…my head began to sink deeper and deeper into the plush pillows…

Markus closed the wardrobe with a thump and the sound caused me to snap out of it. I quickly sat up straight “What? Huh? No! I’m awake!!! What?”

Markus laughed. “You can sleep, honey, it’s okay”

“No I can’t! we’re FINALLY in Jamaica, I want to enjoy the sunshine! I don’t want to miss a minute of it”

I looked at Markus and I could see that even though he was trying to hide it… he was beyond tired too. It was masked behind a huge grin, but his eyes told the story of our many hours of sleepless travel. They were completely bloodshot. We decided to check out the bar at Villa Sur Mer and have a drink to hopefully wake us both up.

We wandered down the tropical pathways…passing “Shakes” who was still sweeping with this homemade broom… until we reached the bar in the back of the resort. It was to the left of the lagoon pool





Reggae music was playing and a man was there behind the bar bopping his head to the beat while he cleaned out cocktail glasses.

We eased ourselves into the barstool and the bartender introduced himself as Radcliff. “What can I get you guys?”, He asked with a smile.

We ordered two dirty bananas…

After that first sip of creamy goodness, I felt the energy rush through my body again.

This delicious dirty banana marked the official start of our vacation.



We chatted with Radcliff for a while until we decided it was time to dip our toes in the ocean. We couldn’t resist the siren call of the sea any longer.

[Clarity]

We head into the cave which led us to the ocean. The water was crashing against the side of the rocks sending a spray of foam up into the air every few minutes or so.

Markus was ready to go…



I was ready too… but a little wary. The ocean was more turbulent than I remembered it. Markus immediately jumped in and then gestured for me to join him. I hesitated at the foot of the ladder.. The water was swelling up to my toes and then sinking down way below the ladder to the coral beneath. Coral covered with sea urchins...

I finally closed my eyes and jumped when the water was at its highest point. I let the current pull me away from the ladder and then push me up close to the rocks. Under the water, I could see all the fish bobbing also back and forth with the current. I was worried that I wouldn’t make it back to the ladder… that the ocean would slam me into it face first…I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m not the best swimmer. I’m more of a doggy paddler.

Markus wasn’t deterred by the waves, he enjoyed it. Meanwhile I scrambled out the minute I was able to grab hold of that ladder again.

From that point, I was content to lay out on the sun chair watching Markus snorkeling and letting the sun lick the salt water off my skin. It was ultimately peaceful just listening to the sound of the waves, just gazing at the sparkling sea…




All my anxieties dissolved and I smiled. This was it, this is what I had been waiting for…

We had arrived

[Hubby-man]

We were enthusiastic about having our own kitchen. Not that we needed it. Our credit card was on file and anything we could think of, we could just ask to have brought to us. But still, it's kinda cool and new having something amounting to a real apartment in Jamaica! We had a gas-stove with four burners, a toaster, refrigerator, microwave and all kinds of utensils. I would not mind replacing my own kitchen at home with this one.

So after we dried off from snorkeling, we headed off to Wise Choice, maybe a hundred yards down the road. I wasn't gonna whip up a Lobster thermadore tonight, but how about supplies for a midnight sandwich?

On our way out, we were again assured that, if we wished, any staff would be happy to make the run to the store for us (imagine that, I felt like I was Brangelina on vacation!), but of course we are not that type of traveler. Now in our shorts and T-shirts it felt wonderful kicking the dust on the side of the West End Road.

Right next door was the parking lot to Rick's Cafe, where minivans, busses, sedans and scooters where involved in some sort of carnival of motor vehicles. Drivers were honking, gesturing and exchanging banter. In New York City this mess would have surely caused much grief and anger, but here the jam was taken as an opportunity to exchange the latest news between drivers. No one, was going anywhere fast, and as we passed by, it looked as though it was going to stay that way for the time being.

When I tore my eyes off the mayhem, Daisy was leaning down to one of the little boys with a box of waffle chocolate bars.

“Whereareyoufrom?, Youareverypretty!, DoyoulikeitinJamaica?, PleasebuyacandysoIcangotoschool!” He rattled of the phrases like a second grader a Christmas poem. He must have repeated the same sentences so many times, that the words had lost but all meaning to him, just a sound, like a bird song.

Daisy asked him his name. He seemed befuddled, nervously ran his hands through his thick hair, stomped his feet and said: “Anlik!” (Not sure how to spell that (sounds like un-lick)). It seemed like he was chained to this box of chocolates like to an iron ball, I’m sure he would much rather be out playing with his friends.

Daisy of course started digging in her backpack and found four 100 Ja-notes to hand to him. He dutifully counted and handed the appropriate number of severely melted chocolate-waffles to her.

Daisy took only two bars and handed the rest to him. This thoroughly confused him and he ran his hand through his hair again seemingly wanting to pull it out. Daisy took a waffle bar and opened it, then handed it to him.

He looked sort of happy, bit into the waffle and ran to join the other children, who were already chasing another tourist.

Daisy seemed satisfied as well and smiled at me, chocolate smeared all over her cheeks. “How cute was he? Oh man, I wish I could take him home with us...”

“No worry, we'll make our own” I responded with a smile and kissed the chocolate of her face.

A little further down the road lay "Catcha Falling Star" resort. Passing the closed gate brought about a little pinch of pain. Villa Sur Mer being what it is, I certainly had no desire to leave and run to another hotel, but we have such amazing memories there. It felt like passing a relative’s house. And not being “allowed” in just hurts a little. But, no worries, we would make new memories there soon enough!

“Wise Choice” lay straight across the road. The dusty parking lot with the cracked concrete blocks was busy. Motorcycles puttered under their conversing owners, dogs checked out every new-comer for an unlikely treat, a girl was chasing a rooster.

The small window in front of the store always had a congress of people waving pieces of paper and involved in lively discussion. A fellow pushing a bicycle held up a pink slip of paper.

“I put a '10' , Mon, '11' came, MON! One number, Mon, I would have won, Mon!”, he told us with a big laugh. Before we could respond he grabbed another fellow and told him the same story, stabbing his paper-slip violently with one finger.

He was in good spirits despite the dreadful closeness of his lottery miss. It appeared to me that the lottery in Jamaica is much more than just a shot at the Jackpot. It seems it also serves to exhibit ones prowess of prediction. Losing tickets are much discussed. Patterns are imagined and found. The process of picking ones numbers is also much discussed and council is taken or rejected.

A lot of the discussion this morning involved a heated deliberation of how to interpret ones pattern of losing and winning numbers and how close one had gotten. What was one to make of it all, and how would one improve future bets?

A ticket with a near miss is not a total loss at all. It's soooo damn close and therefore sooo damn sweet! The fellow had good reason to smile and show of the printed evidence, that he was indeed one of the best betters today.

The store inside was nearly empty of customers, but stuffed to the ceiling with goods. A true general store with Tomatoes and Eggs, Shampoo and Sunscreen but also hammers and breast pumps. Every available square inch of wall had a hook with merchandize in it. A regular walmart in the space of a seven eleven.



The large lady behind the counter changed her grim face to a smile for one moment as we came in then returned to the algebra on her accounting pad. We grabbed some essentials to make coffee and sandwiches.


Daisy found the hair-product she wanted was not available in the usual containment. Instead it had been portioned off into tiny little plastic bags with roughly enough for one application. She scrunched up her nose to emphasize her most serious “this-will-not-do”-expression, but had no choice but to pile the little crack-bags into her shopping-bin.

We checked out and proud of our groceries headed back down West End Road without mentionable incident.

Next up LTU Pub…

To be continued…

[Eden]

Great report, Hubby-man! The photos look like something out of a magazine! You mentioned a bar at Villa Sur Mer. Do they also have a restaurant or perhaps a cook to prepare meals for you in your kitchen? It looks like the kind of place you would never want to leave, not even for an hour, to go out to eat somewhere! I could definitely spend my whole 2 week vacation in a place like that and never get bored of those amazing views!

[Hubby-man]

You mentioned a bar at Villa Sur Mer. Do they also have a restaurant or perhaps a cook to prepare meals for you in your kitchen? It looks like the kind of place you would never want to leave, not even for an hour, to go out to eat somewhere!

Hey Eden,
Yes they absolutely have a cook available. You can asked them to prepare any groceries you purchased (or fish you caught ), or ask them to purchase groceries for you. They even offered a candle light dinner in the cave (unfortunately only Daisy knew that, Ninja can tell you how panicked I was before we left, because I booked too late and it was really hard to find a place that would take reservations for our anniversary dinner with only two weeks notice (find out how it turned out in a later episode - only here on negril.com!))

Alternatively you can order anything from the LTU-menu and have it brought to you. Anything you order can also be put on your tab at Villa Sur Mer for convenience.

[Eden]

Thanks for the info, Hubby-man. Villa Sur Mer sounds like a very special place, and definitely is now on our list to try. A candlelit dinner in a cave sounds very enticing!
Looking forward to reading about your anniversary dinner!

Hey Eden,
Yes they absolutely have a cook available. You can asked them to prepare any groceries you purchased (or fish you caught ), or ask them to purchase groceries for you. They even offered a candle light dinner in the cave (unfortunately only Daisy knew that, Ninja can tell you how panicked I was before we left, because I booked too late and it was really hard to find a place that would take reservations for our anniversary dinner with only two weeks notice (find out how it turned out in a later episode - only here on negril.com!))

Alternatively you can order anything from the LTU-menu and have it brought to you. Anything you order can also be put on your tab at Villa Sur Mer for convenience.

[gerryg123]

Great reporting, great photos, as always. I miss Negril.

[negrilaholic]

oh man I am loving reading this, Villa Su Mer looks like a gorgeous place, and I'm so glad they gave you the honeymoon suite!

[beccajean_ca]

Keep going guys ! Great play by play

[Clarity]

Thanks Gerryg123, Negrilaholic, Eden and Becca_Jean!
Man, we’ve been updating every day…we’re on page 9 and we’re still re-hashing the events of DAY 1.
It’s time to get this trip report moving. Lol

Trip Report continued…

It was getting late. We decided to grab a quick meal at LTU pub before heading over to the Canoe webcast to catch the sunset. I was excited about meeting some boardies for the first time, Sweetness had mentioned she was going to be there. Maybe, I would even get to meet Patty Sather and Delta.

But you all know there is really no such thing as a “quick meal” in Negril.

LTU pub is located across the street from Villa Sur Mer. We had heard a lot about it on the board, but we’ve never been there before. Everyone had raved about the Chicken Lola and Pumpkin soup so we already knew what we were going to order before we sat down.



It had a nice vibe there and a great view of the sea. I can’t tell you what else is on the menu because we didn’t look at it. We just said “Chicken Lola and Pumpkin soup please”

I noticed Markus was looking over my shoulder at something.

“What are you looking at?”, I asked.

He leaned in close and whispered “I think I spotted a boardie”

“Who??” I whispered back.

“I don’t know”, He hissed. “Don’t turn around she’ll know I’m talking about her”

I started laughing “Okay…” I said “Can you describe her to me?”

“Wait, she’s coming over”, Markus sat back with a smile and waved hello to this stranger. He gestured for her to come closer.

I didn’t recognize her.

“Yes?”, The strange woman said “I know you, don’t I?”

“Are you a boardie?”, Markus asked excitedly.

“Am I…a what?” She asked with a confused laugh.

FAIL.

You have to understand, we were both utterly exhausted and started imagining that EVERYONE in Negril is a boardie

Turns out we weren’t far from the truth. Her name was Oya, and she IS a member of Negril.com. Just not a regular poster. She is a massage therapist, and gives massages in different hotels all over Negril, mostly Catcha Falling Star. She recognized us from our trip there in November.

We all got to talking together and we discovered she’s German. She lived in Negril for many many years now and loved it here. She gave us the inside scoop on every day life in Jamaica and was actually really funny! She pulled up a chair and we all hung out for quite a while.


(Markus and Oya)

Eventually our food arrived. I glanced at my watch and realized we were going to miss the Canoe webcast after all. The sun had set, and the webcast would be ending in 30 minutes.

So we just sat back and enjoyed our meal in leisure. We had a long stretch of vacation in front of us so there was no urgency. We would catch the Canoe webcast next Thursday instead.

The pumpkin soup was killer and the Chicken Lola was delicious.. in that “I-know-this-is-crazy-fattening-but-I-really-don’t-care” kind of way. The cheese just spilled out of it and the outside had a delicious crunch…the chicken was really moist. Sooo good. We shared a plate and it was more than enough for both of us



You can see how exhausted Markus is in the shot, but look at that happy face.. we were both in bliss.

That’s when someone tapped me on the shoulder “Hey Daisy”

I turned around and it was ROCKY! Seeing him here at LTU pub threw me off guard! I was surprised that even after a year, he still remembered what we looked like! It was good seeing him again.

Rocky handed us our complimentary cellphone “Sorry I couldn’t be the one to pick you up this time, I hope Wayne took good care of you”

We assured him that we did, chatted for a while and then he wished us the best for our anniversary before heading off to pick up another passenger.

If you’re reading this, thank you Rocky for going out of your way to find us and deliver the phone to us in person! We really appreciated it! You’re the best!

We said our goodbye’s to Oya and went back to Villa Sur Mer with full stomachs. We decided to hit the resort bar for a night cap before calling it a night

We asked Radcliff to make something to strong to knock us out because we were still really hyped and excited. We were in JAMAICA! How could we sleep?



He made us two stiff Rum punches, that definitely knocked us out of our stool and head us stumbling back to our Villa in really really good spirits. We were both cracking as we tried to figure out how to work the massive elaborate shower.

I don’t remember how or when we fell asleep.. I just remember the feeling of Markus’s arms around me and feeling completely content…

End of Day one
We did it! Woot!