I was writing an e-mail to a fellow boardie, and it kind of turned into a trip report. Some of you asked, so here's what I've got so far:
Let me say that before I left, I really felt like I should not be going. I am extremely busy at work, and on the tail end of planning our wedding. I was just stressed, and having a hard time to find the time to do everything. When I had talked to you before, I was stressed about the trip. Whether good or bad, I didn't even have time to think about the trip beforehand, and really hadn't even been on the Negril.com board in a very long time.
DAY 1
So, we get there around noon on Saturday, and I am ready to be extremely cautious. We met our driver, and I asked where the ATM was so I could get some JA $. So, I know the exchange rate and everything, right? I get $1,000 JA out, and think I am doing so good. I don't know if I was tired, or what, but when we went to eat in MoBay, I realized I only got about $11 US out. We didn't have time to eat breakfast, so our driver took us to Jerky's, I think. It was fine. I got my first jerk chicken of the trip. We ate, and I drank a couple of Red Stripes. We head on toward Negril. Most of the trip is quite scenic, but we did pass through Lucea, and it made me a little nervous just being such a minority. We eventually got to Negril, and I asked our driver to go ahead and take us down to Hi-Lo to stock up on beer, liquor, and to just kind of look around the place. Well, we did have some people try to hassle and hustle us while we were down there. Our driver got quite rude with one of them at the ATM at Scotia Bank. Even though I kind of knew what I was talking about, as far as the lay of the land goes, I think I still gave off a pretty strong vibe that I wasn't quite sure what the hell was going on. I think the locals picked up on it pretty quickly. So we've finally got some supplies, and we've had enough. We head back to the hotel. We get settled, and want to go check out the beach. It had been raining, but had stopped, now. So we walk out, and there is a gut sitting under a tree as we head down to the water. He gets up and kinda follows us. My girlfriend kind of hangs back and I go on to the water, and he follows me. So this is weird to me. So he tries to shake my hand or whatever and find out my name. I give him a hesitant fist bump, and say something. He picks up my vibe, and asks, "Do you not like the Jamaican people?" He wanted to sell me drugs, and I tell him I'm not interested. We part ways. So, then we head up the beach. We're offered drugs a few more times. One of the guys says something disrespectful as we are walking away from him. So great start, right? We're wondering how this week is going to go, after this first taste of Negril. It's been a long day. We just eat at the hotel that night.
DAY 2
The next day we are up early... at least early for us, which is about 7:30 or 8. We head down to the beach and eat breakfast at CocoLaPalm. It's pretty good. I didn't expect there to be breakfast this close to American, here. So, we are going to spend the day on the beach today. The vendors walk up and down, and it's a little bit of a pain to try and get rid of these guys. I see a guy with a Masters visor on (the Masters takes place in Georgia, where we are from). I strike up a conversation with him later on, and we talked quite a bit. We talk about maybe going to Rick's together later and grabbing dinner, too (they are first-timers, as well). It rains, so we don't go to Rick's. We do walk down to Country Country, though, and have dinner. We had to stop at Treehouse for a drink because Country Country kitchen closes, for some reason, between lunch and dinner. We eat there, and head back to the hotel. We were going to stop at Sun Beach to see live music, but there's nothing going on when we pass. We get back to the hotel, and they tell us to go down to Alfred's. It is after 9p, and I'm a little hesitant about walking the beach this late. The guys at the bar at our hotel say it is fine, and we go one. I would think it is fine, since there are 4 of us, but everyone seems to be a little drunk, except for me.
I can keep going, if there are any requests.
