Monty & Melo's "5 Months Mon Goat Can Eat" Trip Report - Oct 2012

[Monty&Melo]

The day started early, with the 6:45am flight from Louisville to Charlotte. We used to travel through Atlanta, but once we found USAir through Charlotte we won’t go another way. Customs on the way home is usually a breeze in Charlotte and the whole place has a nice Southern Charm feel about it.

We actually arrived a few minutes late in Charlotte and by the time we walked to gate D9 they were seating Zone #2, bonus, our zone. Stop long enough to say hi to my brother, JMA and his girlfriend, LG. It was going to be my Brother’s 4th trip to the island, three with me and the other one on his honeymoon to his first wife (talk about a long story, way too long for this report!!!). LG on the other hand was making her first trip, and you always worry about Newbies, even though she seemed excited about the trip.

We get in the air in no time and pretty soon we are over Cuba and soon enough you can see Jamaica and the deep blue sea that surrounds it. As with the last two trips, immigration was a breeze and we had our luggage soon thereafter and out to the local exit at the airport. My favorite beer of the whole trip is that first one at the Groovy Grouper while we are telling countless taxi drivers that we don’t need a ride and that we have one prearranged. Something about that first splash of beer on the back of your throat makes you realize you are in Jamaica!! And Oh what a feeling that is.

We made it through the airport so quick that our ride is not there, our flight landed at 11:40am, we told our driver we would be ready about 12:30pm and it was only 12:10pm, pretty sure it was record time. Anyway, after a short wait our driver pulled up and we loaded up and off we were. Our driver provided us with lots of cold Red Stripe in an “igloo” as he called it, enough to get us about half way to Negril at least. Negril, here we come!!!

First stop is always to see our friend at Sunset Beach, visit with her for a minute, pick up our J-phone from her, all charged up and ready to go. We make plans for her to come visit us tomorrow in Negril and off we go again. Next stop is the Shell Station in Hopewell , first pee break and replenish the igloo with more Red Stripe…off again. We have to make a stop off at our driver’s house in Lucea to pick up another car, so we found some bushes and made it the second pee break of the trip (not the girls of course!!!). Back in the van and off again, pretty soon we saw the “Welcome to Negril” sign and we knew we were getting close.

This trip promised to be a little different for us, as we were splitting our stay between the cliffs and the beach. So we went zooming past all of the beach properties (including our home away from home - Rondel Village), through the roundabout, past Canoe (which was still CLOSED for renovations) and down the West End until we pulled up here:



We didn’t know much about Le Mirage, except that we had spent a great afternoon there during our February trip hanging out with some “Negril Royalty,” none other than Bob and Susan from NegrilOneStop. Since that afternoon we thought that on our next trip, if we could work it out, we would stay a few days there. Soon after arriving JMA and I headed into town to do the money-change, beer and rum-stockup thing. Driver takes us back to town and we trade money, exchange rate was $88.75 JMD to $1.00USD. Love walking around with a stack of JA $1000’s, why anyone would travel all the way to Jamaica and spend that US stuff is beyond me, spending $J is not only better for your pocketbook but better for the island as well, plus it’s a ton of fun!!!

Back at Le Mirage and the girls are in their suits down by the wata, if you haven’t been or seen Le Mirage, they have this great place for sunning right down by the wata, complete with a couple of jumping spots as well as a nice ladder for lowering and extracting yourself from the wata.

Here is a pic of that space looking back from the cliffs towards the hotel, notice the rainbow that we got that night, pretty cool!!



Here are a couple of Sunset Pics from that night…




After Sunset, we do our normal first night dinner at Chicken Lavish, it’s good to sit and talk with Doc, get the lay of the land, an update on Jamaican politics, the general vibe of Negril, and an update on Doc’s love-life.

Here is a picture of the good lookin' brothers out in front of Chicken Lavish....aren't we cute (I'm the best looking one on the right)???



Doc didn’t have any Conch Soup or Curry Goat (too slow mon!!!), but we had a great dinner nonetheless and the rum punch he makes in slow season by the glass is even stronger than the stuff he makes in high season in the rum bottles!! It was easy to go to bed that first night, like it usually is in Jamaica. I could tell this was going to be a good trip, we got into Jamaica mode very quickly and half the fun of going to bed on the first night is waking up the next day and realizing that you have the whole day in front of you. Day two soon come….

[Lady Jane]

EXCITING! I met Doc, last March, on the beach. He was running, exercising, working out and stopped to chat with me. I told him I knew of Chicken Lavish from Negril.com but hadn't made it there. He seemed pleased he was known of. He gave me a business card, that he just so happen to have while working out. cool. I have it tucked away to go there next reach.

[pretty40]

Le Mirage is on my list. Nice pix

[Monty&Melo]

Up and at em early on Saturday morning, 2nd day of vacation, but the first morning of the trip. I love, love, love mornings in Negril. When staying on the beach at Rondel, I take off walking down the beach towards the all-inclusives and walk all the way to Sandals, which is almost 3 miles, so I get 6 miles in before getting my day started. Needless to say, staying on the cliffs presents a little bit of a logistical challenge when it comes to a nice morning walk. I figured what the hell and took off out of Le Mirage towards Ricks. I walked and walked, for about an hour and 20 minutes, almost 3 miles, and I arrived at the end of West End Road, not technically of course, but I got to the place where there appears to be some sort of development that stopped a few years ago. The sign said to turn left away from the Cliffs to go to the Westender. I thought about walking that way, but I was pretty far from home already and quite frankly, while my comfort level walking on the beach was always 100%, I was at about 80-85% on my west-end walk, never really scared, but not 100% comfortable with the unknown surroundings. I am sure once I stay on the west end a few times, I will no longer have any fears of that walk.

Back at the hotel and Melo is getting ready for her day, and is blow-drying her hair when all of sudden, poof, no current. She was convinced that her Turbo 1000 hair dryer blew a fuse somewhere, but sure enough, one of the things the west end is most famous for, a current outage as far as you could see in each direction. She was almost done, so we figured we wouldn’t be in the room much during the day and as long as it was back on for later we would be fine. Out for a little quick breakfast of coffee, toast, banana bread, etc and we are down at the wata, getting ready to enjoy the day.

I bring my own snorkel gear and I couldn’t wait to give it a try in the crystal blue waters. Here are a few shots of me in the sea…..





Soon after I was finished, LG wanted to give it a try, so off she went….



After swimming and snorkeling for a while, my brother and I decided that we would head into town for the first Red Dragon visit of the trip. I absolutely love the Red Dragon, the place is just so damned cool, the pork is awesome and the beer is cold (although later in this trip I discovered JB and Ting, more on that later). Anyway, we called our driver because our friends from Montego Bay were headed over and we needed to get back too quick to walk all of that way. Our driver is also a fan of the pork, so we always buy him a beer and some pork while we are there. This time we decided to suck down a couple of cold ones, eat half-a-pound of pork, and then get a pound to go. We also wanted to stop at Juicy Patties to load up on those too, so we would have something to eat around the pool and wata for the rest of the day. The plan was executed to perfection as we arrived at Red Dragon, said hi to Gardo (he works the store side on Saturday, while his brother works the bar) and proceeded to eat pork and drink beer.

After heading out from Red Dragon (we would be back!!!) we stopped down at Juicy Patties and ordered what seemed like a ton of Patties and some Coco Breads and only spent like $15. Crazy pricing and good stuff.

Back at Le Mirage and our friends had arrived, so everyone was lying around the pool relaxing. Funny thing I have found about a lot of Jamaicans, even though they have been surrounded by water all of their lives, a lot of them don’t swim and even if they get in the water on the beach or the pool where it is shallow, they are not interested in swimming where they can’t touch the bottom. I realize this is not everyone, but I have been surprised over the years about how common this is.

We relax, talk, figure out how to get our friend hooked up with my youngest brother (who is not on the trip with us), and have a great time just hanging around the pool at Le Mirage. There was no one else there, the current was still out so there was no “whirring” of the air conditioners or even the sound of the pool filter running. It was a great afternoon.

About 4ish we decide it is time for the first Canoe visit of the trip (another place I really like), we had stopped by there on the way to Red Dragon and found out that they were not officially open from the renovations yet, but that they were “sort of” open so we could stop by if we wanted too. Bonus!!! Rum Punch here I come.
We took a few shots while we were sitting around Canoe, here are a couple of samples…

Me and our Montego Bay Friend….I think we make a cute couple!!!!



My brother (JMA) and his girlfriend (LG) officially in Negril Mode



After many rum punches, we headed for dinner at 3 Dives. I have heard various things (both good and bad) about this place over the years, but we figured what the hell, let’s try it. Current was still out, so it was dinner by candlelight for most of the evening, we ordered on our way in, a bunch of chicken and some shrimp. The food arrived after about 30 minutes (or 3 beers) and as we were about halfway through the meal the current came on, and to tell you the truth, I wish it hadn’t, sitting there in the dark with candles lit, eating chicken and shrimp, rice and peas and some Callaloo, was a great experience. And with it being dark sometimes you couldn’t tell how much granny sauce you were pouring on, so that made it even better. That sauce is fantastic, almost addicting, like you couldn’t stop eating it. I love a good endorphin high, if those guys on the beach could capture that feeling and put it in baggie and sell it, I might buy some!!! The Shrimp were awesome as well, we agreed that we would probably be back later in the week.

The best thing about the current coming back on was that we were going to have air-conditioning. I will be the first to admit that I am a wimp about AC, I have to have it, I will pay extra for it and I cannot handle the idea of not having it at night when I sleep. No sooner had we gotten back at the room the current went off again. Damn…..but as soon as the words came out of my mouth it was back on again. I couldn’t help but think about that scene in Airplane when the guy unplugs the runway lights and then says “just kidding.” Current back on, AC is cooling and off to bed we go (not all four of us together, get your mind out of the gutter!!!!). First full day in Jamaica in the books. I would call the day an overwhelming success. Day three soon come…..

[poolguywindsor]

Your hitting all the good places for sure!

[wpyogi]

Great report! I totally agree about Charlotte vs Atlanta. And it's nice to hear about your time at Le Mirage. We stayed a few nights there in 2011.

[gerryg123]

Fantastic report. Excellent details. You fit right in in Negril. Ya mon.

Mi soon come.

[booger]

I'm with you on Charlotte as well. Charlotte or Houston for me and I do my best to avoid ATLANTA, Miami, and Dallas.

I hear you can get naked at Mirage and do your thing.

[Reggae Roy]

Very nice start. Looking forward to more. We also prefer Charlotte over Hotlanta.

[RockRobster]

Glad you tried Mirage. They had some great pricing over the summer, so I spent a few nights there. Big rooms, very clean, very friendly. The pool was quite nice and clean. I wish the water had been calmer the days we were there....no snorkeling. The staff is excellent and security is top notch. It is the sister property to Charella Inn.