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:

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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!!

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Here are a couple of Sunset Pics from that night…
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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)???

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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….