Chapter 6

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.
-Cynthia Heimel, "Lower Manhattan Survival Tactics"
The next morning dawned without us. We were there, but we were sound asleep, asleep in a way that I can only achieve when I am on vacation.

In theory, our rate at Rooms included breakfast. Reviews on Trip Advisor for the food weren't that good and you had to be there before 9:30. That isn't in my time zone. We were there seven nights and the only time I even caught a glimpse of the buffet was on the day we were leaving.

Though we weren't going to partake in breakfast, I was going to see about getting us a different room. I had read on Trip Advisor that the second floor rooms were nicer. I hated the way our patio felt like part of the pathway and we discovered that the shower in our room only half worked.

The Reggae Marathon had been the day before and when we arrived, at least half the hotel seemed to be booked by Jamaicans. I suspected now that it was Sunday better rooms would be opening up. I went over to the office to enquire. Using the shower as my complaint, I asked for a second floor room, ideally facing into the hotel grounds. The women at the front desk seemed not at all surprised at our comment about the shower. I found that a bit annoying. If you know it doesn't work, why not fix it? Now I sound like my father. Whatever, I brushed it off.

We are in Jamaica, so of course this was request was "No problem." An hour later we moved our bags over a building to a second floor room. Even better, we actually have a bit of an ocean view from our Garden view room. It was a big improvement.

So somewhere around 11, we decide it is time for some breakfast. Again, we have no options on site so off we go to the road, this time making a left.

I spot Montana's a little ways down the road. It was on my researched list of good places for breakfast.

The beach road seemed pretty quiet and there was only one other couple at Montana's. We picked a seat and ordered up juice and pineapple pancakes. Don't know what that is going to look like, but how can it be bad?

First bite and I am starting to wonder what magic these Jamaican's put in their food. It just tasted so darn good. My guess, he put pineapple on the griddle and then poured the batter over top. The pineapple had started to caramelize. We drizzled what I assume was cane syrup over it and I was in heaven.


Montana's is right across from Fun Holiday resort. There appeared to be some sort of car rental operation going on out of the Fun holiday parking lot. At least that was the only explanation we came up with as to traffic we were seeing. There was a perpetual flow of cars coming and going, which I enjoyed watching. Though not as lush as some other places, I thought Montana's had a nice shady yard and that it was a good place to pass away an hour.


If you are staying on the beach road and don't know it like the back of your hand, print this map and tuck it someplace where you will always have it; for me that was my camera case. (http://www.negrilinfo.com/negril-map.html) It is not at all to scale, but given how sketchy some of the signs in Negril can be it was really useful to know what else was around our intended destination.

Our afternoon was spent in the clutches of sand gravity. Part of the time watching life on the beach, some time spent reading, some time spend floating about in the sea. The Christmas breezes were up, so we really never had super calm seas while we were there. It was never so much as to interrupt our plans, but it wasn't quite the calm bathtub that I have seen others capture on film. Maybe if I had ever made it to the beach before 11am, I would say differently.

Sometime mid-afternoon, we decided lunch would be a good idea, so we wandered down the beach to Alfred's. Neither of us was overly hungry, so we opted to just share an order of fish and chips. It was good, but I though the batter on the fish was pretty greasy.