Day 2 Wed. Feb. 17th
Breakfast at Sonia's at Freedom village. Located on the beach road right across from the entrance to Maraposa. The $200
J Breakfast is a killer. Veggie omelet, hash browns and toast. YUM YUM!! The patties are huge. Veggie patty for $160 j.
Got a bottle of fresh squeezed orange juice in an old Estate overproof bottle. Great! Great! Food. Sonia is a
sweetheart. Fun to just sit and talk to. Sonia was on the beach last year but she had to move. The Englishman who owns
Freedom village gave her a spot just inside the gate. Sonia says she doesn’t make as much money but she enjoys being in
this location more.
Beach Time at Charela!! Kay got impatient and had to drag her own chair up when she didn't see Cedric or Wayne on the
beach. Just as she got it in position here comes Cedric with the admonition "dat my job mon..you no memba how it works?"
All the time with a big smile on his face. Cedric and Wayne run the beach at Charela. They are both very engaging young
men and have become good friends over the past two years.
Nothin' finer in the world than grabbin' a beach chair, cocktail in hand and just kickin' back and watching the world go
by. The world on the beach in Negril includes the Air Time Parachute boat, Lots of glass bottom reef boats, that strange
banana thing towed behind ski boats and the never ending flow of tourists and higglers walking up and down the beach. One
of my favorite higgler lines of the whole trip was "Hey mon, mi farmer in de mountains…got nice ganga!" The old standard
"first time in Negril?"..if your reply is negative you get "I remember you for last year mon." The rest of the morning
was spent just lounging on the beach, with the occasional dip in the Ocean. Negril really is Paradise!
In the afternoon we thought we would look up "Fatfish" a fellow negril.com boarder who was staying just down the beach
at White Sands. Off we went in search of Fatfish. When we got to White Sands we asked the first person we saw if they
knew Fatfish. "Sure, he's right over there asleep in that beach chair." Kay goes right over and wakes him up. "Are you
Fatfish?" Sheeesh! I was just glad he has a good sense of humor. After all he is a big man! Fatfish "Jeff" introduced us
to his wife Carol and all the people they had been partying with the last week. We had a few drinks, well quite a few
drinks, and everyone had a good time. We got the tour of White Sands. Nice place! We told Fatfish we were heading over
to the Yacht Club and they where welcome to come along but they already had plans for that evening.
Off to the Negril Yacht Club. The Yacht Club is in a great spot just where the Beach meets the cliffs. The grounds of
the club are on cliffs about 4 or 5 feet high and the surf is always lapping at the shore. Just past the Yacht Club is a
nice little beach, so you really do have the best of both worlds. The Ivo Wiser Airwave Musicians were already into their
first set and the place was beginning to rock. (Or is that Reggae). Got to meet a LOT of people from the board. Chuck (the
owner) Donna, Rasta John, Blondie, Thongman, Parrotmon, Ivo Wiser, Stretch (the drummer for the band), Dick, Estelle, Funny
Face, Lucky Lady, John Wayne and a lot of others. (Sorry if I missed anyone.) Well, everyone had a great time just
listening to the band, drinkin' and smokin'. We got to see Rasta John & Blondie's Wedding Video. WOW!! Now that looked like
a good party!!
Had just a little problem on the way home. Hailed a cab and settled on the price back to Charela but when he took off
he turned around and headed back up the cliff road toward the far West End. I told him "wrong way" about 3 times before I
had to yell "Dude, turn around right now and head the other way." When we got to the beach road he pretended he didn't know
where Charela was until we pulled up outside. Hmmmmmmmm.
