Negril is better than ever! I am here, and I am having a GOOD time!

[gerryg123]

It was early this morning, very early. I was in the ocean before 6 a.m., lounging on my raft. Then SHE walked into the water, another beautiful Jamaican, so young and full of spirit (god, ya'all must think I am a cad, but I swear I am just goin' with the flow.)

This girl was no hustler, not even close. A nice girl. No smoke, no drink, dad runs a patty stand in front of one of the nearby hotels.

She has ambition, too, and that's what most impressed me. She is learning to cook desserts and wants to be a pastry chef with plans to get her certification. We did have a tiny disagreement about Tamboo -- her cousin works there, and she thinks it's good, while I gave it a thumbs down -- but for nearly an hour we frolicked in the water together, and we even made plans to meet up this afternoon on the beach.

God I love this town!

It was still early when we parted ways, and I jumped on my motor bike and headed left, toward RIU (it's still weird not being in that place sometimes, I have been there SO many times), and I stopped at Crystal Waters cause some boardies had mentioned it was a nice place. It is nice, though only a couple of units have an ocean view, and I walked around the beach, met a shop guy named Tony, a nice guy.

I headed back and remembered a longtime boardie from the other board had mentioned Samsara as s good snorkel spot off the Cliffs, and BAM, that's all it took -- I grabbed my snorkel gear and whisked to Samsara. Nice snorkeling, though still a lot fewer fish than the canon.

Always have equipment issues with snorkeling. If my mask is good, the snorkel is leaky. If my snorkel is good, the mask gets cloudy. If both are good, my fins are rubbing me wrong in some little spot. I managed, though.

Then I re-upped my scooter at Gas on the Cliffs -- god, that old grouch is tough to bargain with -- cause he has been hawking me all week to make sure I returned it on time. The only friggin' break he would give me on the extended rental was one free day -- on my NEXT visit, lol. Then again, he has no ID from me and no credit-card imprint, so I did not argue too much.

Near the roundabout, I met a fisherman named Patrick, and man this fool is good. He had a big old batch of lobsters and fish and THREE octopuses (or is it octopi)?

Then I got back and Orbitz called with a recorded message something along the lines of "yo fool, your flight takes off in an hour'' and I about crapped myself, but I guess Continental has its own records (bank charge went through for switch to next week), so let's hope so.

Ate my last breakfast at Bar B Barn (waitress is never attentive enough but I've seen worse), packed some stuff (80 percent finished), and now I think I will re-visit the ocean for another little swim. Oh ya, brought last nite's Debar's chicken left-overs to breakfast, still spicy as a MFer.

Will check back soon .....