Newbie Trip Report - 4-15 Feb, 2013

[ThreeBlackCats]

No Limit!





Everyone had been pretty reserved so far. Not enough Red Stripe I suppose. Then Lenbert comes in from the back door with a parrot!



People started to loosen up and we were off to Choices.



We got some beer and ended up standing outside the bar talking with a few of the locals. We met Beego (as he explains, like bee go to honey) there. Seems there was a blue light special on subs that day. Poor guy couldn't get any takers though. His friend was selling jewellery so a few of us bought some pieces and had a nice chat with the two of them. Then Jardan, who we had met the day before at Allie's Juice, shows up! We had a good long chat with him, talked about the area, and found out there was a big birthday bash down the street for PeeWee on Friday night. Unfortunately we were heading out to Treasure Beach that day and we'd miss the festivities. Next, the mushroom man shows up. He joined Beego as neither one of them were having any luck doing any business with our crowd.

Off to Xtabi!



People were really relaxing now and we checked out the caves underneath the bar.



And this is where things get a little blurry...

[ThreeBlackCats]

Can anyone tell me how to get these photos rotated? I can't seem to find a way and I have no idea why they're loading like this in the first place.

[541lion]

cant wait to see and read more!! my first trip is in june, and we are also gonna spend a little time in treasure beach...

[Smokin Kevan]

Thanks for sharing your vibes!

Happy Travels

Skb

[butch]

It was great meeting you guys on the crawl....man that bus was packed! Me and my buddy sticky ricky had a great time that day doing the crawl, it's hard to believe we actually made it to see Bunny play that night at the birthday bash!! Great trip report and look forward to more

[ThreeBlackCats]

Day 3 cont...

After some drinks at Xtabi and exploring the caves, we were off to Sea Star. I have vague recollections of a group on our bus from Winnipeg who were very excited to get to Sea Star. Apparently the owners are from Winnipeg and there's a pool shaped like the province. More cold beer and someone ended up in that pool. Good times.
Next up was Sir D to watch the sunset. There were subs for everyone, the view was amazing, and it was the perfect end to a fantastic day. We all piled back into the bus and headed back to our hotels to get freshened up for the Bob Marley Birthday Bash that night! After having a little too much fun on the pub crawl, we forgot to tell Lenbert to pick us up at 9pm when he did his second round. So we sent an email from our room and got ready. When there was no Lenbert to be found, we hit the hay early and called it a night. Several days later, I found that email to Lenbert sitting in the "drafts" folder of my email. The email was never sent so Lenbert had no idea we wanted to go to the show. One thing about Rockhouse, there really is no internet access from your room. Not that we needed it, except for that one night. Just as well since we had such a great day and needed the sleep anyway.

Day 4

We were up bright and early and headed out to Just Natural for breakfast.







After breakfast we stopped at Ras Rody to grab takeout for lunch later on back at the hotel. Ras Rody's son was cooking that day and we had a fantastic feast of johnny cakes, ackee, callaloo, and pumpkin curry stew. I could eat that every day. So damn delicious.



Another perfect afternoon laying in the sunshine - reading, swimming, and then an epic nap. We got ready for dinner and headed out to Canoe Bar. Patty had already told me (on the forum) that they were serving vegan curried tofu & veg with rice so I was looking forward to that. I was not disappointed. The hubs had an equally delicious pesto pasta. Great food at Canoe Bar.



And we had a steel drum band to serenade us!



We bumped into SadieCat and her husband who we had met the day before on the pub crawl. Again, so great to meet boardies on our trip. Such nice people.
After dinner we were going to grab a cab back to Rockhouse and Kirby, the owner of Canoe, said he'd be happy to drive us back. We couldn't believe it. We met the absolute nicest people in Jamaica everywhere we went. Just fantastic.
Back at the hotel we had a few more drinks at the bar before calling it a night.

[ThreeBlackCats]

I have to apologize for these sideways shots. I have no idea why this keeps happening. Haha
Turn your heads to the left please!

[OAngie]

Great report! I want more!

[sbeth]

This is wonderful! Thanks for writing it!

[ThreeBlackCats]

Day 5

Got up early, did our last bit of packing, and got ready to head out to Treasure Beach. But first up, breakfast! We had a great spread at Sips & Bites... callaloo, cabbage, ackee, fresh rolls, toast, fried plantain, yams, and potatoes, all washed down with fresh squeezed orange juice and beet juice.





One last final walk around Rockhouse before we go...

Goodbye bridge!



Goodbye patio!



Here's the pool that we never actually looked at until we were leaving. We were too busy enjoying our own patio and snorkeling to worry about a pool. It is beautiful though.



Chicken met us again, right on time, and we were off to Treasure Beach with a few stops along the way. It was so great to have Chicken drive us everywhere. It was like having an old friend show you around town. He told us all about the different areas we drove through and we learned all kinds of Jamaican history along the way.

Here's a 17th century plantation house, restored and now owned by Jamaicans:



We made a quick stop to see the mausoleum of Peter Tosh:







We drove through amazing villages, countryside, and saw Middle Quarters / Shrimp City, and ended up at YS Falls.