Trip Report - February 1-8, 2013

[Monty&Melo]

Ahhhhh, the first morning in Negril, my favorite morning of the trip. I feel surprisingly good for someone who tried to single handedly ensure that the stockholders of Desnoes and Geddes (the brewer of Red Stripe) receive their quarterly dividend check in the mail. I always tell Melo that I can do without sleep or drink heavily and still be OK, but I cannot do both. Fortunately for me I got plenty of sleep and I am ready to enjoy my first full day in Negril.


I head out north from Rondel towards Bloody Bay. I love my beach walks in the morning. I walk fairly fast, I do not listen to music as I like to listen to the sounds of the water and like I have mentioned before, I sort of enjoy the interaction with the beach guys. I’m recognized by several of them, they start the schpeil (sp?) and then see that it is me and they stop that and resume what they are doing or we end up having a friendly conversation.

I walk and walk, noticing that the beach is larger in some spots and smaller in others than my previous trip(s). “The sea giveth, the sea taketh away.” I walk up towards Sandals and as I get there it starts to rain, hard…so I use the lifeguard chair at Boardwalk as a shelter and wait out the rain. Since there was plenty of sunshine around, I was blessed with the presence of a beautiful rainbow. It was huge, and you could see the whole thing from one end to another, no washing out where it approaches the water at either end, no missing parts up at the top. I thought, “this would make a great pic,” but unfortunately my camera was back in the room.

After waiting out the rain for a brief few minutes, I was off, back down to Rondel, where my lovely bride was just finishing up her “prepping” of herself for her first day in Negril. I grab a quick shower and we are off for Firefly for breakfast. Our friends D&R go with us and the day is underway. One of the great things about having breakfast at Firefly, besides the wonderful Maxine is (no, it’s not the naked people!!!) that this is where Cortis starts her morning fruit routine. The last time we were in Negril, Cortis was still off with her injury that her toe suffered at the market in Sav. This time she was back and it was really great to see her and she looked great. We stocked up on fruit from her as this was Saturday and of course Cortis does not work on Sunday because she goes to church. We finish off our breakfasts and we are on the way back down the beach to begin our sunning ritual.

I’m not one to sit around a lot, and there are errands to run the first full day as well. I need to get minutes for the phone (the international plan), some Red Stripes for the room, some rum and I brought two large tubs of Old Bay seasoning for Bentley and I wanted to get those to him and arrange a dinner for Monday night for the four of us and a couple of more friends who happened to be staying in Negril at the same time as us. If my timing turned out perfectly I would be done with errands just about the time the pork is ready at the Red Dragon.

I call my driver and I head out. Plan works perfectly, except for some reason all the Digicel machines were down and I couldn’t get the international plan, only buy minutes on cards. No problem, I was going to the Chiney-mon store anyway, and he has plenty of phone cards. I grab Beers, Rum, Ting, Plantain Chips and Spicy Big-Foots. I pay at the counter and then proceed to the “altar” located at the front of the store for a $500 phonecard for me and a $200 for the driver (gotta keep his phone charged up….never know when I might need him!!!). Chiney-mon not there, but Chiney-womon there in his place. I phone Bentley and head there next. Always great to see Bentley, he has a new menu board hanging up to avoid any “confusions” over pricing that some folks have complained about recently (on TripAdvisor). He is appreciative of the Old Bay and I make arrangements with him to have dinner ready for 6 of us at 630pm on Monday night. We talk for a few minutes, I leave him a deposit and I am on my way. It is 1245pm, perfect, pork will be ready at Red Dragon….that is the next stop.

I’ve discussed my love for the Red Dragon in trip reports before, but it really is one of the coolest places I have ever been. It is not just the great pork, it is not just the well-cold beers, it is not just the overproof rum. This place is truly special, in a very-hard-to-explain, you-just-have-to-be-there sort of way. If you have not been there, give it a try on your next trip, don’t judge the place from the road, go in and sit down and take it all in, I am convinced you won’t be sorry.. I have a couple of beers, a little pork and I buy a couple of squares on their SuperBowl pot. I also get my driver some pork and I take some back to the beach for Melo and our friends.

After a short drive back to Rondel, I store my things away in the room and I am back on the beach. Time for a long swim. I can’t swim without a beer, so I stop off at the Rondel bar for a beer and off I go. I like to walk out as far as I can and still keep my head above water. It seems this trip I can walk out further than usual, but maybe that is just my imagination. In any case, I am a long way from the waterline in about 5 feet of water, just enjoying myself. After a couple of hours of frolicking in the water it is time for “Happy Hour!!!”

Most of our afternoon Happy Hours occur at the Canoe and tonight was no exception. I am a lover of the Rum punch and you can’t beat the price ($400J for 2). There were four of us and Melo as usual drank Red Stripe and the other three of us drank rum punch. Here is a picture of the bill, keep in mind that each tick mark next to the Rum Punch actually means 2 punches. Our driver helped Melo out on the Red Stripes, she can drink, but not normally 5 in an hour!!!! Also some pictures of the sunset from Canoe, you don’t get the sun from there, but I really like the different colors in the water and in the sky that you get from there.








Dinner this night was at 3-Dives and I have to tell you they have made tremendous strides at that place. No more waits forever for food and when you get the food it is awesome. I could drink their granny sauce and their chicken is crazy good. We order 2 half chickens, an order of shrimp and an order of steamed veges, all came with plenty of rice and peas….it was a feast to say the least. Sorry no food pictures, but you can imagine what our table looked like when we were finished, rice and peas everywhere along with lots of chicken bones picked clean. Yummy.

We ride back to Rondel and cross the road for a couple of drinks at the bar, it is Saturday night, but I get up very early (sometimes before sunrise) so by 9pm I am usually done. Melo can sleep at anytime, so off to bed we go, knowing that tomorrow is Sunday, SuperBowl Sunday and we have plans to stay up for the whole game (all the way to 10pm!!!!) and then to go to Alfreds to see the Reggae bands so we figured we could use the sleep.