If you love Jamaica let me see your hand - A Trip Report

[CherryNorth49]

Chapter 11

“Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.”
― John Lennon

Our first full day on the beach started well after dawn. With our complimentary breakfast vouchers in hand, we made it down to the restaurant with minutes to spare. We contemplated upgrading our order, but decided to just go with the bread and pastry basket. It's a pretty decent continental breakfast basket. I'm pretty sure there was fruit, too.

Then there didn't seem to be much more to do that find a pair of loungers and set in to enjoy the day. Food came to us from the vendors, the most memorable of which was slice of ginger bread, which is one of Sunshine's most favorite things.

Coco certainly has a beautiful stretch of beach with is so deep. There is lots of shade available. I think even at high season, it wouldn't feel all that crowded. I would guess the resort was at least 65% occupied while we were there.

As the afternoon wore on, the staff and Coco started getting setup for a sunset wedding. We had front row seats for the setup and as the wedding guests started to gather we wandered off to find less conspicuous seats. We thought we might have a sub with the sunset and doing that in the middle of someone else's wedding seemed rude. They could not have asked for a better sunset on their wedding day.

There is a third member of our traveling party. His name is Bristoe and if elephants needed passports, his would be impressive. He doesn't get out quite as much as we do, but he certainly seemed to be having his own party with maids each day. At all three properties, when we returned each day it was to find him in a new pose. I'm a sucker for flowers and thought this was adorable.

[CherryNorth49]

We had originally tried to book into Idle Awhile, but they had no rooms available. We could still check out the restaurant though, so we headed over to Chill Awhile for dinner. We tend to eat really late so are often one of the last groups seated at whatever restaurant we are eating at. We were finding on this trip that often meant the best tables were reset and waiting for us.

I ordered the Shrimp Rundown and Sunshine had the Lobster Thermadore.

He was in heaven. I was glad the restaurant wasn't busy, because he was having trouble not audibly enjoying his meal. Mine was just alright. They were nice shrimp, though I'm not sure they had been deveined as well as they could have been. My experience with rundown is it is not a spicy dish, but it should still be flavorful. This one was a bit bland. The bill gave me a bit of sticker shock, but we had just had shrimp and lobster beach front. Maybe if I had enjoyed my meal more I would feel we'd got better value. The service was very good, but there was only one other table occupied, so no one was being tested.

For a time every evening we'd fall into the period where our rhythm became very simple. We'd head down to the beach to put our feet in the sea.

We are never purposely in past our ankles, but every once in a while, a particularly big set of waves catches us out and manages to soak our shorts. We bring down our drinks and move about on the edge of the surf. If you stand still in matter of minutes you'll find yourself sunk into the sand up to your ankles. I let that happen again and again. We talk about everything and nothing. Either the call of nature or an empty cup chases us away. If the bar is open, the solution might be simple. If not, it might be a trip back to the room. Then we repeat. When we eventually call it a night, we are a little salty and a little sandy and it's all irie.

[Seveen]

thank you thank you!

[ladyluckireland]

Can't wait to read more we are going in April on our first trip and i love trip reports

[bjritz]

This report just keeps delivering! Loved the idea of excursion during hotel transfer. Your day looked wonderful and the smiles say it all. I like your descriptions so far of CCLP sounds fantastic. Loved your beach shadow picture. Each new chapter is a thrill, thanks and keep it coming!

[CherryNorth49]

thank you thank you!

You are very welcome!

Can't wait to read more we are going in April on our first trip and i love trip reports

I feel pretty confident saying you will absolutely love it. Based on your handle, are you coming from Ireland? That will be quite a journey! I had the chance to visit Ireland for the first time this past St. Paddy's day. It was a great experience.

This report just keeps delivering! Loved the idea of excursion during hotel transfer. Your day looked wonderful and the smiles say it all. I like your descriptions so far of CCLP sounds fantastic. Loved your beach shadow picture. Each new chapter is a thrill, thanks and keep it coming!

Thank you. I do highly recommend doing an excursion on moving day. It was a lot of fun. Depending on where you are going and in what kind of vehicle, it might make sense to make arrangements for your luggage not to make the full journey. I'm sure either Catcha or Coco would have held our bags as we made the trek. I have been dragging my feet figuring out what we are going to do this year - I'm too busy writing about last year! Looking at my ticker, I had best get on it...

[CherryNorth49]

Chapter 12

“Earth's crammed with heaven...
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning


This beach day starts like most, down to Marley-by-the-Sea for breakfast. Tough call on whether Catcha or Coco has the better morning view, as they are just so different. Either one is sure better than the snow banks at home.

Afterwards we wandered back to the room and enjoyed a bit of time on our huge patio. We had exhausted our supply of Shamrocks O.J. so decided to make the walk up the road to get more. Even at a slow shuffle, it really wasn't that far a walk. Fifteen minutes maybe? I'd walk a lot further for that juice.

When hunger called we decided to wander over to Sunbeach for some lunch. They were setting up the stage for a show that night.

This day was probably the most questionable we had, weather wise. It was overcast most of the day and it rained periodically. By periodically I mean each time we thought we might get to some loungers on the beach. It went kind of like this. Pick lounger, spread out towel and look up to feel the first drop of rain. Shrug, fold up towel and seek shelter. Oh well, tough luck having to drink Red Stripe at the bar instead.

There is something fundamentally different about the vibe on the beach versus the West End. A year later, I am still struggling to put my finger on what that difference actually is. When people call Negril the Capital of Casual, I feel that more on the beach than I do on the West End. Up on the cliffs as the day wound down, I found myself feeling like getting cleaned up a bit before heading into the evening. I straightened my cowlicks and even put a spot of makeup on a couple of times. On the beach, I didn't feel that urge. Maybe it’s the fact that there is always a little bit of sand everywhere that makes the extra effort seem kind of unnecessary.

Another big plus on our room location was that as the sun began to set, instead of being roasted on our balcony, the greenery acted as a lovely shade.

[iowagirl]

Aahhhhh. Sunbeach. Our favorite beach bar and lunch spot! At least you had a great place to chill on a weird weather day!

And btw - thank you so much for the thorough West End (especially Catcha!) report and your attempt to differentiate the vibes there and on the beach. Last year was our first cliffs stay, but we were way out at the Westender - which was truly wonderful - but a little remote. We are looking forward to experiencing that vibe in a few weeks!

[CherryNorth49]

Aahhhhh. Sunbeach. Our favorite beach bar and lunch spot! At least you had a great place to chill on a weird weather day!

And btw - thank you so much for the thorough West End (especially Catcha!) report and your attempt to differentiate the vibes there and on the beach. Last year was our first cliffs stay, but we were way out at the Westender - which was truly wonderful - but a little remote. We are looking forward to experiencing that vibe in a few weeks!

Catcha is pure magic. You are in for such a treat! I feel like going to Negril is like stepping out of this world. Catcha was like stepping out of time entirely. Hang in there. You're almost at the single digit fidget.

[CherryNorth49]

Somewhere during this day, my smart phone had its second encounter with my chug jug. The darn thing opened up in my bag, soaking the contents including my phone. I don't know whether I was more annoyed at the jug at myself for still using it. I didn't notice it right away though, so I have no idea how long my phone was in the puddle. It seemed to still be working so I dried it off and went about my day.

Our streak of fantastic sunsets was finally at an end. If everyone was perfect, would we appreciate them as much?

After sunset, while we were playing in the surf, we couldn't help but notice there seemed to be a bit of party going on at Sunbeach. The band was playing and they had set up a bunch of tables set right out on the beach. Drawn in by the music, we thought we'd head that way for dinner.

The staff was working so hard to achieve this fine dining on the beach vibe. Dennis was expertly serving as Maître 'D. It was candles and white table clothes, albeit on plastic patio furniture. It still all came together as a bit of a pinch me moment. We are sitting on the beach, in the sand with the sound of the surf on one side and reggae on the other.

At some point, we gained a new friend. I'm hoping it says something positive about us that strange dogs seem to find us to be good napping companions.

As the meal wore on, we discovered one drawback to dining in the deep sand. We were slowing sinking. When we first arrived the table was a normal height. Eventually I'd sunk far enough that I actually couldn't get out of my chair. I was tucked too close to the table and had sunk far enough the geometry just wasn't working any more. It desperate times, I could have slid out of the chair and managed to get out using a crawl under the table approach, but I think I aged out of that approach somewhere around kindergarten. I didn't really want to draw attention to my dilemma, as hilarious as I found it.

Eventually the call of nature brought the issue to a head. I leaned over to Sunshine, "Honey, I can't get out of my chair. I don't want to make a scene, can you help?"

So he made like the perfect gentleman and jumped up to 'pull my chair out' for me. That statement has never been so literal, as he was pulling me and chair a foot out of the sand. The whole thing was just striking us so funny. When I returned, he had moved my chair a bit, but the sand was already loosened and as I sat back down the chair, I sunk right back down. I was in stitches laughing, while trying to still trying to remain dignified. The harder I laughed, the more the chair sunk. I don't know how well we succeeded at the dignified part, but we were having fun. By the time we left, I could almost rest my chin on the table. The legs of both our chairs were almost completely buried in the sand.

We got some star gazing in that night. The clouds must have cleared out at some point. The moon was coming up much later now, so we had a period of darkness when the stars got to show off to their full effect. Normally that would make me feel like just a speck in the universe, but somehow in Negril it just feels right.