Trip Report Fall 2009 Negril & Ocho Rios, Eco

[ECO]

Friday morning started off with the free continental breakfast at Rooms on the Beach. In the US continental means they leave all sorts of food and juice sitting around, at Rooms it means you wait 15 minutes for them to bring you toast, a muffin and some juice.......at least it was free

After a couple of hours of waiting around I got a Ride to Negril with Reeva, Ricky, Killerr and Reeva's friend from Salem. Along the way we stopped at a market for something and I was able to run over to my favorite juice place for some fresh homemade pumpkin juice!

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After a 3-3.5 hour drive (I hate car rides) we arrived in Negril

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Since I had an hour to kill before the wedding I found some herb vendor on the beach that wanted $3500 for his goods but sort of settled for the $200 I offered. Generally both people walk away from a deal with a smile but this guy walked away yelling bumbaclot (sp?) at me over and over again. Lol, I think I made a friend I ended up finding a nice giant tree to sit under to enjoy my herb before I had to rush to set up my cameras for the wedding.

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Some of the wedding pictures can be found in this thread----> introducing-mrs-smith-t1210.html

After the reception I got a ride back to Ocho Rios with Katie and Killer........Katie was just learning to drive in Jamaica so the ride was interesting to say the least I've never seen anyone do a u-turn at a police roadblock but since she missed her turn they were cool with it.

Friday late night trip report soon come.........I had some looooong days in Jamaica

[faith]

Great report so far. So is the West End your favorite spot in JA now?

[ECO]

Great report so far. So is the West End your favorite spot in JA now?

Without a doubt! I was going to save that part until the end of my trip report but I don't see myself going back to Ocho Rios again. In April I would like to stay over in the West end my entire trip or maybe see the South coast for a few days.

[Irie]

ermmm and Mammee Bay for 1 day lmao!

[ECO]

Trip report tips;

1. Take good notes if you have a bad memory like me.

2. Don't wait a month to attempt to finish your trip report

The next few days are a little fuzzy since I can't find my notes.

I think Friday night is the night I met a few friends back over at Margaritaville for a few drinks. Once they left I ended up hanging out with someone who lived in Jamaica and took a 45 minute taxi ride to get to Margaritaville. It's still upsetting that Margaritaville is the place to go in the greater Ocho Rios area since it has a tourist vibe and the drinks are overpriced.

Later in the night I got the idea to sit on the beach with my camera and tripod to attempt some long exposure shots of the palm trees but the breeze made the photos really blurry.

[ECO]

Fast forward to Sunday, I checked out of Rooms on the Beach and headed over to Priory to stay on the beach for a couple of days. I love the two bedroom cottage over there that goes for around $50 a night! Being able to walk around without the big city feel of Ocho Rios was really a comforting feeling. $100 portions of salt fish and festival was my lunch and dinner, lol I order 4-5 portions of them

Some pictures of the cottage & beach

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[ECO]

Sunday night I took a friend to the world famous "Priory Beach Party"! If you are ever in the Ocho Rios area on a Sunday night the event is worth going to. If you plan on gong I would suggest bringing friends or at least hiring a taxi driver or someone that will hang with you for the evening. Priory beach is very dark at night and with people all over the place it can be odd for someone venturing out for their first time.

At the beach party I ran into a few friends from Jamaica which was nice since I was a little out of my element in more ways than one The bar sells those little bottles of Wray & Nephew which we drank them out of.....had to switch to Appleton= YUK! This is where someone tried to sell me tourist Ganja........doesn't look like Ganja, doesn't feel like Ganja and doesn't smell like Ganja......lol I passed on that garbage a few times. After a while I guess I was know for being picky and someone brought me some good quality Ganja

The nice thing about staying in Priory is when I was ready to leave I only had a short 5 minute stumble back to the cottage. Which brings me to Monday.......a day to recover from a week of acting like I was in college again. Other than going to the Irish restaurant outside of Ochi I did nothing!

[ECO]

Tuesday morning we headed over a off the beaten path beach between priory and Salem for a relaxing swim. This is another time where I regretted not bringing water shoes......the coral and my virgin feet did not get along well at all! The water was a perfect temperature and since the tree line was almost at the beach you did not have to venture far for some shade.

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[Raggamuffin562]

Great report Eco