T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

**Magician** · 02-05-2002, 06:42 PM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Originally posted by BND1999:
[qb]otherwise I think we will still be in the car heading east for the whole weekend!!![/qb]

LOL You were right BND1999. It's already Tuesday
and we're still heading east! DWL

**BND1999** · 02-05-2002, 06:48 PM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Clapping... off we go.. I understand Magic.. and you know I am joking.. I actually kept a journal on a laptop when I was in JA but a lot of it was too personal and needed editing..When I came home and Bill asked for a trip report I didn't even know about JA.com and a board.. so I sat for a few days and gave it to him complete.. next time I think I will adapt this nice slow soon come method... I am enjoying it...I will sit back and wait [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

**honey35** · 02-06-2002, 11:33 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Thanks for continuing saga Magic.
I like your idea for just winging it with the accommodations. I might get brave enough to do it one of these times. I am leaving in just a little less than 49 hours and still do not know where I am staying...a little risky for me...but once that is figured out I will stay in one place. One day I will be brave enough.......I promise.
Soon come [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

**Guest** · 02-06-2002, 06:00 PM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Originally posted by honey35:
[qb]Thanks for continuing saga Magic.
I like your idea for just winging it with the accommodations. I might get brave enough to do it one of these times. I am leaving in just a little less than 49 hours and still do not know where I am staying...a little risky for me...but once that is figured out I will stay in one place. One day I will be brave enough.......I promise.
Soon come [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [/qb]

You are being very adventurous. I've yet to go without pre-booking a place to stay. I think someday I'll get up the nerve and just move about (hiring drivers / as I don't like driving in Ja. or being lost).

**jacangirl** · 02-07-2002, 02:08 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Magic...

You're the best...

Your trip report has been very entertaining, but what really took the cake was the briefing you gave your friend on the way we drive here in Jamaica. When you really look at it...that really the way we drive here..

Man...that one had tears rolling down my cheeks..

Yu bad...trus mi pan da one deh!!

**Marilyn** · 02-07-2002, 10:23 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Magic you mean you have gone and come back and didn't get my Tings or my cheap vodka [img]/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

**BND1999** · 02-07-2002, 03:40 PM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

tapping foot.. but I will just wait patiently.. this is my kind of report and trip.. wish I was in the back seat..you just take your time Magic... take a few flights first.. no problem

**Sinco01** · 02-08-2002, 12:28 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Magic,

Yuh makin mi crazy...
To wait this long is ...

**Magician** · 02-08-2002, 02:31 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Marilyn,
How about you keep the Tings you've got for me and I never had a chance to pick up. I did bring you the Vodka. It's not the gallon one but a regular size bottle since that's all I had space for. I'll call you when I get back from Jersey tomorrow. Another chapter in the report coming tomorrow night too. 10 Eastern/7 Pacific ... only on Discovery Jamaica!!

**greatpatsfan87** · 02-08-2002, 01:01 PM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Please write more Magic! I can practically taste the sweet grapefruit of the Ting and the spice meat inside the flakey pastry of a patty! ARRGHH! I'm not going back until November! Not soon enough mon. the only way I've been able to describe Ting to my American friends is to say "Its a much better version of Fresca, but its not that yucky diet soda taste". Please write more! IRIE

**Magician** · 02-09-2002, 03:31 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

A3 gets really beautiful as you follow it east out of Ochi. The road hugs the coast and mountains begin to appear on the right side. There's a significant drop in traffic and a sizable increase in views of the postcard variety. The roughness of the rocky coast is gradually replaced with palm lines beaches. You enter the land of banana plantations. Stretching as far as eye can see, from the beaches to the mountains are acres and acres of banana trees. Every now and again an irrigation canal creates a break in the canopy so that you can get that perfect picture in. The fruits are covered by a blue sack to protect it from birds and elements.

Nothing tastes better than a banana that ripened on a tree. If you are a banana fan you will not be able to enjoy a banana you purchase at your local grocery store after you've tasted one straight from the tree. See the fruits you buy in stores in non-tropical areas are just an excuse for a banana. They had to be picked off the tree while still green so that by the time they get to you 2 weeks later they won't be spoiled. They ripen in a container of a cargo ship, and not on the tree like nature intended it. The real McCoy is sweet, soft and delicious. You've got to purchase a bunch from a roadside stall for 20Js or it's a sin.

I almost forgot to mention the highlight of the entire trip. Right before you reach Port Maria exists one of the most enchanting places in the world. If someone was to visit Jamaica and only could see one place, this is where I would send them. I have been to 43 US states, and 20 countries and out of all these places there's one that's the favorite location for my dream house. And it's no other place but Firefly, Jamaica.

The rough road (and I mean rough) climbs steeply from the coast up the thickly vegetated hills. The smell of burning wood is in the air from a bon fire in someone's back yard. When we reach the former home of Sir Noel Coward we're the only one's there. So OK, the guy beat me to it by about 50 years. So what. I still want my house built there. The guide takes us into the house for a tour. I'm thinking to myself, enough of the house. The house is OK but nothing like what I would build but that's not what I'm here for. Show me the view!!!!! And so we finally reach that "Room with a View". A green meadow that steeply drops hundreds of feet to the ocean below. In the distance Port Maria with Cabarita Island in the middle of the bay. The rough sea is calmed by the reef as it passes over it with streaks of white that form in evidence. Over to the right the Blue Mountains with its misty peaks towering. A warm trade wind blowing steadily in your face, and skies of blue, and a few puffy clouds of white complete the view. And you can't help yourself but hum Louis' Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World".

My roommate's hooked. Now he want's HIS dream house HERE!!!! Now wait a minute. This is MY spot. So we finally settle. We'll be neighbors. It's been five years since I've last been here. But the place hits you with the same intensity every time.
I sit down on a bench and take it all in. Make sure I take it all in so that it lasts me until the next time I come back here. Take a lot of pictures. Finally it's time to go. I'm not saying good bye though. I'll be back.

(To Be Continued...)

**sjrrn2002** · 02-09-2002, 04:16 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Magic- know just what you mean by those bananas, nothing like them, so enjoying your report, Steph

**dreadilocks** · 02-09-2002, 06:53 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

did you take any pictures to post?

**BND1999** · 02-09-2002, 09:57 AM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

Magic, I feel like I am travelling with you..or rather I wish I had been travelling with you..my kind of trip!!! I remember those lush banana plantations although I was coming the opposite driection from PA towards Ochi. I had never seen anything like it and I remember feeling so full of life at that moment..I secretly wanted to jump out of the car and run through the fields..get lost in them..I'm ready to start the engine again when you are..

**Marilyn** · 02-11-2002, 12:41 PM

Re: T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

[img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Magic Thanks for bringing my package. I owe you some money I know now. About your report. I went to Port Maria to see Libby. DId I pass this magical place you describe on the way? I want to stop there next time. I do remember that the view from Ochii to Port Maria was so beautiful. I saw this little church that was right on the water that looked like something off a picture post card. It would be very difficult for me to concentrate on a sermon with that view out the window. Now I want to try to drive some the next time I go.
Magic I could KICK myself. Tickets were going for $425 a few weeks ago and I did not get one, now they are near $800.

T R I P R E P O R T : Ochi, Port Antoni, Kingston, MoBay, Negril

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