Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

[Laurel]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Oh - that is too bad about Mr. Slice!! I have always liked him .... maybe he can start up again once things get going again??? Hope so!

[ohliz]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Didn't Mr. Slice also have a beach location?

[Nanook]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Great start Liz! I'll be back soon to check for more!

[goddess]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

I've been waiting for you to come back! Sounds great so far - glad you had a good time. I'm anxious to read the rest.

[goddess]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Does the villa have a name or website?

[barrister]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

liz ~ great report so far, please keep it coming. We've looked at Windjammer villa before and think it's a wonderful house and location --- will be looking forward to reading more about your experiences there and also some pictures if you care to post any.

[ohliz]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

I don't think Wind Jammer has it's own web site. It's listed on those of some villa reps, however, it's not (yet?) listed with Rimma at sunnyvillaholidays.com who is the one that booked it for us.

I'm working on the pictures, have done more than half of them so far (meaning turned them from sideways, resized, etc, but not yet uploaded).

I'm leaving for the rest of the weekend so will have to pick this up on Sunday or Monday....

[Rosalyn]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Ohliz, sorry, I didn't get a chance to meet you. Hope you had a good trip. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[sammy]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

GREAT report liz...very informative

can't wait for the photos....

[ohliz]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Day Four: Boscobel
This was to be a do-nothing, get settled, hang out day and for the most part it was. We woke up just before Ivan rang the bell for breakfast (I'd forgotten the bell for meals thing villas do). Those of us that were up ate together, we saved some for the late sleepers. We all laid around the pool, or went snorkeling, or explored the neighborhood, or got started on books this day.

Snorkeling was nice where we were. A reef a hundred yards out left the water calm and protected and we were able to see a lot of coral, anemone, fish, an eel. It's nice to snorkel as you please from shore instead of going out on a boat…we'd snorkel a little, come up for a rest and drink, go back, jump in the pool…just be lazy. It was nice to catch up with the others who hadn't gone to Negril as well.

We did need food and we had some tarps and school supplies to give so I called my friends Chef and Libby who live about 10 minutes away, in Castle Garden, where they run a guesthouse on the beach and Chef does tours. They came over and hung out with us, I hadn't seen them since spring of 2003 so it was really nice to be able to see them for awhile. Chef drove us into Ochi to the supermarket to get some basic supplies (the next morning we'd go to the market with Miss Cynthia to shop). We shopped, and in fact went to the outdoor market for a little while too.

I love the market, there isn't much like it in the US except maybe a farmer's market, but his is that and much more…you can buy almost anything there, at one stall or another. We got salted codfish and toilet paper from the same woman. I didn't see any other tourists there. A couple of guys wanted to help us carry bags and things but since there were like 6 of us there, we didn't need any help.

Chef and Libby brought us back, picked up the things we'd brought to use and distribute, and I told them we'd call tomorrow to see about arranging a couple of day trips with Chef.

We had a wonderful dinner that night, again, and I think I was in bed not long after that.
Day Five: Boscobel
I woke to a bit of rain this morning. October is rainy season in Jamaica, and we were at one of the rainiest locations in Jamaica (Portland the Blue Mountains are rainier but that's about it). Though it rained pretty much every day, it never rained ALL day, generally we had a shower or two each day that didn't last too long and the sun came right back out.

I loved looking east from our deck, watching the weather come in. Everything seemed to come from there, but some storms we saw would pass to sea and just give us a show, some we'd get, or get an edge of. At night we got some incredible lightning storms out at sea that never brought us rain, just fireworks. I can close my eyes and still see Galina Point, I looked at it so often and so long that week.

This morning after breakfast I accompanied Miss Cynthia to the market - the others stayed home. We went to the meat market first - a behind-the-counter affair where you tell the clerk what you want and it's chopped and wrapped for you. We then headed to the open air market where I basically followed Miss Cynthia around, answering her questions about quantity when asked, otherwise carrying bags and letting her do most buying. We had a lot of fun, just the two of us.

One result of Hurricane Ivan - no ackee to be found anywhere. There wasn't any breadfruit either. At one point we had a lead on 3 dozen ackee but by the time we found the guy, it was gone. For those who keep track, ackee was offered at $100-$250J per dozen…but even at that price we didn't find any.

We were able to get finger bananas, potatoes, callaloo, scallions, pineapple, sweetsop and some other good stuff to hold us…we'd keep looking for the ackee.

We hung out around the house again that night…as I recall a few of us stayed up quite late talking….

[rudemonk]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

yeah he used to have a spot up on the west end, and then a beach spot next to alfred's/arthur's and then in wavs...he was also in a weird spot regarding his rental when it was right on the beach- some spots the landlord basically forces you into an arrangement where you can't serve drinks...weird deal. eventually he downsized to the west end location and was running that. to be honest that was a tough location- lot of violence.

he's hopeful. he wants me to bring down pizza cutters so I guess he has some plans.

[ama]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Had to laugh at the dinner bell reminder. We stayed at a great villa recently and were swimming the first full day and kept hearing a bell ringing and ringing. We had no idea at all what it was but it kept ringing louder and louder.Eventually the staff kept coming closer dressed in their formal seving attire ringing and ringing the bell until we got a clue...our lunch was ready.

[sheanlee]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

great report Liz...soon come wid pickchas!! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]ray:

[ohliz]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

Thanks all, almost done with the pictures....

[Rosalyn]

Re: Negril, St. Mary, Portland Sept-Oct 2004

More, more, more [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]