Negril
on George Hamilton (Jamaica), 19/Jun/2010 02:40, 34 days ago
We thought we'd like to check out Negril. We headed off but before long we ran into thunder storms and the roads quickly became flooded and this wasn't the longest or heaviest of storms.Since there weren't too many restaurants along the route and we were concerned about the cost of repairing the rental car we decided to stop at the roadside fruit stands and food vendors for lunch. That was a fairly aggressive experience. When we stopped, two women immediately pushed bags of bread in the passengers front window at me while a man simultaneously pushed a tray of fish in George's window. But it was all good, the bread was still warm, although had a distinct taste of fish and the fish smelled and looked delicious. Apart from the fact Dianne's vegetarian and was unable to eat the bread, we were able to continue on our journey satiated with the goodies. The small bananas and coconut cake were the best.Then we arrived in Negril. The 7 mile beach was just as beautiful as we expected but it was a bit disturbing having to ward off vendors just to get on the beach. We immediately missed the more relaxed atmosphere of Treasure Beach where we were all alone.But we enjoyed our day in Negril and were happy to have checked it out.Dianne hoped to pick up some souvenirs at the craft market before heading to Rick's Cafe.Again, the aggressiveness of the people collecting money for the professional jumpers was off-putting, but the jumpers were fun to watch. The money collectors didn't want anyone taking pictures who didn't pay $20 US which we thought was a bit over priced, so refused. My pictures therefore are not as good as they could have been because I had to hide my camera whenever he was near us collecting money and he was good at his job.We had a lovely dinner at Norma's restaurant which we found in Lonely Planet and just so happened to be next door to our hotel, The Tree House, which Bernadette and Igor told us about. It's lovely here. It's actually quieter than Ital Rest because there aren't any other guests in any of the rooms around us while at Ital Rest, all of Frankie's relatives lived on site and there were adults playing dominos until the wee hours, others hanging about talking on verandas and still more watching the World Cup (they have electricity) plus children of all ages chatting with us as we played Quiddler in the communal area and bar which had lights so we could see.And lastly, the sunset at Negril lived up to its reputation. It was absolutely beautiful and worth the drive alone.We'll undoubtedly be back.