Monday, April 06, 2009

Jamaica Post No. 2

After arriving at our hotel, we all started to unpack a little and make ourselves at home. We pretty much just hung out around the hotel for the night, played cards, met some other folks who were staying there and drank Red Stripe and Rum punch.
This is our cute little front porch.

It was getting pretty late by this time :-) All us girls had been drinking rum punch all day and playing in the sun on the beach. The perfect way to start our Negril vacation!!!

Our first full day in Negril was wonderful!! We finally had some time to go out and explore the area and also meet some of our fellow Hookah fans who had come along for the trip.This is the view from the pool at our hotel. As spectaucular as that pool looks, we never jumped in there one single time!! The Caribbean was literally a few feet off of our deck and looked even better than the pool. So there was no need.We stayed at a little place called the Fun Holiday Beach Resort. It was nothing fancy, but it was perfect for those of us who stayed there. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful, our rooms were clean, and the location was perfect.Along the beach side (versus the street side) there were tons of people selling their hand made arts and crafts. In fact, there were people selling anything you could possibly think of. And when I say anything, I mean anything. We had offers for drugs, drinks, fresh fruit, fresh juices, aloe rubs, jewelry, mushroom tea......the list could go on and on. Those were just the people who came to us selling thier goods. We didn't even have to leave our beach loungers for all that!!!

Like I said though, the staff at our hotel was wonderful. They would shew the vendors away if it looked like they were getting pushy or if we started to look annoyed. We never even had to ask for their help. They just took it upon themselves to come out and get the people moving along. It kept it from ever getting uncomfortable, which was nice.Ryan and I had purchased meal tickets for $30.00 prior to the trip that would pay for three meals a day at various places. Some of the places offered more than others, but they were all good, and we definitely got our 30 bucks out of them!!! Our first breakfast in Negril was basically a huge plate of fresh fruit and toast. I forgot to take pictures before Ryan and I dove into our plate, but it still looked delicious after we were almost done............

After breakfast, Ryan and I walked along the seven mile beach until we didn't feel like we could walk much more. Then we decided it was time to go back and catch some rays.This picture was taken just down the beach from our hotel.

Sometimes we would just stop and stare into the water. I know it sounds cheesy, but it was so wonderful!!!
After our walk, we came back to the room to get our beach gear together and go for a swim.
I'm ready to go play in the Caribbean now!!!!
After some fun in the sun, Ryan, Matt, Liz and I all decided to check out the "street side" of Negril (versus the beach side.) Matt had told us about this food called Jamaican patties that we wanted to try out. Someone had mentioned a restaurant called Miss Sonia's, so that's where we went.Miss Sonia's turned out to be one of our favorite places to eat while we were there. In fact we visited her place more than once!! In this picture, Ryan is eating a lobster pattie with some of Miss Sonia's secret sauce. It was Delicious!!!I had a curried chicken pattie. And it too was Delicious!!!
We were happy campers hanging out at Miss Sonia's!!!Matt was pretty happy after those delicious patties and Red Stripes too!!!

The only time it rained while we were on vacation was while we were at Miss Sonia's that day. It was perfect timing really, because we had already managed to squeeze in some beach time, and we were all just relxing under Miss Sonia's patio when the rain hit. It came down pretty hard for a little while, but it was actually refreshing. Our waiter, whose name was Elkin, sat down and talked with us for quite awhile. We talked about music and cars and Jamaica in general. He was very friendly and had an unforgettable smile!! We went back to see him later in the week!!
When it finally stopped raining, we decided to head back to the hotel to see what everyone else had been up to. On our way back, we saw some chickens running around. You see a lot of chickens and goats around Jamaica. Then you see a lot of chicken and goat on menus in Jamaica....hhhhmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!
It was late in the afternoon when we got back from Miss Sonia's, so we just planned on hanging around the hotel until the first Hookah show of the week started later that night.Since Negril is on the southwest side of Jamaica, the sunsets there are phenominal. All of us Indiana kids got together to watch our first sunset in Negril together. It was so beautiful. The bar at our hotel is on the deck that faces the water, so we all just grabbed a couple cold drinks and sat. I would love to live that hour or so over and over again....it was so wonderful.I even got lucky enough to catch a sailboat passing by for the photo shoot. This is my good friend Ashley Reynolds. She married one of Ryan's best friends, Nick, about two yeasr ago. So, we're kinda sisters by marriage :-) I love her!!!!This is Dave and Kelly Anne Willis. I love this picture of them with the sunset shining down on them. They are two of our best friends. We actually met them at a Hookahville about five or six years ago, and now we're travelling all the way to Jamaica together to see them!!! I have built a lot of wonderful, lasting friendships because of this band.And last but not least, this photo of Ryan pretty much sums up the week.
But don't worry, there are many more posts to come. ( I took over 1000 pics!!!!)

5 comments:

Bitzky77 said...

Nice....

enN2sp said...

Did you try any Goat?
It's actually good.

When me and my family went to Mexico my dad would buy a goat and my uncles would dig a pit and cook it all night.

It's like pulled pork.

It was tasty!

alli-gal said...

ACtually, Ryan and I ordered goat patties on another visit to Miss Sonia's, but they didn't have any goat meat. We were going to try it, but never had the chance.

Another thing we wanted to try was ox tail, but you had to order it a couple days ahead, and we couldn't guarantee that we could make it back for it.

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