Travel
Trip Report Part 4: Family Vacation Negril
Xavier Murphy
15 years ago

Here is the final installation of the trip report. Be sure to see the video and images at the end.

Day 8
I woke up the next morning determined to get a few good shots of the doctor birds on the property. I had been trying to do so for days without any success. They come out in the morning and late evening. I was able to get a few pictures that morning.

The plan today was to go to the Kool Runnings Water Park and Anancy Village. We had breakfast at Calettes then headed off to the water park.  The parking lot of the park was  sparse. There were 3 buses in it. There were 2 groups at the entrance totaling about 70 people. Luckily they were still working on their “logistics” so we went to the front of the line.

We first took a tour of the Anancy Village. It an exhibition of artifacts of Jamaican culture.

Next it was off to the water park. The children could not wait to get in. The main feature of the park is the 3 big slides. I took a chance and rode 2 of them. The last one I could not handle. We had lunch in the park. The food price was medium ranged. The food court is in a 2 story building. The back of the building faced inland to the mountains. We ate our lunch on the second floor. I could see the dark clouds coming from in-land. It was going to rain soon. After lunch is was back in the water. We wanted to get in before the rain came.

The rain came and it was pretty bad (see video below). I have been in Negril quite a few times and have never seen a storm like this. We huddled in the covered kiddies pool area and tried to keep dry. It was like a mini hurricane. It lasted for at least 30 minutes. Click here for a video.

Once the rain passed everyone was back out trying to go on the slides. They had to wait as the attendants were setting up. They also wanted to be sure that there were no lightening strikes around.

We spent the rest of the day at the park. We got back to the Whistling Bird just before the sun went down. We went on the beach to see the sunset.

We had dinner at Comos that night.

Day 9

We spend today on the beach. I was able to get some more shots of the illusive doctor bird in the morning.  

One of the employee’s on property had caught some crabs. The kids were fascinated by it. There was enough from everyone to eat.

The day was just one for relaxing on beach.  In the evening we played board games at the bar.

Day 10
The first part of the day I spend running some errand in town with a friend on his motor bike. He used to work on the property. He brought his daughter to spend the day with the kids.

I visited his house . The last time I was there he was doing some construction. He had completed it. He had some goats around the house which I asked him about. One of the goats was to be used for a raffle at Christmas. He would be printing tickets to sell for between $500J to $1000J. He would then have a Christmas party where the winner would be announced. He mentioned that he would make more from the raffle than selling the goat straight up. He would also have a bicycle and a DVD player as the second and third prize. I came to understand that these types of raffle were very popular at Christmas time.

 That afternoon a new guest had arrived on property. He was a friend of ,Jim, the property owner. He was also a maroon descendant. We had a long conversation on his maroon heritage. You can read more about discussion in my blog. By the time we were finished talking it was evening. We headed back to the room to start packing as we would leave very early in the morning to get to Montego Bay.

We had “box” dinner that evening.

Day 11
We had an early afternoon flight back to South Florida so we had to leave Negril very early. There is always sadness when we leave. The staff is like family and the place feels like home. They were up early to get us breakfast and wish us off.

The ride to Montego Bay was uneventful. There was a little rain drizzle. Traffic was very light. It was early morning. It was smooth scenic ride to the airport. We sopped at Green Island to see the new hotel that was going up.

We got to rental car agency and waited as no one was there. It was 15 minutes before they arrived. The car was quickly inspected and we were taken to the airport. The flight was on time. As I left Jamaica I mentioned to my wife the next trip will be Barbados. We always plan on going somewhere else for vacation but each year we tend to always go to  back home…to Jamaica.

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