Just Back From Negril Part 1
This entry was posted on 9/13/2006 10:42 AM and is filed under Travel.
Well, I messed up. I was going to do a day to day blog from Negril but their idea of internet access is significantly different than mine and so I could never get the hotel's computer to cooperate and there was no wireless internet access so I couldn't use my laptop.
I also intended to write every day and save them to post when I got back but....you know how it is on vacation.
So what I will do now is try to go over the trip day by day in separate blog entries so they are not too long.
Here it goes.
We drove to Dallas on Wednesday night and stayed at the Embassy Suites just south of the airport which was a really nice hotel. We decided to do something different for dinner and went to a Brazilian steakhouse which was excellent. They have a goat salad bar and give you fried yucca root (tastes like French fries) along with a few other things to nibble one, but the main attraction is meat. Lots and lots of meat.
They waiters bring around these skewers and slice off a portion of whatever they are carrying. I had filet mignon, sirloin (top and bottom), garlic steak, chicken, sausage, and a lot of other stuff. it is excellent but pricey.
Enough of Dallas though, we flew out the next morning with hardly any trouble at security. Our layover was in Miami, which is also a large airport. Although our flight was delayed about an hour, overall the trip wasn't too bad.
We landed at Sangster Airport in Montego Bay (Mo' Bay) and I was surprised to find it had been remodeled drastically. You now deplane through a gateway rather than on the tarmac and the majority of the airport is air conditioned and new.
We quickly breezed through customs, got our bags and located the tour group responsible for the shuttle to Negril. It seems like we waited less time than usual and were soon on the road.
Of course, the shuttle did not have air conditioning, they never do, so the wife and I had dressed accordingly and had warned our friends to do so.
I had another surprise when we hit the road to Negril. They had been working on the "highway" between Mo' Bay and Negril for the last 5 years at least, but they have finally finished it.
You do get there a little faster now, and the bumps are nowhere near as bad but I really don't care for the new highway. It seems to have taken a little bit of the fun out of the trip. Many of the roadside stands are gone, and the people and animals no longer congregate by the roadway. All in all, I would trade the extra twenty or thirty minutes of riding for the ambiance. Oh, they did clean up the roadside though and the litter is much, much less than it was.
We arrived at the Sunset at the Palms hotel around 6:30 or so and were greeted with a cold towel for our faces and a glass of fruit punch that was excellent. Check in was a breeze and within a few minutes we were on our way to our cabin.
This hotel is one of the few that is everything it is advertised to be. I may add some pictures of mine later, but to be honest, the ones on their website are accurate. Our cabins were located in the very back and when we got there the only thing you could hear were the birds.
The tree frogs had started chirping when we left the room to amble to the restaurant, where the music was playing very softly. It takes a little while to get used to the heat and humidity but eventually you stop noticing.
We concluded our fine meal with a walk back to the cabin and a good nights sleep.
More to come on our first full day and the effects of way, way, WAY too much rum punch....
