Dan, myself and a group of friends (consisting of: Maisum aka. Carebear, Andy aka. The Wrestling Match, David aka. Mad Dog, Leigh and Paul, aka. the Kiwis) took a trip up to Negril over a long weekend in October.  We’d heard many stories about Negril’s famous 7 mile beach and it almost lived up to it’s reputation.  I say “almost” because we went during rain season so the water was a bit murky and it rained a fair bit more than we would have liked.  That said, we still managed to have an amazing time.

The drive was excruciating.  Normally it takes about 5 hours to get up to Negril.  However, when you’re stuck behind a bike race on a single-lane road full of giant potholes it takes much, much longer.  Closer to 8 hours, in fact.  When we finally pulled in at the hotel, we were more than ready for a few drinks.  After our arrival, much of the weekend is a bit of a blur… but it included the following events, in no particular order:

Despite the rain, we were able to fit in a few beach activities, including snorkling, jetskiing and a group ride on a banana boat.  The snorkling was amazing; the water was even clearer than when we went in Cayman and the fish were more diverse and colourful.  I still can't get over the calm, surreal sensation of snorkling, it's just indescribable and amazing.  Jetskiing was actually pretty fun, which we didn't expect at all because it looks pretty boring from the shore.  Unfortunately the banana boat, which looked pretty fun, was really dull and not worth the money at all.

The coast around Negril has a very diverse landscape, ranging from the 7 mile beach to scenic, rocky cliffs - all within about a ten minute drive.  The most famous restaurant in Negril is called "Rick's Cafe", in part because it offers a most amusing form of recreation: cliff jumping.  The restaurant itself was alright, but nothing special.  To give it the benefit of the doubt, we were there in the middle of rain season and I can imagine it's probably beautiful looking over the cliffs at sunset.  Before we ordered, the boys decided to have a go at cliff jumping.  For most, especially for Dan, it resulted more in injuries than enjoyment.  You can read his account of the experience here: 

http://spaces.msn.com/members/moosemorel/Blog/cns!1pEyr_E4-Co4zYYBROwqtr4w!142.entry

After a few drinks, Mad Dog and Kiwi Paul decided it would be a great idea to give cliff jumping another try - this time, "sans vêtements"... which would unfortunately end up being a trip-long theme for the boys and inspire a hideous "naked Hakka" in the swimming area adjacent to the strip of bars along the beach.  I doubt Leigh or I will ever fully recover.

While we were sitting at the hotel bar near the beach, two Rastas with a guitar came up to us and put on a show.  They played many, many requests and finally, we offered them each a beer and Mad Dog and Dan put on a show for them (see photo album), singing such classics as "Leroy Brown" and "Man on the Moon".

Dan and I crashed out fairly early both nights (read: we were in bed before 1:30am) due to a combination of stong rum punch and the effects of drinking for about 12 hours straight, more or less.  The others were much hardier and apparently we missed out on a few stellar moments (a barely conscious Maisum floating in the 3 ft deep pool in a life preserver; crazy Kiwi Paul re-living his cliff jump by leaping off the 2nd floor hotel balcony into the 3 ft deep pool) but the events were recounted to us in vivid detail, repeatedly, over the days that followed... so we didn't feel too left out in the end.