First day in Jamaica


Ya mon, irie ("everything's great")! We be jamming. Negril, Jamaica, Couples Swept Away resort. All inclusive, baby!

We were up @ 4:50 AM, @ BWI parking garage @ 6:30, checked in by 7:25 and flying by 8:30! Had great food on the plane: cheese omelette with hash browns and sausage and first Red Stripe, free onboard! Diane had a mimosa.

We were in Montego Bay by noon and on a bus to the resort by 12:25. It was about an 1.5 hour trip there. We rode with Barrington, our driver, and another couple: Chris and Cami. They were celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary, and were married at the other Couples resort in Negril. They were from New Hampshire. He runs a software consulting company (small world, eh?) and she runs a family video store business.

Chris suggested we stop for beers along the way, so we pulled into a gas mini-mart and bought 8 beers: 6 red stripe lights and 2 regular red stripes (for me, of course!). There was a bottle opener @ the cash register. Wow, I felt like I was back in Gun Burnie, Merland. We paid USD $20 and got back $900 Jamaican dollars. Dude!

Drinking in the van was fun, talking with Barrington about his two boys and with Chris & Cami. D&D with C&C. Dude, music factory flashback or what?!?

Pee stop about 50 minutes outside of Negril. Picked up 4 more red stripes for the crew and D&D got some side-of-the-road jerk chicken. Freaking awesome! [Future aside: This was the best jerk chicken we had the whole trip. Like buying pretzels off the street in Philly.]

We got back on the road and dropped C&C off at their resort. Arriving at Couples, Ricardo greeted us as we got off the van with cool hand towels. He walked us into the covered reception area and served us really nice champagne in great crystal flutes. We drank while we checked in.

Off to the room and a mini-bar without any tab! Two rum & pepsis later, and we headed off to lunch and the resort orientation.

Bye!


Posted: Fri - December 10, 2004 at 06:40 PM          

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