Jamaica !!! My girlfriend and I planned a six to eight week trip, we were totally GREEN, looking at JA on the map we actually thought we could ride a bicycle all over the island in a couple of hours. We heard Negril was the place to go, this was 1972, we landed in the dark and our cab driver brought us to a place in Redground. There were all these guys staying there, there were GIANT palmetto bugs and every now and then, a camelion would pop out behind a picture frame... The entire Redground smelled like herb. The guys were noisy and loud all night, we had a shared bathroom and felt uncomfortable. The place was I think something like $8 per night, $4 each. The next morning we were given directions on how to get to the beach, we were just a little bit up from what was referred to as "Gas Station Road". We followed the directions, walked over the bridge and took a little path down to the beach. Oh My GOD! it was beautiful beyond belief. Walking up the beach a little, walking past the then beautiful West Indian Sugar company building, all the coconut trees, the endless beach! We went to Tee-Water, the guy who gave us directions family owned the place, he was educated at Syracuse University near to where we came from. Tee-Water was the only hotel on the beach back in those times other than the Sundowner. Mainly it was only fisherman families that lived on the beach, no hotels back then. Within two days we had really bad sunburned skin.
We moved out of Redground to "Premium Cottages" (just before the Yacht Club). We felt WAY more comfortable not sharing a bathroom with something like ten guys. The only place to eat was the Wharf Club or Tee-Water. And of course the Negril Yacht Club which was too expensive for us. There were chickens where we stayed, so eggs weren't a problem. The bread though !!1 really HARD, just weird bread back in those days. To buy any groceries we would go to Green Island, and later to Sav. No electricity, we used the Home Sweet Home lanterns. Never ever hardly ever a car would pass up the road past the roundabout. The traffic on Norman Manley Blvd. was really SLOW. The Boulevard was strangely REALLY wide and perfection as far as the quality of the road. There were some metal erections on either side of the road back then.
Rutland Point was totally natural (where Hedonism is now), just a beautiful piece of land, there was a big white and blue boat marooned from some time past and kind of tilted there. A fisherman lived in it. The town was a fishing village then & every morning in these dug-out canoes, fishermen would come in (near by Tee-Water) with all these fish.
Oh, the one other place besides Tee-Water and Sundowner was the SANDS.. to eat and hang out. There was a tree house at the Sands. The owners were really really nice, the lady Eleanor was so kind to all of us. One time after a very no rain time, very very dusty in town, they insisted I have some soup "fish eye soup" .... I almost DIED when I was given this soup with all these FISH EYES in it.
Going on out of town adventures now and then, always... the coconut jelly that was immediately picked and given to us to drink, such gracious hosts these Jamaicans were here and there.
These early times in Negril were SO different from what the town has become in these times. On the entire seven mile beach, just three places really far apart. And just fishermen's homes, tons and tons of coconut trees, really really thick.
I remember food being a problem for us. At Tee-Water, the restaurant moved SLOW. Like if you ordered french fries you would get them two hours later. This would involve the Rastaman Everall (maroon truck for any oldtimers) would eventually show up with his delivered vegetables and they would finally have the potatoes, and after purchasing, they would eventually start peeling...
Wharf Club always had conch soup, it was DARK in there when you walked into the place. Negril was a really really quiet place, almost no traffic, no electricity, no phones, no banks. To exchange money you would have to take a minivan to Sav,back in those days was usually a VW bus with concrete on each side with boards across which you sat on. No A/C at all.
We were young and didn't even know how to cook anything at all. We learned to cook scrambled eggs, make tea, cook grilled cheese sandwiches and most importantly, to buy coconut cake from the coconut cake lady who would stand outside of the Yacht Club.
Even back in those really EARLY times of Negril, the Yacht Club was kind of strange... I think partly because we didn't have a lot of money to spend, we couldn't, staying for a long term visit, afford to eat there. David was really wonderful to us though and would often give us free rides to the Green Island grocery store.
Everall, the Rastaman, fish / vegetable delivery person was wonderful! He would come once or twice a week and we would get everything we needed from him.
One time it was during a really really RAINY week, just total RAIN, my friend and I needed tea and pulled up a chair to get to this large tea pot at Premium Cottages. There was this HUGE HUGE spider up there, we freaked out. Abandoned our desire for hot tea and went into our room and shut the door. We had really quinky/dinky white french provincial furniture in there, quite an upgrade from our Redground digs.
Back in those time the water pressure pretty much was non-existent, and we both had really long hair, as was the way of many back in the early 1970's. We finally figured out the times when the water pressure was better and would wash our hair during those times, and the water was COLD.
One time we met really nice Ras from someplace outside of Green Island and he came by Premium cottages to check for us. The landlord/preacherman FLIPPED OUT. In those early times the Rastaman/rastawoman was given absolutely NO respect at all, just treated like dirt =an eye opener to us. I think this dread was the well-respected long time dread from Green Island.
I absolutely fell head over heels in love with Jamaica! Soon I will be of retirement age and wonder ?? when I see all these special deals countries like Belize has for retirees... as far as importing a car, importing refrigerators/stoves/dishwashers, etc. furniture... while JA has NONE.... The cost of having an automobile in JA I still can't get a handle on figuring out the cost? But to be a WALK FOOT person absolutely is unacceptable because you are then right in the line of the harrassment people.