Friday we had plans to leave the resort to go shopping and to Rick’s Cafe. We didn’t have to catch our bus until 1:30, so we laid by the pool that morning. That was the only time we laid out by the pool – and it was my only time getting in the pool. Pools are cool, but why hang out by the pool when you have a whole ocean to look at?!?

Me waiting inside for our afternoon to begin:

Brad waiting outside the lobby for the bus to arrive:

Our excursion consisted of going in town to shop, Negril history, and a final stop at Rick’s Cafe for an amazing sunset.

On our way to the shopping square we saw some of the sights…

Goats everywhere:

Mango and banana tree:

Our driver was pretty cool and made several stops to get out of the bus and show us stuff.

Ackee fruit – they’re poisonous until the fruit opens:

Different types of seeds from trees that are used to drink and for remedies:

Our first stop was shopping at the square. Not what I expected at all…it was like shopping at a mall. The stores were air conditioned, had tile/hardwood floor, and some were run by Indian people! (dot not feather) Our driver told us this was the place to buy shirts, coffee, liquor, etc. (and we did. Blue Mountain Coffee!) Our next stop would be where we could barter prices.

The square:

Next we drove to the market. This is what I had pictured…very run down shacks with people coming up to us as soon as we got off the bus so we could come look at their stuff. Actually, neither of these places is what I expected. A “market” in my mind was a more bustling place with fresh fruit and fish from the ocean and stuff like that (like Aladdin right?) and with, you know, actual Jamaicans shopping there too. Nope, just us…) We were on this excursion with a couple from England and their grand daughter. We were the only non-Jamaican’s there when we first stopped. We decided that we would stick together. Because of the lack of other Jamaicans shopping there and because these were clearly pretty poor people and because the tour bus left us and said the next one would be along in an hour… the 5 of us stuck pretty close to each other. We had no issues of course but it did make us a little nervous and pretty much the only part of the trip where safety was a bit of a concern. Again, it turned out just fine and they were all very nice but still…

Since we saw sooooo many starfish while snorkeling, I wanted to get a wooden one as a souvenir. These guys had the only starfish I saw and even stained it for me while I waited:

This guy made the guitar picks I bought for Josh and Jake. He made them out of shells. He was nice enough to take a picture with me:

While I was browsing in a ‘store’, Brad snapped this picture. The guy was delivering soup on his bike: (Island innovation? he was selling Conch soup. No I did not partake.)

The people there were all very nice. They wanted us to look at their stuff, but if/when we didn’t buy anything from them, they didn’t harass us.

Next we drove to a lighthouse:

Cannon by the lighthouse and the view off the cliffs:

A video of our Negril shopping experience:

http://www.vimeo.com/11284184

Our last stop was Rick’s Cafe. Apparently it’s one of the top ten bars in the world. It was a pretty cool place, too! They have divers that collect money from the crowd and once they get enough, they dive from crazy high places! $20 to jump from here…I have some video of them diving – they only made 1 dive while we were there:

They also had a pool:

Some of the people diving:

Nothing like some rum punch, jerk chicken and a Red Stripe at Rick’s:

Band at Rick’s Cafe:

Amazing sunset from Rick’s:

And a video of our Rick’s Cafe experience with a long (about 2:30 long) but fantastic sunset at the end:

http://www.vimeo.com/11284912

Back at the hotel that evening for the entertainment and more random pictures of me:

Random cat Brad saw on the way back from the room: (hey, he wanted his picture taken… he said “Meow Mon, take my picture mon.”)

As we were on our way to bed that evening, we saw this lovely little fella on our neighbors door: