For our 1 year anniversary we went to Negril, Jamaica. It is about an hour drive from Montego Bay. Just like our honeymoon, Negril is like Play Del Carmen... less touristy and very jungle-y and quiet. Montego Bay is like Cancun... the big tourist section that is loud and crazy. We took a red eye flight on Friday May 20 and had a layover in New York, then arrived in Jamaica at 1030 am. We were there for one whole week.. Saturday to Saturday.
Our resort was called "Sunset at the Palms" and it was PERFECT! It was #11 out of 97 hotels in Negril and out of the hundreds of reviews we read on different sites, I don't remember ever reading one bad review. It was such a small and secluded resort. There were only like 90 rooms, compared to the hundreds of rooms that are in normal hotels. Each room was in a bungalow hut, there were 2 rooms per hut. The rooms were divided by a hallway so we didn't have anyone above, below, or sharing walls with. AWESOME! We came right at the beginning of the rainy season (June-July) so it rained most afternoons, but we got everyday until about 2 pm to go layout and swim. When it rained it was still 85 degrees and we still got sunburned!
Our Bungalow
Our view if we open our french doors that go out onto the patio... FULL JUNGLE!
The beach was small but we never had to fight for chairs like in mexico because our resort was so small. In our swimming area we saw 2 stingrays and found 3 starfish! We went on a few excursions and then the rest of the time we hungout on the beach. #1 We went on a 3 hour snorkeling excursion where we got to snorkel at 2 different sites. #2 We went on a bus ride to the Black River where we got on a boat and rode through the river and saw many crocs. They were nice and tame though... the tour guide even leaned down and kissed the biggest one! After that the bus took us up to the YS Falls (a big waterfall against the mountain and jungle, it had like 8 huge teirs!) we got to hike up to the top of the waterfall, and make stops on the way up to sit in it and take pics and go ropeswinging! They also had a zipline down the waterfall but it was closed. Since it was the rainy season, the waterfall was very very full and fast so people had to help you in the water and you werent allowed to swim around because the current was so fast. After we were done in the waterfall, they had 2 mineral water pools that were supposed to be really good for your skin. We sat in those for a while and headed back to the resort! #3 On our last night in Jamaica, we took a taxi up to the world famous bar Ricks Cafe. It is a cafe/bar right on the edge of a cliff. There were cliff divers there jumping from a 50 foot treestand and then there were little 10, 15, and 25 footers that tourists could jump off of. The cliffs you could jump off of were right in a little cove, so there wasn't much current and it was nice to swim around. We ate dinner and watched the sunset :)
Our beach
Big sting ray!
Paddle Boating!
The sand dollar we found!... then broke :(
3 starfish we found swimming
Boat ride to snorkel
Cute fish!
The boat we took down the river
Croc!
Feeding the croc, then he kissed it!
Baby croc
YS Falls
Rope swing
Ricks Cafe cove and cliffs
Beautiful!
Sunset at Rick's
Steve Nash was there! (NBA Player)
One of my most favorite things we did in Jamaica was frog hunt at night after the rain settled. Outside our hut, was jungle and after it rained the animals and insects were soooo loud all night long. One night we went out to see if we could catch frogs, because we could hear tons of the croaking. We used the flashlight on Joshs phone and walked all over in the mud and found little baby froggies croaking away! I wanted to take them all home!
