Dinner at Canoe

One of my favorite places is consistently fantastic with it's food and it's character. Canoe is on the road without even room to pull over between the front door and the road. It's mere feet from the water.




One of the attributes of Canoe that makes it feel so welcoming is Georgia. She is always great. We were laughing at how I TOWER over her. I think the conversation began with her making sure I wasn't going to hit my head on the beam if the porch ceiling. If you notice in the upper right hand portion of the menu they actually have "Poutine" on the menu. This, for those who know, is a Canadian thing, as evidenced by the great number of Canadian references from maple leafs to flags and other such things. The owner or his wife happen to be Canadian, thus the reason for it. Even with this Canadian aspect, it doesn't loose any of it's Jamaican feel.

The food is great. We started out with jerk shrimp and an order of home cut fries. These are far and away the best fries in Negril. Hands down.... Stop your searching.... They are right here!























For Dinner I had the grilled Kingfish. It's a meaty steak like fish that is a must have.









Jerry had mahi mahi, again it was great. Each dish came with a pasta salad, some grilled vegetables and fruit.







Gayle cracked us up as she ordered the seafood pasta without the seafood.




Sitting outside, with the glow of the lights from inside, it was a great way to spend the evening chilling to the sound of the water.


- May 4th, 2011
Posted from my iPad

Location:Canoe, Negril JA

Life is hard.....

For those back home, I wish you could see this place in person. Again the water, it's unbelievable. I now understand how some can let "sand gravity" grab a hold of them and have them never stepping foot off the beach.








A view up 7 mile beach showing the low key and not to busy daytime activity.









On a daily basis, Norman "The patty man", can be seen walking the beach with his hot box on the beach. He wells beef, chicken, pumpkin, and other varieties of patties and coco bread. For a few bucks you can have a tasty lunch or afternoon snack.








I never tire of looking out at the local boats. They are colorful and each unique. Whether it's a fishing boat or a glass bottom boat, they look cool against the backdrop of the water they float on.





Another very cool thing is to watch the local fisherman come to shore on their canoes, bringing in their catch of the day and watching as others come by to look and buy their catch. The people above us were among those buying fish, as they were going to have dinner prepared in their room for them by a local friend.

Later in the afternoon Tyrone came by. We chatted about some places we want to go. We are talking about several ideas, but who is to say which things we will pick and for which days. We know that mountain biking seems to be out, but next time i will bring mine for certain.



- May 4th, 2011
Posted from my iPad

Location:Norman Manley Blvd,,Jamaica

Breakfast at Coco LaPalm

After rising to a cup of Blue Mountain coffee that I had made, I went and sat down at a table here at Chill Awhile. We had later decided to walk next door to Coco LaPalm for breakfast, but we still wanted to start off our morning with some coffee as we waited for our chairs to be ready.



A familiar face was seen on the beach... It was Tony, the guy I would buy juice from during our previous trips. It still amazes me how he too remembers me. Today I bought some sour sop juice with vanilla, milk, and nutmeg. It was good.







Coco LaPalm is always good for breakfast. They had Ackee which Jerry loved having, and they also have some fantastic banana bread.




Gayle devoured her breakfast of cereal and then had to have my oatmeal as well. She now loves drizzling sweetened condensed milk into her oatmeal .




It was a good way to start off the day :)


- May 5th, 2011
Posted from my iPad

Location:Negril, JA

A little tropical rain....

Even though this is the "Off" season, and rain is to be expected, it isn't like what we are accustomed to in Seattle. Here so far the rain comes in the late afternoon and maybe for 25 minutes. Ok, so yes when it rains it pours, and I mean buckets, but it's pretty cool. It's also very welcomed after some blazing heat.





Here we are out side Angelas restaurant on the beach as we held our own after running for cover. We hunkered down there for a bit before moving on to Kuyaba.


- May 4th, 2011
Posted from my iPad

Location:Norman Manley Blvd,,Jamaica

Feeding the fish off the beach......

This afternoon we took in some more swimming. We can't get enough of this water or the feeding of the fish every day. We are going to have slot of time here, and I know we have some non-beach days ahead of us. To give you an idea of the temperature, it's 86, with a "real feel" temperature of 105. And later in the week it's supposed to go up. That's damn hot and plenty reason enough to be in, near, on, or in the general vicinity of water in my book!


Gayle, as I mentioned before, is a fish... A.k.a. ". She is fearless with diving into schools of fish all day long. The fish seem to follow me. After bringing out bread for them they come to me like a cat goes to a can opener.



Jerry Ann had a blast going out with the fish, however she seemed to manage smacking into fish at every turn. Ok, yes, I am laughing even as I type this!

















As for me.... Sometimes I'd go in with a mask, most often not though. I liked swimming out to the bout line and beyond. Here's is a view from my point of view.


- Posted from my iPad

Location:Seven Mile Beach, Negril Jamaica

"Chances" for pizza....

Okay, I'm the first to admit "what? PIZZA?....... In Jamaica? Why not a patty or Jerk, etc....?". Well the answer is simple.... I'm having plenty of everything TWICE, and sometimes the thought of seeing what another counties version of pizza is all about.

We went to Chances, which I think recently had their name changed, but for this entrys sake, I will call it "Chances" because that's what it was called last year. Pizza for the most part isn't something available prior to 3pm at most places. Sure may restaurants might have pizza on their menu, but I'm talking specifically about pizza places. Oh and forget about asking route taxis for their opinion without taking into consideration that many are invented to bring people to places that pay them to. Thats not saying they won't give you their opinion, it just means if I were you, I would ask several people and develop some friendships if you can.


We went to Chances and had a cheese pizza as well as a sausage and pepperoni with pineapple pizza. It was pretty close to a Red Baron frozen pizza, but hey, I didnt set my expectation bar too high on this one.









Now back home I love a cold root beer with pizza, but here, I love Ting soda. For those who haven't had it, it's a Jamaican grapefruit soda.


It was tasty enough to have for lunch but for those craving GOOD pizza, we will keep our ears open and perhaps give another place a shot. We already have some place we've gone to for other foods which we plan on revisiting..


- May 3rd, 2011
Posted from my iPad

Location:Chances pizza, Norman Manley Blvd,,Jamaica

After a night of rum.....

This morning I woke up early and walked to the water. The staff wasn't even up yet, only Aaron the security guy. Last night I had a fun evening of trying to convince Needles that I could come up with a drink that was worthy of being on their menu. I had some fresh squeezed sour sop juice, which many say is like a cross in flavor between a banana and a pineapple with just a little sourness to it. I think it's a unique enough flavor on it's own.

So here I am, going back to my kitchen where I grab my sour sop juice with some sugar to sweeten it and lime to ..... Well... um... Add lime I guess. Then I asked Jennie if she could blend that with some fresh pineapple and then add some.... Yep that's right........ Coconut rum! This was one nice ass drink. Funny thing is, that the combination almost entirely neutralized the sense that there was ANY alcohol in it whatsoever. When Needles came back he saw me sipping away with a pitcher of this tropical concoction on the bar. He himself had some and swore it tasted like there was no alcohol in it either. Wow were we wrong. All I know is that the night grew funnier, I became worse at Dominos, my English went down hill, and my understanding of Patois was getting better.




So after a brutal beating at Dominos, I put my baseball cap on, ran along the sandy beach (in the dark mind you), when all of the sudden I almost knock myself out by running into a low hanging portion of a tree. I can laugh now. But DAMN, where did that tree come from? The rest of the night may as well be described as just wanting to kick back in the hammock and chill with Jerry Ann and my rambunctious little 9 year old who asked if she could sleep in her bikini so that she would have a jump start on getting ready in the morning. Lol that made me smile.



We decided, after swimming all morning, to go for a walk down Norman Manley Blvd, the main drag so to speak in Negril. We passed up some colorful little joints along our walk and were talking about what we should do for lunch when one of the local cab drivers pulled up just as it started to rain. We went down the road a couple hundred feet and we ran down a little alley way of sorts until we reached a building with a covered open bar and hunkered down until the rain stopped. Jerry Ann and myself were watching the clouds trying to predict when the rain would stop based on what we saw on the horizon, its angle of approach, and speed. I snapped a few photos of us and the rain.







I found this artwork on the walls to be pretty cool and wanted to capture details such as this for others to see.




























- May 3rd, 2011
Posted from my iPad

Location:Idle Awhile, Negril JA